Blade use has decreased among the top 25 in the world
Until 20 years ago, golfers using mallets were eyed as suspiciously as those using anchored putters: only players who can’t putt well used them. But that thinking has changed. The iconic Ping Anser and Scotty Cameron blades are still very popular, but the larger, more stable mallet has made sizeable inroads. A closer look at putter use and success among the top 25 players in the world ranking at the end of 2020 is revealing. That group is fairly evenly split with 13 using mallets and 12 using blades. But the average ranking of mallet users is three spots higher (12 to 15). On the greens, mallet users out-performed blade-putter users with an average strokes gained/putting rank of 49 to 79. Mallets also picked up nearly double the amount of strokes compared to blades (.304 to .154). Seven of the top 25 players finished the season with a negative mark in strokes gained/putting. Five of them used blades. Maybe they should try a mallet.
Feature image by Getty images: Tom Pennington
