 |
| The
3 metre version of LinksPutt |
"The
fun bit, and that which will make practice more challenging,
engaging and realistic, is the contouring" |
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| Exhibition
at the Barclays Scottish Open |
Product review - LinksPutt
by Equipment reviewer, James McNally
Any golfer who has kept an honest record of the number of putts they take in round, will be only too aware of how vital good putting is to good scoring. The leading players in the world are invariably in the top echelons of the putting stats.
So how is that amateurs generally spend so little time practising their putting? One of the main reasons is limited accessibility of good practice facilities. If you don't live near your course, and your local range doesn't have a putting green (which few do), it's going to be difficult. The winter months make it almost impossible, with the natural fall in surface quality on greens and lack of daylight conspiring to make the these months a "long-game-only" period.
The living room carpet or a basic putting mat is the next option, which is alright for short straight putts, but no preparation for the undulations found on a real course.
Premium Golf first heard of LinksPutt when it was exhibited at the Barclays Scottish Open in July 2004 where spectators and pros alike tried it out - and we were impressed.
Graham Gibbons, the man behind LinksPutt, told us that the concept in mind during design stages was to create a fully contourable and portable putting green for indoor practice. This has been achieved by three key features.
The actual surface is made of a polyproylene fibre rolling the ball at over 9 on the stimp rating, which is slick but in keeping with the most good British courses.
The surface matting is supported by interlocking, lightweight EPP (expanded polylropylene) panels providing a smooth but portable base - the whole unit weighs only 15kg, which is pretty impressive considering it is 3 metres long by 0.75 metres across.
Changing the contours took the finest brains at Premium Golf a few minutes to work out, but once you get the hang of it, you can swap from a Sandy Lyle Masters-winning putt, to a Sam Torrance Ryder Cup winning putt in about a minute.
Teaching pros around the country have been installing the LinksPutt into their indoor teaching centres to improve their facilities for putting lessons, but their pupils have been putting them into their homes as well.
Linksputt is available in 3,4 and 5 metre versions priced at £225, £275 and £315 respectively and this includes delivery.
Verdict: if you want to hone your putting skills any time of the year (and you've got the space), it's well worth getting one.