BirdieBall Putting Mats: Living in the Material World

BirdieBall putting mats have been high MyGolfSpy performers ever since we began testing placing mats.

And ever since we began testing placing mats, John Breaker, BirdieBall founder, proprietor, CEO and Internal Gentle, has been adamant: If you would like true roll on a placing mat, his aerated foam is the best way to go.

It’s a message Breaker has shouted from the rooftops since his first aerated foam mat debuted.

“The issue with woven synthetics, carpet, felt or every other artifical textile is that they have a sample,” says Breaker. “When the ball slows down, it follows the sample.”

And that sample means you’re getting far much less out of all of the apply you set in over the winter than you hoped.

So why, then, has BirdieBall taken a step to the left and launched a textile placing mat? Take into account it an lodging to the realities of dwelling within the materials world.

Birdie Ball Placing Mats and the Nice Foam Wars

Within the BirdieBall world“foam” with out the modifier “aerated” is only a four-letter phrase. There’s a science to BirdieBall’s aerated foam that places it mild years away from a pool noodle and, based on our testing, nearer to an actual inexperienced. The key is within the sub-base.

“Bentgrass and Bermuda grass have been extremely engineered during the last 60 years,” explains Breaker. “They’re capable of mow greens all the way down to lower than an eighth of an inch now. However to maintain the ball on observe, it’s important to roll the sub-base.”

In actual golf, the ball rolls on the sub-base whereas the grass itself is there to sluggish the ball down. BirdieBall’s aerated foam – a singular polymer components that creates a spongy sub-base with fibrils to simulate the grass – is about as shut because it will get to actuality. Textile placing mats use what quantities to artificial grass.

“The blade for these artificial grasses is extruded,” says Breaker. “It comes out like spaghetti, then they put it on a loom. You’re making your form and the bobbins are operating however there’s a sample there. In a linear foot, you’ll have about 32 paths, with a niche between every path.”

Breaker says that with textile mats, there is no such thing as a sub-base. The ball rolls on the floor and the floor has a sample. And the sample impacts roll.

“The telltale signal of a textile inexperienced is you’ll discover a wobble in your ball both on the trail itself or when it lastly settles to a cease,” he says. “That’s telling you the placing floor is affecting the roll which isn’t what you need whenever you’re training your stroke.”

None of which, after all, explains why BirdieBall has determined so as to add a textile mat to its providing.

The Materials World

So why go the textile route? Chalk it as much as the realities of dwelling within the materials world.

“The professionals (of aerated foam) are real-green-like roll and the flexibility to create true breaks and undulations,” says Breaker “The cons? Your canine shouldn’t stroll on it and your girlfriend can’t stroll on it with stiletto heels. It’s an excessive amount of like a pure inexperienced and far of the market can’t dwell with these cons.”

Moreover, aerated foam is indoor-only.

“We don’t wish to say goodbye to that market,” Breaker provides. “If it’s a cookout and I’m ingesting beer with my pals, the roll doesn’t matter. I’m not on the lookout for placing suggestions as a lot as I’m on the lookout for a great time.”

BirdieBall’s new Indoor/Outdoor putting mat completed second in our most recent putting mat Buyer’s Guide. Our testers raved in regards to the sturdiness and the roll. Breaker says getting the absolute best roll out of a textile turf mat is a mixture of the weave and the minimize.

“The one distinction between carpet and turf is the loop that’s created whereas weaving will get minimize,” he explains. “While you minimize the loop off you now have this blade, however you’re exposing these 32 tracks.”

To fight that sample, the aim is to get the weave as tight as doable and minimize the blade as brief as doable.

“The shorter the blade, the higher. However the unlucky half is you’ll be able to solely minimize it all the way down to a few quarter of an inch. That doesn’t let the ball get to the sub-base so it has to journey on the floor. You’re working to shear it as precisely as you’ll be able to and making these piles as tight as you’ll be able to to eradicate these channels for the ball to get distracted by.”

Commerce-Offs and the “Massive Whoop” Issue

The choice tree between aerated foam and a well-made textile turf placing mat comes all the way down to trade-offs. Need the truest doable roll? Go along with aerated foam. Sturdiness and indoor/outside use? It’s textile turf.

“That’s the trade-off however it’s nonetheless a blast to make use of,” says Breaker. “It’s all about educating the patron on what their largest precedence is. If it’s to have a gathering place for family and friends, that’s one factor. If it’s to apply on the truest rolling floor doable, that’s fairly one other. The professionals and cons will direct you towards what it’s important to do.”

However for the devoted, lifelong cynic, it’s not possible to not ask the plain query: So the ball wobbles just a little bit. Massive whoop. Who cares?

“Effectively, there’s a ‘Massive Whoop’ quotient,” admits Breaker. “Some folks don’t care as a lot as different folks so it comes all the way down to how choosy are you?”

“You’re spending time training on a floor that’s not an actual placing inexperienced so why wouldn’t you select probably the most correct floor?” provides Katie Breaker, John’s daughter and BirdieBall’s advertising and marketing director. “Massive whoop? Perhaps, however you do have the choice to be very true in what you’re training.”

Your “Massive Whoop” quotient will rely upon what you wish to use your placing mat for. For those who merely wish to hold rust from setting in in the course of the offseason or to have some enjoyable, it’s a straightforward alternative. Nevertheless it’s additionally a straightforward alternative when you’re making an attempt to sharpen your flatstick abilities all 12 months spherical.

“Placing is absolutely the road and the velocity,” says John Breaker. “For those who’re getting the flawed suggestions on the road, there’s an issue. For those who’re getting the flawed suggestions on the velocity, that’s one other drawback. Put these issues collectively and that’s an even bigger drawback.”

Celebrating Two A long time of BirdieBall

We’ve written earlier than about BirdieBall’s origins and how it’s very much a Breaker family enterprise. And simply this previous spring, the household enterprise celebrated its 20^th anniversary.

“I don’t bear in mind any of the folks we competed in opposition to for Finest New Product again then on the PGA Present as a result of none of them are nonetheless in enterprise,” says Breaker. “Merchandise come and go and it’s uncommon for one to have the type of endurance that we’ve had.”

The unique BirdieBall stays an enormous a part of the corporate’s enterprise as is its dedication to rising the sport on the youth stage through physical education programs in schools.

“We’re in about 7,000 faculties with BirdieBall,” says Breaker. “And we’ve given away or bought tens of millions and tens of millions of BirdieBalls over time.”

And if BirdieBall was so inclined, it might additionally add a serious champion to its checklist of accomplishments. Coloradan and 2022 Chevron champion Jennifer Kupcho began out by hitting BirdieBalls when she was simply studying to stroll. And Breaker says a latest European Tour winner stored telling himself down the stretch to hit his photographs prefer it’s a BirdieBall.

However in relation to selecting the best placing mat, Breaker says that whenever you’re dwelling in a fabric world, there’s plenty of work to do to get the message by way of.

“What we’d like is to coach the shopper that there’s probably not a flawed alternative however there’s a clear alternative.”

For extra info on BirdieBall placing mats, go to www.birdieball.com.