With various golf putting aids on the market, there’s no reason why you can’t work more on your putting game—the best way to get your handicap down.
For whatever reason, putting doesn’t get practised nearly enough as it should, but that should all be changing with an increasing number of quality golf putting aids entering the market.
In this article, we’ll look at a selection of our favourites.
The best golf putting aids
1. PuttOUT Premium Pressure Putt Trainer
RRP: £29.99
This is a clever piece of kit as it replicates what is needed to hole a putt. There is a micro-target within the ramp that can be pressed down, and the ball will only stick in the target when you’ve hit a putt with the perfect speed.
Most of your time will likely be spent with the ball rolling back to you—for holed putts, the ball will return to you at the same distance it would have gone past the hole. Hopefully, less of your time will be spent watching your ball ‘lip out’, when a putt rolls over the side of the ramp. This happens when a putt is hit with either a bad line or a poor pace.
There are also several options to vary your practice with three dots on the base set up for target precision.
2. Perfect Practice Putting Mat
RRP: £129.99
You might already be familiar with this product as it’s endorsed by none other than Dustin Johnson.
This is a high-quality offering with alignment guides, and it will return your ball to you should you hole the putt. It will work on any surface, and the alignment guides will help you to understand what’s happening with your start lines and—given that most putters come with alignment lines—you’ll get plenty of feedback on your stroke.
There are two holes so you can narrow your focus, so when you head out onto the course, the hole will look a lot bigger. The mat comes in different sizes and configurations; simply roll it out, and it’s ready for use straight away.
3. PuttOUT Mirror Trainer With Gates
RRP: £49.99
There are various mirror training aids on the market to help with your stroke and eye-line, but this is a great catch-all product. The mirror and alignment guides help get your body and stroke in the right positions, and the 50mm putting gate allows for a face angle tolerance of 0.5˚ either way when placed one foot away, to encourage a correct start line.
Its spiked base allows for stable use anywhere. The magnetic barriers help build a consistent stroke path and are adjustable so you can build your stroke.
4. Breaking Ball Putting Mat
RRP: £99.99
Most golf putting aids don’t give you much chance to understand your tendencies on breaking putts. However, this one from Me And My Golf duo Piers Ward and Andy Proudman involves three breaking balls and a putting mat.
The balls (green, red and blue) are weighted differently to reflect varying levels of break, and it’s easy to grasp how they work. If the screw is on the right, the ball will break that way. And you can choose from three different lengths of mat, from 7.5ft to 14ft, so wherever your weaknesses on the greens might lie, you can practice it. The balls aren’t clicky, and it will teach you plenty about your start lines and pace, too.
5. PuttOUT Devil Balls
RRP: £24.99
As the name suggests, this putting aid will play havoc with mishit putts. This exaggerates the face angle of your putter at impact, so you soon appreciate whether you’re coming into a putt too open or too closed. Up to 90% of a putt’s start direction is dictated by the face angle delivered, so it’s crucial that you get this right.
It features a flat-edged impact zone, and there are three difficulty levels for you to get the ball to roll properly. This is particularly good for putts from six feet and in. Putts with the Devil Ball are twice as hard as a normal ball, so if there’s a kink in your stroke, it will find it out. Brilliant, immediate feedback on your putting.
6. Anywhere Golf Hole
RRP: £30.00
Things don’t have to be overly complicated to practice your putting. This silicone putting aid has a slight incline, meaning you’ll need to hit a putt with perfect speed to see the ball finish up in the hole.
So, you can just throw it down and hit putts to different parts of the green (or your carpet).
7. Ghost Hole
RRP: £15.00
This is a firm favourite with many putting coaches and is a simple and great way to understand your greens at your home club. It’s a lightweight circular disc, the same size as a golf hole, with eight entry zones, like a clock face, giving you a great view of where the ball is going and what gives you your best chance of holing a putt.
