The 3 Golf Club Design Innovations You Can’t Ignore In 2026

Earlier this year, we gave you ‘Editor’s Choice 2026’, 120 of the most game-changing products on the market selected by our expert panel.

Now, after allowing Kick Point co host Joe Ferguson a couple of days to think it over, we give you the ‘3 most innovative golf clubs of 2026’.

This was a tough one, with an honorable mention for the Under Armour Drive Pro Clone shoes, which admittedly isn't a club but has been a game-changer this year, as well as TaylorMade’s new face design on the Qi4D driver.

If you want to listen to the discussion in full, we thoroughly recommend watching the episode below.

Right, in no particular order…

WATCH: Joe from Kick Point: The Golf Gear Show talks through his top three golf innovations of 2026 (from 08:15)

1. 3D Printing

Joe can talk for hours about 3D printing. Earlier this year, you may have caught him purring over Cobra’s 3DP Series.

“You know where I’m at with this,” he says. “I think this year we’ve been introduced to the future of iron design without any shadow of a doubt.”

Although the industry has dabbled with 3D printing in the past - mostly with limited-run putters and prototypes - Joe believes there has been something of a “eureka” moment this year.

Which was? Well, that’ll be the internal lattice. Traditionally, if you wanted a forgiving iron, you needed some kind of chunky head to shift weight to the perimeter.

However, 3D printing, Joe says, means that rulebooks have been thrown out of the window: by using Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), engineers can “print” a clubhead from stainless steel powder, layer by microscopic layer.

This process allows for the use of internal lattice structures, which resemble a complex honeycomb/spiderweb. Not only are these very strong, but they’re also extremely light.

And this is the key: it gives club designers discretionary weight to precisely position for optimal performance.

“The Holy Grail of club design,” adds Joe.

It’s why our PGA pro has a set of Cobra 3DP MB irons in the bag - and he’s very excited about where this could go.

“We’re just at the beginning of this,” says Joe. “At the moment, 3D printing is largely being used to make better versions of “standard clubs”.

“I believe the real revolution lies in mass customization.”

Watch this space.

2. Sole Matching (Irons)

Another nod to where we’re going to end up, says Joe.

“I’ve said it a million times before. We do all this tech and all this design in the iron world to create these custom bespoke things… lie angle, loft, changing swing weight, different shafts, whatever you want to do..”

You can see where we’re going with this. We all seem to be fine for the one piece of the club that interacts with the ground to be standard.

“To me, in 2026, that’s lunacy,” says Joe. “I can’t believe we’re not there yet.”

Why would we have so many different grind options for our wedges and not our irons?

It’s a question that both our Kick Point hosts are wrestling with, including Dan Parker, who’s fresh off a wedge fitting with Titleist, during which he did a lot of experimenting with different grinds.

Could sole matching with irons be on its way? Joe thinks so, picking out Jason Day and his work with Avoda Golf as an example.

Avoda is starting to quantify what the shaft lean is at impact, getting the dynamic loft for each club so that each one can be 3D printed to have the corresponding amount of bounce, therefore giving the golfer the same level of turf interaction throughout.

“It has to come. It is coming,” predicts Joe.

3. Sausage (Modular) Putters

“Genius level design,” was Joe’s verdict on the Sausage Golf Boudin Noir putter when this revolutionary model arrived on the scene last year.

In case this new release passed you by, this is a putter that can be switched between toe hang, face balanced, and low torque.

It features an interchangeable shaft module system, which allows a player to change the entire torque profile of the putter to their stroke preference.

Is this necessary? There will be those who think not and Joe admits that he’s not yet sure whether modular putters are likely to catch on.

However, he doesn’t believe a required torque profile for a golfer’s putting stroke is like someone’s fingerprint or DNA.

In Joe’s opinion, it’s far more fluid than this and he believes that it can alter with a slight technique change or organically over time.

“I think the whole concept of being able to 3D print parts that can change up your existing set could make things really cost effective,” adds Joe (we did warn you that he’s totally on board with 3D printing).

At this point we start imagining whether there could come a time where you might be able to add different hosels to irons for more or less onset, or a modular piece to the sole of a driver.

Where are Joe and Dan going with this? We invite you to watch this fascinating discussion above. Please feel free to leave your comments and opinions in the box below.