This study presents a new, simple method for improving the front-to-back (F/B) ratio of a microstrip patch antenna. The back radiation of the microstrip patch antenna is reduced by removing some metallic parts around the ground plane and placing a new soft-surface configuration, consisting of an array of stand-up split-ring resonators on a bare dielectric substrate near the two ground plane edges. Compared to the F/B ratio of a conventional microstrip patch antenna with a full ground plane of the same size, our proposed microstrip patch antenna experimentally achieves an improved F/B ratio of 9.6 dB.