Equipment
The modern trend in putters
We’re really living in a golden age of golfing tech. Just think for a moment about your whole outfit. From the shoes on your feet to your glove on your hand and the club in the hand you’re holding, each aspect of your equipment is the cornerstone of present-day engineering and innovation.
Putters in particular truly come in all shapes and sizes nowadays. If you’ve rifled through and examined the clubs we have in the shop, you’ll have noticed all the different clubheads, hosels, and shaft lengths we have available.
To celebrate the wonderful world of putters in all their forms and varieties, we want to take you back through history and outline some of the greatest technological putter achievements that have hit the world of golf.
The 20th Century
The 20th century significantly upgraded golf as metal clubheads supplanted traditional wood. In 1903, Arthur Knight invented the first center-shafted putter, and the R&A approved early steel-shafted clubs in 1929.
By the 1940s, the world was introduced to John Reuter Jr’s iconic Bullseye putter. You’ll be familiar with this putter’s looks, this type of club is very much still used at crazy golf centres today!
A few decades later, Karsten Solheim, the visionary founder of PING, changed the game forever. In a legendary moment of inspiration in 1966, Solheim sketched the blueprint for the iconic Anser putter onto a record sleeve.
The design proved revolutionary, securing over 500 tour victories and becoming the industry’s gold standard. By introducing perimeter weighting, Solheim effectively maximised the MOI, creating a more stable and forgiving stroke. A breakthrough that remains a cornerstone of modern putter engineering.
The 2000s
Skipping forward to the turn of the century, Odyssey released the White Hot 2-Ball putter and its legendary status was cemented almost immediately. Paul Lawrie famously added it to his bag ahead of the 2001 Dunhill Links Championship and won the tournament at St. Andrews right away.
Fans were hungry for the ground-breaking 2-Ball design and the putter hit the market January 2002. Over two decades later, the 2-Ball design has proved to be a roaring success and is still widely used today. The 2 Ball putter has made its way into the hands of the likes of Padraig Harrington, as well as Michael Block, the club pro who entered and finished within the 15 at the 2023 PGA Championship.
The 2010s
TaylorMade’s square mallet-shaped Spider putter series was met with critical acclaim when it first hit the market, but fans were really taken with Jason Day’s custom prototype red version. Day, a native Australian, requested a red spider putter in tribute to his home country’s notorious venomous Redback spider.
He explained how he very quickly became enamoured with the TaylorMade putter’s design “I picked up the TaylorMade… and oh, man, the weight of it. You know in the movies when a character picks up a blade, and they’re like ‘Ooh perfect balance’. That’s exactly what it felt like.”
The putter was a staple in his bag throughout his rise to achieving World No.1 status in 2016. Most previous putters had clung to a rigid palette of being black or copper, but the popularity of the red colour that brilliantly contrasts against the green putting surface has demonstrated that a bit of colour can really brighten up your attitude towards your short game.
The 2026 Scotty Cameron putters
If you study the progress of these innovations you’ll notice there are two very obvious trends, putter heads are getting larger and more stable, centrally-placed shafts. One thing’s for certain, the recent Phantom putter from Scotty Cameron is one of the finest-feeling clubs we’ve ever got our hands on.
Scotty Cameron has fitted this club with their SCS face insert that features a distinctive chain-link milling pattern. This insert produces a very soft feel on impact with the ball as well as pleasing, softer acoustics. With redesigned sole plates on the bottom of the clubhead, the Phantom delivers a cleaner, more consistent setup every time you address the ball.
As we mentioned at the start, we have lots of different kinds of putters available in the shop for you to come and try out. From blades to mallets, we’re always available to help you find the club best for your game.
