PUTTING MATS

While you may think all putting mats are created equal, there are many factors a golfer should consider before taking the plunge, from price and size, to speed and the number of different features a product offers.

- Sam De'Ath

It’s nearly impossible to test a putting mat before purchase, so we’ve done all the hard work for you. Here is our verdict from our recent testing of seven different putting mats across the price spectrum...

Most realistic

Replicating what you experience on the golf course is what we really all want from a practice putting mat. Of course, the true golf course environment is incredibly hard to reproduce in your home or office, but many of the best mats have done a great job of mimicking course conditions, all from the comfort of your own home.

One such option is the Prime Putt putting mat. It’s made from a synthetic nylon turf that most closely resembles what it’s like to putt on a real green, and the fact there are no markers or alignment tools on the mat at all means that the visual stimulus is identical to the one you’d experience on a real green. There are three holes in total on the mat, all of which closely resemble a real-life hole in that they will lip the ball out if you deliver it with too much pace.

The variety of holes also allows you to mix up your target, something not all other mats can offer. Taylor Montgomery, top-ranked for ‘strokes gained: putting’ on the PGA Tour, uses this mat, so that’s an impressive endorsement that should hammer home the quality of the product. That said, such quality does come at a price, and it can stretch to over £500 depending on what size you buy.

Good though this mat is, the existence of the PuttOut AirBreak makes it nearly obsolete if you’re looking to recreate real-life putts at home. Like the Prime Putt, it has no markings, but goes a step further by letting you practise breaking putts. Around 80% of putts we face have some break, so why not practise with a tool that enables you to mimic them? It does this via eight air pockets accessed via pumps and valves that add or take away air to give a gradient to the putting surface.