2020 Official Member Review: Exputt putting simulator

[mgustin]

Black body, silver face. I can see how contrast would be important. Wonder if drawing black around the outer edge of the stickers might help with the contrast?

 

 Great job on the putting! Three putts can be killers. Big reason for my working on my EXPUTT! Hate giving up strokes and having my last 25 feet take more strokes than the first 375 yards. 

[gavinski91]

I have a white face on my putter, and haven't had issues as long as I don't have the light pointing directly at the putter face (and I don't use the stickers). I stick with overhead lighting, and sometimes an additional reading light pointed at 45° down on the mat from behind.

[GolfSpy MPR]

If all goes well, I will be unboxing an ExPutt in the next couple of weeks! Very excited about this, first, because I love the idea of having a way of dialing in distance control. Being winter-bound for roughly six months a year gives me a lot of time to practice 8 foot putts, but little chance to practice 30 foot putts.

I'm also excited about this because, as a man with six children, it's the perfect mini-simulator for games with my family.

[TJ Hall]

15 minutes ago, GolfSpy MPR said:

If all goes well, I will be unboxing an ExPutt in the next couple of weeks! Very excited about this, first, because I love the idea of having a way of dialing in distance control. Being winter-bound for roughly six months a year gives me a lot of time to practice 8 foot putts, but little chance to practice 30 foot putts.

I'm also excited about this because, as a man with six children, it's the perfect mini-simulator for games with my family.

6 kids…I don’t know how you time for anything!  I only have 2 and feel like there isn’t enough time in the day.

Excited to see how the EXPUTT works for you…saw a setup earlier today and it was nice looking!

[Rearviewmirror]

So I don't want to overdo this, but this thing has literally turned around my putting game. Granted, I did make some technique changes due to what it combined with my Mezz revealed, but even so - holy moly!

For folks not familiar with Arccos, the two lines are my last 30 rounds. The grey trend line is rounds 30 to 16, and the orange line is rounds 15 to 1 (1 being most recent round). The low point on the orange line was the round before the ExPutt. As you can see, it's been quite the improvement!!

That one dip in the orange line was on a course where they had just deep-tined the greens and there was maybe an 1/8" of sand on top. Otherwise my putting has been bulletproof.

[Preeway]

I’ve following along and this is definitely on my 2024 Christmas list. Just too many other toys to consider this spring and summer or I’d buy it sooner. 

[OHgolfer2]

On 3/25/2024 at 6:13 PM, Rearviewmirror said:

So I don't want to overdo this, but this thing has literally turned around my putting game. Granted, I did make some technique changes due to what it combined with my Mezz revealed, but even so - holy moly!

For folks not familiar with Arccos, the two lines are my last 30 rounds. The grey trend line is rounds 30 to 16, and the orange line is rounds 15 to 1 (1 being most recent round). The low point on the orange line was the round before the ExPutt. As you can see, it's been quite the improvement!!

That one dip in the orange line was on a course where they had just deep-tined the greens and there was maybe an 1/8" of sand on top. Otherwise my putting has been bulletproof.

That's a huge improvement.  I have had similar success.  I played in Arizona back in January and had not been practicing putting at home.  Predictably, putting was abysmal over those 3 January rounds (average of -7 SG relative to scratch).  So, in February and March, I started again with daily Exputt practice (along with practice on a perfect practice mat) - maybe 5-10 mins per day.  Sure enough, I played two rounds in Arizona last week and my putting was back to -1 SG (relative to scratch).  So, a 6 stroke improvement from just putting.  

The key for me seems to be to keep practicing (exputt and mat) a little bit each day, otherwise those putting skills erode quickly.  

[Rearviewmirror]

On 4/12/2024 at 10:30 AM, OHgolfer2 said:

That's a huge improvement.  I have had similar success.  I played in Arizona back in January and had not been practicing putting at home.  Predictably, putting was abysmal over those 3 January rounds (average of -7 SG relative to scratch).  So, in February and March, I started again with daily Exputt practice (along with practice on a perfect practice mat) - maybe 5-10 mins per day.  Sure enough, I played two rounds in Arizona last week and my putting was back to -1 SG (relative to scratch).  So, a 6 stroke improvement from just putting.  

The key for me seems to be to keep practicing (exputt and mat) a little bit each day, otherwise those putting skills erode quickly.  

Thanks! For me the only challenge is disaggregating poor technique and the impact of practice. The ExPutt helped me identify where some things were going wrong, which combined with a bunch of practice has ironed out a lot of my putting woes.

I've regressed back a little bit as seen below in the orange line (honestly not been practicing as much with ExPutt as I've been out on the course more) and as a result have had a couple of three putts creep in, along with a few shorter misses during aeration season. That said, it's still night and day from where I was before. Weather has started to warm up and I'm guessing green speeds will follow, and I do typically putt better on faster greens.

[GolfSpy MPR]

So I've received my ExPutt, and I'm very, very impressed. Like others have said in the thread, I love the ability to set random flat distances, imagine that distance in my mind, and start matching feel to distance. Very, very excited to use this on a daily basis and I have very high hopes of it having a massive effect on my putting performance on course this year.

That said, I was on ExPutt's site tonight, trying to find a tutorial on using the analysis mode, when I found an endorsement of the product from our very own @cnosil! Though, I don't think he looks exactly the same as he does on the Forum Community Calls:

[William P]

Love it! 

[cksurfdude]

10 hours ago, GolfSpy MPR said:

... I was on ExPutt's site tonight, trying to find a tutorial on using the analysis mode, when I found an endorsement of the product from our very own @cnosil! Though, I don't think he looks exactly the same as he does on the Forum Community Calls:

Not that actually is Chris .. "they" really are young and shapely like that. The Chris you see on the vid chat is his online alter ego persona.

... hahaha lol...

But on the serious side looking forward to hearing more about your experience with the ExPutt .. and where you think it helps you the most. 

For me, even with all the other features, I also end up most of the time in Practice mode working on 20-50 footers.

[GolfSpy MPR]

A more serious question for my fellow ExPutters: talk to me about the face stickers.

Right now, I'm probably getting a face read on about 70% of my putts. I am using the included stickers. My intent is to buy a bunch of stickers from Amazon so I never have to think about stickers again. I figure half-inch would work, though the included stickers are slightly bigger than that.

Have you all found lighting tricks that help the ExPutt have a higher read percentage for face? Any suggestions for a sticker that's worked for you? Or have you found the stickers don't do much?

[cnosil]

8 minutes ago, GolfSpy MPR said:

A more serious question for my fellow ExPutters: talk to me about the face stickers.

Right now, I'm probably getting a face read on about 70% of my putts. I am using the included stickers. My intent is to buy a bunch of stickers from Amazon so I never have to think about stickers again. I figure half-inch would work, though the included stickers are slightly bigger than that.

Have you all found lighting tricks that help the ExPutt have a higher read percentage for face? Any suggestions for a sticker that's worked for you? Or have you found the stickers don't do much?

I have some white tape that I just put on and take off. I get lots of use out of a single piece and just stick it on the grip of an extra putter.   Doesn’t have to be round.   And I don’t think size is that important.  
 

lighting is always the biggest issue.   Overhead lighting is the best.   I saw your setup on Twitter/X and would also suggest trying to get the camera higher.   Seems to work better the closer you are to max height.   

Edited Monday at 02:21 PM by cnosil

[gavinski91]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy MPR said:

A more serious question for my fellow ExPutters: talk to me about the face stickers.

Right now, I'm probably getting a face read on about 70% of my putts. I am using the included stickers. My intent is to buy a bunch of stickers from Amazon so I never have to think about stickers again. I figure half-inch would work, though the included stickers are slightly bigger than that.

Have you all found lighting tricks that help the ExPutt have a higher read percentage for face? Any suggestions for a sticker that's worked for you? Or have you found the stickers don't do much?

I think the more visible you can make the putter face the better. I don't use stickers, but my putter is an Odyssey with a white insert, so I get face read on about 99% of my putts with no stickers.

I agree with cnosil that overhead lighting with a higher camera angle is probably best.

[cksurfdude]

3 hours ago, GolfSpy MPR said:

A more serious question for my fellow ExPutters: talk to me about the face stickers.

Had to double check - still have the original stickers on my gamer that came with the unit a few years ago!

This putter is all satin finish; the other one I use is all black. I think, or I guess .. stickers, or tape, could only help the unit distinguish the corners of the putter..?

Also have indirect, overhead lighting (still incandescent floods in the basement).

And my cam is at the higher end of the suggested range given the distance from it to the front of the mat.

Have not seen the newer version .. though would guess, again, the startup is similar in that it need to find the mat before you can proceed...

That part also gives you a chance to test cam positions and view on-screen how the mat is "seen" by the unit.

Oh, also - does the newer unit also give you an audible prompt when it "sees" a ball (meaning it's ready to measure)..?

[GolfSpy MPR]

On 4/22/2024 at 12:42 PM, cksurfdude said:

Oh, also - does the newer unit also give you an audible prompt when it "sees" a ball (meaning it's ready to measure)..?

Yes. A female voice says, "Ready" with enough upward inflection that it almost feels like a question. It bugs Kirke, especially when it happens more than once before he putts. I'm waiting for the right time to drop it on him on the course this summer.

On 4/22/2024 at 7:42 AM, cksurfdude said:

For me, even with all the other features, I also end up most of the time in Practice mode working on 20-50 footers.

I've been using practice at 5-30' for the most part; as I've written elsewhere, our greens are really tiny, and so that's the distance I really want to dial in.

I will say, one of my biggest eye-openers so far has been the 9 hole mode. I don't hit a lot of greens in regulation in real life, and it's very obvious that the only reason I don't average over 2 putts per hole is that I miss greens and I'm decent with my wedges.

I might start calling that mode "Scottie Scheffler mode" because you start realizing how hard it is mentally to hit every single green and have that many birdie looks, while (especially being me) making so few of them.

[cksurfdude]

5 hours ago, GolfSpy MPR said:

Yes. A female voice says, "Ready" with enough upward inflection that it almost feels like a question. It bugs Kirke, especially when it happens more than once before he putts. I'm waiting for the right time to drop it on him on the course this summer.

.

.

.

..still lol lmao 

 

Gonna try to drop that one in on @cnosil at the Kingsmill Outing!!!!

 

...

On the serious side, gonna spend more time on 20 footers .. based on my last few rounds the *average* first putt distance is a little over 20 (though obviously very few are actually -at- 20).

 

[gavinski91]

23 hours ago, GolfSpy MPR said:

Yes. A female voice says, "Ready" with enough upward inflection that it almost feels like a question. It bugs Kirke, especially when it happens more than once before he putts. I'm waiting for the right time to drop it on him on the course this summer.

I've been using practice at 5-30' for the most part; as I've written elsewhere, our greens are really tiny, and so that's the distance I really want to dial in.

I will say, one of my biggest eye-openers so far has been the 9 hole mode. I don't hit a lot of greens in regulation in real life, and it's very obvious that the only reason I don't average over 2 putts per hole is that I miss greens and I'm decent with my wedges.

I might start calling that mode "Scottie Scheffler mode" because you start realizing how hard it is mentally to hit every single green and have that many birdie looks, while (especially being me) making so few of them.

I'll use 9-hole mode if I'm playing with some friends, but I find it's not as useful because I can't read the greens the same as I would on the course. Just getting speed control and start line dialed in has been super useful, and I can get a little Bryson on the green and mentally adjust putt distances based on it being up or downhill.