Carl's HotShot Hitting Strips Review
Take Full Advantage Of The Interchangeable HotShot Hitting Mat
Ryan Heiman
Founder and head author at Independent Golf Reviews
I’ve been playing and practicing golf on my Carl’s Place DIY Indoor Golf Simulator for a year and a half. I absolutely love it. When I installed it, one of the features I felt would “future proof” part of it was the HotShot Hitting Mat which has an interchangeable hitting strip area. Until now, that meant replacing the original with another standard strip. Just released are the new Carl’s HotShot Gel and Foam Hitting Strip. These offer additional cushion for a more realistic experience. See which one you should try below.
This is the definitive Carl’s HotShot Hitting Strips Review for 2024.
3 Options
Carl’s Place makes the best DIY simulators in the business. Their build your own app is easy to use and can quickly get your space converted for hitting golf balls. Once it arrives it only takes a few hours to set up. The Carl’s HotShot Hitting Mats are designed with interchangeable hitting strips. They finally created some alternate hitting strips to fit your needs. I’ll walk you through the 3 options: Gel, Foam, and Standard and share my preferred strip.
Gel Hitting Strip
The Carl’s HotShot Gel Hitting Strip is the most expensive option. It also is the heaviest option, but it is the middle in terms of softness. One of the issues with hitting off turf indoors is the impact. While obviously you can’t take divots (if you do, there are some serious issues) so the impact on your arm joints is real after hundreds of shots on your simulator, especially irons. The Gel hitting strip offers the best replication of fairway shots as it allows irons to sink in a little so that you can get under the ball enough to find the sweet spot of your clubs. There is significant reduction of impact on your joints while hitting irons. It does however “grab” a little if you go too steep which is good feedback for your swing. If you want to hit woods, you need a “turf” tee or something to raise the ball without sticking into the gel. There are plenty of options out there besides the free wooden tee you get in the golf cart.
Foam Hitting Strip
The Foam Hitting Strip is the softest strip of them all. It is lighterweight and can really take the steeper swings without too much joint punishment. This is the best mat for joint impact relief. This one too doesn’t work with standard tees, but requires turf tees to hit woods. It also costs a little bit less than the Gel mat so you can save a few dollar and still get the softest impact. If you just like to pound balls in your simulator over and over and over, then I highly recommend this hitting strip.
Standard Hitting Strip
The Standard Hitting Strip is the same as the turf you stand on, except there are 3 holes for tee adapters. You can also stick a regular wooden tee into it a short distance without damage. It still has almost an 1″ of foam so it isn’t rock hard. The 1/3 price is also appealing. But after thousands of shots on my original standard, I learned that I needed mini tees to properly hit irons. I just don’t have a shallow enough swing to pick them clean off the standard turf. However if you are just going to be bombing drives in your simulator, then the Standard hitting strip is the best option.
Preference
The 3 options for Carl’s HotShot Hitting Strips offer 3 different performance benefits. I find myself gravitating toward the Gel mat in my testing since it offer the most realistic feel on irons shots. I have turf tees so they work perfectly for wood shots (although they fly around a little since they aren’t inserted into the turf or a holder). I think the Foam is a really good alternative for a little lower cost while being the softest. But it really depends on your swing. If you tend to take big divots on the course, then Foam. If you want to replicate tight fairways then Gel and if you are a clean picker or just hitting woods in your sim then the Standard is better. One other thing to take note is that if you have an older HotShot Hitting Mat it has probably squished down over time and compression so the new hitting strips stick up just a touch. It didn’t bother me, but you can see it in the pictures above.
Summary
The Carl’s HotShot Hitting Strips take you simulator to the next level. I think for my swing I prefer the Gel hitting strip, but I don’t think you can go wrong with any of them. (I also hope someday they make a “rough” turf with some longer grass to get that feeling too.) The Foam hitting strip is the softest for reduction of joint impact especially if you like to pound balls. The Standard is still going to be your best bet for hitting drivers off tees. That beauty of the Carl’s HotShot Hitting Mats is the interchangeable hitting strip and now you have 3 options to fit your hitting needs.
More information here: Carl’s Place Website
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About The Author
Ryan Heiman – Founder and Head Author of Independent Golf Reviews
Ryan has over 10 years of experience testing and writing golf reviews of nearly every brand out there.
HCP: 3
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