Because we all should hit it farther, every year Drivers is the most-read section of the Hot List. What began as a not particularly profound assumption about audience behavior in 2004 when the Hot List debuted as a magazine-only review of new clubs has since become proven fact. Every website nowadays counts its clicks and scrolls in fine measure, and in the spirit of not embarrassing people about the naked desperation of their lopsided attention, I won’t disclose specifics. I’m just as guilty of perennially spending more time with Drivers under the auspice of proofreading.
But not this year. For the 2026 Hot List, the first section I read, greedily, after haranguing our equipment editors for it to be ready already, was Putters. And not because I had a worse-than-average season on the greens. And not because I’m finally grasping the math that putts will always account for the most strokes in any round I play. If I were that logical and disciplined, I’d be vegan. No, I’m just another hack in whom the quixotic outruns the realistic. I got obsessed about new putters last season from watching the pros on TV.
As of this writing, the top 20 male players in the world use a mallet. You almost can’t overstate how big a deal that is. Since the Dawn of Golf, from Jones to Palmer to Nicklaus to Woods with so many in between, being a great player has been knowingly associated with using a blade putter. While totally acceptable for good ball-strikers to resort now and again to whatever blobs necessary to overcome putting demons, the game’s true Jedis have always wielded the thin sabers. Even for club golfers with balky strokes, carrying a blade has sort of connoted commitment to higher ideals of the game: Three-putt for double but be a purist about it.
Without being pretentious (I swear, ask around), I happen to putt with the bladiest of blades—a right-handed version of what Phil Mickelson used circa 2008. She’s been benched only a few times and never for long since our first magical outing together nearly two decades ago. My golf buddies tell me to never stop putting with it, though sometimes I wonder if their motives are pure. Some are the same guys who outdrive me by 30 yards, wedge it to 12 feet, then routinely can what’ll at most be a left-edge or right-edge putt. It’s pointless to wonder if the charm of the game has been blunted by better technology, right? Mallets make more putts, so it’s time I find one for me.
Then again, I’m not a pro. Whether I improve my putting stats by something like 2.8 percent next season has zero bearing on how well my children eat. I play only to have fun, and I enjoy trying to manipulate a blade on a sidehiller roughly as much as I don’t enjoy the rigidness of stroking at a “zero-torque” mallet, let alone looking at one. Of the innumerable analogies that rush to mind, it’s like the hunter who prefers a bow over the 30-06. Also, it’s possible the nerds are switching to mallets en masse because the numbers are so good on launch monitors—but real golf is played outside on grass.
With his signature tone of patient frustration, Senior Editor of Equipment Mike Stachura has his own analogies. “The game, even at the elite level and maybe more so now, is about simplification and eliminating variables. Mallets are like a car with automatic transmission versus a stick shift. You can make the argument that the subtleties of a manual transmission enhance the driving experience. You cannot deny that an automatic transmission makes driving more efficient. Same with computers versus typewriters or phone GPS versus paper maps. Mallets simply are the natural progression of technology. Blade putters will not be a good idea ever again. Anyone using one probably still balances his checkbook.”
For the record, I’ve never used a check-book ledger, but I can imagine how such tactile awareness of one’s transactions promotes greater fiscal health. Regardless of how it’s recorded, I’m realizing $500-600 on a new putter might be the smartest money anyone can spend this season.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
