How the GoSports Golf Hitting Net Changed My Weekend Golf

I took up golf seriously at 52, which is a polite way of saying I spent my first few years on a public course in the Upstate of South Carolina losing balls and buying the first round for my Tuesday group. I'm 61 now, a retired shop teacher, and I still carry an 18 handicap. The thing that held me back wasn't effort. It was that I only got to swing a club twice a week, and by the time the next Tuesday rolled around, whatever I'd figured out on the range had leaked out of my head. That's why I started looking at practice nets, and after a season with the GoSports Golf Hitting Net, I wish I'd done it years ago.

Last spring I picked the GoSports 10 x 7 ft net. I wanted something sturdy enough that I wouldn't flinch on every swing, and something that didn't cost what a new driver costs. The net showed up in a heavy box, and assembly took me about twenty minutes. The frame locks together with steel tubing, the net snaps on, and there's no tool in the box. My wife Karen came out to see what I was doing, shook her head, and went back inside.

The first time I hit into it, I was waiting for the whole thing to tip over. It didn't. I hit maybe forty balls that first afternoon, including a few fat shots that sent turf flying, and the net just sat there. The base is weighted, the frame is wider than it looks in the photos, and the net itself is a heavy woven material. That first session is when I stopped worrying about the equipment and started working on my swing.

The only mishap I had in the first month was a gust of wind that caught the net while I was between shots. It didn't blow over, but it shifted a couple of feet, and I learned to point the base into the prevailing breeze. That's not a flaw in the net. It's just a reminder that light practice equipment needs a little respect from the weather.

The first time I hit into it, I was waiting for the whole thing to tip over. It didn't. Forty balls later, I stopped worrying about the net and started working on my swing.

Here's what actually changed. It wasn't the net itself. It was the repetition. I started hitting balls three or four evenings a week, sometimes twenty minutes, sometimes an hour. I'd set up the GoSports net in the backyard, drop a headcover on the ground as an alignment aid, and work on one thing per session. One week it was keeping my head still. The next it was a shorter, more controlled backswing. Nobody was watching, so I could be as boring and repetitive as I needed.

The difference showed up on the course faster than I expected. My Tuesday group started noticing that I was finding the fairway more often, and one of them asked if I'd taken lessons. I told them I'd bought a net and they laughed, but the scores don't lie. I'm still an 18 handicap, so I'm not going to be on TV, but I stopped losing a sleeve of balls on the first three holes. That alone is worth the price.

Now the honest part. The GoSports net is not small, and it doesn't fold down to the size of a briefcase. It takes up a corner of my garage when it's not in use, and if you have a tiny yard, the 10 x 7 size might be more than you need. The 7 x 7 version is the one I'd point a beginner toward. The net also doesn't come with a mat, so you'll want something to hit off if you don't want to tear up your lawn. I use a cheap rubber tee and a strip of artificial turf, and that works fine.

One more thing worth knowing. The GoSports net is built for full swings, not for putting. I keep a putting mat in the garage for that, and the two together cover just about everything I need between rounds. If you're the kind of golfer who only wants to chip and putt, you don't need a net this size. But if you're like me, and your full swing is the thing that falls apart first, this is a piece of gear that actually gets used.

I've had the net for a full season now. It's been through a South Carolina summer, a few thunderstorms that I was too slow to take down, and a winter of garage use. The frame still locks together tight, the net still catches everything, and the whole thing still looks like it did on day one. I've replaced the rubber tee twice, but the net itself hasn't needed a single repair. That's the kind of durability I respect.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you were sitting at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee, here's what I'd say. If you're a weekend golfer who only swings a club twice a week, a practice net is the fastest way to get more swings without joining a country club. The GoSports net is the one I'd buy again, and I don't say that about much of my gear. It's sturdy, it's simple, and it does exactly what it promises. It won't fix your slice by itself, and anyone who tells you different is selling something. But it will give you the repetition you need to fix it yourself, and that's the part most of us are missing.