Pro Path Putting Mirror
We’ve all heard the old adage “you use your putter more than any other club during a round of golf.” Putting is also the biggest differentiator between the best players and good players. Ultimately, it’s such an important part of the game that even the best players are constantly working on the most basic fundamentals. The Pro Path Putting Mirror by Back 2 Basics Golf is a good practice aid no matter your skill set. Packed with a variety of different features, the Pro Path Mirror can improve your putting in multiple ways.
Setup
First and foremost, can we acknowledge how nice of a job Back 2 Basics did with the packaging? It’s really slick. Obviously they don’t expect you to take the Pro Path Putting Mirror to the course in the box. Fortunately they include a nice carrying bag to protect the plexiglass mirror. If your apparel pocket on your bag is big enough, you can slide it right in there too.
Setting the mirror up really depends on what exactly you’re looking to accomplish. Theoretically, you can just drop it on the ground and go. I’d personally recommend to always put golf tees in the four corner holes to hold the mirror in place. (PS. The mirror is double-sided so righties and lefties can both use it.) From there you can setup tees to practice take away and follow through length, as well as gate drills. Back to Basics also included four aluminum gates of varying sizes. All you need to do is line them up accordingly at a distance of your choosing and stick them in the ground. Unfortunately these gates won’t work on hard surfaces like artificial practice greens.
In this case, setup isn’t all about how you setup the Pro Path mirror itself. You have to make sure you’re setting your body up correctly too. Start with putting the ball in the slot toward the front. Then set your putter square on the thick line perpendicular to the stroke path. Align your shoulders with the Shoulder Line on the bottom of the mirror and your eyes over the center line. This should put your body in the correct putting position.
Performance
While it doesn’t look like there’s much the Pro Path Putting Mirror, there are quite a few things to help clean up the putting stroke. I initially took it out to test with my nephew, Josh, and it was interesting what each of us found most useful. Josh really found the mirror useful when setup with the tees creating a gate for the stroke (see picture at the top of this review). This setup forced him to follow the line that’s laid out on the mirror to encourage a clean arc in the stroke. He felt this really made him quiet down his putting stroke. I personally liked a pretty empty setup on the mirror, but using the metal gates. If I my tempo was bad and I didn’t stick to the arc, I’d smash the side of the gates.
What Josh and I both agreed on was that the shoulder and center lines were definitely the most beneficial. Neither of us felt comfortable setting up over these lines for our putting strokes. It just didn’t feel natural to us. However, we both quickly realized our putting was significantly smoother, and generally better when we lined up according to the mirror. The concept is that by lining up this way, your body is in the correct posture for proper putting mechanics. True, it takes a little to get used to how it feels and where your eyes are over the ball, but it was clear that our putting strokes were “more free” in this position. More importantly, I was getting more balls rolling cleanly through all four gates!
Final Thoughts – Pro Path Putting Mirror
I know there are a lot of putting aids and mirrors out there already, but I’m pretty impressed with the Back 2 Basics offering. Though a fairly simple device, the Pro Path Putting Mirror is easy to quickly plop down on any putting green and run a variety of drills. The drills may seem basic, but they’re all effective and repetition will certainly lead to better putting. At the very least, the Pro Path Mirror will definitely ingrain good putting mechanics in your stroke.
PSA: If you’re going to setup shop with the Pro Path Mirror on a practice green, make sure you stand on a towel so you don’t trash the green. Your super and fellow golfers will thank you.
For more details on the Pro Path Putting Mirror, check out the product here. You can also check out the photo of the instruction card in the carousel below that comes with the mirror.
