Blade Putter or Mallet?

[kupur]

So much more than just Blade or Mallet.  Face Balanced or Toe Hang, sight line, weight.  Carbon or SS/GSS.  Finding the right weight with the right material and feel can be found in both style of heads that can fit one person.  I have a collection of putters and are all pretty standard with plumbers neck, 360+/- weight and milled carbon.  I put best with this set up, TPMills, MannKrafted, Piretti, Byron Mogran.  However I continue to go back to the DB bend shaft and love that look of mid-mallet.  I added a Toulon Garage Chicago putter into my mix.  The size of the Chicago is a mid wide with DB shaft and looks great at set up but I just perform better with classes blade.  I have tried the new mallets from SC and I continue to go back to the custom carbons. 

[drb1956]

For the past 20 years, I have played what might be called a wide blade. It also has a brass insert, along with being "polar balanced". Couple of weeks ago, I bought a center shafted milled face mallet putter. Got Cleveland Huntington Beach 11c soft putter. The c is for center shafted, as you can get an HB 11 if center shafts aren't your style. The milling is quite nice to look at, with it being kind of a slightly raised swirled look to it. It is also "balanced for the straight back and through style of putting.Never had a center shafted putter, nor a mallet. Was looking for something to "frame" the ball at set up. This putter does just that! Now, to get it on the course before I wear out the area rug in the family room! 

[CK423]

Just never taken the time to get comfortable with a mallet for me

[caniac6]

Did a very basic fitting this morning. I brought my Ping Vault 2 Dale Anser, and my Odyssey Stroke Lab V Line. It was determined I need the face balanced putter at 34''. Also, he said the V Line got the ball rolling better than the Ping. I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on how the ball might come off the face of the Ping Heppler putters VS the Stroke Lab?

[Joe Jordan]

On 11/12/2020 at 6:47 AM, JDennis said:

I prefer Mallets, but this year switched to wide Blades and never been putting better. I can still roll both of the better than a standard blade.

Which wide blade did you go to?

[Konklifer]

B60. Blade design with half mallet. Best of both worlds.

[Medson]

2 hours ago, caniac6 said:

Did a very basic fitting this morning. I brought my Ping Vault 2 Dale Anser, and my Odyssey Stroke Lab V Line. It was determined I need the face balanced putter at 34''. Also, he said the V Line got the ball rolling better than the Ping. I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on how the ball might come off the face of the Ping Heppler putters VS the Stroke Lab?

Doesn’t Stroke Lab putter usually come with those insert that get the balls rolling quicker? 
 

Heppler has no milling/grooves on the face. So just whatever a smooth face does to golf ball. 

[caniac6]

30 minutes ago, Medson said:

Doesn’t Stroke Lab putter usually come with those insert that get the balls rolling quicker? 
 

Heppler has no milling/grooves on the face. So just whatever a smooth face does to golf ball. 

I didn't know what the face was like, or if the loft encouraged a forward roll.

[NoTalentLefty]

Wonder if Taylormade Spider mallets start flying off the shelves?

[Honeybadger]

4 hours ago, NoTalentLefty said:

Wonder if Taylormade Spider mallets start flying off the shelves?

Why? Do they work better than blades? 
😜

[Medson]

5 hours ago, NoTalentLefty said:

Wonder if Taylormade Spider mallets start flying off the shelves?

as they haven’t so far ...

[NoTalentLefty]

19 minutes ago, Honeybadger said:

Why? Do they work better than blades? 
😜

Today ? Yes. Tomorrow? 

[llaw999]

I find aiming with a mallet is easier. Especially 10 foot or shorter they basically aim themselves. But I still prefer an anser style blade. Distance control seems better with the blade and when I get hot with a blade it really shows.

 

I feel like I’m more in sync with the putter when using a blade.  

 

 

[Vater]

I think there's a stigma against using mallets compared to an Anser or Newport - and I get it, I personally don't like the look of piece of french toast on the end of my putter. But if I wasn't open to letting technology help me, then I should just game some MacGregor hockey sticks and persimmon heads... I think the wide adoption of mallets by the top pros also testifies to the fact that the physics get better with a mallet.

 

Speed control and alignment, which now that I think about it is everything there is to putting, are vastly better with my mallet than the blade I used to use for years. Cosmetically, I just went with a fang/wing mallet which suits my eye better than the spiders, white circle alignment aid ones, and half moon shaped ones out there.

[Honeybadger]

5 hours ago, Vater said:

I think there's a stigma against using mallets compared to an Anser or Newport - and I get it, I personally don't like the look of piece of french toast on the end of my putter. But if I wasn't open to letting technology help me, then I should just game some MacGregor hockey sticks and persimmon heads... I think the wide adoption of mallets by the top pros also testifies to the fact that the physics get better with a mallet.

 

Speed control and alignment, which now that I think about it is everything there is to putting, are vastly better with my mallet than the blade I used to use for years. Cosmetically, I just went with a fang/wing mallet which suits my eye better than the spiders, white circle alignment aid ones, and half moon shaped ones out there.

My thoughts exactly. Forgiveness through-out the set is the key for anyone who isn’t a scratch or better. Why struggle to hit sweet spots when you can focus instead on complaining about bad bounces, terrible lies, and crazy pin placements? 

[jacobanderson123]

Hard for me to pick when it is obvious that mallets are better for the large majority of players, yet there are not many mallets out there that I like as much as a blade.

[JDennis]

On 11/15/2020 at 1:37 PM, Joe Jordan said:

Which wide blade did you go to?

I ended up going with the Scotty special select squareback. I will keep the Betti 28 also, it rolls almost as well for me, but the Squareback works the best for me.

[OLD_BONES]

I have a mallet and a blade. When one misbehaves it just goes in the closet for a break.

[Honeybadger]

I think what got me thinking most about switching to a mallet was seeing how many more Tour players now use mallets:

https://www.golfwrx.com/524842/blade-vs-mallet-putters-what-the-top-50-players-are-using-owgr-and-sg-putting/
 

[Gobe3]

I couldn’t putt with a blade and switched to the spider and changed everything. Mallet for me all day.

[nitram]

On 11/12/2020 at 8:41 AM, getitdaily said:

High moi mallets are better inside 10 feet. However, I haven't found a mallet that makes more putts or is better on speed control than a milled blade. Milled blades produce better speed off the face for longer putts which means putts holding their line better. 

 

Inside 10 feet though, high moi mallets really take the fear of a bad stroke out of the mind.

 

Inside 10 feet is where it really counts. Everything else is almost irrelative.

[getitdaily]

1 hour ago, nitram said:

 

Inside 10 feet is where it really counts. Everything else is almost irrelative.

Wellllllll.....

 

I went back and forth with the anser and the spider tour. I putted on the practice green. I played rounds where I would use them both or use one for 9 holes and then the other for the final 9. 

 

I settled on the blade because, while the spider was more reliable inside 10 feet, the blade made up for it by making 1 or 2 putts outside 10 feet. It wasnt like the blade inside 10 feet was a dud, it was pretty good. But making more birdies with the blade while sometimes missing a short par putt was worth it.

 

Until I found the pxg blackjack...best of both worlds. 

[Honeybadger]

11 hours ago, getitdaily said:

Wellllllll.....

 

I went back and forth with the anser and the spider tour. I putted on the practice green. I played rounds where I would use them both or use one for 9 holes and then the other for the final 9. 

 

I settled on the blade because, while the spider was more reliable inside 10 feet, the blade made up for it by making 1 or 2 putts outside 10 feet. It wasnt like the blade inside 10 feet was a dud, it was pretty good. But making more birdies with the blade while sometimes missing a short par putt was worth it.

 

Until I found the pxg blackjack...best of both worlds. 

I actually contemplated removing my 4 iron or 3 wood and carrying 2 putters- a blade for lag putting and the mallet for maids 10 feet... then I just spent a lot of time practicing lag putts with the mallet and what to you know, I got pretty good at it. Go figure- practicing makes a difference. 😜

[getitdaily]

32 minutes ago, Honeybadger said:

I actually contemplated removing my 4 iron or 3 wood and carrying 2 putters- a blade for lag putting and the mallet for maids 10 feet... then I just spent a lot of time practicing lag putts with the mallet and what to you know, I got pretty good at it. Go figure- practicing makes a difference. 😜

It definitely does. My problem wasn't lag putting. My problem was making putts outside 10 feet. With the blade, the ball came off hotter which meant less stroke to get the ball to the hole AND the ball held its line better. I made more long putts with the blade because the ball actually got to the hole with the intended speed for the line. 

 

The spider was the opposite. Line was always great, but from distance I came up short 75% of the time. To get the ball to the hole I had to hit the putt harder. Doing that caused push and pull issues. 

 

I have some final tweaking to do (different shaft) but the blackjack I bought site unseen seems to combine the two putters really well. 

[RainShadow]

Pull all my putts with a face balanced unless I really work at it, then it's a push.

And I don't like mallets, face balanced or toe hang, my eyes want to follow the head on takeaway.

Putt best with heel shafted blades. Anser, BB1, Newport style heads with flow necks or plumbers.  4:30 -5 o'clock toe hang. Current Betti SS2 has the least to hang of any I've like at 4:00ish

Also do well with 8802 types as well, but not over 345gm for some reason.

Edited December 3, 2020 by RainShadow

[Esox]

I played all through the 70's, 80's and 90's with a Wilson 8802 blade. Still have it, but these days I use either an old original BeCu Anser or, (usually) a Mizuno forged mallet.

A great putter my kid lost and I haven't gotten around to replacing was a Tommy Armor ZAAP center balanced putter.

[NoTalentLefty]

I went ahead and bought a spider tour and ordered a series 39 true blade from Sacks Parente . Admittedly putt better with mallet but I love an old fashion looking blade. And the S/P is a very updated old fashion blade.

[ecfritts]

On 11/12/2020 at 8:56 AM, Twism86 said:

I too am thinking of doing similar, just blade to wide blade. I want a milled putter for the feel so why not a Scotty. I would like a classic Newport because I love the look of blades. I currently have a blade insert putter but when I practice with a mallet, I feel my stroke is better. So this leads me to thinking the SC squareback would be a nice middle point. Thoughts? 

While Cameron's are good, I've had a few throughout the years, give the Piretti Cottonwood 2 a look.  They are a little heavier and have a great look and feel.   

[Fairway14]

On 11/16/2020 at 2:33 PM, jacobanderson123 said:

Hard for me to pick when it is obvious that mallets are better for the large majority of players

 

As far as I know there is no evidence that the "large majority of players" putts any better with a mallet than they would with a Bullseye style putter.

[jah7838]

I prefer the looks of my Kingston KP1 over my Toulon Las Vegas, but I'm more consistent inside of 10 feet with the Las Vegas.  I have a tendency to pull putts with the KP1, and the face balance on the Las Vegas helps me avoid that.  It still happens on occasion, but I'm not missing as many short putts with the Las Vegas as I was with the KP1.  

 

I do feel like I made longer putts more often with the KP1, but I have no statistical evidence to back that feeling up.  I'll probably go back to it at some point, but the Las Vegas is staying in the bag for the foreseeable future.