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With many golf courses around the United States closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, PuttOut training aids can keep your game sharp.
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Gear: PuttOut Pro Putting Mat, Pressure Putt Trainer and Putting Mirror Price: $89.99, (mat); $29.99 (trainer); $74.99 (mirror)
There was a time when home putting trainers were simple contraptions that you hit a ball into and that would then shoot the ball back across the room at you. If you putted over a sticker, you pretended you’d made the putt and the “green” was a piece of green foam.
If that’s still what comes to mind when you think about home putting devices and training aid, you clearly have not tried the gear made by PuttOut.
Based in London, PuttOut makes mats and training aids that are several products often used by PGA Tour players when they practice. With many golfers around the United States unable to go to the course, PuttOut’s devices are perfect for helping you have fun and keep you’re your game sharp at home.
PuttOut Putting Mat. (PuttOut)
The Pro Putting Mat, available in either gray or green, comes packaged in a large drawstring bag and unrolls to a length of 8 feet. It is made using a thick rubber backing and has an artificial putting surface that rolls to a 10 on a Stimpmeter. On either wood or tiled floors, putts roll smoothly over it and several markings allow you to practice from several specific distances. There are also alignment lines on the mat to make it easier to practice setting up squarely to your target.
While a true-rolling mat is essential for indoor practice, the product PuttOut is best known for is the Pressure Putting Trainer. It is a plastic, parabolic ramp that has bevels on either side and a circular disk at the bottom. The disk is the same size as a golf hole. When you putt toward the Pressure Trainer and roll the ball over the disk, it is returned to you the same distance that it would have gone past the hole. So, you not only practice your aim and putting stroke, you simultaneously practice your distance control. Putts that go over the ramp would have raced over the hole and missed, and any putt that goes over the sides the trainer would have lipped out of the hole on the course.
PuttOut Pressure Putting Trainer. (PuttOut)
What makes the Pressure Putting Trainer addicting is the addition of a small hole cut into the ramp. It’s a micro-target that is only capable of holding a putt struck with the perfect speed on the perfect line.
While the majority of golfers will practice with the Pressure Putting Trainer inside, the ramp folds down and can easily be stored in a golf bag and used on the practice green.
Finally, the PuttOut Putting Mirror is designed to help golfers set up to the ball more consistently. It features a cut-out area where you position the ball and several parallel lines that can help you get your eyes in the same position before every putt.
PuttOut Mirror and gate. (PuttOut)
Under the mirrored surface is a steel plate, for durability, and there are rubber spikes on the bottom to keep it secured to the floor, carpet or turf.
A pair of red guides come with the mirror and magnetically attach to it, allowing golfers to create a channel for their stroke path.
A 50-millimeter gate is also included that attaches to a pair of red plastic disks. The disks have tiny spikes to keep the gate steady. The gate is just wide enough to allow a golf ball to fit through and serves as an intermediate target when you practice.
All of these training aids can be used alone, by when you combine the mat with the ramp indoors or the mirrors and gates on a grass practice green, they can work together and create a more meaningful practice experience.
