Review: SKLZ Quickster Range Net & Glide Pad

Practice at Home
without divots or broken windows
When it comes to getting better at golf, there is nothing that beats practice.  No matter how good you are, you can always get better with more practice, or at least maintain your skills at their level by spending time hitting balls.  SKLZ has been making different training aides for years toe help golfers improve their swing and practice better.  The new Quickster Range Net and Glide Pad are 2 new products that will allow you to practice at home without divots or broken windows.
Unless you live on a turf farm, you realize that hitting shots off your lawn is probably not a good idea if you want to keep a nice looking backyard.  This means you need some sort of turf to hit off of so you can save your grass.  Turf is easy to come by and relatively cheap.  There are many different mats available for purchase.  But no matter how cheap or expensive the turf is, it isn’t able to simulate the way the ground gives when you hit a shot.  It either causes the club to bounce into the ball or slide along the surface without cutting in.  The Glide Pad fixes that problem.  It is a patch of turf on sliding rails connected to a heavy plastic base.  It has a large rubber band holding it is place so it can slide and return to its original position.  It actually simulates taking a divot.  It you hit too far behind the ball, you get that chunky feeling like dirt, but yet without throwing sod around.  Not a single divot was taken during practice, yet my arms didn’t feel like I was hitting off turf either.
 

Hitting off the Glide is awesome but chasing down golf balls is, especially if they are breaking stuff, so an obvious  companion to the Glide is a Quickster Range Net.  SKLZ makes two sizes, a 6′ x 6′ and an 8′ x 8′.  I went with the lower priced 6′ x 6′.  Initially I was a little concerned when I set it up that I might miss.  But a couple 100 balls later, I didn’t miss it once.  I did however move it closer for wedge shots, but drivers, woods, hybrids and irons I was fine with it about 10 feet away.  But if you are sharing this with some other golfers in the family, I’d probably splurge and get the 8′ x 8′ net because sure enough, the first shot my son hit at the net when screaming toward the neighbors house, luckily he didn’t quite get all of it so it just landed harmlessly in their backyard.

The assembly is really easy, even on my first try I had it up in under 5 minutes.  After having it for a month or so, I’ve been able to get it up in about 1 minute.  The materials seem well built and durable.  I’ve had it up and down multiple times and show almost no wear.  The only part that gets beat up is the target flap.  If you use it for alignment, the ball really pounds on that 2′ x 2′ square.  It is only held on by straps and hooks and from time to time, you can knock it off center or even cause it to come unhooked.  It doesn’t impact the nets ability to stop the balls, but can be annoying.

While I mainly used and will use my SKLZ Quickster Range Net and Glide Pad in my backyard, another use specifically of the Glide would be early in the season or at a range that uses mats.  It is plenty portable and will really save on the wear and tear on your body compared to mats on concrete.  It is just tall enough if you want to use a tee in it too, even though you can’t make full use of the “glide” function.  Because it is an inch tall, you may want to make sure you are standing on at an equal height too.

For us northern golfers, this little set-up would make a nice little indoor range too in your basement or garage (if you have the ceiling height to swing).  Now your backyard practice can become your basement practice all winter long.

I really like being able to hit ProV1s in my backyard for practice.  While I can’t see the full flight of the ball, I can groove my swing nicely using the SKLZ Glide Pad and Quickster Range Net.  I use my FlightScope LM to see digitally what the rest of the ball flight would have been and for getting spin rates, etc.  While that makes for an expensive backyard range, one of the other training aids that attaches to clubs that spits out information to your smart phone or an inexpensive LM might be a perfect compliment to these SKLZ tools.

SKLZ made two great products for practicing at home without worrying about taking divots from your lawn or breaking your neighbors windows.  If you really want to get better, you need to practice your skills and SKLZ offers affordable, well designed, durable products to help you improve. The Quickster Range Net and Glide Pad make a perfect at home practice combo.

For more information: www.sklz.com

Quick Hits
+Glide simulates real turf interaction
+Glide protects joints from turf “jolt”
+Glide allow you to hit shot in backyard without divots
+Quickster Range Net is fast and easy to assemble
+Quickster Range Net holds up to hundreds of shots
+Quickster Range Net protects property
+Both can be used indoors or outdoors

–6′ x ‘6 Quickster Range net might be too small for inaccurate golfers
–Glide is about an inch higher than normal ground