Golf is a sport where muscle memory is an important part of the learning process and improving your game. One area where muscle memory is very important is the putting stroke. How would you know what the perfect putting stroke feels like and consistently repeat it?

You could buy countless putting training aids or take lessons with a PGA Professional. But what if you could just go to your local driving range and take putting lessons from a robot? You’re in luck! A new vending machine for putting lessons called RoboPutt was just introduced at the 2011 PGA Merchandise Show to do just that.

Watch this video of Joe Sery, CEO/President of RoboPutt talk about the features of RoboPutt and give a demonstration on how it works.

How RoboPutt Works
Using your own putter, you can buy a 5-minute lesson for less than the cost of a sleeve of good golf balls. During your lesson, RoboPutt will move your own putter, perfectly repeating it time after time. Simply hold your putter and feel how it moves you. Like the saying goes, practice makes perfect!

www.roboputt.com

[View with PicLens]

Every year at the PGA Merchandise Show a slew of new golf products are introduced, with training aids being the largest category of them all. One new golf training aid that caught my eye at the 2011 PGA Merchandise Show Outdoor Demo Day, is The Perfect Putting Aid-designed to help golfers start the ball on line and sink more putts.

Watch this video of  Chad Johansen, PGA Professional and Inventor of The Perfect Putting Aid demonstrate the many uses of this simple and effective putting training aid.

About The Perfect Putting Aid
The Perfect Putting Aid was developed by PGA Professional Chad Johansen, who was constantly using the putting gate drill and chalk line to help his students learn about path and starting the ball online.

The Perfect Putting Aid consists of several pieces, a tower, a putting line, and mirror. All three items can be used together or separately depending on what you’re trying to work on. For example, if you want to work on making a proper putting stroke you can use the Putting Line to practice putting the ball down the length of the line without it going off line. Or you can use the mirror to look at your shoulder and head position at address.

What I liked about The Perfect Putting Aid, is how simple and easy it is to use. You can use it indoors or outdoors and work on so many different aspects of your putting. And the immediate feedback it provides is amazing. Don’t just take my word for it, 2010 PGA Tour Puerto Rico Open winner Derek Lamely uses the Perfect Putting Aid daily, and so do many other PGA Tour players.

Best of all, The Perfect Putting Aid is Made in the USA. How many golf training aids do you know of that are Made in the USA?

I’m excited about reviewing The Perfect Putting Aid and lowering my golf score this Spring!

The Perfect Putting Aid $139.95 for all 3 pieces or $49.95 for The Putting Line.

The iPhone has ton of uses when it comes to golf, like using it as a GPS, digital scorecard, training aid, etc. Now you can add swing analysis to the list, thanks to iAnalyze Golf by Ten Times Design.

[View with PicLens]

iAnalyze Golf Swing App
If you have ever taken golf lessons over the past couple of years, your instructor probably used a video camera and special software to record and analyze your golf swing. With the widespread adoption of the iPhone, you are able to do the same thing with iAnalyze Golf Swing, for a fraction of the cost your golf pro charges, and not have to invest in a video camera and special software.

How it works
The basic approach of this app, is to break down the golf swing into images of distinct positions in the golf swing for purposes of analysis and comparison with other golfers/images. You can analyze just one photo or a full ten-photo sequence. The app allows you store up to 200 sequences for each golfer and store a golf profile, which can be color coded by type (pro, student, etc.)

If you have an iPhone 3Gs or iPhone 4 you can also record your swing and have it analyzed by iAnalyze Golf Swingand the default Pro Golfer in the app, depending on the type of shot (Driver, Long Irons, Mid Irons, Short Irons, Pitch, Sand, Flop, Chip, Long Putt, Medium Putt, and Short Putt).

Analyze Your Swing
What’s really nice about the iAnalyze Golf Swing, is that for each of the different types of shots, there is a video and photo sequence of each shot, plus a down the line view and face-on view, which is great for learning. The app can be used to build a library of swing sequences used to help you visualize and emulate. The images can come from your phone’s camera or downloaded off the web, which makes it great for learning how to emulate Tiger Wood’s swing.

A really cool feature allows you to compare your swing to another golfer in the app, which is very easy to do and display them side-by-side. And the controls allow you to play each frame of the swing sequence of each golfer for comparison. In addition, you can also draw lines, enter notes or comments on your sequence or the pro golfer you are comparing, just like your golf instructor would. But probably the coolest features had to be the Merge feature, which super imposes your swing sequence over the pro golfer and simulates motion, so you can analyze your swing.

With all these cool ways to analyze your golf swing, you might be thinking that iAnalyze Golf  Swing would be a great way to learn how to play golf or forgo golf lessons all together. While you can learn a lot by taking a 5-10 second video of your golf swing, the app isn’t meant to be a substitute for professional golf instruction. I think its a great learning tool to use in between lessons.

The export function of the app makes it very easy to share or post your swing via email, twitter, facebook, etc. The only problem I had with the export function is that I didn’t know that I exported anything after I clicked the “Export” icon. It would be nice if the future version of the app displayed an alert message, otherwise you might end up clicking the “Export” button over and over again.

The app itself has a ton of features which a lot of people are going to like, but I did find that iAnalyze Golf Swing home screen and some of the submenus to be a little bit confusing to use. A perfect example, is on the video sequence screen for my swing I recorded. In the bottom left and right, there are two icons that hide different useful features. The one on the left looks like a fastforward icon, which it is, but it’s for the playback speed of the video. The icon on the right looks like an upload icon, but it’s hiding a ton of useful features like, displaying a grid on your sequence, drawing tools, photo sequence of your video. I would have passed these by, if I didn’t click on them and can be easily corrected with better icons in a future release.

Overall, iAnalyze Golf Swing is full featured app that is great way to leverage the power of the iPhone to help you analyze your swing in between golf lessons. The $9.99 is a bargain for this app, considering what it would cost to buy a video camera and specialty golf swing software for your computer.

iAnalyze Golf  Swing $9.99

Putting training aids are a dime a dozen, with so many options available like putting gates, pendulum rods, alignment mirrors, etc. When I was approached to try out the Big Putt, I was intrigued, because it was extra large golf ball that’s intended to help make putting practice more fun and effective.

[View with PicLens]

According to Big Putt 40% of your golf shots are done on the putting green during a round of golf, yet we spend more time practicing our long game. Why? I’m not going to lie, but practicing putting is boring.

Look and Feel
The Big Putt is 35% larger than (1.95” vs. 1.68”) a regulation golf ball and has the same feel of your normal golf ball. The larger size of the ball is designed to help you learn to accelerate through impact and help you sink those 2ft -8ft putts that we all have a tendency to miss.

Performance
You’ll notice when hitting the Big Putt that if you mishit the ball slightly, it will provide you immediate feedback and go off line. If you don’t accelerate through, the ball will either come up short or go offline when using the Big Putt, which is very important if you want to lower your score and sink more putts.

I also found that using the Big Putt helped me with proper ball alignment and aiming my putt thanks to it’s larger diameter. You place the ball down and easily tell if you have it lined up correctly, which is really nice.

The other benefit of the large size, is it makes the cup look so much smaller and forces you to concentrate on your technique. And when you switch out to your normal golf ball, the hole looks even larger and gives you the confidence that you can’t miss the putt, which is an important part of putting.

Does Big Putt Work?
The fact that it’s just a slightly larger golf ball, makes it it easy to carry in your bag with the included carrying pouch, and take with you to the practice green-eliminating any excuses for not practicing your putting. What I found from using Big Putt over the last 3 weeks is that its made practicing putting more productive and something I want to do, rather than loathe.

I also found that my confidence level has increased when having to make those 2ft-8ft putts, and that I’m more focused on putting stroke as a result. I should point out that Big Putt, is a training aid and intended to help you putt better and be effective with your practice time. The Big Putt is not going to correct any setup or putting mechanic flaws, only a golf professional can help you with correcting those kind of problems.

The Big Putt is competitively priced at $19.99 which includes: 3 Big Putt golf balls, alignment line template, marker, and instructional DVD. I should note the DVD included is one of those mini-DVDs, half the size of a normal DVD, which I couldn’t use with my DVD player. Not a problem since you can view the instructional videos on the the Big Putt website.

Overall, I really enjoyed using the Big Putt and think it’s a very practical putting training aid that can help improve your putting and give you the confidence you need in your short game.

The Big Putt $19.99

Lots of things can easily go wrong in your golf swing if you’re gripping the club too tightly or loosely. The greatest players in the history of the game, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, in their “How To” books emphasize the importance of steady and consistent grip pressure.  While making my way back from the equipment area at the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show, I came across Hank Haney’s Swing Band and wondered what this color coded band was all about.

Hank Haney's Swing Band DVD

Watch the video to see Colby Huffman show how to use Swing Band and how it can help improve your game.

The Swing Band
Is a simple golf training aid which is thick rubber band that is color coded on each side (Red indicates off plane swing, Black ball curves right for a slice, White ball curves left for a hook, and Green ball goes straight). The Swing Band is designed to be worn for one minute at a and it helps you see where your wrists should be for maximum power and feel proper grip pressure.

Hank Haney's Swing Band

During your swing the goal is to keep the green tab in the middle of your wrists at all three parts of your at address, top of the backswing, and the follow through. What’s nice about the Swing Band is that it’s very easy to use and carry in your bag. But, it also helps in grain proper feel in your golf swing with your wrists and grip pressure. Feel cannot be taught, so we have to experience it for ourselves to understand what it feels like, and the Swing Band helps with that.

What’s also nice is that the Swing Band can be used for teaching proper chipping technique, where you lead with your left arm and not break down the wrists. The Swing Band also comes with an hour-long DVD featuring Hank Haney and Colby Huffman showing you the various ways to use the Swing Band and get the most out of it.

The Swing Band shows a lot of promise and I look forward to reviewing it.

About Colby Huffman
Colby has taught at the David Leadbetter Junior Academy, and at the International Junior Golf Academy (IJGA) both under Gary Gilchrist. While working for Gary, he developed two Byron Nelson International Junior Golf Award recipients, and worked with many other highly ranked juniors and LPGA standouts on a daily basis such as In-Kyung Kim and Song-Hee Kim (both professionals ranked in the top 15 in the world).

Colby has also served as a Hank Haney Lead Instructor from 2007-2009 at HHIJGA, where he was a mentor and valued golf instructor. Colby also appeared on the Golf Channel series “School of Golf: Hilton Head Island” under Hank Haney.

Hank Haney’s Swing Band $29.98 (includes free shipping)

Practicing putting can be very monotonous with having to run back and forth to the cup to retrieve your golf balls or missed putts. And as you get older bending down to get the golf balls can cause wear and tear on your back overtime.The Tour Pros have caddies that help them retrieve their golf balls while putting, saving them time while practicing. That’s why FineTuneGolf created the RoboCup Ball Return Robot, to help Tour Pros and average golfers practice putting without the help of caddy to retrieve their golf balls.

[View with PicLens]

The RoboCup was introduced at the 2009 PGA Merchandise Show where it was awarded “Best New Product”, because it can help you save time while practicing putting and less time running back and forth collecting golf balls. The RoboCup runs on 4 AA batteries (which lasts for approximately 12,000 putt returns; batteries not included) that you place in any practice or standard-depth cup, that has a button activated switch that catapults your golf ball back to you up to 14 feet or more when the ball lands inside the cup.

How to Use the RoboCup
To use the RoboCup, you begin by turning on the unit by putting the switch to the “On” position on the back of the RoboCup. Next, you place the RoboCup inside the practice green cup. If you decide to use the RoboCup in a standard-depth cup, you’ll need to place three golf balls at the bottom of the cup to prop the RoboCup up, otherwise it will sit too low in the cup. Finally, place the included Caddy Cord around the hole in a arch around the cup, to help with push your missed putts back into the hole. Thats it! Your now ready to start practicing with the RoboCup.

Performance
The whole point of the RoboCup Ball Return Robot is to save you time while practicing putting, so you can focus on improving, rather than chasing down your golf balls. I was very eager to see if the device could live up to what it claims it can do and make practicing putting more enjoyable.

During my tests, I found that the RoboCup did a very good job of returning the ball up to 14 feet or more very easily. I liked how quickly it would return the ball once it landed in the cup, saving me time from having to go back and forth to the cup. You’ll really appreciate the RoboCup on the longer 10 – 14 feet putts, which made practicing enjoyable. The other thing I liked about the RoboCup is its compact size and carrying case, which easily can store in your golf bag. So you no longer have an excuse for not taking the RoboCup with you to practice your putting. The Caddy Cord, which is meant to stop missed putts and push them back into the cup, didn’t work as well as expected.

I discovered that the Caddy Cord which is made of a lightweight braided nylon, worked well only when my misses rolling at a slow speed. If the golf ball was rolling a little too fast, the ball would just hit the Caddy Cord and jump over it, requiring me to retrieve my golf ball. I’m not sure if this is because the Caddy Cord isn’t high enough or not positioned correctly, but I know some of my putts were not traveling that fast and it should have pushed them back into the hole (watch the video to see what I’m talking about). There were other situations when the ball would lip out of the hole and hit the Caddy Cord and just stop and not roll back into the cup either. Needless to say, I didn’t save that much time, because I was still retrieving my golf balls.

An added benefit of using the Caddy Cord is it makes it easy to aim at your target for putts 10 feet and out, because it outlines the hole.

While the RoboCup Ball Return Robot does a great job of returning the putts or misses that fall into the hole, I think the Caddy Cord needs to be improved in order for people to save more time practicing putting. (See UPDATE below for clarification)

Overall, the RoboCup Ball Return Robot is a great tool for golfers who rarely miss their putts and want to save time practicing putting. Otherwise, you might want to work on your tempo or invest in some putting lessons, before buying one.

UPDATE
I spoke with FineTuneGolf about problems I experienced with the Caddy Cord and here is their official response: “The Caddy Cord is actually designed to train the user not to putt mindlessly and have the ball returned every time – re-enforcing bad form.  The Caddy Cord is designed to collect and redirect missed putts that are rolled with the right amount of force.  So long as the putt has a chance the ball will be returned.  This feature trains and rewards the golfer for putts with correct speed.  More than just a convenience product, the RoboCup actually trains the “never up – never in” mantra.”

RoboCup $59.95

Sandbox8.com reader’s SAVE %15 on your RoboCup  by entering SB815

One of the reasons for having so many two and three putts is not having the putter face square at impact, especially for putts under 10 feet. How can you practice squaring the putter face at impact both indoor and outdoors and get immediate feedback? That’s what the new SKLZ Putting Gate attempts to solve with its portable putting training aid.

SKLZ Putting Gate

What is the SKLZ Putting Gate?
The SKLZ Putting Gate consists of several items: two wood blocks that are sloped that serve as your gate that have velcro on the bottom to attach to a rubber mat. The rubber mat has a white alignment stripe that you use to square with your putter’s corresponding alignment stripe and to square the Deuce 2-Ball Training Aid alignment guide.

The Deuce 2-Ball Training Aid resembles a small dumbbell with two golf balls that are attached to a plastic dowel that you use with the Putting Gate to get instant feedback.

How Does the SKLZ Putting Gate Work
The Putting Gate is quite simple to use, all you do is set the with of the gates to the desired width of your putter and adjust how wide or narrow you want the gate to be. Once the gate width is set, you place the 2-Ball Training Aid to lineup with the mats white alignment stripe. Sole your putter head behind the 2-Ball Training Aid making sure that the putter’s alignment guide is square with the 2-Ball and the putting mat.

Now all you have to is make a normal putting stroke and get instant feedback. Pretty simple. If you hit the 2-Ball with the toe of your putter the 2-Ball will veer left, if you hit the 2-Ball with the heel, the 2-Ball will veer right, and if your stroke is square, the 2-ball will go straight. Talk about instant feedback.

In my tests, I was able to see instantly how well I hit my putts using the SKLZ Putting Gate and 2-Ball Training Aid. I have a tendency to hit the ball with the toe of my putter more often and the 2-Ball would push to the left. I knew exactly what I needed to work on. I also used the Putting Gate without the 2-Ball Training Aid and practiced making practice strokes through the gates without hitting the sides of the gate. To make it more challenging I would narrow the width of the gate. This helps with keeping the putter square. Now if you don’t want to use the 2-Ball Training Aid, you can substitute a golf ball instead, and take the Putting Gate to an outdoor practice green. Overall the SKLZ Putting Gate works well.

You might be thinking, couldn’t I just place two tees in the ground and make my own putting gate? Yes, you could, but you wouldn’t be able to do that indoors and you wouldn’t be able to use the alignment guide of the Putting Gate.

Can The SKLZ Putting Gate Improve Your Putting?
I think that a training aid like the SKLZ Putting Gate can definitely help any golfer become more aware of out what problem they may have with their putting stroke by using this training aid. Will it solve the reason why you constantly close the putter face or hit the ball more often with the heel of the putter? No, only PGA instructor can help you with finding the cause and correct your putting stroke.

I do think that SKLZ Putting Gate is a good training aid that can be used booth indoors and outdoors to help you groove your putting stroke.

SKLZ Putting Gate $24.99

I love playing golf, and the next best thing to playing is watching it on TV. I really enjoy studying the golf swings of all the players on PGA Tour and take notice of their swing styles and technique. I’m always amazed at how effortless and smooth the swing tempo’s are of Tiger Woods, Vijay, Singh, and Sergio Garcia. This often leaves me wondering how can I learn to emulate their swing tempo? Now, you can practice the swing tempo’s of Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Lorena Ochoa, Sergio, Karrie Webb, K.J. Choi, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Annika Sorenstam, and Mike Weir with the iPhone/iPod Touch app MyGolfSwing. 

[View with PicLens]

We all know how important it is to develop a smooth and consistent swing tempo is to playing consistent golf. The MyGolfSwing is a simple iPhone app that makes it extremely easy for you to practice your swing tempo anywhere. Whether your at the driving range, at home, or at the office, you can now practice your swing tempo.

How it Works
Step 1) Set your Swing Tempo Preferences by selecting the number of repetitions you’d like to practice, this can be from 1 -99. Next determine how long of pause you should have between swings. And finally determine what type of sound you want for your alerts. You have one of three options: Voice, Beep, or Vibrate. 

Step 2) Set your Tempo Preference by selecting the tempo of your backswing, pause, and downswing to best match your swing tempo. The three dials determine the lengths of time (in icrements of 1/10ths of a second) for your backswing, pause, and downswing. You can select one of the three presets which range from slow, average, and fast. The average tempo setting is 0.5s, 0.4s, 0.7s. The backswing of 0.5 seconds means it will take 0.5 seconds from the start of the backswing to the top of the backswing. The 0.4 seconds indicates the amount of pause in the transition from the top of the backswing to the start of the downswing. The 0.7s means that it will take 0.7 seconds from the start of the downswing to the finish of the complete swing. 

You also have the option to select one of the tempos of Pro’s (Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Lorena Ochoa, Sergio, Karrie Webb, K.J. Choi, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Annika Sorenstam, and Mike Weir). When you select one of the pros you can watch a video of their golf swing and tempo from YouTube and select their tempo to practice with. This in my opinion is what make this app pretty cool. 

Step 3) Practice. Just set your phone down and begin practicing your swing tempo, with or without a golf club. When you practice at home, you can set the app to use voice prompts which is my least favorite of the three options available. I preferred the beeping or vibrate mode. I appreciated the idea of having a vibrate mode, so you can just practice your swing tempo at the driving range without annoying your fellow golfer. 

Verdict
The main goal of using this app is to perfect your swing temp, which is a key component to a consistent repeatable golf swing. Version 1.0 of MyGolfSwing only focuses on your swing tempo and future versions will include other elements of your golf swing. Over the course of a few weeks, I started practicing at home with and without a golf club. At the recommendation of my golf pro, he suggested I practice using Vijay Singh’s swing tempo. I’ve been practicing using Vijay’s swing tempo and can’t say I can emulate Vijay’s tempo like you see on TOUR, but I do notice a more consistent rhythm in my golf swing. I think that if I continue to use MyGolfSwing, that over time my swing tempo will improve.  MyGolfSwing is not going to correct proper swing technique or swing faults, it will only help improve your tempo. I’ll watching closely to see how this app gets improved with other elements of the golf swing get incorporated.  

For a $.99 MyGolfSwing is worth purchasing despite a few draw backs. http://www.mygolfswing.biz/