I must admit, I use a lot of golf training aids and I’m also a stats geek when it comes to my golf game. I track my golf stats for every round and chart them out. (It’s fine, make fun of me now.) For most of my rounds, I track three main categories; fairways hit, greens in regulation and number of putts. I always want to figure out if a golf training aid is working for me or wasting my time.
These three statistical categories are among the most basic and easiest to track. As the end of each round, I typically add up these three categories and try to identify where I need improving. As a current 11-handicaper with aspirations to cut that in half by the end of 2015, one obvious area needs major improvement – putting!
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If you look at my stats from my last round of golf, which was yesterday at La Cantera Resort Course, I had a total of 35 putts. I shot an 83 overall, meaning 42% of my strokes came from my putting. What if I would have just eliminated my 3-putts from yesterday? I’d have shot an 80 and I would have felt much better about my round.
Enter The Navigator Golf Training Aid
I’ve been working with a new golf training aid over the last few weeks called the Navigator, sold by Dirty Larry Golf. I jumped at the opportunity to review this putting training aid because I know my putting is flat out crappy. My short game as a hole is pretty much pathetic but I have identified these areas of my game for improvement as I work towards a 5-6 handicap by the end of 2015.
The basic premise behind the Navigator golf training aid is seeing, understanding and repeating a square putter face. According to the Dirty Larry Golf website, the longer the putt you have in front of you, the more precise you have to be, so the Navigator helps you keeping your putter face square.
You can really see where you are aiming and it does so with just a simple clip-on rod that attaches to just about any putter. Once you clip-on the device, you’re tighten it down with a screw on the side and then align the rod with the Navigator box, giving you a perfectly straight putter face.
It’s recommended to start with 3-foot putts to get used to it and start seeing the ball fall into the hole. This is where I am currently focusing my efforts. I figure if I can knock down these three footers all day long then I’ll start seeing my handicap drop like a rock.
Final Thoughts on the Navigator
There’s thousands of golf training aids on the market today, with many of them coming in the form of a putting aid. As I mentioned above, for me, putting strokes made up 42% of my total score.
Justin Leonard led the PGA Tour in putts per round in 2014 with an average of 27.7 7 per round. Hell, Lucas Glover was in last place with 30.85 putts per round. If I can average 32 putts per round I think I can get down to a single digit handicapper pretty easily.
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Pros:
- Very simple to use and easy to transport in golf bag.
- No expensive lasers or extensive setup required.
- Quick realtime feedback on putter face alignment.
- MADE IN USA!!
Cons:
- At $59.95, might seem expensive to many golfers.
At the end of the day, I think the Navigator will help me make more putts, so I am going to continue to use it. The pros I listed above really outweigh the price. If you’re looking for a solid golf training aid to help you sink more putts, the Navigator is a very suitable option.
Here’s a short video of a few putts hit with the Navigator on my garage putting green. You can find other golf product review videos on the Front9Back9 YouTube channel.
As always, let us know what you think below or hit us up on Twitter @Front9Back9.
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