Putt for the dough? I’d have gone broke recently! I was on the lookout for a solution. It sounds simple enough, get a putting mat, roll a few putts at home, build confidence, take it to the course and show the results there.. But as with most things in golf, the reality is a little more complicated.
Like many golfers, my relationship with putting has gone through phases. When I first started, it was predictably erratic. Then, over time, it became one of the stronger parts of my game, particularly when my long game was struggling, I leaned on my putting. I became the kind of player who was often putting for a single point and walking away satisfied. I was at one stage, what you might call a clutch putter.
Then things changed. A (long) dip in form led me to switch from a blade to a mallet putter. I went through a proper fitting at PXG, found something that suited my stroke, and for a while, it felt like the late summer, my partner and I took a joint putting lesson. His struggles? Fixed. Mine? Not so much.
That’s when I turned to a putting mat. The idea was simple .Practise every day, build consistency, sharpen up. In reality, practising daily proved harder than expected. Life gets in the way, and motivation isn’t always there, especially when you’re rolling putts across the same strip of carpet night after night.
But when I did practise, there were clear benefits. A putting mat gives you consistency. The same line, the same pace, the same environment. And that repetition does start to ingrain certain habits, particularly around strike and distance control.
On that front, I saw real improvement. My ability to judge pace over short distances became noticeably better. But there’s an obvious catch. A putting mat is controlled, a golf course isn’t.
Out on the course, you’re dealing with slopes, grain, subtle breaks, changing green speeds, pressure, and context. A perfectly flat mat can’t recreate that. And that’s where the limitation lies. If you rely solely on a mat, you risk becoming good at one very specific type of putt and not much else.
But, all was not a waste of time! Because I did see some progress and the biggest change was inside six feet. Those are the putts that used to cause me problems, the ones you feel you should make, but don’t always. The frustrating misses from four or five feet. Even the occasional wobble from two, which had become more than occasional.
After consistent practice on the mat, those putts started to feel far more comfortable. The repetition builds confidence, and confidence is everything at that range. Six feet and in, I’m now noticeably more reliable. And that matters. Because those are the putts where you can leak shots.
Over the past year, I haven’t been a member at a single club. Instead, I’ve played across a variety of courses. While that’s been great for the overall game, forcing me to think more, adapt more, and rely less on familiarity, it’s also made putting more challenging. When you’re not seeing the same surfaces week in, week out, it’s harder to build that intuitive feel. And no amount of time on a flat mat at home can replace that experience.
It might seem like I think the putting mat isn’t worth it, I love the training aid so I do, but with a caveat. If your issue is confidence from short range, a putting mat is a brilliant tool. It builds repetition, sharpens your stroke, and helps eliminate those costly short misses.
But it won’t fix everything like reading a green, changing conditions and it won’t replicate the pressure of standing over a putt that matters. For that, you still need time on real greens.
The real test came recently. After several putts stopped short by 2 inches, an important putt hovered on the edge of the hole, one of those moments that seemed to last forever, before finally dropping after 5 seconds. A small win, maybe. But an important one.
Because not long ago, that same putt would have sailed past the hole by four inches. And that’s the thing with putting. Improvement isn’t always dramatic, it’s incremental and subtle. Sometimes almost invisible. Until they start dropping.
