The best indoor putting greens and putting mats

My picks

• Best overall: PrimePutt Standard 3' x 9' ($490). PrimePutt lists a 9–11 stimp, a 1/2 in rubber-backed surface that lies flat without tape, and a regulation 4.25 in cup. It's made in the USA and comes with a 7-day trial.
• Best with break: BirdieBall 4' x 12' ($242). You pick the speed when you order (9–10, 10–11 or 11–13), and $69.99 contour shims under the green add break. Owners like the roll but warn the foam surface marks easily, so I'd skip it with pets or small kids.
• Best indoor/outdoor green: Big Moss Commander ($319–$949). A 12 ft putting surface plus a 3 ft chipping apron at stimp 11, rated for 15 years outdoors. One forum owner who found other greens "too slow" called his Big Moss setup "fantastic".
• Best budget: PuttOUT Medium ($79.99). A 7.9 x 1.6 ft mat rated about 10 on the stimp, with 4.6 stars from 1,886 Amazon ratings. It's flat, with pace and alignment marks rather than a ball return.
• Best with a ball return: Palladium ($119.99). A 10 ft x 15 in mat with two holes, a gentle incline that returns the ball, and distance marks at 2, 4, 6 and 8 ft.

Speed: what stimp to look for

The Stimpmeter rolls a ball down a 36 in ramp and measures how far it travels in feet. Published USGA guidance puts regular-play greens at about 8 (slow), 10 (medium) and 12 (fast). A mat that's much slower than your course teaches you to hit putts too hard, so I'd aim for 10–11.

PuttOUT (about 10), PrimePutt (9–11) and Big Moss (11) all publish a figure; BirdieBall lets you order the speed. If a mat doesn't publish a stimp, I treat it as a drill mat rather than a green.

What size putting green you need

Buy a foot or two longer than the putt you want to practice. PrimePutt says its 3' x 9' gives a maximum putt of 8 ft. For lag putting, a 12 ft surface like the BirdieBall 4' x 12' or Big Moss Commander is the practical minimum. Width matters less, but 3–4 ft lets you putt from different angles and lets two people share.

Putting on a golf simulator

Not every launch monitor reads putts well. Foresight's own comparison lists putting analysis for the GCQuad but not the GC3, and Uneekor lists putting analysis for the EYE MINI. In GSPro you can set the green speed and turn on putting assistance, a breakline indicator and auto-aim.

On Golf Simulator Forum, owners are split: several auto-putt or give themselves 6 ft gimmes, while others enjoy sim putting once the stimp matches their mat. One owner found the sim ball rolled "twice as far" as on his Big Moss green until he fixed the setting.