Why Gaming a Blade Putter Might be Costing you Strokes

When looking at the list of putters used by the best golfers in the world, the trend towards mallet style putters is hard to ignore. Among the top 10 players in the world, 8 of them use a mallet putter, leaving only Ludvig and Morikawa (who has experimented back and forth all year) as the lone exceptions. The same holds true for the top 10 players in the Strokes Gained: Putting statistic, with 8 of the top 10 rolling it with a mallet.

So, if you are still gaming a blade putter, it might be time to experiment.

Putting can, for the most part be simplified into 2 aspects: start line and speed control. Match these two variables up, and you are on the path to lower scores. The putter you play directly affects your ability to control these two variables. (Alignment also plays a big role, but we will get to that later)

RELATED: If you struggle to aim off the tee or on the greens, this could be the solution you've been looking for.

Why Mallet Putters are More Forgiving

Mallet putters have a much larger footprint at address. Having this bigger footprint, essentially more mass, almost always makes the putter more statistically more forgiving. The more mass you deliver into the golf ball, the less the face will twist on off center strikes (this goes for every club in the bag).

And for those of us who aren’t doing Tiger Wood’s famous gate drill every day, catching the center of the face consistently is a tall task. A mallet putter helps bridge the gap.

Think of it this way: if you were to roll a ball at a target, would you rather use a pencil or a brick? The brick will be far more stable and forgiving, and that’s exactly what a mallet does for your putting.

This is maybe the biggest thing I have noticed since switching to my DF3 from LAB last season. There have been multiple putts where I missed the center of the face entirely, and the ball still started on line, while maintaining enough speed to reach the hole. As one putter fitter I know likes to say, “these putters are point and shoot."

What about the looks?

One of the most common things I hear from golfers when it comes to using a mallet putter is they prefer more of a classic look. That’s totally fair. To help aid this, companies have done a lot of the work to try and blend the modern with the traditional.

Take the Fastback model from Scotty Cameron’s latest Studio Style line. It uses different visual cues and strategic mass removal that can make you focus more on that front portion of the putter, hiding some of the mass towards the back end. The same thing can be said about Odyssey’s Jailbird, specifically the CH model to match the plumbers neck style neck that a lot of blades have. You also have Scotty’s Phantom 5.2—a silhouette that keeps a similar look to the blade at the front, with wings off each side to add mass for added MOI.

Changing that look might help you more than you think. Remember, I mentioned earlier that putting comes down to start line and speed control, but neither of those matter if you don’t know where you are aiming. The shape of your putter has a huge impact on this. Sometimes having this bigger profile makes it easier to square up the head to address. I hear it all the time when someone picks up a TaylorMade Spider for the first time.

Bottom Line

And as always, this is not a one-size fits all when it comes to fitting putters. If you see in a fitting you line up a blade more consistently, or truly can’t get over the look, then by all means roll with the blade. Putting is all about confidence, so you need to trust what you put in your hands

However, with more forgiveness inevitably baked in, a mallet might be what you need to step up to that tricky five-foot slider with more confidence.

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