Consistent putting is arguably the fastest way to lower your scores and while there is technically no ‘right’ way to putt, there is a general consensus on the fundamentals of putting. Like the regular golf swing, the faster you build a consistent and repeatable stroke the faster you’ll see better results. Now there are tons of putting aids on the market today but there’s one out there that’s a little different. Recently THP tested out the Edge Putting Rail from Eyeline golf which says that you can build yourself a better putting stroke with. Did it do the job for me? Check it out.
From the Company
- Provides instant feedback on several putting flaws
- 5x the weight of a normal golf ball
- Eliminate a decelerating stroke
- Immediately know where you mis-hit on the putter face
- Places all your focus on a solid hit
- Keeps all your muscles in motion (no popping or deceleration)
Did You Know?
The Ball of Steel is made for putts of less than 6 feet. Attempting to hit longer putts may cause damage to your club or personal injury. Use at your own risk!
Look
Besides the coloring of these, unless you have one of these in your hands there’s no noticeable difference between these and a regular golf ball. I think this helps maintain what I’m going to call ‘spatial recognition.’ I have no idea if this is a real scientific term but it works for me and how I want to describe the familiarity it presents to me. If these were oversized it would help with the actual training part but when the time comes are you putting with an oversized ball? Nope. You’re putting with the real thing and the Ball of Steel helps simulate that on course experience really well.
Testing
This was another putting training aid that I was really looking forward to testing. My two biggest putting faults going into this season was ‘popping’ or ‘flipping’ of the club and deceleration of the putting stroke. I’ve pretty much eliminated my issues of popping and flipping by going to a jumbo sized putter grip (that’s for another review) but I still have issues with deceleration at times. Particularly on putts within 6-8′ where I can tend to ‘guide’ the ball vs. putting the ball so I was excited to see if this could help with that issue.
I quickly found that on these shorter putts that I couldn’t guide the ball like I’ve grown accustomed to. The Ball of Steel just wouldn’t go very far and the putter would almost just push it along. Not good. With a little more time I realized that I needed to stay connected and keep the putter moving through the ball. In other words I’m hitting through the ball, not at the ball. This is actually a thought I carry with me to the green for shorter putts now as a reminder to go through the ball and not at the ball. They roll just like a golf ball, just not as fast as they’re 5x the weight of a normal golf ball so to get the Ball of Steel going along the intended path you need to give it a good, firm stroke.
If your stroke is nice and firm that’s all well and good but if you’re making contact on anything but the center of the club face the Ball of Steel will tell you that immediately. This actually informed me of something I had no idea I needed work on and that is more centered contact. I always thought that I was at or near the center of the club face when putting but evidently I’m not so much. This would probably explain the fact that most of my misses tend to be to the right of the cup or target line. Working with these really opened my eyes to this new miss of mine and it’s something I’m really conscious of now. I think it may be due to a faulty swing path more than anything but now that I know it’s there it will give me more meaning to my practice.
Another thing I noticed while testing the ball of Steel was that my stroke became more compact and accelerated better than it previously did. Couple this with the better contact I was getting near the center of the club face and my putts were things of beauty. Would this carry over to using a real golf ball? Most definitely! My stroke with a real golf ball had more energy and pace to it which 1) didn’t leave any putts short, 2) increased my accuracy, and 3) gave me a more repeatable golf stroke without having to over think things too much.
Overall
The Ball (or balls) of Steel retail for $29.95 and come in a pack of 3 and are available at www.eyelinegolf.com. This is really nice in the fact that you can do a nice three ball putting drill with these instead of chasing the same one all over the putting green. Well maybe not all over since as I noted before these are designed to be used for putts inside of 6′. I really enjoyed testing these and at the very least one of these will remain in my golf bag at all times. Much like a swing weight for a golf club, this will be my ‘swing weight’ for my putter which will help me warm up the old flat stick before a round. Especially if I don’t have enough time to warm up on the practice green. Eyeline Golf has some really good training aids that are geared towards helping you improve your putting and this one certainly fits the bill. Effective, portable, and user friendly, sounds like a worthwhile training aid to me. I think you’ll think so too once you stop shaking over those 6 foot putts your friends won’t give you.
T. Hanks
