cksurfdude

I hear ya .. literally .. but give the user an option to display this overlay or not. Either way -- you still have to make the putt!

Hah! Dude I love you man! (virtual hi five)

I was imagining / hoping there'd be a faint line drawn on the green itself .. .. like you see illustrated sometimes on Golf Channel; or this high end ($$$$$) putting simulator I've seen on a Cameron McCormick video that creates breaks and projects a line showing you the optimal path.

WOW!! I haven't even started yet but looking at that I think I'm just gonna have to concede to the ExPutt Master Nice!

Hey! ..our long-lost brother from another mother Hope you had a great trip!

Is it short? If so, I have the same thing. Do try it, but imho ... short answer: not quite, not as well. OW's version is better balanced and provides a better feel through the swing.

Played 18 and it was an interesting mix of good and not-so-good.... Tee shots -- 13 / 14 in or just off (w/in 1 yd) fairways ** played from forward tees with my wife * this includes a few pop-ups that landed in the fairway plus one very lucky "tree wedge"! - one tee shot into fairway bunker left; managed a decent 2nd shot outta there GIRs -- 4 on the front 9 (that's a 1st for me!), plus 1 Par 3 green; 0 on the back 9, plus 1 Par 3 green Lag Putts -- had 14 x 1st putts > 10 ft; the average leave from the hole was about 2.6 feet! (most were under 4 ft but 2 really really short leaves from 40 and 50 ft pulled the avg up) But then.... Short Game -- was a bit on & off and I had 5 (FIVE) 2-Chips and 5 (FIVE) 3-Putts (..two of each on the front then three of each on the back) (..so that's up to 10 (TEN!!) wasted strokes) Short Putts -- I managed to miss 4 putts from 2 1/2 feet and less??!!?? Penalty -- I pulled the second shot on #10 OB left into the reeds ... ball slightly above my feet on the right edge of the fairway after an ok tee shot and a clear line straight ahead to the green with an 8i in my hand... Front 9 was pretty solid and finished +7 (Par 36) but Back 9 I started to fade in the heat and humidity around #13-#14 .. plus the round time started to drag, total of 4:40 .. finished back at +14 (Par 36) for a total +21 / 93 with 38 putts - which despite all the silly mistakes is one of my better 18-hole rounds!

Guys... I may be disqualified as I took 2 short breaks (one bathroom and one dogs backyard break .. all the boys gotta do their bizness ya know ).

^^ Great review .. LOTS of great info .. and love the Loony Tunes! On a related note -- the ExPutt works! Played 18 this afternoon and had a couple of looooong first putts .. this has been a weak spot for me and even with only a little sim practice my distance control 3/4 times was really good!

Nice putting, Sir!

EXPUTT REAL-TIME PUTTING SIMULATOR Official MGS Forum Member Review – by cksurfdude July, 2020 A huuuge shoutout and thank you to ExPutt and to the MGS Spies for entrusting me with what I hope is one of the more popular tests of this season!! * Note: this Intro is a part of the overall review process but is broken out from the final product review. PERSONAL INTRO Currently 64, retired, picked up the game for the first time in the Summer of ’09 at age 53. Before golf I used to surf and windsurf a lot; growing up there was skiing during the winter and sailing during the summer as my main activities. I played a little tennis with my father when I was younger, just hitting the ball back and forth (never learned to serve) .. otherwise no ball sports. I’d describe my golf game as a typical recreational golfer, I guess; that is … hit some good shots, hit some .. ummm .. needs more work kinda shots; can make a par here and there, make some doubles and sometimes worse, but able to pull off a bunch of bogeys. Have not (yet?) broken 90; 9 hole rounds this year so far range from +4 (yea!) to +21 (ouch!) vs par. I don’t maintain a handicap (don’t play competitively outside of one or two charity outings per year) .. so my scoring goal is to consistently play right around bogey golf, and then start to work my way down into the 80s. As far as putting – I average right about 18 putts and 1.4 x 3-putts per 9 holes (more details below). “A Game Within A Game”… You may have read or heard that quote attributed to Ben Hogan. When I first started playing, putting literally confounded me. I had no concept of “break” and had no understanding of why the ball was rolling off in all the wrong directions it was; nor any concept of “speed” and so no understanding of why the ball was still so far from the hole (long or short). An introduction to the basics at a 3-Day Leadbetter golf school helped get me started on the right track; then I took some short game lessons that included some coaching on putting stroke, but overall it seemed that putting-specific instruction was not commonly taught and it was more up to the individual to work it out on their own. And putting is hard! My current putter… My EvnRoll ER5 is self-selected; I’ve been through a few club fittings (irons, driver, whole bag) and a putter fitting in the past .. so I understand the process and some of the things to look for. After reading all kinds of good things about EvnRoll putters on MGS, about a year and a half or so ago I went into a PGA Tour SuperStore to try out a few different types … and ended up liking the ER5. The putterhead felt nicely balanced throughout the stroke to me, and it looked to me like I was rolling putts pretty smoothly. I bought the 33” / 385g model; I’ve since added an extra 4g of lead tape onto the outer flanges. This putter has 25° toe hang – I have an arcing putter stroke (according to the old iPing app it’s a “medium” arc). Previous putters in play included the MLA XDream Tour – which is now the dedicated ExPutt practice putter; a Machine M2A Converter widebody (looks cool .. I know, I know…); a short-lived attempt at using a long (not belly) Cleveland putter with a TFI face (I liked that part) and for several seasons prior to all that an Odyssey #1-Wide with a SuperStroke grip. My putting process… My underlying philosophy = “The first putt is 90% speed; the second putt is 90% line.” (Heard that in a Golf Science Lab video.) This is not to say I’m not trying to sink that first putt, but that I try to keep things simple on the course (despite my mathematical / analytical background and nature) … and to be realistic, ie. considering the PGA Tour pros’ average 50-50 make is at about 8 feet … my 50-50 is gonna be from way closer. I guess I use a combo of feel and mechanics. To set up any putt I will… try to get a handle on the overall slope of the green between my ball and the cup as I’m approaching the green; stand behind my ball and crouch down for a more specific read (rarely walk around behind the ball); make an estimate, using an “express” version of AimPoint Express, of the level of slope at the cup and pick a target spot; visualize a line that will get my ball to that spot; line up my ball to roll to the apex of that line; estimate a speed that will roll the ball along my line to my spot; rehearse 2 or 3 strokes that should impart the right effort to the ball to roll it at the desired speed to the desired spot; lean over the ball to set the putterhead's line in-line with the ball’s alignment line, then set myself up as square to that alignment line as I can; take a last look at my target spot then back down at the ball still trying to “see” the line to my intended spot; and finally… stroke the ball as closely as I can to the rehearsal swings. I try to be cognizant of.. (a) starting the putting stroke “low and slow”; (b) calibrating the length of the backswing to the length of the putt and (c) keeping a steady One-Two overall tempo. So a whole lotta stuff going on there! * Bottom Line: * If I stroke the putt on my intended start line at the intended speed, then I consider that a good putt. ...A side note about speed: I’m familiar with the idea of 18 inches past the hole – and never ever never short – but… I saw a video from Scott Fawcett about his DECADE System, and was particularly interested in a segment about putting. He admitted it was not an exhaustive study but from what he observed of top collegiate golfers and their putt dispersion in length past the hole – he concluded that hitting the ball slightly softer .. and, yes, having the occasional short putt .. but only inches short .. would move the central tendency, or median, of all your putts closer to the hole. Makes sense to me. What I want to improve in my putting… If you consider that every putt starts out as a straight putt then ALL of the basic mechanics of a putting stroke become important to practice and improve, but for me the primary objective now is – Goal #1 = 3-Putt Avoidance. Pure and simple. If I can 2 putt every hole – from anywhere, on any type of green – and drop the occasional 1 putt then I’ll be a happy putter. I know 3-putts happen but the goal is to minimize them. #2: Distance Control. This directly supports Goal #1, imho, so to me another way of saying “3-Putt Avoidance” is to say “Leave the first putt ridiculously close to the hole every time!” #3: Green Reading. I put this ahead of “Starting Line” as I tend to play the totally wrong break at least once every 9 holes. Not saying my stroke and start line is perfect every time .. there are definitely a few pulls or pushes in there .. but it’s reasonably good and getting better over time. Plus … one of the more problematic putts for me are sidehill, from either side of the cup (ie. uphill side is either behind me, in my putting stance, or in front of me). #4: Starting Line – including face angle and path at impact. Although I am constantly working on this during my basement practice sessions, I feel at this point I’m slightly more competent with this skill vs the ones listed above. #5: Increase Putts Made from 8 feet and in. Yes.. I know the PGA Pros have an average 50% make rate at 8 feet, and yes.. and I am waaay under that. But I want to improve! And, of course: overall tempo, face opening and closing rotation, stroke length and speed for different putt distances, lie angle change (did you know some golfers tend to either lower or raise their hands very slightly during the putting stroke?). Some current putting stats… In starting to look at 3-Putt Avoidance, I aggregated my putting numbers from 22 rounds so far this season where I kept track of number of putts (played more but did not track score nor # putts). * Note I play mostly 9-Hole rounds so where I played 18 I split that into 2 x 9-holes. Here’s where I’m currently at (data thru 07-18-2020) – 22 x 9 holes # 3-Putts / 9 # Putts / 9 Score vs Par Average.. 1.41 17.91 +10.45 Hi.. 4 20 +21 Lo.. 0 15 +4 Median.. 1 18 +10 Anyway, not too terrible overall but there’s always room for improvement (amiright?). FYI… I included median as my thinking with respect to golf scores is it may be a helpful indicator vs average; median is the place in a set of numbers where there are an equal number of values both higher and lower (think of literally the middle). Here’s the breakdown by incidence of 3-putts over the 22 x 9-hole rounds – # 3-Putts / 9 # occurrences Avg putts / 9 Avg vs Par Median putts / 9 Median vs Par 0 5 16.60 +11 16 +10 1 7 17.00 +9 17 +8 2 7 18.86 +10 19 +11 3 2 20.00 +15 20 +15 4 1 20.00 +9 20 +9 Not surprisingly, even with a small data set, you can see a general positive correlation between the increasing number of 3-putts with an increasing number of Average Putts / 9 holes and of Average Score vs Par. (.. just don’t ask me what happened on that one 4 (Four!) x 3-putt day, though .. guess I was hitting the ball well enough that it counteracted all the extra putts..!) Then… I did a little deeper dive into some specifics of my most recent (as of this writing) 18-hole round. If we accept this set of putts as representative of all my current putting in general (this was on very fast and very contoured greens so a reasonable data set, I think), we see… Hole # Putt 1 # feet Putt 2 # feet Putt 3 1 42.50 10.00 1 foot 2 16.25 2.50 - 3 27.50 10.00 6 inches 4 7.50 1.25 - 5 27.50 0.25 - 6 23.75 1.00 - 7 3.75 1.00 - 8 12.50 - - 9 3.00 1.50 - 10 15.00 1.00 - 11 28.75 1.50 1 foot 12 16.25 1.00 - 13 27.50 2.00 - 14 20.00 5.00 - 15 32.50 2.50 3 inches 16 10.00 0.50 - 17 11.25 0.25 - 18 8.75 0.50 - Avg.. 18.57 2.46 Hi.. 42.50 10.00 Lo.. 3.00 0.25 Med.. 16.25 1.25 Total ft 1st putts 334.25 Total ft made... 39.25 %tge made... 11.74% Did not note whether 1st putt was long/short/low/high. Yes, there are 4 (FOUR!) 3-putts but remember I split 18 into 2 x 9-hole rounds. This 18-hole round had 39 putts. I highlighted one number here which kinda surprised me – that is: for all first putts (that I missed, which was 17/18) my average leave from the hole was only about 2 ½ feet. Happy with that! Note, though, that the median leave is half that at 1.25 ft .. indicating there were a few much higher 2nd putt distances .. which you can see in the detail above with 2 leaves @ 10 ft and 1 @ 5 ft. So there’s work to do on those 20 feet and longer lag putts (gee no surprise there!). Not sure how these numbers compare to the aggregate of all recreational bogey golfers, but that “Total feet made” stat looks low … so one goal is to improve upon this over time. So the main idea here is to get some sort of reference points regarding… How close am I leaving the 1st putt, from any starting distance / any slope? How good am I at sinking 2nd putts, from any starting distance? How, let’s call it, efficient is my putting in terms of # feet of putts made vs total first putt distance? Which (finally!!) brings us to… Using the ExPutt… I don’t belong to a private club, and the munis near me do not have good short game practice areas. One muni does have a decent practice green with some slope on it but it’s always busy. So now I can just pop down to the basement, turn on the TV screen, fire up the ExPutt cam and set up some putting practice!!

Quick Update: A few years .. and a whole lotta miles .. later I'm still luvin' this pushcart! Still solid, still works great and has been maintenance-free -- the only very minor "fix" I've had to do is tighten the four small screws on the underside of the handle that secure the storage pouch. Also earlier this year replaced my bag with a newer one (a Datrek Hybrid) that has "Top Lok" integrated onto it -- you just slide the bag into the matching part of the top bracket on the cart and it's in! No need for the top strap at all (I have it tied back but it can even be removed).

Quick practice mode update: Ran thru a few of the variations available. Overall this thing has some great functionality, buuuut... IMO there are some software and user interface changes that - if I were developing it - would do differently. But that's just me being me ... the putting sim itself is really good!

You're telling us he has shag carpeting in his 3-car garage

Yeah good point. I had to take a bathroom break at one point, and then a few minutes later the dogs were "asking" to go out, and then I stopped to grab a snack on the way back. So mine was not a straight through marathon...... DQ'ed. But it was still a useful exercise for me to roll A LOT of putts; the practice itself plus becoming more familiar with using the ExPutt.

Those are all good points about real practice, but unfortunately I don't have convenient access to a good .. and large .. practice green. So I'm hoping that the ExPutt's simulation is a good-enough substitute... Plus its main data capture/display includes putter path, impact angle and launch direction.

I'm using a black MLA which is full milled so has a completely black face. But note that this has become my dedicated ExPutt putter as I wanted to be sure the cam picked up the white stickers.. ..which leads right into the question I was gonna ask @cnosil and it looks like he's prepared to answer -- what happens if you have a white insert face putter?

Running thru some practice mode variations and I feel I've uncovered not necessarily a fault but what I consider a lack of a better capability. More to come when the full review on Practice Mode gets posted.....

Absolutely! For what they give you I'd have to say this is a pretty easy setup - especially now that we the testers have done the trial and error for you Oh and.. does seem to work fine without the reading lamp.

Totally agree! I've been working a lot on the second part - ie. try to increase my % of makes in that 3-12 range; for the long lag putts I'm hoping the ExPutt can help me with that. (..shameless plug...) Follow the ExPutt testers as they each explore the product's features and try to answer the big question: Will it really help improve my putting? https://forum.mygolfspy.com/topic/39526-2020-official-member-review-exputt-putting-simulator/page/1/#comments

That's good info .... But... *ALL* this kinda stuff should be right up-front in the user guide! (clear & concise) ...I'll try a few putts each with and without the extra lamp to see if there's any difference.

Hmm, interesting thought. A good question for Mo our contact at ExPutt. As an fyi for the other testers, in my basement are standard incandescent floods and the reading lamp I added is halogen.

It's interesting to read how the same training device induces such different responses between different users! The golf swing is such a funny thing.......

That was my guess too - initially I was gonna bounce the lamp light off the ceiling, in order to avoid shadows, but then just pointed it right at the mat and the system seems to like it.