50 Words or Less
The Raflewski Tour Putting Program is a strong training aid for the high level player. An excellent way to visualize breaking putts and improve green reading. Discs provide a lot of challenge indoors or out.
Introduction
The most under-discussed, underappreciated skill in putting is being able to read the green. You can control speed and line perfectly, but if your reads stink, you won’t make a thing. The Raflewski Tour Putting Program is a great way to improve that oft-ignored skill while also improving your speed and start line.
Set Up & Ease of Use
The Raflewski Tour Putting Program comes with all the pieces you see above: two Make Zone Discs, two Speed Discs, ten Green Reading Dots, and a carrying pouch.
An instructional sheet explains the ins and outs of the system, but it’s fairly intuitive. The dots are used to mark the path of the putt so that you can visualize the break. The discs act as holes.
Effectiveness
One of the best features of the Raflewski Putting Program is the inclusion of two different kinds of Discs. If you look carefully at the picture above, you’ll notice that the Make Zone Disc (white) is much shallower than the Speed Disc. If a putt will travel more than 6″ past the hole, it will roll out of the Make Zone Disc. The Speed Disc, however, demands a speed of between 7 and 16 inches past the hole.
With both types of disc, not only do they demand a particular speed, they’re also effectively smaller than the actual hole (approximately 3″ across). This means that “making” putts on the Discs is very challenging. Finally, you’ll notice that the Make Zone Discs are numbered 1-12 like a clock face. This is done to help players think about where the ball will enter the cup on a breaking putt.
The Putting Dots are a valuable, if somewhat unexciting, part of this kit. It takes some time to set them up perfectly for each putt. If you have a ball roller like The Perfect Putter [review HERE], you can speed up this process a bit.
Seeing the path of a putt – breaking or straight – is really beneficial. Most golfers aim too low, even if they read a putt correctly. With repeated use, your ability to visualize the correct read, the apex, and the right starting line will improve.
A final use of the Discs is being able to create your own hole on a practice green. Whether you need an extra hole because the green is crowded or because you want to work on a particular putt, it’s a nice ability to have.
Longevity
I noted that the Raflewski Tour Putting Ruler II [review HERE] was the “epitome of the ‘serious players will use it a lot, casual players won’t’ training aid,” but the Raflewski Putting Program comes close to one-upping it. There’s a lot of value in this kit, but the recreational player is simply not going to make use of it regularly.
The pieces that give the Putting Program a longevity boost are the Discs (above). If you have an indoor putting mat like the Raflewski Tour Putting Mat [review HERE], these will get a lot of use. They’re very challenging and, if you’re a good putter, fairly addictive.
Value
The Raflewski Tour Putting Program retails for $50. Similar to the Putting Ruler, you’re not getting a lot of physical stuff for your money, but it’s a solid training aid at a fairly low price.
Conclusion
The Raflewski Tour Putting Program is a training aid that I would recommend only to the most serious players. While the tools in this kit are very solid, I have a hard time seeing most recreational golfers getting much use out of them. For the competitive player, however, they may be the key to shaving off those last couple strokes.
Visit Catalyst Golf HERE
Matt Saternus
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