Ahead of next week’s DP World Tour Playoffs, SMS on Tour, the DP World Tour’s equipment surveying service, posted the address photos of each putter used by the top 70 qualifers.
Just seven of them, 10 percent, were considered blade putters by modern standards. Go back 15 years and blades would likely make up the vast majority.
On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped, Odyssey Tour rep Cody Hale joined the show and told co-host Johnny Wunder that Odyssey’s usage on the PGA Tour trends toward mallets at an 80 percent clip.
But Wunder raised the question, could players ever go back to blades? The other guest this week was PGA Tour pro Justin Lower who still uses a PXG protoype Anser-style blade.
Wunder suggested the trend would only reverse when gear heads decide they want to go back to what worked for them before.
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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, Odyssey
Hale didn’t shrug him off. He also pointed out that while “zero torque” putters are skyrocketing in the retail market, usage has stayed relatively flat at the professional level over the last year. But he also explained why so many players have gravitated toward mallets.
“We can build mallets that play like blades,” Hale said. “And obviously, mallets with more stability, but you get all the alignment of benefits out of different mallets.”
But with the rise of “zero torque” putters, could OEMs eventually build blade putters that play like mallets? Only time will tell but Hale said there’s still a lot of intrigue around that category.
“So it’s going to be interesting to see where it goes because it’s, you know, some of the zero torque models have, you know, there’s still a lot of testing going on and we’re still introducing a lot and we still feel like there’s a lot of players that could benefit from it,” Hale said. “But as far as the usage on Tour, I mean, it’s sort of it’s pretty level right now.”
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