Hitting Strips – Best of Comparison Chart

In my years of simulator research one topic has consistently had a very wide range of opinion on. And that topic is hitting strips.

Here are my top choices for the best hitting strips in 2024.

The above hitting strips are the top choices on the market today and well known throughout the golf simulator world. These hitting strips have a reputation of being a quality choice for sim golfers and one that I would be willing to recommend. You can also look at a complete solution with my hitting mats comparison chart.

Honestly though, on Amazon there are dozens and dozens different hitting strips available from different sellers if you want cheap as possible. I don’t recommend it but I also don’t judge if saving every buck is priority number one.

Hitting Strip vs. Hitting Mat

You stand on the mat and you hit on the strip. Your feet go on the mat and the ball goes on the strip.

We can interchangeably call the hitting mat the stance mat.

You should not stand on your hitting strip and avoid stepping on it.

While both the mat and the strip are important, the strip is the most important. If you are looking to save money then figure out a stance mat that you can put in one of the above hitting strips into.

The hitting strip is important because it is the part of the equation that is most likely to wear out over time, it will affect the shot of the golf ball, and will be a factor into how much vibration / potential injury you put yourself at risk for.

Invest in the strip and get the best mat you can afford to go with it. I really like the Carls Hotshot Mat’s combined with the hitting strip of your choice for a great quality option that is in the middle of the pack price wise.

Carls Divot Hitting Strips -3 Options

In late 2024 (September), Carls Place released a new hitting mat system called the HotShot mat with three different hitting strips.

I have personally tested these three hitting strips.

I recommend the Foam Flex and the Gel Touch hitting strips. I think you will be happy with either of those. I will go over each one below so you can get an idea of which of those two strips will be best for you.

I am not a fan of the basic strip that comes with the mat, at least not from my experience. However I have LOVED both the foam flex and gel touch strips.

You can see my unboxing and initial thoughts in my poorly edited youtube video lol.

Which Carls Hitting Strip? My Recommendation To Most of Us

Like I said, I really like both the Foam Flex and the Gel Touch strips.

If you are looking for a strip that feels great to hit off of, putts nicely from and is forgiving then the Foam Flex is for you. If you want all of those things except the forgiving aspect then the Gel Touch is for you.

The Gel Touch is the most realistic of the two but it is considerably more punishing on mis-hit (specifically fat shots) than the Foam Flex.

Gel Touch = penalizing, more unforgiving to mis-hits.

Foam Flex = more forgiving, less penalizing to fat hit shots. Still get a slight penalty but there is a considerable difference between how much of a penalty the gel touch gives you.

They are both the exact same size and look exactly the same from the top. The strips are 12″x30″. The Gel Touch is about twice as heavy as the Foam Flex.

You can buy the accompanying hitting mat which is the Hotshot mat for a perfect fit out of the box, or if you are more of a DIY then you will need to cut out an area to place this strip down into.

Check out more – Carls Hotshot Mats / Hitting System

Sigpro Softy Hitting Strip

One of our top choices if you are looking for a hitting strip that can take a real tee. Welcome to the SIGPro Softy. This is a very high quality option for those who want to have a realistic mat that takes a real tee.

It is designed to be soft, flexible and pain-free design. There is a lot of social proof that this hitting strip has remained pain-free and easy on the joints. Especially compared to some of their predecessors like the Country Club Elite (left off of my short list, but still well known).

If there is any complaints about this hitting strip I have found it has came from the form of it not punishing fat shots or misses as much as it should. That is due to the softness of the mat and the design to be pain free.

Keep in mind that this mat and strip have a 2″ height so if height is of extreme importance to you, these 2 inches matter a lot. (Michael Scott Meme here)

Check out more – Sigpro Softy Hitting Strip

EZ Tee Hybrid

The EZ Tee Hybrid hitting strip makes our short list as it is another top choice for those of us who want a hitting strip that takes a real tee. The EZ Tee hybrid does just that.

This hitting strip is one that is commonly purchased as an entire mat and strip as one big piece. Usually this is not the case as the strip is a different material than where you stand. The EZ Tee Hybrid is sold by SimTurf which specializes in synthetic turf.

For as little as $125, I can have a 12×46.5 strip that should fit near perfectly in my Fiberbuilt studio hitting mat that will take a real tee. You can see what others have to say in the golf sim sub here

The thickness is 1 1/8.

Holy Grail Hitting Strip

This hitting strip is exactly 1 3/8″ tall including the 3/8″ money putt turf on top of it. It is designed to fit exactly into a Fiberbuilt mat and replace their strip.

They advertise that they use non-marking nylon turf on the surface. And that even at the longer distance size there is no sag in the center of the hitting mat.

Social proof from around the web are pretty positive for this hitting strip. You can see the owner from GungHo Golf answer questions about this strip over at the Golf Sim Forums (his name is Ron) as well as get into a lot of user reviews.

They do not accept a real tee so you will need to use a Birtee or something similar like the Carls Indoor golf tee’s.

To level up your setup even more, attach a teeclaw to your setup and get one step closer to having the ultimate golf sim hitting area.

One interesting thing to note was that the this strip was reported as being much quieter than a divot action. Also reports that the putting on this strip is of top notch and ancedotally way better than the fiberbuilt. The ball rolls true.

Fiberbuilt Grass Series

Fiberbuilt grass series is arguably the benchmark that all other hitting strips compare against. They are designed with injury prevention in mind and I can say from personal experience that this has held true.

We chose the Fiberbuilt 4×7 studio mat for the Play Sim Golf headquarters back in January of 2020. I’ve been hitting off this strip since then and have had no injury issues.

Durability of this mat is extremely good as well, with a 300,000 shot guarantee. We have played hundreds if not thousands of rounds on this strip since 2020 when we installed it and it has held up well. You can take a look at my different youtube reviews of this mat here on the Play Sim Golf channel.

The Fiberbuilt Grass series is a bristle based hitting mat as opposed to some of the more turf style hitting strips listed above. You can watch my video reviews of this hitting strip on my youtube channel.

Hitting Strip Inserts Final Thoughts

Invest in your hitting strip. It’s where the club will make contact with the ball and ground. It is going to take a beating, impact feel and how real it feels and going to be responsible for how your club and body react to hitting it over and over. Meaning that cheap-o hitting strips and the super hard ones are known to not be injury free.

For the cleanest fit and look you can cut a strip into your turf directly or you can buy a pre-built hitting mat like the Carls Hotshot Mats or pay up for one of the Fiberbuilt studio mats.

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