“Errrrr, YES!” was our response when we got an email from the Communication Director at Puttr telling us that their smart indoor putting green is powered by Raspberry Pi, and would we like one to play with at Pi Towers?

How does it work?

Puttr uses a Raspberry Pi and a connected camera to harness computer vision, determining the location of the hole and the top of the putting green and tracking the routes that golf balls take as a player strikes them. When a ball is detected, the software captures the path of the ball and sends that data to the Puttr app over Bluetooth. The golfer receives feedback on their speed and accuracy.

That’s not all the app does, though, which is lucky because being told by my phone what an absolute waste-of-space putter I am is not my idea of fun. What I’m interested in are the gamification options for single and multiplayer arcade-style games. You can connect with other Puttr users to play in a tournament, practise on your own and try to climb the leaderboard, go on a quest to unlock new levels by earning stars in different game modes, or join monthly and annual challenges.

Repetitive practice needn’t be boring

Matt Allard, the CEO and founder of Puttr, wanted to take the tedium out of putting practice. Putting, I’m told, is the most important bit at the end of a golf game, when you try to sink the ball into the hole. The idea is that you don’t need to go out on a long, expensive round of golf just to get a little putting practice. Driving ranges only let you practise the big full swing shots, which are much less monotonous and look more impressive than tiny little putts, hence putting practice taking a back seat for many amateur and professional golfers.

Portable and storable

The whole kit and caboodle lives inside in a sleek, lightweight metal carry case, with the green rolling out of it. You clip a little plastic chute along the side so the ball can be fed back to you once you’ve sunk it. It’s a nice dark green, much more classy than that garish felt you see in bathroom versions of this kind of thing — fitting for what we’re currently using as a posh corporate toy. If you want to use this at home and don’t have space to keep it rolled out all the time, you can squirrel everything back inside the weatherproof box and store it.

Can’t golf, won’t golf

Our CEO Eben isn’t the golfing type, and I happen to know he keeps a joke about that in his back pocket ready for when he meets other CEOs who are the golfing type. That’s why I decided to roll out the office Puttr set behind my desk, which is adjacent to the boardroom in which Eben chats to all the CEOs and fancy visitors to Pi Towers. I’m just trying to get him to expand his joke repertoire a little here. He can’t say with a straight face that he can’t golf at all and then walk everyone past a very chic indoor putting practice green, can he? Will keep you updated.