I took up golf seriously at 52, which means I have spent the last nine years learning what most folks learn in their twenties: this game is hard, and it punishes you for not practicing. The trouble is, practice takes time, and time is the one thing a retired shop teacher with a Tuesday group and a wife who does not golf has in odd, unpredictable chunks. A backyard golf hitting net from GoSports changed that math for me, and I think it can change it for you too. Here are ten reasons it is worth it, straight from someone who has hit thousands of balls into one.
Turn your backyard into a driving range in ten minutes
The GoSports hitting net sets up fast, folds flat, and gives you a real target to swing at whenever you have twenty minutes. Check today's price on Amazon and see if it fits your yard.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →You can practice without driving anywhere
My home course is twenty minutes away, and the range is another ten past that. On a good day that is an hour of driving to hit balls for forty minutes. With the GoSports net in the backyard, I walk out the door, set it up, and I am swinging in under five minutes. That convenience is the whole ballgame. I hit more balls in a month than I did in a season before, simply because the friction disappeared. Last March I counted: eleven practice sessions in one month, more than I managed in the entire previous summer.
It turns twenty free minutes into a real practice session
Karen and I will be mid-morning, she is reading, and I have twenty minutes before lunch. That used to be dead time. Now it is forty balls with a wedge, working on a smooth tempo. Twenty minutes is not enough to drive to the range, but it is plenty to groove a swing thought. The net makes those small pockets of time useful, and small pockets add up faster than you would think. I keep a shag bag of thirty balls by the garage door so I never have an excuse to skip a short session.
You get instant feedback on every swing
The GoSports net has a target area printed on it, and that is worth more than you might expect. When I hit the target, I know I did something right. When I miss it, I know I did something wrong. That instant feedback is exactly what the range gives you, minus the drive and the bucket of balls. For a high-handicap guy like me, knowing where the ball goes on every swing is how I actually improve. I aim at the center square and try to keep the ball inside it for ten swings in a row before I move on.
It saves money over a season of range balls
I am not going to quote exact prices because they vary, but I will say this: a summer of range sessions costs more than this net, and the net does not run out of balls. After a few months, the net has paid for itself in my head, and I still own it. For anyone who practices regularly, the math works out in your favor by the end of the season. I figured it out one evening in June: two range buckets a week for sixteen weeks was more than the net cost, and I had already used the net more than that.
You can work on your swing in any weather
Upstate South Carolina gets hot summers and the occasional rainy stretch. The range is miserable in July heat and useless in a downpour. The GoSports net works in both. I have hit balls in a light rain with a hat on, and I have practiced in the shade of the garage when the sun was brutal. Weather stops being an excuse, and for me, excuses were the biggest thing holding my game back. One August afternoon it hit 96 degrees and I still got in forty swings under the garage overhang.
It is genuinely easy to set up and take down
I am 61 and not interested in wrestling with equipment. The GoSports net goes from the bag to standing in a few minutes, and it comes down just as fast. The frame is sturdy enough that I do not worry about it tipping, and the whole thing folds flat enough to lean against the garage wall. If you are not handy, do not worry. This is not a project. It is a net that stands up. The first time I set it up, I timed myself: four minutes from the bag to my first swing.
It is built to take real swings
I hit full wedges and short irons into this net, and it handles them without complaint. The frame does not wobble, the netting does not tear, and the ball drops down instead of bouncing back at me. That last part matters more than you think. A net that spits balls back at your shins is a net you stop using. The GoSports net catches the ball and drops it, which is exactly what a practice net should do. I have put well over a thousand balls into mine and the netting still looks like new.
It keeps your swing fresh between rounds
My Tuesday group plays every week, but a week is a long time in golf. Without practice, my swing shows up on Tuesday feeling rusty. With the net, I can hit thirty balls on Sunday and Monday, and Tuesday feels different. My tempo is there, my contact is cleaner, and I am not spending the first three holes finding my swing. That alone is worth the price of admission. The Tuesday group has noticed too, even if they are too polite to say it out loud.
It is a better use of time than watching golf on TV
I like watching the tour as much as the next guy, but watching is not practicing. When I have an hour on a Saturday, I can sit on the couch and watch other people play, or I can go hit fifty balls and work on my own game. The net makes the second option the easy one. I still watch golf, but now I practice more than I watch, and my game has noticed. On Masters Saturday last year I hit balls at halftime and still made it back for the back nine.
It makes practice a habit instead of a chore
The biggest win is not any single session. It is that I practice at all. The GoSports net is always there, always ready, and always a few minutes from a swing. That consistency is what moved my handicap from the mid-20s down to around 18. I am not promising the net will do that for you, because that depends on you. But I can promise it removes the barriers that kept me from practicing. Some weeks I hit balls four days out of seven, and I never managed that before the net showed up.
What I'd Skip
If you are expecting to fix your slice by hitting into a net, you will be disappointed. The net tells you where the ball started, but it does not tell you where it would have landed. You need a launch monitor or a trip to the range for that. Also, if you have a tiny yard or strict neighbors, the net might not fit your situation. And if you are not actually going to use it, skip it. A net only works if you do.
The net tells you where the ball started, but it does not tell you where it would have landed. You still need the range for that.
Give your game a place to practice every day
The GoSports hitting net is the closest thing I have found to a home driving range. If that sounds useful, check today's price on Amazon and see if it earns a spot in your yard.
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