Ben Hogan said it best when he famously stated: "The Secret is in The Dirt."
Whenever possible, a golfer should practice their swing on actual turf rather than on a driving range mat (artificial turf). There are several reasons why and I will go through each.
A driving range mat is deceiving
You don't need to make perfect contact with the ball when hitting off a mat. If the clubhead contacts the ground before the ball, it will 'glide', or 'bounce' off the mat and often contact the ball so that it produces a decent shot. If this same thing happens when hitting off the grass, the turf will rob the clubhead of most of its speed, chunking a divot out of the ground before the ball and likely only dribbling the ball a few yards forward. When hitting balls off the grass, a ball must be hit with much more precision. Since we play golf on the grass, not a huge driving range mat, it is best to replicate actual playing conditions whenever possible.
A driving range mat does not tilt
If a range mat did tilt (and there may be driving ranges with this technology that I am unaware of) it would be much more similar to an actual golf course. On nearly every shot hit during a round of golf (aside from the tee shot) there will be some degree of an uphill lie, a downhill lie, a sidehill like, or some combination of two angles. Rarely will a shot be perfectly aligned to our stance once we are off the tee. When practicing on actual turf we can usually find some uphill, downhill, or sidehill lies to hit from.
A driving range mat does not have rough
It would be nice if each shot we hit ended up in a perfectly manicured fairway, sitting up nicely so that we could glide the clubhead smoothly through the ball. Not the case. We must play the ball as it lies (in most cases), often deep in long grass or sitting in a divot. There is no way to duplicate all of the different types of shots on a range mat. On the course, one must hit down crisply on the ball, with the clubhead moving down into the ground after contact (for iron shots). This is not as important off the mat.
Find a local park (as long as you aren't violating park rules), a practice hole at the local municipal course, or some open field, get a shag bag, and get a feel for hitting all clubs off the turf (aside from the putter and driver). When you do visit the driving range, focus more on practicing shots off the tee. This will be a more realistic method, duplicating actual tee shots.
