Recently, the fine folks at DivotMat sent me one of their products for review. I have to say that I found it to be pretty interesting.
Let’s step back for a second and I’ll tell you what DivotMat is. According to their About Us page:
DivotMat is the result of over 7 years of testing and refinement. Working with industry professionals we have developed an easy to use intuitive, patented system to show you exactly how you hit the golf ball with every swing.
By working closely with paper manufactures, printing specialists and PGA Tour Professionals such as Fred Couples and PGA Instructors such as Laird Small with Pebble Beach Golf Academy, we have created a revolutionary product that works for beginners through advanced golfers.
Well, that sounds interesting, but how does it work? Fortunately, they go on to add:
Simply swing your club, as you do the club leaves a market at the point of contact. This mark shows you exactly what your club face was doing at the point of impact. You see:
- Where the club made impact
- The swing path
- The club face position
These elements define where your shot will go. By seeing exactly what’s happening at impact, you can make corrections and immediately see results.
I’ll let you know if I agree with that assessment, but first, a little more about it. The basic set (which I reviewed) includes the following:
- 1 DivotMat
- 1 DivotPad
- 37 DivotSheets – Enough for over 1000 swings
- 2 Instructional DVDs by Laird Small
- 1 Handy Carrying Case
- Instruction Sheet
My Impressions
When the DivotMat arrived, the first thing I did was watch both of the instructional DVDs featuring Laird Small. Both were relatively short but included useful information about how to use the DivotMat, but also how to properly set up and hit different types of shots. I also read the included instruction sheet which includes some basic information about how to read and correct certain swing problems.
After that, I took the DivotMat out in the yard to give it a try. Technically, I did this experiment in my parent’s yard because I live in an apartment. But, it can definitely be used at the driving range where it would be useful to practice with the DivotMat and then hit some real shots.
In some ways, you might find the DivotMat to be similar to the lie boards that club fitters use to see how clubs of certain lie and length are suited for your swing.
Setting up the DivotMat was very quick. I simply had to affix a couple of Velcro patches to the DivotMat and to the DivotPad so that the DivotPad will remain in place while swinging. Then, I affixed the DivotPad to the DivotMat. Finally, I affixed a DivotSheet to the DivotPad. It took maybe 60 seconds and I was ready to go.
Each divot sheet has 9 golf balls printed on it. I just had to set up to each one and make a normal golf swing. I found that each sheet can be used for more than 9 swings because subsequent marks on the same ball spot can usually be distinguished from previous marks. In my case, I was comfortable making about three swings at each ball.
I went through three DivotSheets during my testing which you can see to the right. It was quite easy to change sheets, and the set comes with a spare adhesive strip to use when the original one loses its stickiness.
I noticed some very interesting things from my results. I’m probably going to talk about it more in a subsequent post, but I can tell you that my divot marks don’t match the ones that can be seen on the DivotMat web site or on the Laird Small DVDs.
Overall, I think this is a good product. Most of us have probably heard before that reading divots (or divot marks) is a useful tool to help discover what we’re doing with our golf swings. The feedback that is provided is useful to sort out where the low point of the swing arc is, what the swing path is, and whether both are optimal for ball striking.
I found the divot mat to be well-made of quality materials. I only used it for maybe 50 -75 swings, but I don’t believe there will be any issue with it lasting for a long time.
DivotMat sells replacement sheet packs, but it’s hard to tell how long a 36-sheet pack will last. If you make the most of each sheet, I could easily see 3 swings per ball, meaning 27 per sheet for a total of 972 for a pack of DivotSheets. That’s a lot of practice.
The DivotMat set itself is a little pricey at $99.95, but after giving it a try, I think it’s worth it. The instructional DVDs aren’t impressive, but they give a nice overview of the DivotMat and of the basics of the golf swing. The DivotMat is pretty well made and the carry bag is a nice touch to help tote the thing to the driving range.
Most importantly, it works as advertised. The only down side is that after using the DivotMat and creating some divot marks, depending on your level of understanding of the golf swing, it might not be readily apparent what you should change in your swing to help you make good divot marks.
However, I can definitely see where the DivotMat would be useful when working with a pro. It would definitely help in between lessons as a check point to see that you’re making prescribed changes and sharing your used divot sheets with your pro might be useful to help get your swing on the right track.
Even if you don’t take lessons, the DivotMat can still be useful. Just be prepared to have to deal with figuring out what’s going wrong with your swing by yourself with only the aid of a couple of brief DVDs and an instruction sheet with fairly rudimentary information. On the other hand, if you’re already well versed in reading divots, I think you’ll find that this product is highly useful for analyzing your swing in the back yard.
Overall, I think this is a good product and it works as advertised. The price is a little high, but I think the quality and utility make it a solid buy. If you think you might be interested in a product like this, I can recommend DivotMat to you.
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The Fine Print
Disclosure: I received no compensation for this review other than a sample which I used for the review. I’m also not currently involved in any affiliate marketing relationships with DivotMat.
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Question DE, does it take in account the divot’s depth? Or does it just show path and club face angle.
TP, it doesn’t really take depth into account. It takes into account swing path and club face angle.
Though, if you look at my test results, club face angle isn’t really showing. I need to trying and figure out why that is. I’ve been having trouble with toe contact over the last week or two, so I think the DivotMat is telling me something.
Maybe they were thinking that if the golfer corrects the swing path it should correct the angle of approach. So if a golfer has a out to in path and it improves to a in to out path the angle of approach should change from being steep to shallow.
Looking at your marks I assume your divots are close to being dollar bill length and relatively shallow.
TP, you’re pretty much right on about my divots being very shallow and dollar bill length. However, in a lot of the cases, they start way behind the ball.
Last time at the range, however, I had a spectacular session where I essentially turned everything around and I explicitly studied my divots and confirmed with certainty that they weren’t (normally) starting behind the ball. The test now is to do another session with the DivotMat to see if those divots reflect the improvements. My bet is that yes they will be improved, simply because I can see a huge difference in my real grass divots.
That is a good concept. The only problem I would have you have to keep buying more sheets.