Ask any golfer whether mallets or blades leave shorter comeback putts and most will say mallets without hesitating. The data from our 2026 testing tells a more complicated story. After testing 29 mallets and 24 blades under identical PuttView conditions (same distances, same mix of straight, breaking, uphill and downhill putts, full randomization), here’s what 33,000 putts tell us.
Short putts: Blades win
On short putts, blades leave slightly shorter comebacks on average. The blade leaves 16.1 inches versus 16.5 for mallets. The best individual performer was the Bettinardi BB 7.0 mallet at just 13.2 inches while the best blade was the Bettinardi BB-8W at 14.0.
At the other end, the Evnroll Origin 8 was the worst mallet at 19.2 inches. Interestingly, the Mizuno M.Craft Osaka, which led the entire blade test in make percentage, was the worst blade for comeback distance at short putts at 18.1 inches.
Medium putts: Mallets win
This is where mallets have the clearest advantage. Mallets average 17.0 inches on medium putts compared to 18.3 for blades.
The Scotty Cameron Phantom 9 led all mallets at 15.1 inches while the Bettinardi BB-8W was the best blade at 16.0. The worst performers were the PING Scottsdale TEC Ketsch Onset at 18.9 inches for mallets and the Odyssey Ai-Dual DW at 19.9 for blades.
Long putts: Too close to call
At long putts, both categories average exactly 20.1 inches of comeback distance. When you look at averages, there may be no clear blade/mallet winner but there are large differences between individual models.
The Sausage Golf Boudin Noir led all mallets at 17.3 inches and the Bettinardi BB-1 was the best blade at 18.0. At the other end, the Tour Edge Exotics Wingman 800 Series left the most damage of any mallet at 23.0 inches and the COBRA MIM Sport was the worst blade at 22.2.
Does the pattern hold among the best putters?
To take it a step further, I looked at the top five overall performers in each test by PuttView Handicap and compared their comeback distances at each distance. Among the best putters in each field, the blade short-putt advantage from the full field disappears.
The best mallets leave shorter comebacks than the best blades at every distance. The medium putt gap is the most striking: more than two inches separates the top five mallets from the top five blades at that distance.
The takeaway
For the full 2026 results from both tests see our complete test data here:
-V
1 month ago
So….. Find one you like, with which you can control the distance, and stick with it.