Should you be using a blade or a mallet? Although you may have your own preference, we wondered what the on-course data said – is one better than the other?
Statistically, it would appear that one is better, and one brand is leading the way – more on that below.
Blade putters – more ‘traditional’ in design with a smaller head and typically some form of toe hang.
Mallet putters – more ‘modern’ with a larger head profile. They can have various weight set ups and are typically more forgiving.
Lie angle balanced, or square-to-square, putters – the most modern of them all and currently taking the game by storm (still a mallet, but they just feel different).
Before we look at what models the best putters in the Shot Scope performance tracking database are using, let’s look at the average golfer.
What putters do they use, and what style will help them make more putts?
Most popular putters – 15hcp
| Blade | Mallet |
| Scotty Cameron Select Newport 2 | Odyssey 2 Ball |
| Ping Anser | Odyssey Stroke Lab No. 7 |
| Scotty Cameron Select Newport 2.5 | Taylormade Spider Tour |
| Odyssey White Hot Pro 1 | Taylormade Spider X |
| Evnroll ER2 | Scotty Cameron Phantom X5 |
Here are the stats for the average golfer using these models:
15hcp Blade vs Mallet
| Putter Type | 6ft and in Make % | Avg Lag Putt Proximity (ft) | Avg 3-Putts per Round |
| Blade | 75% | 7.3 | 2.6 |
| Mallet | 82% | 7.7 | 2.3 |
Lag putts – putts from 20ft+
Overall, it would appear that mallets come out on top.
For the average golfer, you are more likely to hole your putt inside 6ft (where it really counts) and are less likely to 3 putt.
You may argue that 7% difference in make % isn’t much, and that is a fair point, but it could be the difference between a career best, winning a match, or another “if only that putt had dropped” rounds.
In fact, 7% translates to mallet users holing one more putt inside 6ft compared to their blade-using counterparts, so it really could be that shot that got away.
Average proximity to the hole on lag putts is better with blades. But, this is then countered by the blade user being less likely to hole the second putt.
Of course, there will be exceptions to the data, and you may well be one of them, but from a statistical perspective, mallets make sense.
So we know what the average golfer uses and how they perform, what about for the best putters in the Shot Scope database?
To determine the best performance tracking putters, Shot Scope looked at make% inside 6ft, average lag putt proximity, and number of 3 putts per round.
Here are the benchmark stats for the best putters:
| 6ft and in Make % | Avg Lag Putt Proximity (ft) | Avg 3-Putts per Round |
| 93% | 3.6 | 0.7 |
And here are the models used by the best putters:
- LAB Golf DF3
- Odyssey Ai-One Jailbird
- LAB Golf MEZZ 1 Max
- Scotty Cameron Select Newport 2
- Odyssey 2 Ball
The initial takeaway… maybe the guys at LAB are onto something.
Except for the Scotty, all of the other models are some form of mallet, and that is really interesting given how good those stats are.
I don’t know about you, but I feel a new putter purchase is on the horizon!
Do you want insight like this into your game as well as over 100 tour level statistics, including Strokes Gained and Handicap Benchmarking?
If the answer to that is yes, then be sure to check out Shot Scope performance tracking products.
The best bit? No subscription fees and lifetime free updates!
Get the most out of your game with Shot Scope.
