You Can Already Call It: 2026 Was the Year of the Mallet Putter

Identifying a real trend takes time, because it's not just about one-off moments. It's about a persistent shift in how things evolve to become normalized, and in the case of putters (and winning putters) on the PGA Tour in 2026, I'm ready to declare that mallets have officially taken over at the highest level.

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What makes the shift in putter styles so interesting to watch is how what started as a slow drip quickly became a torrent. Not only did mallet putters see massive success at the professional level, but that success also quickly weaved it's way into the consumer market where companies that used to have a large focus on blades shifted hard into selling more mallets.

This includes Scotty Cameron, Bettinardi, and PING, companies that traditionally relied on blade putters sales - not to mention smaller boutique putter makers like Logan Olsen, whose entire business was based around blade models until recently.

Beyond the win rate, the other major shift around mallets was the framing of their use case in the professional golf and custom fitting worlds. Rather than being a club needed to fix "a problem" or help a bad putter, it became about the science of alignment and shaving strokes.

Once alignment became the focus, players who were already good putters started making the switch and seeing results. This became a watershed moment for others who felt the need to at least experiment with the idea, even if they had never used one before.

The most obvious use case is Scottie Scheffler, who famously tinkered with several TaylorMade Spider models before settling on his current gamer, an L-Neck Spider Tour-X.

The other player who has seen a jump in success this year is recent BMW Championship winner Wyndham Clark, who messed around with several putters early in the year before settling on a PING Ally Blue Onset.

The alignment technology in the PING is called Quiet Eye, and was developed using eye-tracking research to create a high-contrast focal point on the top of the putter.

As per PING, "By combining a focal point with a long alignment line, the design helps naturally quiet a player's eyes before the stroke, making it easier to center and maintain a stable gaze at the critical moment."

Whether it works exactly like that or not, there is no denying the Wyndham's success this year since making the switch.

Even is this era of mallets, there are still a few blade holdouts, and they represent 10% of the field this week in Atlanta for the FedEx Cup; Tom Kim, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Hideki Matsuyama.

Both Kim and Fitzpatrick have wins this year with Fitzpatrick being the only blade user to claim multiple wins in 2026, and unless Kim has a big week in Atlanta, he will remain the only one.