50 Words or Less
The PuttOUT Mirror & Adjustable Gate is another home run from PuttOUT. Covers almost every aspect of putting, and the difficulty can be dialed in for golfers at all skill levels. Incredible value. Immense longevity.
Introduction
Every time that I unbox something from PuttOUT, I’m reminded just how good these guys are at designing products. These are not golfers who are trying to make training aids; they’re trained industrial designers who have turned their expertise on golf. That difference comes through in the new PuttOUT Mirror & Adjustable Gate. Their latest combines popular elements into a training aid that’s great to use and can lead to meaningfully better results on the green.
Set Up & Ease of Use
Sliding the PuttOUT Mirror & Adjustable Gate from it’s box, I immediately noticed the detailed instructions on the back. In one “page,” it breaks down almost all the possible uses of this trainer with easy-to-understand diagrams. I think this training aid is quite intuitive but having all the settings explained in detail is a definite plus.
All the pieces of the PuttOUT Mirror & Adjustable Gate come neatly packed in a travel pouch. There’s a specific spot for each piece, so it’s always ready to go with minimal hassle. Putting together this trainer is as simple as plugging the gate into the stands and inserting the rods at your desired width. The putter guides attach magnetically to the mirror wherever you want them.
Effectiveness
The PuttOUT Mirror & Adjustable Gate helps golfers to work on their face angle, start line, stroke path, strike quality, and the position of their eyes and shoulders. This is close to an all-in-one putting trainer, and it does each job very well.
My favorite piece of this kit is the adjustable gate. PuttOUT has set six widths – 6″, 4.25″, 3.5″, and 2.7″, 2.3″, and 2″ – and you can ramp the difficulty up and down more by moving the gate closer or farther away. The impact of distance can’t be overstated – the “Large” setting feels as big as a barn door at one foot but is a decent challenge at two feet. A chart on the back of the gate (above) shows the exact tolerances of the three smallest gates at one foot and two feet away.
My only nitpick about the gate is that the red bars don’t swing freely, so they can get “stuck” after a big collision.
The new mirror is an improvement over the previous version [review HERE] in a couple subtle but meaningful ways. First, the markings have been upgraded. The new mirror trades all the lines of the previous model for a target line and a line to square your putter face to. Beyond that, the mirror is covered in a dot grid which allows every player to find their own reference points. This not only looks cleaner, it allows for more flexible use. The other key upgrade is that the mirror is 20% thinner, and the mirror can be removed from the rubber casing to be just 1mm off the ground. Personally, I’ll take the added thickness of the rubber casing because the spiked base keeps it in place. You can even stake it down with tees for complete stability.
Finally, the magnetic putter guides can be set up in a variety of ways to shape your stroke or work on pure, center-face contact. Because there are no pre-set slots, you’re only limited by your imagination. You can set the two guides end to end to create a long rail and keep your putter from traveling too far off line.
The more conventional use will be to create a gate for the putter head to keep it perfectly on line through impact. You can set the guides at any width you like, depending on your level of skill and masochism.
My home putting station has become all PuttOUT. I have the PuttOUT AirBreak [review HERE] with the new PuttOUT Mirror & Adjustable Gate backed up by the original Pressure Putt Trainer [review HERE] so that the balls don’t roll too far away. As much as I love the AirBreak, this set up would be just as good with a PuttOUT Putting Mat [review HERE] – maybe better, because of the great markings on the mat.
Longevity
The numerous uses, variable difficulty, and indoor/outdoor flexibility help the PuttOUT Mirror & Adjustable Gate to score extremely high on the longevity scale. It’s light and small and sets up easily. It can live in your golf bag or on your putting mat at home. Adjusting the difficulty is as easy as pulling it closer, pushing it farther away, or moving the gates. There’s really no knock on this trainer.
Value
The PuttOUT Mirror & Adjustable Gate retails for just $70. Support Plugged In Golf and shop HERE.
This is as “Wow!” a price as I’ve seen on a training aid in a while. Given the price of other, similar trainers, I was expecting the price to be at least $100. The value here is as high as any training aid I can think of.
Conclusion
My expectations for any product from PuttOUT are high, but this training aid vaulted over them with ease. The PuttOUT Mirror & Adjustable Gate are as close to “must buy” as any trainer I’ve tested lately. If you practice putting regularly, you need to think seriously about adding this to your kit.
Buy the PuttOUT Mirror & Adjustable Gate HERE
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