How Our Pros Choose a Putter

Walk into any pro shop and the putter rack is where sensible people lose their minds. It's the club you'll hit more than any other, and somehow the one most golfers buy on looks alone. Our pros putt for a living, so we asked them what actually matters.

Blade or mallet: be honest about your stroke

If your stroke arcs like a gate swinging, a blade suits the way you already putt. If you take it straight back and straight through, a mallet's extra stability will save you from yourself on the short ones. Neither is better. The wrong one, though, is fighting you on every green.

Feel is in the face

A milled face gives you a firmer, truer roll and instant feedback when you miss the middle. An insert feels softer and quieter, which some players love and others find vague. Try both with the ball you actually play, because a premium ball off a milled face and a firm two-piece off an insert are entirely different conversations.

Get the length right before anything else

Most off-the-rack putters are 34 or 35 inches, and most golfers who buy them set up with their eyes inside the ball and the toe in the air. If your posture is good and the sole sits flush, you're close. If not, an inch off the length changes more than any face technology will.

The shortcut

Our pros' rule of thumb: pick the head style that matches your stroke, the face that matches your ball, and the length that matches your posture. Then stop tinkering and go hole some putts. When you're ready, the putters we rate are in the putter collection, every one of them picked by someone who putts for their mortgage.