Blade vs. Mallet: What the Best and Worst Putters on the 2025 PGA Tour Use

In my ongoing (and probably never-ending) search for a new putter, I started wondering how much truth there is behind the current hype around mallet putters.

I hear it more and more: “Mallets are taking over the PGA Tour.”
But is that actually true?

To find out, I pulled Strokes Gained: Putting (SG: Putting) data from the PGA Tour stats page and looked at the top 20 and bottom 20 putters from the 2025 season.

Quick disclaimer: This isn’t a perfectly controlled study. Some players switch putters throughout the season, and I used the most commonly listed putter based on quick research. The goal here is to see if a pattern exists.

Here is the list of Top 20 putters on the PGA Tour, 2025:

And here is the Bottom 20:

Among the top 20 putters, only 3 players (15%) used a blade-style putter. If we include Ben Griffin—who I initially categorized as a blade user but notably transitioned to a mallet later in 2025 with strong results—then 90% of the top 20 putters were using mallet-style putters.

On the flip side, among the bottom 20 putters, 9 players (45%) used a blade putter. At a glance, this fragmentary analysis seems to support the idea that mallets outperform blades.

I also looked at the release year of each putter, on the assumption that top players might adopt newer technology to squeeze out any potential advantage.

• Top 20 average release year: 2018.95
• Bottom 20 average release year: 2019.50

Looking up the release years quickly on Google, I found only a 0.55-year difference between top and bottom putters. Clearly, top players aren’t necessarily chasing newer technology.

So… Do Mallet Putters Actually Work Better?

Honestly, it’s hard to say for sure. While top 20 players do seem to favor mallet-style putters more than the bottom 20, that alone isn’t enough to conclude that the mallet putter made them top 20. Still, the pattern is clearly there.

Tiger to Scottie, Blade to Mallet?

Cameron Smith is one of my favorite players because of his putting and short game. It was only natural for me to check out what putter and grip he uses, and I came away thinking that a blade Scotty Cameron with a sleek grip is what the top players prefer—and maybe it really does work.

That impression isn’t unique to Smith. Tiger Woods built his legacy with a Scotty Cameron putter and Ping grip, influencing generations of golfers along the way. Many amateurs and even tour players have looked at his setup and thought, “If it works for Tiger, it must be the best.”

I think a similar narrative is now forming around mallets. Watching Rory McIlroy complete the career Grand Slam with his Spider putter, and seeing the impressive career of Scottie Scheffler, where some even wonder if he could be the Tiger of our era—or maybe he already is—people naturally start to associate mallets (and the Spider in particular) with excellence.

As an amateur golfer and a bit of a gear nerd, I think that finding the right balance between performance and personal preference is one of the most fun parts of the game.