Watch a PGA Tour event and you'll see which putters win. You won't see how many of those putters are in the bag because a contract requires it.
Most top pros are paid to play one brand's clubs, and the putter usually comes with the deal. That makes "what the pros use" a mix of performance and marketing. To find out what golfers choose for performance alone, we looked at the two groups nobody pays to use a particular putter: tour equipment free agents and the 2026 Walker Cup amateurs. Then we compared both with the season's best putters by the numbers.
Steve Cummings (Founder)
The contract problem
Equipment deals on tour come in a few shapes. A full-bag deal covers all 14 clubs, putter included, and often the ball, bag and hat. Some players have partial deals, for just the ball or the irons, which leave the putter free. A few have putter-only deals. In June 2026 Ping signed Wyndham Clark to play its Scottsdale TEC putters, its first putter-only deal in more than 50 years of sponsoring PGA Tour players.
The result shows up in the bags. TaylorMade staff tend to use a Spider, Titleist staff a Scotty Cameron, Callaway staff an Odyssey and Ping staff a Ping. Overall, Odyssey is the most-used putter brand on the PGA Tour, with roughly a third of players, while the TaylorMade Spider Tour X is the most-played single model.
2026 PGA Tour wins by putter brand
The Spider Tour X alone won 11 times. Wins reflect who uses a putter as well as how good it is: the more contracted players a brand has, the more chances it has to win.
Tour free agents: what they choose
"Equipment free agents" have no club contract. Most still have a ball deal, but they can put any putter in the bag. Golf Monthly counted 11 in the world's top 50 at the start of 2026. Here are the leading free agents and the putters they use.
| Player | Putter (2026) |
|---|---|
| Patrick Cantlay | TaylorMade Spider Tour Xmallet switched from a Cameron Phantom 7.2 |
| Ben Griffin | TaylorMade Spider Tour Xmallet |
| Chris Gotterup | TaylorMade Spider Tour Xmallet won the Sony Open |
| Jason Day | TaylorMade Ghost Spider Itsy Bitsymallet |
| Aaron Rai | TaylorMade Spider Tour Vmallet also seen with a TP DuPage blade; won the PGA Championship |
| Justin Rose | Scotty Cameron Phantom T-5 Tour Prototypemallet won the Farmers |
| Patrick Reed | Scotty Cameron Tour Rat 1.5 Protoblade after years with an Odyssey #3 |
Free agents for clubs, but with a putter arrangement
| Maverick McNealy | Odyssey Toulon prototypeblade tried a Spider, went back |
| Matt Fitzpatrick | Bettinardi BB1 Fitzblade a copy of the putter he's used since his youth |
| Bryson DeChambeau | SIK Prototype |
| Wyndham Clark | Ping Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset; free agent until his Ping putter deal in June |
- With a free choice, the Spider wins. Five of the seven leading free agents with no putter deal chose a TaylorMade Spider mallet. Cantlay switched to one from a Scotty Cameron.
- But blades aren't dead. Fitzpatrick, Reed and McNealy all tested a mallet this season and went back to the blade they trust.
- Experimenting is normal. Free agents often carry several options early in the year and keep testing.
The free-agent list moves through the season. We couldn't confirm 2026 putters for Kurt Kitayama or Sami Välimäki. Robert MacIntyre is now a Titleist staffer and is left out.
The world's best amateurs
Amateurs can't be paid to use equipment, which makes the 20 players at the 2026 Walker Cup (September) the cleanest sample in golf.
Team GB&I
| Connor Graham | Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.5R Tour Prototype |
| Stuart Grehan | Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.2R Tour Prototype |
| Tyler Weaver | Scotty Cameron Phantom 5.5 Tour Prototype |
| Josh Hill | Scotty Cameron Phantom 5.2 |
| Luke Poulter | Scotty Cameron GOLO 5.2 TourType SSS |
| Eliot Baker | Scotty Cameron Studio Style Fastback 2 |
| Sam Easterbrook | TaylorMade Spider Tour S |
| Niall Sheils Donegan | TaylorMade Spider Tour |
| Ben Bolton | Odyssey Ai-Dual Jailbird Mini |
| Jack Whaley | Odyssey Ai-One #1 |
Team USA
| Ryder Cowan | TaylorMade Spider Tour X |
| Josiah Gilbert | TaylorMade Spider Tour X |
| William Jennings | TaylorMade Spider Tour X |
| Miles Russell | TaylorMade Spider Tour V |
| Tyler Watts | TaylorMade TP Collection Soto |
| Preston Stout | Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.5R Tour Prototype |
| Stewart Hagestad | Scotty Cameron Prototype |
| Ethan Fang | Odyssey White Hot OG #1 |
| Kihei Akina | Ping PLD Harwood |
| Jay Leng Jr | L.A.B. Golf DF3 |
- Mallets dominate, about three-quarters of the field.
- The same two models lead: the Spider Tour X (3 players) and the Cameron Phantom 9.5R (2). They also won most PGA Tour events in 2026.
- There's a transatlantic split: GB&I went 6 of 10 Cameron, mostly Phantom mallets; the USA went 5 of 10 TaylorMade.
Putters are from each player's last start before the match and may have changed since.
Side by side
The common thread: when the choice is free, golfers move towards stable, high-MOI (forgiving) mallets from TaylorMade or Scotty Cameron, led by the Spider Tour X and the Phantom 9.5R. The contract-free data broadly confirms the tour trend, so the trend isn't just marketing. A few skilled players still go back to blades, which shows that what suits the stroke matters more than any trend.
What the best putters use
Jacob Bridgeman finished 2026 as the Tour's No.1 in Strokes Gained: Putting at 0.757 a round, more than 23 strokes ahead of the next player over the season, using a TaylorMade Spider Tour. The rest of the regular-season top 10 shows how mixed the putters are:
| Player | Putter |
|---|---|
| Jacob Bridgeman | TaylorMade Spider Tour |
| Akshay Bhatia | Odyssey Jailbird 380 |
| Sam Burns | Odyssey Ai-One #7S |
| Vince Whaley | Odyssey Ai-ONE #7 |
| Alex Noren | Odyssey O-Works #1W |
| Beau Hossler | TaylorMade TP Ardmore 3 |
| Jake Knapp | Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.2 Tour Prototype |
| Eric Cole | PXG Battle Ready II Closer |
Four Odysseys sit just behind the leader. Odyssey has the most putters on Tour, and some of these players are Callaway/Odyssey staff, so contracts are a factor here too. The clearer lesson is that elite putting comes from many brands and head shapes. No single putter makes the best putters.
Why don't more top players use L.A.B.?
Some do. JJ Spaun won the 2025 U.S. Open with a L.A.B. DF3, and Adam Scott and Lucas Glover use them. One Walker Cup player does too. But L.A.B. had just one PGA Tour win in 2026. The reasons:
- Contracts. Full-bag deals with the big brands include the putter, and L.A.B. reportedly doesn't pay players. Its tour players tend to be free agents or have a contract that leaves the putter free; Spaun's deal is with Srixon.
- Changing is costly mid-season. L.A.B.'s CEO says the weekly schedule makes it hard for players to adopt new putting habits.
- Access. With every major brand on the practice green, a small company gets seconds with a player. That's why L.A.B. first broke through on LIV.
- Often a fix, not a first choice. Players tend to turn to L.A.B. when their putting has broken down, as Glover did after the yips.
- Our view: lie-angle balancing helps most where face control is inconsistent. Elite putters already square the face reliably, so for them the gain is small and the cost of relearning feel is high.
Brian Gay: a career built on the putter
One of the shortest hitters on the PGA Tour, Gay won five times and earned more than $24 million. He ranked in the top 25 for SG: Putting ten seasons in a row (2004–13). At 50 he was leading the Tour's putting stats in May 2022 at more than a stroke a round.
His equipment story fits the themes above. He kept the same basic stroke for most of his career. He changed the putter only to suit conditions: a Bettinardi with a grooved face for faster greens in 2010, then a Scotty Cameron Tour Rat II by 2022. His own measure of a good day says nothing about the putter:
"I read the greens pretty good, and speed was good."
Senior PGA Championship, April 2026
Lessons learned and takeaways
The putters on TV are partly an advert. Once you remove the contracts, the evidence points the same way: stable mallets are the sensible default, the best putters use all kinds of heads, and speed, read and a repeatable stroke matter more than the badge.
- Read the bag, then the contractA tour pro's putter may be the sponsor's choice, as Matt at Yes Please Golf pointed out. Free agents and amateurs are the honest signal.
- Free choices favour stable malletsSpider and Phantom-style high-MOI heads lead among free agents and amateurs alike. For most golfers, that's the place to start testing.
- Blades still suit some strokesFitzpatrick, Reed and McNealy tried mallets and went back. If your stroke suits a blade, keep it.
- No brand owns great puttingThe top 10 putters in 2026 used five brands. The putter supports the skill; it doesn't supply it.
- New tech helps the right golferDesigns like L.A.B. help most where face control is inconsistent. Measure the stroke before you switch.
- Speed and read before equipmentGay's best days came from reads and pace. A new putter won't fix either.
- Fit first, then commitTour pros avoid switching mid-season for a reason. Get fitted, decide whether to Keep, Tune or Replace, then give it time.
Thanks for reading. If this has made you look at your own putter differently, that's the point.
Steve
Steve Cummings (Founder), Quantum Putting
Find the putter that fits your stroke
We treat every golfer as an individual. We measure the stroke with SAM PuttLab, look at where the ball actually finishes, and work through the Five Fundamentals. Then we decide together: Keep, Tune or Replace. Who said the putter chooses the golfer?
- Golf.com: Wyndham Clark's Ping putter deal · pros without equipment deals
- Golf Monthly: most-played equipment · Pro Golf Weekly: 2026 brands
- Golf Monthly: every winning putter 2026 · Golf.com: winningest putters
- Golf Monthly: top-50 free agents · GolfWRX: free agents' clubs
- Player bags: Cantlay · Griffin · Day · Rai · Rose · Reed · McNealy
- Golf Monthly: Walker Cup 2026 putters
- Golf Monthly: best putters 2026 · GolfMagic: best putters and their putters
- SI: L.A.B. Golf · TheStreet: L.A.B.'s rise · NCG: JJ Spaun
- Wikipedia: Brian Gay · Senior PGA 2026 transcript