Toe Hang Or Face Balanced Putter?

One of the key things you'll notice when looking at some of the best putters on the market is how they are all different shapes and sizes. While picking one purely based on looks can be tempting, you'll see far more success on the greens once you understand your putting stroke and then which model or neck style suits your stroke the best.

Watch: Best Putters 2024 video

One big decision when choosing a putter is whether you go for a toe hang model or a face balanced one. This will be a decision based on your putting stroke as all golfers will open and close the putter face at different rates and need different putters or neck styles to accommodate this.

In order to get a full understanding of which putter is best for you and our putting stroke, seeking advice from a PGA Professional or custom fitting center is no doubt the best way to approach the matter.

While most blade style putters are built with toe-hang and the majority of mallet putters are face balanced but there's a little more to it than that. Putters that typically have a plumbers neck will offer more rotation throughout the putting stroke whereas those with a double bend shaft will lean more towards a straighter stroke path.

If you feel like you want something that sits slightly more in the middle, you'll want to look at slant neck or flow neck styles. Then of course there is a new putter craze at the moment led by L.A.B. Golf which is Lie Angle Balance putters which have zero torque. The DF3 and MEZZ.1 MAX putters from L.A.B. are designed so that the face stays square to the path throughout the stroke with no rotation. Due to this clever invention, these putters have quickly become known as some of the most forgiving putters you can buy.

So how do you easily determine whether the putter is toe-hang or face balanced.

When you balance the putters on your finger, the blade will clearly have a toe hang, meaning the toe of the putter will drop towards the ground. A face balanced putter will have the face pointing back up towards the sky due to it's balance point.

It’s really important that you marry up your putter with your stroke as ultimately that’s how you find consistency on the greens. This along side understanding what length of putter you need and what loft of putter works for you.

You can find bladed putters suited to a straight-back-and-through stroke and mallets for an arced stroke, just make sure that yours is the right one for your game.