Here at THP we come across little gadgets available to us hackers that are designed to improve or help us with all aspects of our game. Recently THP received and sent out one of these gadgets to a few forum members to see if they worked for them as intended. The gadget? The Sure Putt from Sure Putt Golf. It claims to help you make more putts and thereby lower your score. Pretty simple and straight-forward but does it work? Check it out.
From the Company
You can us the Sure Putt to train your eye to see subtle breaks on any green. Learn the slopes on new golf course greens, map greens for notes to be used during tournament play! Putt like the Pros with a caddie in your pocket. It can:
* Read the slope and break of the green
* It can show any uphill, downhill, sloping right or sloping left break on any putting surface
* The bubble in the spirit level will move around the dial to show you the direction of the break
What is it?
Whether you’re a do it yourself-er or a HGTV addict, you’re probably familiar with a level. You know those things that tell you whether you hung your picture straight or not? Well the same premise is what the Sure Putt is based on. Put the Sure Putt down on the green and the bubble that’s inside the spirit will reflect which way the green is breaking. Can’t be that simple can it? Well it really is. It fits perfectly in the palm of your hand (not much larger than a standard paper weight) which means it’s super convenient, portable, but yet easy to read and use. Just tuck it away in your bag or pocket and it’s there until you need it. It’s extremely well made and has a certain ‘richness’ to it that doesn’t make it look or feel like you’re using a golf training aid.
Testing
Testing this product was pretty simple and I went into the review period with the thought of ‘it’s only going to confirm what I already know.’ I like to think I know how to read greens and have been pretty good at it in the past. The Sure Putt confirmed this to a point but it also showed me how wrong I am on certain reads. When reading greens I can definitely tell where breaks are, the extent of them, etc but where I tend to struggle is where there is a change in slope on either an uphill or downhill. I would read the green and make my putt only to leave it 6” short or 4”long and wonder ‘how did that happen?’ Then I’d pull the Sure Putt out and see that I was misreading the green either short or long just as it was showing me, even if it was ever so slightly. Basically the Sure Putt is great for putts inside of say 10′ where it can show just enough of a variance that your naked eye may or may not be seeing. However I found that it was difficult to use when faced with a multi-break putt. It loses its convenience when you have to set it down to get a reading for the first part of the putt and then having to go put it down again to get a separate reading for the second part of the putt. If you can do this without walking in or through your anticipated line then you’re a better person than I am.
Overall
If you struggle with reading greens or gauging speed for your putts than this little number may be your key to success. In the end I can see this being very useful which could always see some sort of value in using this product no matter how adept you become at reading greens. Because no matter how well we think we read greens, we never have those ‘I just don’t see it’ moments when trying to find the line of a putt right? The Sure Putt is available in a variety of colors (10 to be exact) and it’s even available in a variety of ‘themes’ (military, floral, etc). That’s pretty cool and may even make you want to use it that much more or not be embarrassed to use it around your buddies. Until you start rolling the rock into the cup more than they do. Suggested pricing for the Sure Putt is $39.99 which is pretty good considering the quality of this device. For more info on this handy little training aid, surf on over to their website and make up your own mind. Just think, if you become an expert at reading greens with the help of this device and find that you don’t need it anymore, you’ll always have a use for the Sure Putt. Hanging pictures around the house will never be more fun!
T. Hanks
