Unofficial Review - BirdieBall Green

[romeopapazulu]

One of my goals for this year is to hit that even par round. In fact, to reach the goal of a hdcp in the 5’s, I am going to need more than one of those rounds. I don’t have the detailed data to show me make percentages from each distance, but there are too many rounds where I am sure nothing more than 3 ft goes in.

 

I have read Unconscious Putting a couple times and it was starting to help. Now I am on that quest for a repeatable stroke that makes those 5 footers routine. Enter the BirdieBall green.

 

I purchased a 3x12 BirdieBall green during their Black Friday sale. If I recall correctly I got 20% off and a free sleeve of BirdieBalls (really interested to give these a try once the snow finally melts).

 

The box was about 12x12x40. I’d measure it, but the little guy transformed it into some hockey goalie leg pads. If that satisfies his cravings, that’s $800 more in my pocket! I’d share a pic of that, but it looks like it has already been repurposed a few times. Here’s a pic of the green and the included accessories.

I got the 9-10 stimp green, three cups, cup reducer, deep cup (donut to double thickness of green for the deep cup is here somewhere but not in the pic) and flags.

 

Assembly was a piece of cake. I just got the end bumpers and not the side bumpers. They weren’t hard to put on, but an extra set of hands would have been nice. It rolls very true. I think I have found some uneven areas of the floor that create tiny amounts of break that I can recreate with the same orientation of the green. I don’t have a stimpmeter to test, but I think the speed is on par with the local munis that I frequent. So far I have about 10 hours on it and don’t see any signs of wear.

 

I think for a true rolling portable green, I don’t know what you are going to find in this price range that would outperform this.

 

It isn’t faultless, and I will try to nitpick a bit here and list the things that might bug someone.

 

A hard floor is mandatory. I would love to leave this out downstairs, but I have a high pile carpet everywhere down there. We got some synthetic ice tiles for the kids for Christmas and had to get some hardboard to go underneath them. There is still a good amount of movement when you walk on them, so a foam green certainly won’t work. I could go the wooden frame route, but then it is getting into permanent fixture territory.

 

Leaving it rolled up in a corner does leave a bit of curve in it when unrolled. This is after more than an hour of use. I could put something with some weight in there to fix that. Or get the side bumpers to help flatten that out. It is behind the holes, though, so it doesn’t bother me.

 

The roll up. You know the infomercials showing how hard it is to cut vegetables without cutting board scissors? That might be me rolling this thing up. Rolling it is fine, but flipping it over so it rolls green side out can be frustrating. The end bumpers have just enough weight that they always want to flip the wrong way. This is a total first world problem. Shouldn’t be an issue, but it aggravates me. I bet the 10 ft length would not be an issue.

 

I don’t use the flags. There is base for the flag that is supposed to help keep the balls in the cup, but I find that it holds balls well enough that if you die into the cup, the next putts don’t push the balls to the back, so you end up stacking up balls in front of the cup. I just leave the flag base and flag out. I will occasionally get a ball to roll in and land in one of the four holes in the base and then bounce out off of the hard floor. But I can get four putts to stay in the cup that way.

 

Dogs need not walk on it. I haven’t had a potty issue but the toe nails leave a good imprint. And Duke thinks it is super comfortable and doesn’t understand why he can’t step on it because I am on it all the time.

 

I got the 12ft length so I could get 10 ft putts in. This is a little tricky putting towards the single cup because I have my feet on one of the two cups. So I can get close to 9 ft in one of the directions.

 

The donut that raises the height to fit the double depth cup I a bit too small and turns the cup into a raised putt putt hole that requires a perfect line or it veers off to either side. Could be useful in some cases, but didn’t help me hear putts hitting the bottom of the cup.

 

I have a couple observations about the 3ft width. If I make a straight putt to the right cup, I have the straight edge right next to my ball. Is this giving me some alignment aid that I won’t have in the course? I’d hate to think I have made some huge improvement and then realize on a giant green without my BirdieEdge, my putting suffers.

 

 

If I try to putt down the middle to minimize the BirdieEdge effect, I have my heels hanging off the edge of the green. I guess if I were to do it again I might get a 4x10 with two cups on each side.

 

 

Even though I have written more of the gripes than the positives, I would absolutely buy this again. Hopefully that won’t be for a long time. I am certain I have made some very good progress already.

 

In fact I noticed tonight on the 20 point drill (3, 6, 9 ft and 1 point for a make and -3 for a miss) something rather interesting. I started drawing an alignment line on the ball this year. At 3ft I haven’t bothered for this drill, but started at the 6ft distance. I was consistently lipping out one of four putts. But the alignment line was rolling well, so it was a well struck putt. Once I started with the line not visible, I was dropping four out of four most times. Right down the middle of the cup. I was carefully lining up the alignment line when I was using it, but still left it off enough to negatively affect me at 6ft. I will pay more attention to this, but if I can’t line the line up right, I am hurting myself and wasting time.

 

I have emailed Bryson to see if he has the C.O.R of the BirdieBall flagsticks to see if I should really be using them. I’ll fill you guys in when he gets back to me.

 

[GolfSpy MPR]

Really helpful review; thanks for posting this.

A couple side comments. I also have no ability to use an alignment line for putting. I'm not sure if it's an eye dominance issue or what. I like the idea a lot, but it just doesn't work for me.

Also, is that a Satin Elevado with a P2? Is it an Aware or Classic? My Satin Elevado has the blue Aware on it. Love the feel of that face!

[null]

Big birdie ball green fan here.  Been using them for almost 5 years now.  Best putting green for the money!

[romeopapazulu]

Really helpful review; thanks for posting this.
A couple side comments. I also have no ability to use an alignment line for putting. I'm not sure if it's an eye dominance issue or what. I like the idea a lot, but it just doesn't work for me.
Also, is that a Satin Elevado with a P2? Is it an Aware or Classic? My Satin Elevado has the blue Aware on it. Love the feel of that face!

A blue Aware tour it is! I have been routing for your Elevado pretty hard, so it may be my fault your Evnroll hasn’t quite clicked yet. I have a React Tour coming from@yungkory any day. I will give that a try, but the hours spent with this one have it clicking. I started at a 34” then trimmed to 33” which was a big mistake. Now I have it extended to 36” and choke up an inch or so and like it a lot. That slightly thinner profile there works really well. I am also putting with my shoulders pushed way back which has steadied things, so the 33” was not even close to the ground anymore.

About the alignment. I can strike it well right down the line, but I can’t for the life of me line it up right in the first place. I’m pretty left eye dominant. I have been standing behind balls with the putter up trying to line it up with the cup and the line on the ball. I probably look like an idiot while doing it. Then it’s worse when it still doesn’t drop.

This last year I had some real issues with second thoughts after standing over the ball. Maybe it’s because I could tell the ball wasn’t aimed where I wanted. I really liked the alignment marker@cnosil wrote about the other day, but now I’m not sure I could line it up well enough to actually help me!


Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

[cksurfdude]

Another BirdieBall fan here!

Have a dual-speed 4x12 (also bought on sale) out in the garage - which slopes slightly "down" towards the outer door, so I have the fast side oriented "downhill", and so the slow side going "uphill", to accentuate the effect. I use it mainly to practice putting speed in either direction from varying distances (have another standard putting mat in the basement to practice starting the ball on-line). I'll also occasionally work on small chips off a mat above the downhill side; ie. onto a downslope (yes - it's tough!)

My dopey Lab - who thinks anything you put down on the floor is automatically his to lie on, like Romeo's Duke :-) - snuck out into the garage when I'd walked inside to get something and did that digging thing on my BirdieBall....... so now I have what are like large spike marks in front of the downhill hole...... Hey, makes it more realistic, right? 

 

[Kenny B]

BirdieBall green fan here as well.  However, I only have space at my wife's lab to use it, and she has been moving stuff around and is using all of the floor space.

I would love to put a practice green in my backyard.  Actually, I'd like to have NO grass in my backyard.

[cksurfdude]

17 hours ago, Kenny B said:

BirdieBall green fan here as well.  However, I only have space at my wife's lab to use it, and she has been moving stuff around and is using all of the floor space.

I would love to put a practice green in my backyard.  Actually, I'd like to have NO grass in my backyard.

 

Ha, maybe you can move in with Dave Pelz

[TSauer]

I've got a 4' x 12' that I was able to use for a little while in the garage, until the fiancé decided she wanted to park in there. Haha. So now it's just boxed up and sitting in my closet, and it's bugging me. I'm considering trimming the length of it so I can lay it out.

[Kenny B]

I suppose I could put mine on the patio, but there would be a nice slope toward the grass and it's only 2 feet wide!  Also, I'm sure the cats would tear it up in no time.