Best Putting Mats 2025

Ben Hogan once had a dream where he birdied the first 17 holes at Augusta National only to par the 18th by missing a six footer. The story shows that even a golfer that dedicated his golfing career to perfecting the game knew that it wasn’t really possible. However, even if practice doesn’t make perfect, for us mere mortals it’s vital if we want to improve our scores and make the game more fun in general. And a great place to start is with the putter.

One of the best ways to shave a few strokes off a round is to hole out with greater regularity. Converting two or three more putts per round, turning bogies into pars, really does wonders for your confidence and your scorecard. And given that the putter is the most used club in the bag, it’s wise to practice with it regularly.

If you can’t get to your club’s practice putting green as much as you’d like, the best putting mats allow you to hone your stroke in the comfort of your own home. There are lots of options available, some with plenty of alignment aids to help you with the crucial skill of hitting your start line, and others recreate breaks so you work on getting better at reading those right-to-lefters, or vice versa.

They come in a variety of sizes too, meaning there’s likely a mat for every golfer, no matter how much space you have at home. The materials vary which influence the speed, and again you'll find mats that are capable of replicating tour speed greens, while others are better match to the slower surfaces that many of us play.

We’ve tested a number of options and have selected our favorites below; by featuring mats with differing price points and features it should help you find the best putting mat for your needs. And if your new putting mat is just part of your growing home practice set-up then we also have guides to the best golf training aids, best golf net and best golf simulator as well.

The Quick List

Best Putting Mats

Best overall

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Our overall winner is the Perfect Practice Putting Mat. It gets the nod thanks to its blend of quality material and construction and thoughtful design that really can help you get better with the flat stick.

We tested the 9ft version but there is a smaller model for those with less room. Either way, you get a fast running surface, said to be between 10-14 on the stimpmeter, so likely faster than your home greens but not quite Oakmont CC during US Open week! This is combined with a slight incline on both the practice holes, which encourages you to hit the putts a little firmer, which is great for those of us who often come up short or struggle with pace in general.

There are plenty of lines and checkpoints too, helping with alignment and starting point as well as showing the distance to the hole. And once you do sink the putt it’s returned to your feet via the wooden ramp

• Read our full Perfect Practice Putting Mat review

Best premium materials

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The Prime Putt mat gets our seal of approval in large part because of its quality. The premium synthetic turf is designed to replicate PGA Tour greens in both speed and feel. Having never played a PGA Tour event we can’t confirm or deny this, but we did find that they rolled true, with speeds around 9-11 on the stimp. Combined with the wooden backstop and you have a really well-made product that should have a long lifespan.

There are different sizes available and we tested the 3ft x 9ft model that comes with three holes. Being able to putt to different locations is nice but the mat could have done with being a bit wider, as we found our feet close to the edge of the mat at times. There are no markings here either, so if you’re looking to work on alignment and your start line then you’d need to add in a few putting training aids, such as a mirror and gate, to help you with these putting fundamentals.

• Read our full PrimePutt Golf Putting Mat Review

Best clever design

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The AirBreak is a clever design that offers up an array of breaking putts. It does this via eight inbuilt air pockets that you inflate to raise, or lower, the base. While it’s ingenious it’s also easy to use and we had no trouble setting up the putts as we wished, including a few devilish double-breakers! It’s also surprisingly light, meaning that it's a cinch to put up and take down, and could even be transportable should you wish.

Other features include a battery powered automatic ball return, which is really useful especially if you’re practicing for a longer period. There’s no alignment aid here, but PuttOut has another mat for that, which is also included in this guide.

We’ve been using the mat for over six months now and it still functions perfectly; that said there is potentially more that could go wrong with this design compared to straightforward putting mat.

• Read our full PuttOUT AirBreak Putting Mat Review

Best to fold away

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Many don't have the luxury of dedicated practice space, so need to be able to store a putting mat easily when not in use. The PuttOut mat excels in this regard, rolling away easily into its own compact storage bag. It also means that it’s a breeze to set up and allows you to crack on with your practice with little to no faff.

Once rolled out the 7ft 11” mat is adorned with a number of distance markers and alignment aids and a ghost hole to aim at; this is really designed for PuttOut’s Premium Pressure putt trainer to sit on, and we’d highly recommended you buying this device if you opt for the PuttOut mat, which is great aid to help you improve your distance control.

Quality is high, with a durable rubber underlay helping the mat to stay in place, while the synthetic turf runs true albeit a bit slower than the suggested 10 on the stimpmeter. All-in-all, this is a hard mat to fault and a great fit for those who also want to incorporate training aids into their practice, such as a mirror and gate, which are made easier to use thanks to the abundance of alignment markers.

• Read our full PuttOUT Putting Mat review

Best for pace control

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Learning to better control your distance is an important skill and a sure way to lower your scores. Getting the ball to the hole can be a challenge for many on longer putts, while hitting shorter putts with too much pace, leaving a longer one back, is also an issue for lots of golfers. The Pure 2 mat is designed to come to rescue, thanks to its length, generous target area and alignment marks.

Offered in two sizes - 10ft or 16ft - we found that it allowed us to work on our lag putting thanks to length, while those alignment aids meant we could also focus on vitals like setup and start line. Again, like the PuttOut mat, it lends itself well to those who want to practice a variety of drills using training aids such as a mirror and a start gate. There’s no hole here either, so adding an aftermarket golf hole will help to make this well-made mat even more useful.

• Read our full Pure 2 Improve Golf Putting Mat Review

Best for breaking putts

(Image credit: Mark Townsend)

The Breaking Ball mat from the Me and My Golf team is another design that aims to help you with breaking puts. And given that most greens have at least some slope, it makes a lot of sense to incorporate this into your practice.

While the AirBreak mat relies on inflation to mimic slope and create break, this mat instead uses three different weighted golf balls that deliver varying degrees of break, from minor to hard. SImply position the ball(s) correctly at address to practice both right to left and left to right putts; this is done thanks to a screw inside each ball and when placed on the right or left of the ball it breaks accordingly.

Any practice putting ball needs to mimic a real golf ball with some accuracy and we found that to be the case here, as they delivered a similar feel off the putter face. In short, this is a great offering if you want to gain confidence over those tricky sliding putts that can too often slip past the hole.

• Read our full Breaking Balls Putting Mat review

Best value

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Despite it being a really affordable option, the Eyeline mat is also pretty comprehensive in its offering, making it our choice for ‘best value’.

It’s 8ft long, which means that it balances not taking up too much room with being long enough to be truly functional. The surface is pretty quick and very smooth; you can brush the ‘grass’ in either direction to either speed it up or slow it down to between 9-11 on the stimpmeter.

We especially liked the five different markers on the surface, with two positioned at a slight angle, which meant that we weren't just putting from the same spot and direction all the time. It’s a simple but effective touch that changes your perception of the putt and breaks the monotony.

• Read our full Eyeline Golf Roll The Rock Putting Mat review

Specifications table

How we test golf equipment

At Golf Monthly, we take our testing seriously. We spend a good deal of time with each product, allowing us to assess its strengths and weaknesses as well as prove or refute the brand’s claims. Coupled with our experience it means that we can offer you reliable, unbiased advice, helping you to decide if a club, ball, shoe or item of clothing is right for you.

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As an example, Staff Writer Sam De'Ath tested all these mats over a long period of time. By ‘living with them’ he was able to see just how well they performed as well as other considerations such as how easy they are to set up and pack away, how durable the materials are and if the putting surface changed greatly over time. He also made sure to try the mats in different areas of the house to check for consistency on a variety of surfaces. Finally he made sure to test all of the features of a specific mat to ascertain whether what it claimed on the box rang true when in use. Sam is a professional golfer who has competed on the EuroPro and ClutchPro Tours and has been testing golf equipment for many years now, so can efficiently test products properly.

How to choose a putting mat

Size

While we’d always recommended going as long as you can, you’ll still need to match the mat to the space you have available. By choosing the longest mat possible you’ll be able to practice those 3 and 4ft nailbiters but also work on your lag putts and distance control, too. We also encourage you to think about the surface you’ll be using the mat on, because some types of flooring, like wooden floors, perform better than others.

Convenience

As shown in this guide, putting mats come in a variety of styles and you’ll want to choose the best fit for you. If you need to pack away your mat after each practice session, then a mat that rolled away is a good choice. Similarly, if you want to be able to bring the mat with you on holiday, or to move it around to different rooms in the house, then again one of the more portable options will be the best fit. However, if you’re fortunate enough to have a dedicated practice space, then a mat with a solid structure might be a better choice.

Durability

All of the mats we reviewed are well-made and use quality materials that should last a long while. If you decide to choose a mat that’s not on this list be wary of any materials that appear ‘cheap’; for consistency purposes you want the putting surface to be durable, while the mat as a whole needs to stand up to lots of use, including being moved around and packed away.

Price

No buying guide would be complete without at least mentioning the price factor. Some of the larger mats can be quite expensive, but there is good value for money to be had here as they last a long time.

FAQs

Are putting mats worth it?

If you are serious about getting better with the putter, and yet struggle to practice, or perhaps don't have time to get to a practice green, then a putting mat is definitely worth it, provided you go for a model that is well made and usable. What makes them so useful is they can be used just about anywhere, can be stored anywhere, and can give immediate feedback on your putting stroke. Not to mention if you go for a model with a hole, it can build confidence right away.

What's the best indoor putting mat?

There are several really good models of indoor putting mat out at the moment. We really enjoyed the PuttOUT and Perfect Practice putting mats in testing because of the quality of the products, ease of use, and benefits to the short game.

What is the best material for a putting mat?

From my experience in testing, the best material for a putting mat is usually a tour-quality synthetic turf, which can often be made from a nylon or even a velvet fabric as is the case with the Eyeline Roll The Rock mat. This fabric is the best because it usually gives a smooth, consistent and sometimes very fast roll. Additionally it usually gives a true roll which is exactly what we want from a putting mat.

Does putting on a putting mat help?

Putting on a putting mat can help your game on the greens in a number of ways, provided you are willing to put in the hours of practice needed to see these improvements. Mats can specifically help with elements like alignment, the plane of the putting stroke, pace control, and if there is a hole on the putting mat, I think confidence can be built up by seeing the ball go in the hole more.

We hope you enjoyed this guide on the best putting mats but if you are in the market for a new putter, then be sure to read our guides on the best blade putters, and best mallet putters as well.