Mallet Putter, Blade Putter, What Is The Difference Between The Styles (Video) - by Pete Styles
Mallet Putter, Blade Putter, What Is The Difference Between The Styles (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now let me talk about putter head design. You’ll often find that there’s a myriad of different putters when you walk into the pro shop all different shapes and sizes. But classically they break down into two different categories, and you’ll often find golfers also break down into two different categories. One prefer one style, one prefer another style. The first style is the classic sort of bladed putter. So the putter’s pretty simple. Straight up and straight down on both sides, on the back we’ve probably got a couple of little alignment lines, noticeably the alignment lines will be relatively short because the back of the putter isn’t very deep. Then we also look at the mallet putter headed design a slight different design here. The crescent of a half moon it’s sometimes called as well. Generally speaking here the alignment lines on the back are going to be much deeper the club is wider and the sole is deeper at the back, so the alignment line can be much bigger. So a couple of issues that might create initially when you setting up to the golf ball.

Some people like the look of the classic simple bladed design when they look down on the putter head. It looks nice and compact, nice and neat and they don’t require too much help with the alignment. All the golfers actually prefer the longer alignment line at the back, they find that when they set that behind a ball, it almost gives them a bit more confidence a bit more meat on the bones of the putter, and the line is easier to point in the right direction to help them line up. One other consideration you might have with your putter be it a mallet or a bladed design is whether its face balanced or not. Now face balance is a strange word, but if you hold your club so it balances on your finger, you can actually see that the putter had here six relatively flat and horizontal, but if I take my normal bladed design putter, and let go of that, you see how that twists inwards. Now the difference here is mainly in the neck of the putter. So the neck has got like a little bended goose neck. Now most mallet putter headed design putters will have that goose neck. That face balance is the putter and that’s said to help it be easier for you to swing the club straight back and straight through because it’s tilting around its centre of gravity of its axis point which is in the middle of the putter, the heel shafted or the bladed design putter that isn’t face balanced because the centre of gravity is more in the heel, that putter is said to want to swing more on a gated stroke. So often you’ll find that the look of the putter is one thing that you like but also the feel of the putter, so much that thing is intangible, now how does it feel, oh that feels lovely. Well it might be because it’s faced balanced or it might be because it’s not face balanced that suits your stroke better. I wouldn’t really sort of push any preference onto you here apart from just go personal preference trial and error. Pick up your mates putters when you’re playing, try them, try different ones, go into pro shop, try a few blades, try a few mallets and you’ll probably break down into one of those two camps of preferring a mallet style putter or a blade style putter, but go out and give it a try.
2014-10-07

Now let me talk about putter head design. You’ll often find that there’s a myriad of different putters when you walk into the pro shop all different shapes and sizes. But classically they break down into two different categories, and you’ll often find golfers also break down into two different categories. One prefer one style, one prefer another style. The first style is the classic sort of bladed putter. So the putter’s pretty simple. Straight up and straight down on both sides, on the back we’ve probably got a couple of little alignment lines, noticeably the alignment lines will be relatively short because the back of the putter isn’t very deep. Then we also look at the mallet putter headed design a slight different design here. The crescent of a half moon it’s sometimes called as well. Generally speaking here the alignment lines on the back are going to be much deeper the club is wider and the sole is deeper at the back, so the alignment line can be much bigger. So a couple of issues that might create initially when you setting up to the golf ball.

Some people like the look of the classic simple bladed design when they look down on the putter head. It looks nice and compact, nice and neat and they don’t require too much help with the alignment. All the golfers actually prefer the longer alignment line at the back, they find that when they set that behind a ball, it almost gives them a bit more confidence a bit more meat on the bones of the putter, and the line is easier to point in the right direction to help them line up. One other consideration you might have with your putter be it a mallet or a bladed design is whether its face balanced or not. Now face balance is a strange word, but if you hold your club so it balances on your finger, you can actually see that the putter had here six relatively flat and horizontal, but if I take my normal bladed design putter, and let go of that, you see how that twists inwards. Now the difference here is mainly in the neck of the putter. So the neck has got like a little bended goose neck.

Now most mallet putter headed design putters will have that goose neck. That face balance is the putter and that’s said to help it be easier for you to swing the club straight back and straight through because it’s tilting around its centre of gravity of its axis point which is in the middle of the putter, the heel shafted or the bladed design putter that isn’t face balanced because the centre of gravity is more in the heel, that putter is said to want to swing more on a gated stroke. So often you’ll find that the look of the putter is one thing that you like but also the feel of the putter, so much that thing is intangible, now how does it feel, oh that feels lovely. Well it might be because it’s faced balanced or it might be because it’s not face balanced that suits your stroke better. I wouldn’t really sort of push any preference onto you here apart from just go personal preference trial and error. Pick up your mates putters when you’re playing, try them, try different ones, go into pro shop, try a few blades, try a few mallets and you’ll probably break down into one of those two camps of preferring a mallet style putter or a blade style putter, but go out and give it a try.