2023 Official Member Review: PuttOUT Devil Ball

[GolfSpy_APH]

The PuttOUT Devil Ball is unlike any other golf ball. On second thought, scratch that. It isn’t a golf ball (or at least not by traditional definition). The Devil Ball has a unique design where one side of the ball has a straight edge. PuttOUT even puts a disclaimer on the packaging: “Devil Ball has been created as a putting training aid and should not be used with any other golf club!” You’ve been warned.

The purpose of the Devil Ball is simple: to provide feedback on your putter’s face angle at impact.

Follow our testers reviews and updates below!

Congratulations to our Testers!

@ejgaudette

@Micah T

@PingMD702

@TylorJudd

[ejgaudette]

Introduction

Lets get ready to get frustratedddddddd!

For those that don’t know me my name is Evan and I am a golfer from NH where I am currently looking a really cold temperatures, snow, and no golf for months to come. First off thanks to Putt Out for offering up this test. Of course, I also want to thank the MGS team for selecting me for this test. I know there are always tons of qualified applicants and being selected is always an honor. I was lucky enough to test the Epic Max LS driver a couple years back now, a club I still love and game, and I am excited for a new and interesting opportunity with the Devil Ball training aid.

I got into the game at 12 playing on a small local par 3 course with my dad, though there is a photo of my dad helping me swing at the age of 2 that made it into the local paper. It took some time, but I ended up loving the game. We would play almost every Saturday or Sunday morning each week at the crack of dawn. I was then lucky enough to make it onto my high school golf team for a couple years. After college, I got back into the game and found MGS, first from the tests and now for the amazing community. I love this game, I love being outside to play it, and this year I have a membership that should allow me to play even more this year.

For this test I pulled up my Shot Scope data to get some helpful information around my putting. Overall, putting is usually my strongest area of the game. I have solid pace control and make most everything from 4 feet and in, but the biggest area I struggle is making those mid-range, 10 to 20 foot putts. Of course, these are not going to be made at a super high rate, but as the stats below show it is a problem. Now on the anecdotal side it feels like I struggle to start the ball on line for these longer putts. On the short putts you obviously get a bit more tolerance before you miss so I think it just needs to be tightened up to give myself more of a chance to hole putts of this length.

Enter the Devil Ball, which is perfect for helping improve the face control when striking the putt. If you are pushing or pulling the ball it will exaggerate the miss. I found this visual helpful below, the yellow showing how much more offline this ball with go compared to a normal ball.

Given the snowy weather I will be working in the 3 to 6 foot range as suggested indoors in the coming months. My test for improvement is a 10 foot putt in my office and have been running 50 putt test lately to get my baseline. The goal will be to improve this indoor testing protocol before being able to get out and test this on the course, hopefully in March but probably April. There are three level as well to the Devil Ball that I look forward into testing more, but I will dive into that more after some testing and first impressions coming soon. I look forward to getting the test rolling (pun intended).

 

 

First Impressions (10 out of 10)

Always great when new equipment arrives at your door. For this package it is what you expect, a small box, two balls, and the alignment marker, but as we know with this one the devil is in the details. The box had some nice simple graphics and explanations.

 

 

I was able to get this set up in about 20 seconds, so set up time was not an issue. Straight away I need to give it a try even if the surface is not the best and the results were well, let’s just say to be expected.

 

 

From there I actually took the time to understand how the product can work, you know who reads the directions first. As many have mentioned there are three ways to set up the ball to make it easier or harder in practice (you know in case this some how gets super easy at some point). Aligning the cross toward you with the round side is easy, rolling the cross a bit toward the target with the flat side is medium, and he cross on top with just the flat side is the hard set up. The picture below lays it out probably more clearly than I can write it. The flatter the surface you hit on larger the reaction will be from the devil ball.

 

 

In my first session with this I focused on shorter putts, something I am normally pretty good at, and let’s just say it was a humbling, frustrating, exasperating, infuriating (I am out of words without pulling out a thesaurus) experience. I had my first round of putting with the devil ball and out of fifty 3 to 5 foot putts I made about 15 of them. In my baseline testing of 200 11-to-12-foot putts my make rate was 39%. So needless to say, in amplifies any mistakes in that start line even on short putts. After the round of putting with the devil ball I found the start line felt much better and more consistent. I was not able to collect any stats as I was a bit rushed for time but that is the testing expectation for myself. Long term that 200-putt test will be the final testing protocol to see how the numbers below shift.

| Make Rate | Miss Left | Miss Right |

|      39%       |    37%     |      24%      |

I would love to give more, but early on I think the beauty of this tool is the simplicity. An oddly shaped ball that makes faults easier to see and gives that feedback for you to improve. It is not technical just about building the skill to deliver the putter more consistently and squarer. From there I feel the stroke will self-organize a bit into something that is a bit more consistent even if not technically perfect. That really is it, and I think that makes it a powerful tool and one I look forward to working with in the coming weeks and months. Hopefully I will be making the putts from everywhere in the future making the hole feel this big.

 

 

 

 

Final Review

Aesthetics (18 out of 20) 

The Putt Out Devil ball is one of the simplest training aid out there. The two balls you receive are well put together and the alignment aid is a nice touch given how important lining up your ball is for working with the aid correctly. The Putt Out logo and alignment aids look great on the ball and while the ball is plastic it does not feel cheap of thrown together. As the materials note care was taken to make sure it weighs the same as a normal ball, so that really helps the feel and look of the ball. To hold both balls you are given a pouch which is made of a fine fabric with a drawstring that easily fits both balls and the alignment tool. The only reason I have deducted a few points in that I already have a could chips in the side of the ball after only these couple months of use. While this does not affect the usefulness of the tool, I would want something like this to hold up a bit better.

Practice makes…? (20 out of 20)

As with Putt Outs Pressure training aid, the Devil Ball is a tool that make practice more engaging. The immediate feedback of the tool veering off-line inspires one to want to really work on their stroke to make that not happen again. While the similar feedback might come from a putting gate, I think the novelty of it simply being a ball turns in more into a game that a gate had felt. More like trying to throw a wiffle ball, than toss a ball through a hoop. For me the wiffle ball is just more interesting since it can bounce and which way, and in the case of the Devil Ball still sometime come back on-line with a poor stroke which is fun.

I also think one thing that I was surprised with is that it also helped me with lining putts up. On the hard setting you are putting against a flat surface and so it is easy to see if your face is square, but this then it's easy to see that my body was not. This helped me focus on alignment with my body as well, which in turn helped me make a better stroke.

The final thing it really did was show me that my right hand likes to take over the stroke. Then when watching YouTube, I mean working with a trusted advisor, I found that putting my index fingers down the grip helped stop my right hand from taking over. Something that I am not sure I would have noticed without the exaggerated Devil Ball feedback. Overall, it really helped me dial in my stroke in more ways than one might have expected.

 

The Numbers (15 out of 20)

Everything up to this point has been nice, but as they say the devil is in the details, which comes right here. For my baseline I focused more on mid-range putting, the area I struggle with the most. I can lag putts pretty well and from about 5 feet and in I make a great percentage of them. As noted in my introduction I was using about a 11.5-inch putt with a make rate of 39% to start.  A little inflated to be sure since I can get used to the break and speed over time, even though I reset between each rep.

Throughout the testing I have outlined my make rate with the Devil ball from 5 feet on hard, the setting that best worked for me given that shorter putts are a strong suit already. With steady practice I moved the needle from 20% make rate to 80% in my last session of 20 putts, and even had one of these. This is a level of improvement I was not expecting, and it was great to see to work pay off. With not too much time commitment. I rolled on average about 60 putts a week in about 30 minutes total. Something I think most people can find the time for if they are looking to improve their putting.

To close out the testing I re-did my baseline and saw the make rate improve to 45%, a 6% improvement. While not earth-shattering numbers to be sure, adding them up over a season will result in quite a few more made putts, and some improved strokes gained numbers.

I will note that my test is not the best for this tool. It really seems to shine for helping to improve putting in the 8 foot and less range. I have been doing some smaller tests on this and have found that at 5 feet now I am able to make more like 90% of these, sometimes more. Of course this was already a strength of mine, but still a small improvement. For those who struggle with shorter putts, I think you would see bigger improvements in this area.

One final note is that I have not been able to test my stroke outside given where I live and I will happily update this and give credit where it is due, if I see more dramatic improvement on a real green on in my Shot Scope strokes gained numbers. I just know we can keep you all waiting that long.

Final Testing Results

| Make Rate | Miss Left | Miss Right |

|      46%       |    29%     |      25%      |

 

The Good, the bad, the in-between (13 out of 20)

This is the area where I think my biggest drawbacks to the Devil Ball will land. The biggest being how focused of a tool it is. While it helps with face control, and I found alignment as well, it really is going to help with shorter putting. Much longer than 8 feet and the variables in the green, and your green reading are likely to play a much bigger role and limit the improvement you see. Personally, short putting is a bit of a strength so a tool like this is good for a check in, but not one I would find myself using a lot now that testing is complete.

To make this work it is best you need a very flat surface, and as others have noted putting mats with a ramp can struggle as well. You can still know when you struck the putt way offline, but the close ones that might hold on are hard to review if your putting surface is not perfect. The tool is designed to exaggerate the miss, but it means you need to be sure you control just about everything else. In the long run it limits the functionality as I am not sure you could really take it to the course like a gate and set it up so that if you start it through the gate you’ll make a breaking putt as the ball will just roll offline. Still a great tool, just as with anything it can’t do it all.

 

Play it or Trade it? (6 out of 10)

For me I will keep and use the tool on occasion when my putting feels off as a check-in, but it is not something I will not find myself using all the time. It is a great tool to improve short putting and I anyone struggling with that area should give it a look. For me this is an area I am stronger at putting wise, so it has a bit less utility, but i know plenty of player would benefit from practicing with this tool. Finally, the need for a truly flat putting surface adds another layer of set up that can be tricky and will likely limit how often I take it out for practice.

 

Conclusion

I think the Devil Ball is a great tool for anyone looking to improve short putting. It is more fun, if a bit less versatile than a putting gate. It will give strong instant feedback and with a little bit of time each week it can really improve that area of your putting. If you are stronger on short putts having some gate drills, or using some tee pegs to set the up will probably suffice for checking in. If you want to improve you face control though I can't think of a more engaging and fun way to do it that with the Devil Ball.

 

Final Score (81 out of 100)

[Micah T]

What’s good spy fam?!

My name is Micah and I’m a golf ho. Shoes, clubs, shafts, balls, shirts, and hats: I’ve got way too much of it. Lucky for me, my wife is a golfer as well and understands my addiction. We live in Salt Lake City, Utah, and besides golf here in the valley, we play a lot in St. George, Utah and Las Vegas. I also love to cook and snowboard, and in years past, if the snow is good(like it is this year) the clubs go away for the winter.  That was the old me: but now at the ripe old age of 41, I’m far too obsessed with my golf game to leave it alone for the winter. 

I’ve been golfing since 2016, and arccos says I’m a .6 handicap. I feel more like an 2. And although I did break thru this season with half a dozen under par rounds, I’m still chasing that broke 70 badge. The first club I was professionally fit for was a putter, and since that day, I’ve been chasing gains in that part of my game.

I feel like I’m not a good putter for my handicap, and Arccos agrees. I miss far too many short putts.

Over the years I’ve tinkered quite extensively with my putting stroke. Moving the ball forward in my stance, standing more bent-over so my eyes are over the ball, etc.

Putting training aides? I’ve got a few. Those that are still in use include:

12 x 4 birdie ball mat

a 4 ft metal ruler

PuttOUT mirror & gate combo

I had a small meltdown with my putting confidence mid season this year, you can read that thread here.

While my putting did improve for the last part of the season, I know that in order to shoot in the 60’s, I must become a better putter.

And along comes the PuttOUT Devil Ball: 
    

    
Improve your start line and make more putts? Yes please! In my testing I’ll be looking for improved start line/more makes from my worst distances, mainly 6-9 ft. Although most of my testing will take place in my den on my birdie ball mat, you’ll also see some vids from the indoor studio @Street11 runs. And it just so happens I’m headed to Vegas in a week, so fingers crossed it’s warm enough to roll some outdoor putts there!

    First Impressions:

Box is nice, handy little pouch to keep these bad boys in, makes it easier to throw in the golf bag and take to the course. The balls themselves seem well-made, and to date I haven't noticed any cracks or peeling paint or fading markings. I really like the QR codes they put everywhere, including on the pouch! You can literally pull up a drill on your phone no matter where you are. And try the drills I did! Depending on what part of your technique is deficient, there's a drill you can use on their Youtube page.

My biggest issue with putting is starting my putts on my intended line: weirdly enough this usually affects putts that are pretty straight. My main practice tools I've used in the past are a 48 inch metal ruler that I try to roll the ball on the entirety of, and the PuttOUT gate which I primarily use as a warm-up before rounds. 

My practice with the Devil Ball consists of 30 putts: (make %)

10 4 ft putts on the hardest setting (90%)

10 6 ft putts on the hardest setting (40%)

10 9 ft putts on the hardest setting (20%)

If I'm doing this pre-round, I transition to a traditional ball and start lagging putts. At home in the lab(on my birdie ball mat) I tested my make percentage before and after practicing with the Devil Ball from the following lengths:

4ft       6ft       8ft        12ft

4ft: 9/10 before 10/10 after

6ft: 6/10 before 7/10 after

8ft: 7/10 before 7/10 after

12ft: 5/10 before 6/10 after

 

Very interested to see my make/miss percentage after 3 months of practicing 3 days a week. I played 4 times last week in Vegas, and didn't see a difference in my putting stats whatsoever. It'll be a few more months before I can test this at a course I'm familiar with and with green speeds I'm used to.
 

Final Review

Looks/aesthetics 20/20

Putt out makes solid training aids: this one is no different. Product is well made and should last quite some time. Normal wear and tear aside, this is a one-time purchase.

Practice/performance 18/20

This product does what it says it does: it gives instant feedback on your face alignment at impact.  As far as achieving this goal, I’d say the product has achieved perfection. Does getting this feedback improve your putting stroke? Results may vary, but my make percentage did improve notably. A noticeable positive side effect of the Devil ball is a better setup: with a flat side on the ball it is a lot easier to see that you’re misaligned. A noticeable negative side effect is hitting putts too hard: In an effort to get the devil ball rolling I’m noticing I’m hitting putts considerably firmer. Like a lot of other training aids, you get what you put into it. Is it frustrating? Incredibly. Ultimately, I think this training aid will improve your putting start line, which will help you make more putts.

The details 18/20

I wish I could’ve done more outdoor testing, but most of the mountain west got a lot of snow this winter. As of now, the devil ball will not replace my PuttOut gate as my pre-round warm-up: this device is too predicated on a completely flat putt. I posted some videos of this from my Vegas trip. Indoors, where you can control the variables is where the devil ball shines. If you struggle with putts inside of 8 feet, I can virtually assure you this will help you improve. And if you live somewhere where you can’t play year round, this device is great to practice with all winter long.

The Numbers 20/20

4ft       6ft       8ft        12ft

(675 attempts per length)

4ft: 90% before 98.4% after

6ft: 60% before 79.6% after

8ft: 70% before 74.3% after

12ft: 50% before 61.8% afterwards

By any measure, my improvement was considerable. Will it translate to the golf course? Can’t wait to find out!

Play it or trade it 10/20

I feel like I’m this device’s target audience: someone who struggles inside 8 ft. My main goal for ‘23 is to improve my make % from 6-9 ft. There’s no doubt the devil ball will help me here. If you’re putting woes lie elsewhere this may not be the tool for you; it can’t help you with speed or your green reading. For me it’s a must-keep, but for you?

Conclusion

Devil ball is a lot of fun: I love a new training tool tell help me in my obsessive pursuit of a scratch handicap. But if you have another PuttOut training aid, I’m not sure you need to rush out and pick this one up. I don’t think this is a tool to help you warm up pre-round either: it’s more of a one trick pony. But it preforms its one trick exceedingly well. 

Final Score 86/100

[PingMD702]

Hey Everyone! My name is Jordan and I, like all of you, are masochists when it comes to the game we all love and hate at the same time haha!

First things first! BIG SHOUTOUT to Putt Out for giving us the opportunity to test this product! I’ve been wanting to try this ever since they opened the tester slots! Of course, I cannot forget to thank the MGS team for giving me the opportunity to report my findings!

Here is a little about me, I am from Las Vegas and I’m really lucky to be able to play year-round. I always block off every Sunday to play 18 anywhere in the Las Vegas Valley. I have been golfing since I was 13 years old. At first, I did not take the game seriously and it was only after college that I started to fall in love again with golf. My current handicap is 6.3. I can confidently say that the WEAKEST part of my game is putting. I am one of those Bettinardi cult followers who always thinks changing putters would solve all my problems. (ABSOLUTELY WRONG! HAHA) I can wholeheartedly say that the “ITCH” is real when it comes to this crazy game! It’s something that I am constantly researching 24/7 on how to tinker or improve my game!

I will be using my Putt Out medium putting mat, premium pressure putt trainer, my trusty Bettinardi Inovai Wizard 8.0 putter & Bettinardi Inovai 6.5 tour prototype, and Titleist ProV1x for this heads-up match with the Devil Ball. When it comes to putting, my miss is usually a push. I believe that it’s due to the fact that the face is open at impact and I don’t have enough to hang on my putter. So to test my hypothesis, I will be using two putters, one with 1/8 toe hang (8.0) vs one with 1/4 toe hang (6.5). I will conduct my testing by using the different putting drills offered by Putt Out. These drills will be conducted indoors as well as outdoor putting green. I excited to report my findings to the MGS fam and hopefully, along the way, my putting will improve, even if it’s just slightly HAHAHA!

 

                     

FIRST IMPRESSIONS (9/10)

           

As a devout disciple of PuttOut training aids, they definitely do not disappoint. The quality of their product is consistent with the products I have grown to love over the years. From the unboxing to getting the Devil Ball in play whether it be indoors or outdoors (for my fellow desert golfers!), you can feel how premium the Devil Ball truly is! What I truly like about the Devil Ball is the portability factor of it. It comes with a handy dandy traveling pouch where it fits the 2 Devil Balls and alignment puck. I also find it convenient that the tag of the pouch has the QR code that will give you access to all of PuttOut's recommended putting drills. This is definitely something I can see myself bringing to the course or on those weekend golf trips to make myself feel even worse about my putting HAHA! 

The first thing that stood to me was the weight of the Devil Ball, the best way to describe it felt like mini medicine balls that provide instantaneous feedback upon impact. Me being the overconfident putter I am decided to start on the hardest setting. As I have eluded to before, the Devil Ball definitely makes me question how could have I ever thought I was a decent putter. I did 20 putts from 4 feet on the Pro setting, and it was a consistent pull. Every miss hit was accompanied by a firm thud in terms of feel off my putter face. My normal miss is push but I am intrigued as to why I pulled about 66% of my putts with this. At this point in my testing, I felt the Pressure Putt Trainer wasn't necessary since I couldn't hold my target line. I proceeded to do another 20 putts on the intermediate and beginner settings. I noticed a slight improvement in the strike and feel as progress to the beginner setting. After 60 putts with the Devil Ball, I can safely say it's making me second-guess my putting ability but in a good way. As with anything new, with constant repetition, I can hopefully not pull putts on the pro setting HAHA! I am excited to report back my findings as the weeks/months go by! 

FINAL REVIEW

AESTHETICS (20/20)

The Putt Out Devil ball is by far the most portable of the putting training aids I have owned. The travel case provided does not take up too much space in the bag and is well-made. The alignment disc and 2 training balls have sustained several putts every day and are still holding strong! This is definitely a GO in terms of durability!

 

PRACTICE/PERFORMANCE (12/20)

My initial impression of the Putt Out Devil ball has remained consistent throughout testing. This is one training aid that will definitely bring you down to earth if you think you’re a decent putter. Prior to testing this, I considered my putting ability to be the weakest part of my game. I’m not going to lie, I definitely lost confidence after the first 150 putts (50 with each difficulty level) with the Devil Ball. Even though the majority of putts with the Devil Ball were all over the place, slowly but surely I started to regain confidence in my stroke. It all boils down to how determined you are to improve your putting. This training aid will definitely test your patience but if you persevere through the rough patches, I believe you’ll be better off in the long run.

 

THE NUMBERS (20/20)

While I did lose confidence in putting, the varying difficulties provided by the Devil Ball, showed me something GLARING with my putting stroke! My push miss was consistent regardless of the difficulty level. I tend to struggle with scoring putts (less than 10 ft) and even though my push miss remained, it forced me to rethink my set-up, grip, etc. It was only by making changes minor tweaks to the mechanics of my stroke I was able to see a slight improvement (better than nothing HAHA!). My putts 10 ft and less were starting to roll better and on target. I did notice that there was some translation to the course as well. When I miss putts on the course, I am now able to pinpoint where the mistake is. Off-center strikes with the Devil Ball punish you with the putter version of a slice, and when I push putts, I at least understand now what I need to dial in more. After 600 putts (200 per difficulty level) at the various drill distances recommended by Putt Out as well as the stroke change, I noticed an upward trend. Prior to using the Devil Ball, I would drop 50% of my putts from less than 10 ft. After using the Devil Ball, I am happy to see my drop percentage jump up to 65%. Though it may not seem a lot, I have definitely saved a few 3 putts in the rounds I have played because of the Devil Ball. I feel the more time I get with the Devil Ball, I can only hope I can achieve a 75 to 80 % drop rate!

 

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE IN-BETWEEN (15/20)

I can wholeheartedly say that the Devil Ball literally changed my approach to putting. With that said, to say that this is a VERY FRUSTRATING training aid would be an understatement. After seeing my putts look like slices on the ground, I felt I needed to adapt to the Devil Ball in order to achieve its true benefit. For someone who originally started putting left-handed to switching back to a full righty, my putting mechanics are all over the place. So I consider this a blessing in disguise since I needed to really analyze everything when it comes to putting. Even though I improved by 15% on my less than 10 ft putts, I feel this is could target a specific demographic of golfers. I also believe that even though the feedback is instantaneous and exactly what you would expect from a training aid, it could be demoralizing for some. Then again, its definitely on the golfer to push past this particular roadblock. Even though it sounds so cliche, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard”, and the Devil Ball definitely pushed me in the right direction!

 

PLAY IT OR TRADE IT (6/10)

I can confidently say I will be keeping this for the sole reason that it is putting me on the right path to being a better putter! Scoring opportunities from less than 10 ft are something I must continuously work on in order to drop my scores even more! This will be my go-to training aid to build my confidence that I can drop the 10-footers for birdie consistently!

 

CONCLUSION

The best word to describe the Devil Ball is a roller coaster HAHAH! The constant up and downs while using this lit a fire under me to start from scratch and lock in! Even though I felt determined to conquer the Devil Ball, it may not be for some. However, if you struggle with putts less than 10 feet like myself, its to jump on the ROLLER COASTER and enjoy the RIDE!

 

FINAL SCORE 82/100

[TylorJudd]

Practice makes perfect putts.... Ya? 

Hi everyone. My name is Tylor. I was told it was between Tyler and Zach and somehow ended up on Tyler with an "o".... I'm from beautiful BC, up north for most of you. For those in Canada, chances are it's warmer here than where you are but courses are closed here and indoor practice is what we have so a large shout out to PuttOut and MGS for an excuse to golf at home  

Golf was something I got into around 6 or 7. My dad was part of a big tournament that happened here annually in Penticton called the Andy Moog Invitational that I would caddy for him. I was always putting around and hitting balls, sometimes I got to be the best ball for the team when they were too hammered. Either way, my dad got me clubs and this passion was born. In 2003, at the age of 13, I got my first set of legitimate clubs, part of which were Cleveland TA7 irons that I game to this day, and are currently being re shafted in my spare room turned workshop Haha. Armed with my Cobra Draw Driver, Steelhead 3 wood, Cobra Baffler 7 wood, shiny irons, a Mizuno sand wedge and a Dunlop putter, I began my focus to destroy the turf. I played for my high school team on a local tour throughout the Okanagan Valley and Shuswap. I got myself down to a 4 handicap around 20 years old then golf became a drinking outing with my buddies and my golfing game suffered a bit. I didn't play golf from 2018 until spring 2022 as there was a house purchase, a master's degree, and a dog thrown into Covid so golf became a distant thought. My clubs actually sat outside in all-weather without a cover! 

My reasoning for picking golf back up are fairly personal and probably not all that appropriate for the forum, although I have no issue speaking about it, so fast forward to now, my clubs are being refit and I'm playing weekly. I'm back to a 6.3 index currently. I've pulled some info from 18 Birdies for my putting. With my par average a little high, putts per hole at 1.9, and GIR a touch low I really want to see if this devil ball has that capability to dial in my putting.  

I plan to use the PuttOut Pressure Trainer, PuttOut Gates, WellPut 1st 10' mat, and an Odyssey 2 Ball Ten Stroke Lab will be my weapon of choice. I expect my putting will be brought to reality as I think I'm a fairly decent putter. I intend to perform the well putt drills without the devil ball to create a baseline from 1, 3, 4, 6, and 10'. Then use the devil ball for those same drills, and finally use a golf ball again. My ball of choice is a ProV1 x.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

At least I’m Pretty on the inside! Category is...First Impressions (8/10) 

It showed up in a cardboard bag so it was only uphill from there! Like all PuttOut products, they are packaged nicely. Very straightforward, 2 devil balls, an alignment market, and a nice little pouch to hold it all in. The balls are heavier than anticipated and look very stoutly built. The alignment marker is quite nice, USGA legal, and has nice spikes on the bottom, like the pressure trainer if you're familiar, to keep it firmly in place. Obviously the first thing you do is drop these down on the mat and try them out. As you can see in the photos, I've decided to perform the tests with both my Odyssey 2 Ball 10 Stroke Lab and Cleveland Classic 1. I want to see if there are differences in how a toe hang putter performs with it versus a High MOI mallet. From some initial testing that seems plausible. Using it on the WellPut 1 mat, it is difficult to have it sit on its axis square relative to your cross-line guide. You can achieve this by placing the flat side down, but defeats some of the other features. I had my wife try it out as well, to see the differences between a 30 handicap and a 6. In these first impressions, I couldn't get it to make a significant difference after 50 or so putts from 3, 6, and 7.2'. The box states it exaggerates your face angle at impact, and I will agree with that, but after going back to the Pro V1x, there didn't seem to be a difference. As of yet, I can't see this being of much use for A) a bigger, stable putter with a back-and-forth stroke B) mid to low handicappers (unless you're a scratch golfer who 3 putts each hole....) Or C) those looking for serious offseason maintenance. If something significant happens to your putting confidence then I can see how it could be a place to start to try and track down a culprit for your shaky putting all of a sudden. I'll begin to it through some places now but overall, underwhelming is the only way to "putt" it. 

A 10 at 2am, or a 2 at 10am? Category is...Aesthics (18/20) 

I believe this is something PuttOut does very well. All 3 of the products I have are attractive to look at and are made of nice materials. Everything seems well built, the devil ball holds up to what feels like a thousand putts after this review, it has no problem going up the Pressure Trainer multiple times, or hitting the odd chip with for fun! The small bag it come with will provide more than enough protection when you throw it in your bag for later, which is nice that it is so portable. They even put a nice detail on the bottom of the ball marker with its small spikes to keep it firmly in place. The only place I can knock this in this category is the instructions. They are just marketing crap on the side of the box, which is nice of course, and they don’t even have the instructions on which side is easy, normal, or hard. Those you have to find on their website, and I’m just not a fan of having to go find that. If they had a QR code on the box that was a direct link to the instructions, I would have given this category a 20/20. 

 

But how much can you bench bro? Category is... The numbers (20/20) 

I performed this portion 3’ from the pressure trainer, and the PuttOut Gates (M & S) at 12” from the ball. All tests were done with fresh Pro V1x’s. I started with 20 putts with the Pro V1x and the medium gate, then 20 putts with the small gate, then 20 putts each with the devil ball through the medium and small gate. Then 20 putts again with the Pro V1x through the medium and small gate. Of the 6 categories above, a total of 100 maximum points is achievable.  

I gave each result a point total based on the following: 

1 Point for a miss 

2 Points for hitting the gate but going through 

3 Points for getting through the gate clean 

4 points for getting onto the Pressure Trainer 

5 Points for a Perfect Put 

I performed this sequence several times and the results I have are the averages from all of the completed runs through the test. 

Small Gate 

Pro V1x, Before Devil Ball: 56/100 

Devil Ball: 54/100 

Pro V1x, After Devil Ball: 88/100 

Differential: +32% 

Medium Gate 

Pro V1x, Before Devil Ball: 80/100 

Devil Ball: 57/100 

Pro V1x, After Devil Ball: 88/100 

Differential: +8% 

Note: Large gate was not performed as I did not see it being an effective test at my skill level.  

I can’t refute the numbers on this. I was tighter, and better, after using the devil ball. It gives you the ability to see how to fix your stroke, and how that should feel, to keep your face squarer at impact.one thing for sure, your back will hate you sitting over these many putts.  

Medium Gate  

Pro V1x 

9 (Perfect Putts at 5 points)

9 (On the Pressure Trainer 4 points)

0 (Through the gate 3 Points)

2  (Hit the Gate and through 2 Points)

0 (Miss entirely 1 Point)

80/100 

80% 

 

 

Medium Gate Devil Ball 

0 (Perfect Putts at 5 points)

4  (On the Pressure Trainer 4 points)

9 (Through the gate 3 Points)

4 (Hit the Gate and through 2 Points)

2 (Miss entirely 1 Point)

57/100 

57% 

-23% 

 

Medium Gate 

After DB 

10 (Perfect Putts at 5 points)

9 (On the Pressure Trainer 4 points)

0 (Through the gate 3 Points)

1 (Hit the Gate and through 2 Points)

0 (Miss entirely 1 Point)

88/100 

88% 

+8% 

 

Small Gate  

Pro V1x 

2 (Perfect Putts at 5 points)

5 (On the Pressure Trainer 4 points)

0 (Through the gate 3 Points)

13 (Hit the Gate and through 2 Points)

0 (Miss entirely 1 Point)

56/100 

56% 

 

 

Small Gate Devil Ball 

1 (Perfect Putts at 5 points)

5 (On the Pressure Trainer 4 points)

1  (Through the gate 3 Points)

12 (Hit the Gate and through 2 Points)

2 (Miss entirely 1 Point)

54/100 

54% 

-2% 

 

Small Gate 

After DB 

12 (Perfect Putts at 5 points)

6 (On the Pressure Trainer 4 points)

0 (Through the gate 3 Points)

2 (Hit the Gate and through 2 Points)

0 (Miss entirely 1 Point)

88/100 

88% 

+32% 

You hit how many putts? Category is... Practice makes??? (11/20) 

So, the devil ball gets points here because it works, it works so well to the point where you can get pretty damn frustrated and tired of it. That in itself, lends to the mindset that it’s not a fun training aid. It becomes tedious and monotonous quite quickly, and easily found myself not wanting to touch it for maybe a week at a time. It does one singular task, and doesn’t deviate from that objective at all. Some days it feels like you have Tiger Vision on, and others feel like a 65 footer to save bogey. It all comes down to one thing, how fast you find the appropriate alteration to your stroke and if you find it before a mental monster emerges. It is fairly unfortunate how long it takes to set up one putt, it can bring time to a standstill. I found the alignment aids on the devil ball nice, especially when paired with a WellPutt One mat. The flipside of that though, it makes the alignment marker a little more useless. You can use the marker on the course legally, but again if you putt with the line of your ball rolling towards your target end over end, then it serves little purpose. 

 

Please Putt Responsibly! Category is... The good, bad, and between (15/20) 

The devil ball does many things well and its Pros list is larger than the cons. To highlight some key areas of success: 

Well Built with a good accessory offering 

It lets you know how square your face is. Period. 

It is compatible with other PuttOut Training aids. 

Dogs can’t destroy it! (But can swallow it so please putt without paws present) 

It fits anywhere you can think of (Get your mind out of the gutter) 

You can use this before a round and get the dialed feeling in before you hit the links. 

Key areas of Improvement: 

Even though this is a graciously supplied test, the price point doesn’t seem justified to me. ~$60 CAD. I don’t know why 2 come in the package, so maybe they could split that up into a cheaper price point. 

It isn’t fun. Period. You think of all these crazy wild putts going all over the place and that’s the reality. It’s much more subtle.  

It takes a lot of time to dedicate to. You need at least an hour to practice with this and sometimes that is tough to carve out. 

A more intuitive alignment aid, one that might lock into the ball to ensure proper set up. 

 

 

Should I pick Joel Dahmen to win the Masters? Category is... Play it or Trade it (7/10) 

Overall, this aid has a small place in our bags. It takes up little space and can give you that little inside track to better putting either after a 40 putt round or before an 18 putt round. It’s nice to have, that’s it. It is in no way the best training aid I have ever come across, but it isn’t a slouch either. This is complete player preference but I won’t use it every day. I’ll probably use this as a nice little aid to keep sharp through the winter. I do think this product is tailored to those 15-30 handicap, maybe 10, and that’s a soft 5 on that 10 handicap.  

 

 

The 19th on Sunday afternoon. Category is... Conclusion (80/100) 

It has been an uphill, both ways, in 2’ of snow kind of experience. It was hard to set up, it was hard to use, and it’s hard practice. But it works, kind of like Buckley’s. It’s a good product that has benefit. But don’t take my words for it, go get a devil ball, or don’t. I’m not your caddie.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 6 by TylorJudd

[GolfSpy BOS]

Congrats to our testers!  I hope you all enjoy sharpening your putting skills this winter!  I know that I use my PuttOUT trainer daily and think adding the Devil Ball to the mix could be a great way to keep those putting skills sharp.  Looking forward to your thoughts on this!

[GolfSpy SAM]

Congrats testers! Excited to see just how frustrated --- I MEAN A BETTER GOLFER --- this makes you

[EasyPutter]

  Congratulations Testers!!!  

Looking forward to how this Devil Ball works for you @ejgaudette @Micah T @PingMD702 and @TylorJudd !!!

[Getoffmylawn]

Congrats fellas!

[Golf2Much]

Congratulations testers!  Looking forward to getting your insight on this product.

[Lacassem]

Congrats testers!

[cnosil]

Congrats everyone.   Been testing one out for a couple of weeks and it will be interesting to see what the official testers think.

[sirchunksalot]

Congratulations testers! PuttOut makes some great training aids and I can't wait to see if this Devil Ball helps your putting. 

[rkj427]

Congrats. to those chosen for this test and I will be very interested in the training practice and reviews.

[fixyurdivot]

A good foursome right there .

[Rtracymog]

Congrats testers! Looking forward to seeing the results!

[ejgaudette]

Thanks everyone and now to see if I am a decent putter or not, I like to think so but I am pretty sure this product will not leave me any places to hide.

[Nolan220]

On 12/2/2022 at 5:57 AM, GolfSpy_APH said:

The PuttOUT Devil Ball is unlike any other golf ball. On second thought, scratch that. It isn’t a golf ball (or at least not by traditional definition). The Devil Ball has a unique design where one side of the ball has a straight edge. PuttOUT even puts a disclaimer on the packaging: “Devil Ball has been created as a putting training aid and should not be used with any other golf club!” You’ve been warned.

The purpose of the Devil Ball is simple: to provide feedback on your putter’s face angle at impact.

Follow our testers reviews and updates below!

Congratulations to our Testers!

@ejgaudette

@Micah T

@PingMD702

@TylorJudd

Congrats testers ! can't wait to see the results 

[golfinnut]

Congrats to the testers!   I'll be an interested follower.  Have to know if these work or not.  Anything to help my dismal putting woes  

[Nunfa0]

Congrats guys, have fun driving yourselves crazy with this one