What are those putting gates on PGA Tour practice greens? We tried one out

If you’ve gone to a PGA Tour event practice round this season, chances are you’ve seen players putting through a new device that looks like a small bridge.

That device is the new Grasp Technology Smart Putting Gate and it’s providing PGA Tour players with data on real putting greens they’ve never been able to get before.

That’s because where you get fit for a putter and where you actually end up using it are usually miles apart.

Typically, even PGA Tour pros are fit for putters in controlled environments. On mats, hitting a straight putt, with no slope. You never see that on the golf course.

The reason to fit putters indoors is so players can use the myriad of putter-fitting technologies available to see what both the putter and ball are doing during the stroke. That allows fitters to dial in a putter that’ll get the ball rolling forward toward their target. Some devices can measure what the putter does using attached tracking markers on a real putting green, but ball data is trickier.

That’s where the Smart Putting Gate can be so valuable. Think of it like a launch monitor, but for putting. The Smart Putting gate uses an array of lasers and high-speed cameras to capture speed, line and impact location on putts without any markers on the ball or putter.

The first Smart Gates showed up on the PGA Tour earlier this year, and just last week, the company announced the signings of Ben Griffin and Ryan Gerard as their first Tour ambassadors.

To see how the new technology works, I demoed the Smart Gate with co-inventor Phil Long and Tour rep Scott Wilkerson.

Using the Grasp Smart Putting Gate

One of the great benefits of the Smart Putting Gate is the ease of use. It can be set up anywhere, indoors or out, and used on any putt. A laser shoots out and shows you exactly where you place the ball and where the device is aimed.

I struggle with right-to-left breaking putts, so we used a roughly 12-foot, downhill right-to-lefter that Phil and Scott had marked the day prior to see the exact path the ball needed to travel.

I didn’t have my current gamer, a Ping Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset, with me, so I grabbed one presented on the green, but we quickly discovered that not only was my speed control wildly inconsistent, but so was my start line.

So we pivoted and luckily borrowed the last demo of the Scottsdale TEC ABO on the Ping truck — they’ve been popular lately — to use for the demo.

Once I got something resembling my gamer, we saw my speed instantly settle right around 1.45 m/s. With such a tight variance around the number, it became very clear that I was rolling the ball end-over-end with little skid. We could also confirm this by looking at the cameras mounted on either side of the gate that help track the impact position.

PING Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset Custom Putter

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA TOUR Superstore

But immediately, it became obvious why I was struggling with right-to-left putts. I couldn’t actually roll the ball through the center of the gate. I was left every time.

Currently, the gate can’t adjust the starting point of the putt or where the center line actually is for the slope of the putt, but I was more than 20 mm left of the target on some putts. That was despite me feeling like the ball was traveling straight down the target line and lining up to the ball’s side stamp.

What I learned

To get the ball back on line (within 15 mm left of target was considered good for a putt with this much slope), we did two things.

First, it became clear that for whatever reason, I was lining up this putter a touch left. Unfortunately, we didn’t have my gamer to see if it was the same issue, but there’s a good chance it’s a thing. To counter this, we found that instead of using the side stamp to point at the target, I line up better using the word “Titleist” on the ball placed perpendicular to the target.

The other point is that I tend to see things much further right than they really are. When I felt like the ball was nearly grazing the right edge of the gate (which is about four-ish golf balls wide), it was actually still a touch left of center. Basically, it helps me to pick targets farther right than what they actually should be.

The good news is that I roll the putter I have great. I was never actually fit for the putter, so that’s something I’d like to do eventually, because the alignment issue is something that could be fixed easily.

For now, I know I’m using a putter that works well for me — better than anything else; I just have to make a slight adjustment to my routine.

It’s information I would have never gotten in an indoor fitting environment because I’ve never struggled to aim anything on a straight putt. We could only see this issue on a real green.

The Grasp Smart Putting Gate will be available to consumers later this year, with a target launch in Q4 of 2026. Tour professionals, coaches and OEMs will be able to purchase units in August.

Want to find the best putter for your game in 2026? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

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