Portable Mat

[Gresh12]

I have a temporary setup in my garage where I use a Fiberbuilt Practice Station which is the only mat I've owned for my sim. I have no real complaints in that it is easy to setup/takedown, doesn't seem to cause excessive joint pain, produces reasonable ball flights based on strike and penalizes my fat shots enough I hit them fat but without hurting.

The garage has ceiling height limitations so I've ordered some netting to set up in my back yard and an inflatable golf dome (I live in a rainy climate) to do more practice outside to be able to hit my longer clubs. The setup will still be temporary and taken down after each use but I'm looking for ideas on the mat. My back yard stays pretty soft for a large portion of the year so the grass will be mucky in the fall/winter/spring.

I'm likely going to buy a second Fiberbuilt Practice Station so I can have one outside and another in my garage as both areas will still be used depending what I am doing and the time I have. Given the wet back yard and it's not super convenient to move the mat the full way between locations I'll likely get the second mat but I could find it's not a huge deal to use a shared one (I just think I'll be bringing wet and mud through the house more than I'd like).

Are there any other really good options folks are using in setups they put up and take down after almost every use? A driving range style mat seems like it would be a pain to move constantly and I have to store it somewhere relatively flat (instead of breaking down the Practice station and stacking it in the deck box I have). Similarly the more studio oriented Fiberbuilt seem like a pain to move/store.

The backyard is pretty flat but as I said often wet so standing on the grass with a small hitting strip will be like always having the ball above my feet and for a lot of the year my swings will create a mud pit where I stand.

[DS12]

Not sure I can help you out with a portable golf hitting mat, but what is the inflatable golf done?

[Gresh12]

Google "The Golf Tent" and that is roughly what I meant by dome (I bought a similar thing but a lower cost version that less flashy). It's a covered inflatable area that I can hit in outside when it's raining. My net will be outside the "dome" but it will mean I can hit balls outdoor for a much larger percentage of the year than I can now.

[IowaCat89]

If you don't want to pour a little concrete pad you can buy a little pad that is made for air conditioners, generators, etc. Sink it into the ground where your mud puddle forms. Then you can adjust the height of the hitting strip you want to use by sinking it in the ground. Right now my strip is sitting on fine gravel, but brick or pavers would be better. Just make sure that when you get done there's nothing hard sticking up that you can hit your club on. You will need a little ledge to keep the strip from slipping forward. Personally, I try to grab the hitting strip and take it inside when it's supposed to rain, but there's no problem if you forget to grab it. I mow right over the thing with the strip removed.

[Gresh12]

Thanks but I should probably have been clearer. I can't modify the yard in a permanent way so placing a permanent stance mat or digging a space for a hitting strip in the grass won't work. My house is in a strata complex which means any changes to landscaping need approval (and I'm trying to call less attention to my backyard golf facility than more) and the landscapers are far from careful.

I have seen dense plastic pads for air conditioners though which I hadn't thought of which may be light enough to be portable and possibly could be a matching height to a hitting strip.

[IowaCat89]

I see. Portable and light is going to be tough. You really want to be standing on something solid. In my experience, anything on top of grass is really not solid enough. You might consider sinking 4 hollow pipes into the ground completely flush with the soil. Then, your portable structure could have four feet that engage the pipes. That might be solid enough and invisible to the neighbors when not in use? Probably just make it out of treated deck material as long as it's thick enough to be solid.