The right putter, mallet or blade, isn’t about substance or shape – it’s about swagger. We considered 75 entries; 33 made the list.
Putters are where freedom in golf-club design truly lives. What else can explain a category in which a shape that looks like a discarded metal detector works as well and feels as good as one that looks like a museum-quality piece of jewellery? We cannot in good conscience claim that there is any such thing as one perfect putter. In their current form and function, mallets and blades seem more like two sides of the same bitcoin, exploding exponentially in value with every purely struck roll. Each offers a unique take on golf’s ultimate confidence game. The modern mallet, with its unshakable stability on off-centre hits and its nearly self-correcting aim, seems to solve every balky stroke’s worst nightmares. Meanwhile, the lure of today’s blades goes beyond their naturally clean lines – new materials and face designs bring on a roll as true and forgiving, too. Even better is how these new and classic designs, with the high-tech methods in today’s putter fittings, make our strokes smoother than the greens we are putting on. Because when we have the right putter in our hands, nothing seems wrong.
Feature image by J.D. Cuban
