Has PrimePutt Created the Best Practice Putting Mat?

Almost exactly a year ago, the PrimePutt indoor putting green earned the title of Best Indoor Putting Green of 2023. Testers were impressed with the durability and the pureness of roll provided by the PrimePutt turf.

Though a bit more expensive than its competitors, the consensus was that the quality of the green justified the cost.

Naturally, when the opportunity arose to test a PrimePutt green myself, I jumped at the opportunity.

Can PrimePutt replace Old Reliable?

The testing goal of the PrimePutt putting green boiled down to one simple question:

Could the PrimePutt green replace the TourLinks green currently residing in my garage?

Though it is a simple question, it represents quite a big challenge for the newcomer since the TourLinks green has fought off all competition since 2011. Although I have a much larger SynLawn putting green in the backyard, more putts are rolled annually on the smaller TourLinks green.

Why consider PrimePutt?

Why am I even looking for a new putting green when I already have one I like? That’s a good question, but kind of a silly one.

How many new golf clubs have you bought to replace current clubs that were getting the job done? If your answer to that question is “none”, you are in the minority.

Realistically, there were two things that attracted me to the PrimePutt green. First, it was the reputation for quality and purity of roll. Not only did the MyGolfSpy crew find it impressive, but so, too, did some PGA Tour players.

Check out these unpaid testimonials from the PrimePutt site:

“PrimePutt is the perfect putting mat to help you dial in your putting at home, and helps prepare me for the greens I see weekly on the PGA Tour.”

Taylor Montgomery, the No. 1-ranked putter on the PGA Tour last year

“The quality of the mat and how it rolls feels just like the PGA turf. The speed is spot-on for me with it being similar to what I play on Tour. This product has helped me improve my game and I’m confident it will improve yours.”

Sean O’Hair, 4x PGA Tour winner

Reading those quotes and the results from last summer made me feel like I was missing out by not having tried the PrimePutt putting mat.

The other thing that attracted me to the green was its 15’ by 3’ size. Not only would this allow me to stand on it when putting but it would also dramatically extend my practice putt range.

For reference, the longest putt I can practice on the TourLinks green is about eight feet, thus explaining why I tend to make a lot of putts from that distance.

PrimePutt sells other smaller greens as well, but my hope was that a longer green would improve my make percentages from the longer distances.

Testing the PrimePutt Putting Mat: Unboxing and Unrolling

I was a bit surprised when the PrimePutt box arrived.

The box was much smaller than I expected, hence the putter on the box in the above photo to show scale.

The SynLawn green arrived in a box the size of a Honda Fit. For some reason, that is more what I was expecting.

A smaller-than-expected box brought up one of my primary concerns when installing an indoor green: How will it unroll? 

Many rolled greens do not unroll very well out of the box. I’ve taken an iron to more than one to try and remove ball-deflecting creases.

My concerns were quickly dispatched when I unrolled the PrimePutt green. Though it was rolled up tightly in the box, it almost automatically sat flat on the ground when unrolled. I think I tugged the end once to get rid of a hump but that was it.

When PrimePutt says you can roll up the green for storage and then unroll it when you want to roll putts, believe them. The integrity of the turf withstood multiple rollings and unrollings as I moved it around the house and garage.

PrimePutt markets their green as “no-memory material” and I think that is a great description. Rolling and unrolling doesn’t change its structure.

Testing the PrimePutt Putting Mat: The Turf

The Holy Grail goal of an indoor putting mat is to make you feel like you are putting outdoors on grass. It’s not a simple task and, as such, not many companies have accomplished it.

As much as I like the TourLinks green, the turf is not like outdoor grass. It’s flat and lets the ball roll on line but it doesn’t remind me of grass except for the fact that it is green.

The PrimePutt turf is vastly more grass-like. Obviously, the grass-looking construction is a part of the story but the real story is feel. This turf feels like turf.

When you stand on the PrimePutt green, you’ll probably not imagine you’ve been transported outside to your course’s practice green. That said, the PrimePutt artificial turf is the closest to putting green grass I have encountered.

More importantly, balls roll on the PrimePutt turf like they roll on a real putting green.

To test the roll, I coupled my handy-dandy Black and Decker framing laser and putting ramp. This way, imperfections in my putting stroke are removed from the testing.

The bottom line is that if you hit the ball on target, with the correct pace, it is going in the cup. Isn’t that what we really want in a practice green? That is why we buy practice greens rather than just putting into a red Solo cup on the carpet.

The PrimePutt green is the best real turf simulator I have rolled balls on.

Testing the PrimePutt Putting Mat: The Cups

Speaking of cups, the PrimePutt cups are unusual in design and very effective. Oftentimes, indoor greens that lay flat on the ground will just have cut-out target holes. This gives you something to aim at but in no way simulates a ball dropping into a cup at a realistic putt speed.

PrimePutt designed their cups to receive balls like real putting cups. The sound of a made putt is not the same as the glorious on-course cup rattle but the interaction of the ball at the cup is similar. Now you know if you had the correct speed to trickle over the front edge or if your pure savagery would have blasted the ball through.

The course-like cup is yet another way that the indoor PrimePutt green simulates the outdoor experience.

Two other cool additions to the PrimePutt green are the wooden backstop behind the cups and the rubber distance markers at the edge of the green.

The backstop is necessary to prevent your explosively powerful putts from leaving the green and maybe the family room.

The little rubber distance markers tell you distance but also speak to how the folks at PrimePutt are trying to make a high-quality product. PrimePutt could have just painted the turf at five-foot distances but instead chose to insert markers through the turf.

There’s no way that paint will have the same longevity as these plastic inserts. They are on both sides of the green so right- and left-handed golfers can use them for reference.

Dave’s Friendly Tip: Save the Cup Turf Cutouts

Just wanted to give those of you who buy one of these greens a quick suggestion: Save the extra turf disks from the holes. They will fall out when you unroll the green.

First of all, there may be times when you only want to target one of the three cups. Removing the cups and replacing them with the cutouts allows you to better focus on that single hole.

The second reason to save the turf circles is that they make excellent golf-themed coasters.

Final Thoughts on the PrimePutt Indoor Putting Mat

In a word, I found the PrimePutt green to be impressive. It unrolled without wrinkles, felt and rolled like actual turf and created a satisfying experience when a putt was holed.

Is it the best putting mat out there? I’ve no reason not to say yes. I’m hard-pressed to come up with a better one.

Does that mean the PrimePutt green is now my garage go-to green?

Have you ever heard the phrase that your eyes were bigger than your stomach? Like when you order the six-scoop ice-cream sundae but only eat two of them. That is a bit where I am at currently with the garage green competition.

The PrimePutt green is amazingly big but it is also amazingly big. The garage green battle has now turned into a garage rearrangement project to see if all of the non-golf garage stuff can be repositioned to accommodate the 15-foot length.

I’m optimistic and I’ll keep you posted.

Learn more about the PrimePutt putting mat at PrimePutt.com

FAQ: PrimePutt Indoor Putting Mat

This article was written in partnership with PrimePutt.

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