Over the past few weeks we’ve shared the results of both our Most Wanted Blade and Most Wanted Mallet Tests. Those individual results will help blade guys find the best blade, and mallet guys find the best mallet.
But what if you’re less certain? What if you don’t care if your putter is a blade or a mallet?
Fortunately, for those who’re looking for the best putter PERIOD, this year we’re providing you with a head to head comparison of blades vs. mallets.
Does one style perform better than the other? We’ll answer the question on the top of everyone’s list…
Which Putter is The Best?
That is a valid question. Now that the Carbon Putters Ringo 1/4 has been crowned the 2015 Most Wanted Blade Putter and the PING Cadence TR Ketsch Heavy has earned the 2015 Most Wanted Mallet title, it’s only natural to want to see how they stack up against each other.
Today, we will give you the overall winner.
However, we are not just going to compare the two winners. In fact, we are going to show you how all fifty-seven putters stacked up in head-to-head competition.
This time, the title is not Most Wanted Blade or Most Wanted Mallet. Today’s winner is the Most Wanted Putter in 2015!
How We Test
Strokes Gained (developed initially by Professor Mark Broadie of Columbia Business School) putting has been approved by the industry and golfers as the most accurate and important way to present player putter efficiency.
Based on Professor Broadie’s Strokes Gained methodology, our formulas translate our results into a metric golfers can easily understand – the impact of a given putter over 18 holes.
The final Strokes Gained 18 number you see is the number of strokes you can expect to drop off your score for a 18 hole round of golf relative to the average of putters in the field. As we mentioned yesterday, MyGolfSpy scoring is based upon the Strokes Gained putting statistic. Like years previous, our testers putted from 5, 10, and 20 foot distances, but rather than measuring radial accuracy, this year we are looking at strokes gained vs. the average.
For more details about the test itself, visit our How We Test page.
For the Most Wanted overall winner, we combined the mallet and blade data together, calculating strokes gained versus the stroke average for the entire cohort. This means that the numbers can be different, since we are not just isolating the mallet or blade data sets. For consistency, all fifty-seven putters were tested by the same testers, on the same greens, and during the same time of year.
The Results
As we said before, the Most Wanted Putter will be the one that allows you to put lower numbers on your scorecard. That’s what matters, and that is why this system of assessment was adopted.
PING Cadence TR Ketsch Heavy
Carbon Ringo 1/4
MLA Tour Classic
bPutters Panther
Kronos Mandala
TaylorMade Tour Black Indy
Odyssey Works Versa 2-Ball Fang
Scotty Cameron Futura X5
Bellum Wimore 707i-CB
PING Cadence TR Rustler Standard
The Head to Head Data
To reduce the size of the chart our default view shows only those putters with strokes gained values of zero and above. We’ve provided two filters at the bottom of the chart which enable you to select a specific range of strokes gained values, mallets or blades exclusively, or 100% of the data.
*Hover over any column title in the dynamic chart below to enable sort features. If the chart doesn’t load, please click here for a static version.
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ALEX FONG
7 years ago
After 40 yrs and a fitting, I can say it’s not always just the indian or the arrow, but both, in my case anyway. Hunting for a better arrow, cost be damned, I went for a fitting at Cool Clubs several months ago. They use high speed cameras and computers to analyze your stroke, and suggest putters from the data, your preferences, and their experience as fitters. Like Trackman, the equipment revealed details of my stroke that were not observable and clearly explained why my ball was rolling where it was. Face angle, rotation, putter path and point of face impact were not what I thought/felt. It doesn’t take much for anyone of those things to send the ball off-line or off-speed. The forgiveness of a club will only do so much. As a mid single digit, my speed has always been excellent, but have always struggled with line. Some days magic, somedays mud. At the fitting, I was able to improve my stroke/results a little, and decided to work on my stroke with the putters I already own. Slowly but surely, my putting has improved, and I have a truer idea what goes wrong when it does. Changes can be tough to make when your mind, eyes and body run on 40 yrs of grooved instincts. The $120, or so, that I spent was well worth it, as there is no other way to discover what I did, and I am improving, which is part of the enjoyment of the game. All of my putters feel different, now that I’m using them differently (better actually), but none of them sets-up or feels just right, even when the ball goes exactly where I want. After my stroke stabilizes a bit more, I will look at the suggested putters, and find an arrow that fits my improved stroke. Btw, I really don’t work for Cool Clubs, lol. If you’re serious about improvement, go to any fitter with the hi tec gear. Whether your stroke is perfect or not, you’ll be pointed towards putters that fit, and if your not perfect, you’ll probably learn things that you could not have any other way. Can’t lose, eh? Cheaper than most of the new putters and the honeymoon will last, lol.