A putter is used to make short and low-speed strokes, often to roll the ball into the hole from a short distance away. The iconic design has a very flat, low loft clubhead as well as bent shafts, non-circular grips and positional guides to ensure the ball rolls forward instead of lifting off the ground. This club is generally used on the putting green and is one of the only clubs which is specialized for a specific job on the course.
In golf’s early days all clubs were made from wood, and putters were no exception.
The original putters known as “putting cleeks” had heads made from woods such as beech, holly, pear and apple, while ash or hazel were typically used for the shafts. However, these wooden shafts and heads have been removed since the improvement to the golf ball by Robert Adam Paterson in the mid-19th century. The ball was made of ‘gutta percha’ which was much more durable than the feathery balls before it. The new ball allowed clubs, including the putter, to be forged from more aggressive materials. Consequently, metal headed and shafted putters where made.
For most of golf’s history, putter shafts were attached to the club head’s heel. However, this changed in 1900 when Arthur Knight of the Mohawk Golf Club in Schenectady, New York had the brilliant idea to move the shaft towards the centre, creating the first ever centre-shafted putter.
The first improvements in the shaft on the putter was from the old ash shafts which had dominated the game in its earliest incarnations, to Bobby Jones’s Calamity Jane’s shaft was made of hickory. Around this time there was also a change in the name from “cleek to “putter” in the 1930s.
The next great revolution in putting history came with the PING Anser manufactured by Karsten Solheim. It was the first cavity-back putter which was designed to be forgiving of mishits. This came from focusing the weight at the heel and toe of the club head. The powerful and nigh indestructible manganese bronze help with long puts and gave the club a good feel. This putter went to win over 500 professional victories worldwide in the last 40 years.
However, standards of forgiveness within the putters have improved massively. This can be partially to the standard golfer wanting to sink more and more puts with a worse putting stroke. As a result, the 21st century has led to bigger, wider and thicker putter heads which has led to more consistent results even on off centred strikes. The leader of these was undoubtedly the Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball which took the putting world by storm in 2001. This putter had two white balls to help with alignment and a super high MOI (moment of inertia) and the big head cushioning off-centre strikes. To create a better feel and sound off the putter a soft urethane insert was used.
Nowadays modern putters can be on the extreme of the spectrums. With some putters being beautiful blades whereas others are thick, chunky mallets that don’t resemble a putter at all. One thing they all have in common though is that they are designed to prevent the club head from twisting if the golfer doesn’t stroke the ball in the centre of the club face.
There are 2 types of overall putter styles which are the mallet putters and blade putters.
There are then 2 different type of putter balance, face-balanced putters for golfers with a standard forward putting stroke and toe-balanced putters for golfers with an arc in their putting stroke.
The company was founded by Karsten Solheim in 1959. He started making putters in his garage in. In 1967, he resigned from his job at General Electric to develop the PING company.
His frustration with golf resolved around his difficulty with putting. This was due to the equipment of the era. Karsten Solheim then went on to invent a new putter in his garage known as the "PING 1A". The changes he made included attaching the shaft to the centre of the putter head instead of the heel. He applied scientific principles to golf club design, which had previously been based largely on trial and error, transferring much of the weight of the club head to the perimeter.
The name "PING" came from the sound that Solheim heard as the metal struck the ball. By the end of 1960, Solheim had 6 designs and had made over 2,000 putters in his garage. The first PGA Tour victory while using a PING club came in 1962 at the Cajun Classic Open Invitational by John Barnum. This caused a huge increase in sales of the PING putters. Another breakthrough occurred when many of the top players using PING putters was shown during the televised Golf World Cup of 1965 in Japan.
Over the years Ping has developed into other areas of the golf market, such as irons, woods and drivers, but they still hold a big share in the putter market. As they now have a wide range of putters available:
In 1991, Michael Magerman founded Odyssey and created its first putters. They were one-piece mallet putters made from a Stronomic. The first models made where the Rossie I and II. In 1996 Nick Faldo one the 1996 Masters with an Odyssey Dual Force Rossie II with a Stronomic insert, that win took Odyssey to new levels of being noticed. As a result, the company became the No. 1 putter in golf by 1997. Later that year in July 1997 Callaway Golf purchased Odyssey for $130 million, which was nearly four times the company's annual sales of $35 million at the time.
According to the Odyssey website, since 2010 its putters have accounted for 781 worldwide victories including 123 on the PGA Tour. Current staff players using an Odyssey putter include Phil Mickelson, Xander Schauffele, Kevin Kisner, Marc Leishman, Daniel Berger, Adam Hadwin, and Harold Varner III.
In the 30 years Odyssey has still remained as one of the best putter manufacturers, this may be because they have continued developing into putters and haven’t reached out into other areas of the golf market. This is directly linked to the takeover of the company by Callaway, meaning Odyssey has had no need to reach into other areas. As a result, there are a range of different putters available:
During his youth Don T. “Scotty” Cameron learnt how to make putters with his father in the family's garage. This then led to him designing and manufacturing putters in 1991 for Maxfli, Cleveland and the Ray Cook Golf Company. Later on in 1991 he began to manufacture his first retail production putter nicknamed the Fry's Pity Putter. This then led him to start producing putters exclusively for Mizuno towards the back end of 1991.
In late 1992, Cameron and his wife, Kathy, set up Cameron Golf International and began selling the Scotty Cameron Classic line of putters. Their business was kickstarted when Bernhard Langer using a Cameron prototype putter won the Masters in 1993. The next year another breakthrough occurred. As Titleist managed to contract Cameron to make putters exclusively for the Acushnet Company and Titleist. As a result, the company has grown to one of the biggest putters manufactures in the world. This status is proven by the more than 500 worldwide tournaments and 30% of all major championships being won since 1993 with a player using a Scotty Cameron putter.
This development has continued growing to this day. As Scotty Cameron is one of the most renowned putter brands in the world. Along with this has come a wide range of products to fit every golfer:
In 2008 TaylorMade launched their first Mallet putters. the Monza Spider. It didn’t take long for the Spider to reach success with JB Holmes defeated beating Phil Mickelson in a playoff at the 2008 FBR Open. Over the next two years TaylorMade reduced the shape to create the Itsy-Bitsy Spider. This 20% smaller frame became the design basis for what we know today as the Spider line up. In 2010 after Justin Rose’s win at The Memorial with the white Corza Ghost. This sparked an idea which ultimately led to the creation of the Spider Ghost, which was released in 2011. This designed was followed onto the next year with the Spider Ghost S. Revamped with an alignment system to just a single white sightline in the middle of a black centre plate.
The success of the Spider line up continued throughout the 2010’s with Justin Rose winning the US Open at Merion in 2013, which was TaylorMade’s first major championship victory for the Spider line-up. After Dustin Johnson using a Spider Tour Black to win the BMW Championship during the 2016 FedEx Cup playoffs, TaylorMade launched the Spider Tour Red and Tour Black putters. Further development of this has led to the Spider X. It is smaller than the Spider Tour models, boasts two new colours (Copper and Navy), as well as a new True Path alignment system.
Along with the mallet putters of the Spider range TaylorMade has a wide range of blade putters filled with loads of modern technology:
Tiger Woods uses a Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS (German Stainless Steel) putter. This putter has been in Tiger Woods bag for 14 of the 15 majors he has won. It is a blade, Anser-like design that features a red dot and 'Tiger Woods' stamped into the back of the putter. It has multi-material technology this includes materials such stainless steel, raw carbon steel and the mixing of lightweight aluminium components. Along with this, there is a four-way sole balancing this technology makes it so the putter sets up square to the ball, this helps aid alignment, therefore meaning that it is easier for you to start the putt on the correct line and hole the putt.
McIlroy current uses the TaylorMade Spider X Hydro-blast putter. The Spider design is one of TaylorMade's most iconic putter designs. The Spider Putters are based on extensive research to help come up with the True Path Alignment which in short allows for more puts being hit out of the centre of the clubface. This goes along with a perimeter weighting system. Which puts weight on the outside of the putter. Consequently, there is more stability on off centred putts, maximising forgiveness. Rory also has a Flow Neck design which offers a slight toe hang this is due to the arc in his putting stroke.
Rory’s Putter specifications can be seen below:
Putter: TaylorMade Spider X Hyrdroblast
Sight marking: Full sightline
Loft: 2.5 degrees
Lie angle: 71 degrees
Length: 34.5 inches
Swing weight: E4
Neck: Short slant
Insert: Pure Roll 80-20
Grip: Super Stroke Pistol GT Tour
Shaft: KBS CT Tour (Black)
Jack Nicholas used the MacGregor Response ZT 615 to win the 1986 Masters. This putter’s massive oversized head had an extremely large moment of inertia. This was one of the very first putter designs to place so much importance on moment of inertia in an attempt to increase stability and forgiveness. The ZT in its name actually stands for ‘Zero Twisting’. This putter became famous due to it being well ahead of its time and the odd looks compared to other putters of the time. Earlier in his career Jack Nicholas used a putter called the White Fang, which is a replica of the Bulls Eye which he borrowed from a friend during a practice round at Baltusrol in 1967 he then went on to make eight birdies in his final round to finish with a four-shot lead in the 1967 US Open.
Bobby Jones won 13 major championships from 1923 to 1930. This included a Grand Slam (where you win all four majors in the same year) in 1930.
The putter he used was 33 ½ inches in length and had a goose-necked design with 8 degrees of loft on the blade and a hickory shaft. It was originally made for William Winton, a golf club dealer from the Acton area of London. The putter then travelled to the USA with Jim Maiden who became the head golf professional at Nassau Country Club on Long Island. It was Maiden who placed the Calamity Jane name on the putter. The name came about from a lady named Martha “Calamity Jane” Canary, who was a sharpshooter who performed in the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and was famous in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
The story of how Calamity Jane came into Bobby Jones possession is quite bizarre as Jim Maiden offered Bobby Jones the chance to try it out following a defeat to Francis Ouimet. Allegedly Bobby Jones sunk no less than eight consecutive putts with Calamity Jones. A fascinating video about his putting is here.
More detailed information can be seen here.
TITLEIST SCOTTY CAMERON TIGER WOODS 1997 MASTERS TE I3
Price Tag: $20,000
A limited-edition Scotty Cameron replica putter commemorating Tiger Woods’ 1997 Masters win. There were only 270 of these made, one for each stroke Woods took during that magical week at Augusta. The “brand new” TE I3 with Tiger’s signature on the sole comes with its own rack and certificate of authenticity.
Tiger's spare Scotty from 2001 hit the auction block in a sale organised Golden Age, where it eventually sold for $154,928 USD, obliterating the world record for the sale of a putter. The club has Tiger's name engraved on the back, and is otherwise a fairly standard looking Newport, with a cherry bomb insert, backsplash matching Tiger's habit of wearing red on Sundays.
However, some clubs are so valuable that they are unlikely to be sold. Such as the second Calamity Jane can be seen at the USGA museum in Far Hills, New Jersey. It is estimated that the putter’s worth is in the low seven figures.
Another example is the Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS (German Stainless Steel) prototype that Woods currently has in the bag and has used for 14-of-15 majors. It’s the most famous putter in golf and experts say that it could sell for up to 8 figures!
Tiger Woods' backup putter from his sensational 2002 season sold for $393,300. This breaks records as it has now become the most expensive golf club ever. Tiger Woods practiced and experimented with the putter but did not use it in competition