Does Zero Torque Even Matter If You’re Already A Great Putter?

The 2026 Most Wanted Putter test covered 79 putters across three categories: blades, mallets, zero torque. When the data settled, the category story was hard to argue with.

Zero torque averaged -6.29 PuttView handicap across 26 putters. Mallets came in at -3.99 across 29. Blades finished last at -2.65 across 24. That’s a 2.3-stroke gap between zero torque and the next best category.

The category verdict is straightforward: zero torque performed better and it wasn’t particularly close. However, I wanted to look a little deeper at the individual player level. No players had blade as their best overall category and only two had mallet as their best.

The best putter in the test still improved

These are the averages of the best putter in the test across all three categories. Zero torque was technically his best category but his spread between worst and best category was just 1.49 strokes.

Zero torque still moves the needle, even for good putters

Another strong putter in the test had a blade average of -6.09 and a mallet average of -5.22.

Zero torque pushed him to -10.97. It was the lowest single-category average in the entire tester pool. That’s a 5.75-stroke swing from his blade average to ZT, nearly four times the gap the best putter in the test experienced across the same three categories.

Both players are good putters. One has something in his stroke and technique that zero-torque putters are built to change or improve.

So does zero torque matter if you’re already great?

Zero torque was the best performing category in the test. When you get to the player level, the gap between what zero torque does for one player versus another can change. The bottom line is that both players (who were already good putters) got better. Your stroke and technique are always going to come into play. If you haven’t gone for a putter fitting or experimented with different putters recently, it’s probably worth a try to see how much of an impact it has on your game.