[PHOTO: Luke Walker]
Nelly Korda and Scottie Scheffler use similar TaylorMade Qi10 drivers. Now it appears the women’s world No.1 is following Scheffler’s lead on the greens, switching to a TaylorMade Spider Tour X mallet at the AIG Women’s Open. She opened with a pair of four-under 68s to take the lead after 36 holes, before slipping back to third place after the third round then rising into a tie for second behind winner Lydia Ko.
It’s merely a continuation of a trend that has been decades in the making. Up until about 20 years ago, a lot of people looked at golfers using mallets like they eyed those using anchored putters – they’re solely for those who couldn’t putt very well. A lot has changed since then.
Although the iconic Ping Anser and Scotty Cameron blades still hold plenty of cachet, the larger-headed, more stable mallet has made sizeable inroads into the discussion. A look at the putter usage of the top players on the PGA Tour and degree of success offers some clues as to why.
Of the top-five on the Official World Golf Ranking, four of them use mallets: Scottie Scheffler (1), Xander Schauffele (2), Rory McIlroy (3) and Wyndham Clark (5). Only Ludvig Aberg (4) uses a blade. Further, all four are positive in strokes gained/putting, with Schauffele and Clark ranking among the top-15 on the PGA Tour in that statistic.
It was not exactly a “desperate times call for desperate measures” situation for Scheffler, who switched at the FedEx Cup Playoffs a year ago. He was ranked No.1 in the world but had seen lacklustre performances with the flatstick prevent him from even better results. Scheffler ranked 135th in strokes gained/putting at -0.192 when he made the change.
“I’ve always liked the visual of that Spider putter, but I really just did not like the feel,” Scheffler said at the time. “I’ve always struggled with putters that have a lot of weight in the back side, and this one is a bit different than a lot of the Spiders that they’ve made. The weight is more in the front so it has the feel of a blade putter that I like, but it also has a lot of that visual on the top where it’s easier for me to line up… The margins in this game are so close, so it’s something that I feel really comfortable with where the balance point is on this putter.”
The reasons players change putters are varied. Some are looking for a change of scenery that might break them out of a funk. Some players prefer certain types of putters on particular grasses. In Korda’s case, according to TaylorMade, she liked the look and the shorter sightline.
For everyday players, there are a few things to consider if experiencing grief on the greens. A mallet can provide stability, better alignment features and, importantly, are not solely for straight-back-straight-through strokes anymore. Many of the 18 mallets on the 2024 Golf Digest Hot List (see Australian Golf Digest‘s November issue for the full line-up) come in toe-hang models as well as face-balanced versions. Sure, the destroyer battleship appearance of some models might be unsettling at times, but the fact is, these sledgehammers help promote a fluid stroke.
As Dick Helmstetter, former R&D chief at Callaway who recently passed away, said when the Odyssey 2-Ball first came out, “If it helps you get it in the hole, the ugliness goes away in a heck of a hurry. You don’t get paid for looking cool out there.”
