The Best Equipment to Practice Golf at Home
I’ve been stuck at home for the past three weeks. Naturally, I'm very concerned with what is going on in the world, and I’ve found I need a way to escape. Typically, my family, golf, and biking are my outlets. My family makes me smile, they provide me with love. Golf provides me with peace, quiet and a place I can be with my own thoughts. The same with biking.
The trails around me have been closed; and, luckily, I have had plenty of time with my family. Early on, I found focusing on improving my golf game would help me get in a good headspace. I have been focused on golf fitness drills that I learn from Ben Pignone at home and have even done some instruction with Brian Spitz through Hudl.
Here are the things I’m using at home:
TrueBridie Golf Mat
I originally tried to buy the PuttOut Pro Golfing Mat, but it was sold out. In the end, I did some research and eventually went with the TrueBirdie Mat. Currently, these all seem to be sold out, so you may want to check out ExPutt.
Judging by the number of mats that have been sold out recently, I would predict that we will see a huge improvement in putting this season from golfers around the world.
PuttOut Pressure Putt Trainer
I’ve tried a number of indoor putting holes. The TrueBirdie mat comes with one, but they all fall short in actual simulation of how a ball rolls into the hole. The PuttOut Trainer is one of the best pieces of golf equipment to use at home on the market. It was built to return the ball to you when you make a putt, and the ball will roll to the side when you don’t. Also, when you make a putt, the ball rolls exactly the distance back to you that it would have rolled if you missed the putt.
Practicing putting at home will help you work on two of the three dimensions of putting: distance control and hitting the putt straight. It’s difficult, impossible maybe, to practice reading greens at home.
Dave Pelz Putting Trainer
Along with the PuttOut trainer, The Dave Pelz Putting Trainer is also one of the better pieces of equipment. As I mentioned before, putting is three dimensional - reading greens, distance control, and picking a line. The Dave Pelz trainer will help you with hitting your ball starting out on a straight line. If you’ve ever practiced putting by placing the ball on a straight line, then you know how difficult it is.
If you don’t feel like purchasing this, you can put two tees in the ground or use a ruler on the ground to start your putts out on. The last two summers I used tees when I was practicing on putting greens but it was a pain to set up. I couldn’t do that indoors.
The Dave Pelz trainer also helps with set up and alignment. I’m sure I have not even scratched the surface of all the potential there is to learn from this tool.
Chipping Practice
I don't have 300 yards of field in my backyard. Heck, I hardly have 50 yards, so I won’t be working on my driving or any ball striking. For chipping, I’ve been using a mat, and sticking alignment sticks in the ground. I try to land the ball near the alignment sticks. When I went out earlier this year with Brian, he had pointed out that my chipping form needed work. I’ve been less focused on accuracy and more focused on getting the motion right and hitting the ball so it lands “softer.”
Hitting Mat
This is the mat I use, it's by Callaway. I like it. I don’t love it. I’d recommend trying to find something bigger. It’s good because it forces you to strike the ball first; but, I’m always concerned when I’m hitting on pavement. TBD if I’ll try to buy something else for this in the future.
Ball Striking
Hitting Net - I have no solution currently for this, but may in the future.
Plastic Balls - I have the tiny wiffle balls, but I ordered the Skillz impact balls. I have no comment on this, except that I’ve had trouble in the past with plastic balls. These balls looked as if they would hold up the best against strong impact.
Phi Golf (TESTING) at home simulator
I finally pulled the plug on the Phi Golf system. After watching reviews online, it's clear that it won’t be nearly as accurate as one of the $500 units and nowhere close to GC2 Quad, and Trackman, but on a budget it seems good. The sensor attaches to the end of your club, they also have a stick that comes with it.
I’ll be doing a full write up on this once I test. Based on the reviews on YouTube, this seems like a good option for those looking to spend less than $500.
After Playing with Phi Golf for a couple of days, I ended up returning it. I found it to be pretty accurate, when I drive to swing too hard it sliced, and my drives were going 250 to 270 years which is what I normally hit the ball. What I didn’t like was the chipping could be finicky. Under 20 yards probably just takes some getting used to, but I had holes where I got up to the green in 2, and then hit the ball over the green 5 times. I also had trouble on chips getting the computer to register the hit, which made it all the more frustrating. The challenge I had was addressing the ball, the computer wouldn’t always realize when I was addressing the ball.
Overview
The golf equipment I’ve bought for home is mostly focused on short games and putting. My focus when at home has been:
Fitness
Putting
Chipping
Ball Striking
With these things in mind, as well as at home practice golf equipment, I can work on the weaknesses in my game. I think through short game work, I will see strokes gained on the course.