The putter market exploded recently after the anchoring ban saw a raft of new designs launched to offer anchored stability in a legal club design. Then a strange thing happened when designers realised the counterbalanced technology they’d created could transform the traditional putter market as well. While counterbalanced putters are the current hot trend, in a market that is so subjective, more traditional putters will always have their place. Here we give you a few tips and things to consider if you are considering upgrading your current flat stick for a new model.

Putters buyers guide

Which head shapes should I consider?

The smallest option, blades were once recommended for tour pros and better players alone. But now, with modern materials and new ways of making them more stable in the stroke, they are worth considering for anyone who likes a compact look at address and the heightened feel a blade normally provides. Mid-mallets are smaller than mallets and bigger than blades, offering a good fusion of feel and stability. Their size also makes them more versatile for different stroke types, either arcing or straight back and through. Mallets are the largest and are stereotypically more suited to mid and higher handicap golfers because the larger heads allow more weight to be deployed to stop the head from twisting, making them more stable.

Colours and alignment aids

From contrasting white and black heads, to more traditional finishes, there is something for all of your tastes. There’s also a raft of innovative alignment aids to offer an alternative to the simple sight lines, like the pair of squares on Cleveland’s Smart Square, the t-shape lines on Titleist’s Scotty Cameron Futura X and the classic two circles on Odyssey’s Versa Two-Ball.

Weighting

The biggest recent innovation was the introduction of counterbalancing, a technology that sees lots of weight placed in the head to reduce unwanted twisting, with a little weight also added to the shaft and grip to create the ideal pendulum feel. This concept has since been applied to multiple head types, including blades. However, in a part of the game as subjective as putting, a heavy head won’t be for everyone.

Face type

The final thing to consider is also one of the most important, as your feel off the face is a big factor when it comes to controlling your distance. Most manufacturers have their own take when it comes to the face’s design. Some prefer a milled design, where the steel is never heated, cooled or hardened, so it never has the opportunity to change its structure for more consistency in material. Others prefer the use of an insert, like PING’s variable-depth-groove insert that it says improves ball-speed consistency on putts struck from the heel or toe thanks to grooves that are deepest in the middle and shallower toward the perimeter. There’s no hard and fast rules about which type of golfers will suit which approach, so it’s worthwhile trying as many as you can to narrow down your options.