I thought mallets were more forgiving

[Vater]

I saw something online not long ago dispelling the commonly accepted belief that mallets are more forgiving. I think it said something like mallets were better like 6' and in, but were worse in the farther distances. (I can't seem to find it again, I think it was on one of the popular equipment testing sites.)

 

I know toe hang has something to do with it, but why did the testing show that blades are better in many cases? Aren't mallets supposed to be much more stable and "forgiving"? And aren't they also supposed to help with distance control?

 

I started with an Odyssey blade, mainly because I didn't know any different, then I went to a TM mallet for years because of all the claims I just mentioned. Now, I'm back to a blade and my distance control is measurably improved.

 

I know, I know, it's the driver not the car. But can someone explain if it's technically true that mallets are more forgiving or not?

[MattUtah]

Heel toe weighted blade mishits have less left and right dispersion but more front to back dispersion. 
 

Mallet mishits tend to miss farther side to side, left and right, than blades, but distance loss isn’t as severe. 

It has to do with where the center of gravity is in the putter. Mallets are obviously farther back but not all mallets are the same here. When it’s extremely rear weighted it can make it hard to close the face back up on longer strokes leading to pushes too. Hence the trend this year to forward CoG in mallets (and blades). 

 

[kmay__]

44 minutes ago, Vater said:

I saw something online not long ago dispelling the commonly accepted belief that mallets are more forgiving. I think it said something like mallets were better like 6' and in, but were worse in the farther distances. (I can't seem to find it again, I think it was on one of the popular equipment testing sites.)

 

I know toe hang has something to do with it, but why did the testing show that blades are better in many cases? Aren't mallets supposed to be much more stable and "forgiving"? And aren't they also supposed to help with distance control?

 

I started with an Odyssey blade, mainly because I didn't know any different, then I went to a TM mallet for years because of all the claims I just mentioned. Now, I'm back to a blade and my distance control is measurably improved.

 

I know, I know, it's the driver not the car. But can someone explain if it's technically true that mallets are more forgiving or not?

 

I think the idea is that they are forgiving in the cog aspect, like putts hit from the heel or toe should in theory still travel the same distance and stay on line as well as a center strike. Aim, pace, and alignment is still on the user to perform, no putter is going to make a putt not hit hard enough reach the hole.

 

More weight behind the toe and heel sections to impart the same impact force on the ball as a center strike I think is the main idea. 

[Mikey PHP]

This might help.

https://www.golfwrx.com/642025/should-you-be-using-a-blade-or-mallet-putter/

[jholz]

I'm not sure I can explain, but I can provide an opinion...for whatever that is worth. 😄

 

I don't think there is really that much difference between a blade and a mallet in terms of forgiveness. Here I am thinking of forgiveness in the sense of hitting the center of the clubface, and what happens when you don't. I'd hazard a guess that with putters, forgiveness has more to do with face construction/milling and the overall size of the face, rather than what lies behind it - if you get my meaning. Therefore, I don't know if we can make a blanket assumption concerning all mallets and all blades in terms of "forgiveness."

 

But, there is that "conventional wisdom" you mention separating blades from mallets - i.e. that mallets are better for short putts and blades better for long. 

 

I look at that as a function of MOI and "feel" rather than forgiveness. 

 

Mallets tend to help keep the face square and their (usually) larger/longer alignment aids help players to get their putts started online. But, mallets can also feel a bit dead because of all of the mass. That "dead" feeling makes distance harder to control (theoretically) and therefore longer putts more difficult to execute. 

 

Blades (again theoretically) are going to offer the opposite trade off.

 

I've played both - sleek blades and giant mallets and found that I can miss putts effectively with both types. I can't say I've ever seen significant performance differences in terms of forgiveness. But, I do tend to miss a lot more short putts with the blades. That's why I tend towards mallet designs.

 

Currently, I play a tiny mallet that offers what I consider a happy medium between the two. Enough MOI to help, but also small enough to provide feel. The face milling provides some, but not much, forgiveness.  

 

 

[MattUtah]

This popped up for me on Facebook after writing my post above. The TM guy explains it pretty well. 
 

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/taylormade-spider-gt-putters--what-you-need-to-know?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=golfdigest&fbclid=IwAR2MQ4Pjv-wp8gZK-V4wBxiStP40vJvJo_0aCk0rgPbBxRPwAs3lUqAhLRE

[amace04]

I have an old Ping Craz-e mallet, and I find my ability to hit my line is always very forgiving with it.   Where I struggle is distance control, especially moving from a fast green to slow.  

 

What isn't factored though, is the fact that I probably just suck at putting and it's not the club at all.

[paulman21]

Something else to consider is weight/swing weight. Your blade may just have the right weight and weight distribution for your stroke. Your mallet may not

[Vater]

2 hours ago, paulman21 said:

Something else to consider is weight/swing weight. Your blade may just have the right weight and weight distribution for your stroke. Your mallet may not

That's a good point - I'm rolling a 33" newport 2 with the 40g weights. I imagine that weighting is so much heavier and pushed out to the toe and heel than blades of yesterday... probably even more weighting than the mallet I was using.

[getitdaily]

It has to do with face rotation and weight.

 

A blade has more face rotation. On shorter putts it's a lot easier to leave the face open or close it too much with a blade. A high moi mallet on short putts just doesn't rotate much. The face stays closer to square for much longer (path issues aside). 

 

On longer putts, where make are generall less common altogether, a blade gets the ball to the hole better because the center of gravity is more forward. A 360g blade has more initial velocity than a 360g rear weighted mallet. So there's less stroke length required to get a blade putt to the hole from distance. The longer or harder stroke for a mallet causes an key issue...the heel of a mallet tends to outrun the toe. That causes pushes which are often countered with handsy over corrections and pulls.