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This off season, I had been looking for ways to improve my putting. I have a putting mat and a mirror that helps me make sure my eyes are over the ball and putts start on the right line. They are better than nothing for putting practice indoors, but practicing with them is boring and perhaps even ineffective. While searching for various putting aids, I came across an putter fitting application used by Ping that is available for download for iOS devices. You can find the review for version 1.0 in MSG, here. REVIEW - iPING Putter App. DOWNLOAD/SETUP Although App is still available for free in the APP Store, they no longer sell the plastic cradle that snaps onto the shaft of your putter. If you happen to find one on ebay or similar market places, you will still need an iphone 5? to fit into the cradle. Newer iPhones will not fit in the cradle. I found that mounting putty works great. It's malleable yet holds shape and it sticks to shaft and back of the phone quite well. See the picture below. App itself is easy to install, the actual version is 3.2.1 revised as recently as May 2021. You will need to create an 'account' to use the app which mean you will need to enter your email address. FUNCTIONALITY Ping has added lie angle and shaft lean to the metrics it captures. 1.0 version already supported closing angle (arc type), impact angle and tempo. There are four modes, Guided Fit, Frit for Stroke, Live Loft/Lie, Single Putt. Guide fit: If you are interested in finding a ping putter for your putting stroke, this can recommend a ping putter for you after you take 5 10 foot putts. Fit for stroke: This is the mode that I use for practice. The app will give you a putting handicap based on how consistent your metrics are based on 5 putts. Less variance will lead to better putting handicap. I use this feature to practice 5 ft, 10 ft and 20 ft putts(stopped by a rolled up towel) and to improve consistency. Basically, I'm striving to make sure my closing angle, impact angle, tempo, lie angle and shaft lean are all consistent from stroke to stroke. iPING 2.0 app does a good job doing that. You should note that the handicap is based on consistency, not particular numbers. For example, if you are consistent in putting 1 degree open at impact, you will get a higher score than someone you averaged 0.0 impact angle but has larger variance. This make sense since this is a fitting app. A fitting can correct for tendencies as long as the strokes are consistent. Live Loft/Lie: This was useful to check that my iphone's gyroscopes are working. I can check that when the lie angle is flat and shaft is straight up, the angles read neutral. See the picture below. Single Putt: It is what it sounds like. You can take one putt and it will give you metric on your putt PROS A free app that captures on putting metrics. Awesome I believe the data to be accurate after using it for over a 2 weeks taking 100s of putts You can make a game out of beating your handicap which can be motivating CON Having a heavy phone stuck to your shaft must change your stroke in some way. Am I making anything worse? I don't believe so, but, it's a legitimate concern. Cannot buy the plastic cradle anywhere, particularly that will fit recent versions of iPhones. VERDICT This is obviously a personal opinion, but this is probably the best putting practice gadget I've gotten free or otherwise. It gives me instant feedback on my putting stroke and helps me work on consistent tempo, set up and stroke. I like it a lot! This was my first attempt at a review of any kind. I hope it was useful in someway to someone. Feel free to ask any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. pakman92

Preparing yourself to possess an honest golf shot game will assist you before you golf, however, there are belongings you will do whereas golf shot may facilitate too. These embody are the subsequent tips. THE COIN technique The coin technique is often effective is often effective for rising your golf shot technique. Place a dime one foot behind the ball and take a look at it to hit it 5 times utterly . Once you got accomplished, place the coin 2 feet out and take a look at 5 a lot of times. Keep going to 3 to 4 feet out till you have got formed this system. Currently, you are able to focus on the important golf shot. EYE ON THE DIME Another nice technique to use to specialise in your stroke and follow - through is to place any coin directly behind the ball. The coin acts as a target once creating your golf swing. Several sports teach you to stay your eye on the ball. This can be not the case in golf, though. you would like to stay your specialise in the coin and swing following the trail together with your head and shoulders. THE “EYES CLOSED” TECHNIQUE Many pro golfers have used the eyes closed trick to boost their performance throughout a tournament . If you loose confidence or have anxiety throughout a game, shut your eyes and let you mind relax .Your sub-conscience can take over. Your mind will keep in mind the hours of routine activity, golf swings, and stokes.Closing your eyes will offer you a way of calm, creating you are feeling a lot of relaxed regarding your game. Hope this helps!!!

Good morning MGS brethren! I am creating this thread to put quality information out into the community for those who are trying to research how to build an epic golf simulator. I just finished my build and it has drastically improved my game in the short time that it has been in use. When I started to research all of the different options for components however, not a lot of good information was available..... Now it will be! I will be updating this thread in a stage-type fashion. Each stage of the project will show pictures of the setup, components, and result. Each stage will also have all of the different vendors researched, the decision that was made & why, and links to the selected products. I hope that this will drastically help anyone going down the road of building their own. Enjoy!

I set this product up on carpet, then on tile floor. It actually performed better on carpet. When stretched out on tile the grout lines caused bumps in the roll; the mat is pretty thin. From the get go I wasn't too enthusiastic about this product. The ramp is the detractor. In order to put a 3' putt in the hole you have to hit it about as hard as you would a 6' putt. If you're working on speed, getting the ball to die into the hole or pass the hole by 18" this isn't the product for you. It's going to train you to hit putts too hard. If you're working on getting the proper line and stroke on straight putts, this is an OK choice. The mat has some markings that assist with alignment and distance. It took some time for the surface to actually lay flat once I took it out of the box. The sides tend to rib a little, but the middle of the mat has a pretty good surface. Pros: * 12" wide. If a hallway is your practice space this mat is thin enough to fit and still leave you room to stand to the side. *Ball return works every time. *Easy storage and light weight. *Price. $49. All other mats with ramps and ball returns are at least $10 more. Cons: *Mat is thin, plastic ramp is thin. It makes sense to roll up the mat for storage but when unrolled is tends to curl. *The ramp. I can't find a reason to want a ramp at the last 12" of a putt, besides aiding the ball return. *The ball return ramp is 3 pieces, including the mat it's a 4 piece set.

Looking to do some putting practice inside. Has anyone ever made their own version of The Putting Board? I love the idea, but not the price tag ($130). The keys to creating this is understanding if there's any arc in the board, and what the angles are for the takeaway and follow-through positions. I'll let you know what I come up with, but thought I'd check if anyone has already created one. Cheers

I'm not much for golf gadgets but this one, for some odd reason, has caught my eye. The guy doing the commercial is kind of humorous - perhaps that's what is luring me in. Anyone tried this device? It does look like a simple way to help with alignment/getting the putter face square to the intended line. If you open up the "science" hotlink, it shows test data performed by GolfWRX. I haven't found any reviews by MGS... so I'm dubious of the claims . https://www.dirtylarrygolf.com/

Perfect Practice Putting Mat Review By Chasing Scratch If you’re like me, you need to practice your putting……. A lot…… I mean take the time you want to practice each month, multiply it by 10, then add 10 hours to that. Let’s face it, of all the skills in the game of golf, putting is something many of us amateurs tend to practice the least. When was the last time you heard people at the course talking ‘bout “Man I spent 5 hours last week on my putting, and I just can’t get enough!” The putter is hit more times in a single round than any other club yet we have this avoidance affair with it. We’ll smash driver for hours on the range, look at the watch, and give 5 minutes to putting. I’m guilty of this myself. As someone who knows I need to practice my putting more, it’s just not that much fun. It’s also not very convenient for me. The closest course to my home is 25 minutes away. 50 minutes in the car is a large commitment for me just to practice putting several days per week. So given my goal of scratch golf, my knowledge of statistics, and my passion for improvement, I started looking into “at home” putting training aids. I searched around on the internet for everything from putting mats, auto-return systems, and DIY putting platform building guides. I liked a few of the products just fine and was narrowing down my options to a few of the mats. I know several had great reviews and even skill-type-games you can play, but I just couldn’t get over not having the ball fall into a cup. There is something satisfying about seeing the golf ball fall into a hole and disappear. So I started to plan out a putting platform build. I had the specs and was all set to go to the store and spend a few days knocking it out. Literally the night before I was going to go to the store, I stumbled upon a page on Instagram called “Perfect Practice Golf” and saw their putting mat. They had a giveaway contest going on for the PGA Championship so I threw my name in for the drawing. I decided to wait and see if I got lucky before I built my platform and (wouldn’t you know it!) I won! So I decided to hold off on building a platform to see if this thing was any good. Their Instagram page showed quite a few PGA Tour players (e.g., Tony Finau, Marc Leishman, Smiley Kaufman, see their quotes below) who were using their putting mat so I figured it would be good enough for me. Quality and features When it arrived, the first thing I noticed was that the actual putting carpet was top notch. I’m sure you’ve all seen the putting mats you can buy at the big box stores and the carpet they come with looks like something that is made out of cardboard. You have to lay encyclopedias on it and even then you may have some creases, it never lays flat, etc. Straight out of the box, this thing unrolled and lay flat. You could literally start putting on it right out the box! The actual material feels a lot like velour (that's the best way I can describe it although it is not a perfect description). They call it “crystal velvet,” but all I know is it is a very pure rolling surface. A plus is that you can vacuum it as well. On that mat, you’ll find printed markings for every foot and smaller marks for every inch (it looks like a giant ruler). You also have two alignment lines (one for the regular sized hole and one for the mini-hole). As a golfer who struggles with “seeing the line” over my putts, the alignment line really helps. The mat also features an incline up to the holes, to ensure a confident stroke and to assist with the gravity-fed ball return system. On their first version, the base and return ramp were made out of plastic. It had a good weight to it and I had no complaints. On their newest model, they made some upgrades to the base material. Namely, it is now made of wood instead of plastic, there is an insert-able backstop to catch putts hit with too much gusto, extra space behind the holes to catch balls, and the return ramp has magnets to connect the pieces. Each of these upgrade adds much more “high quality” feel to the overall product. They did not change the crystal velvet putting surface, and in my opinion they didn’t need to. It’s great as is. With the original version, my kids had a tendency to hit the ball past the holes and off the mat. They were more than happy to chase the balls down the hallway, but it was a bit of an oversight in the original design. This has been fixed in the newest version. It would take a freaking missile launch of a putt to blast it off the mat now. For the price, I’d be hard pressed to find a better putting training aid. At just over $100, you get a high quality putting surface and the mental boost of seeing a ball fall into a hole over and over and over again. You can roll it up, stick it under your bed, and putt every single day, rain or shine, all from the comfort of your home. This thing rolls fast and true. They claim it rolls up to a 14 on the stimp if you put it on hard floors (think wood floors or concrete), and you can slow it down by putting it on carpet. When I put it on my bedroom carpet, it is noticeably slower than when it is on the tile floor. If I were to have a critique, it would be that I wish the mat were just about a 1/4 inch thicker. I have tile floor in my home and carpet in the bed rooms. When putting on the tile floor, you can get a bump here or there (due to the gaps in the tiles and grout). I fixed this by using some runner rugs we have in the hallway and I typically just put them under the mat. I can’t be too critical, because I know that adding more thickness would increase the price, add to shipping, etc. Overall it is a solid putting mat well worth the price. I have hit hundreds of putts on the original model and the newest model and have yet to notice any depressions or grooves in the surface. I know this is a concern for any putting mat, but so far so good on this one. Performance on the course For the first few weeks that I had the original Perfect Practice Golf putting mat, I couldn’t get enough of it. My kids and I would spend hours throughout the day hitting 4 footers, 6 footers, 8 footers, etc. We even came up with a trick shot and had a blast doing it (see video below)! [/url] My son and I came up with other putting games to play on it to keep it fun. My on the course putting showed definite improvement as well! I rarely had less than 35 putts per round before and quite often a few three putts. When I was putting consistently with the Perfect Practice mat, I didn’t have a round over 32 putts. Those pesky 6-7 foot par save putts were falling with much more consistency. I felt like I had a real chance to hole everything inside of 10 feet. Seeing the ball fall into a hole over and over and over while practicing at home is such a mental boost for my game. I haven’t played golf in over a month, much less practiced on my mat (life just got very very crazy in the Chasing Scratch home). I want to make myself a personal goal of hitting 50 putts per day to see how good I can get. Since I have a solid mat in the comfort of my own home, there really is no excuse. If I want to get to scratch golf, I need to get those putts per round down to 30 or under consistently. The only way to get better is to practice. I’ve got a great practice aid to do it, now I just need the determination and dedication. At $130, I don’t think you can go wrong with this training aid. The upgrades are a nice improvement over the original version, and the putting surface is top notch. Take a look at their webpage (click here) and consider the Perfect Practice Golf mat if you are in the market for a putting setup for the home, office, or wherever really. They sell out quickly when they get their shipments in, so they are on pre-order right now. I hope you enjoyed this review! Now I’m off to go work on my putting! [/url](Note: The images used in this review are used with permission from the company's website) [/url][/url]