The 2023-24 PGA Tour season may already be underway, but with the new year here we thought we’d take a look back at some of the top performing players of the 2022-23 season, and more specifically, what clubs they played with.

Our final Best of the Season series focuses on the best putters on the PGA Tour from last season. Which golfers are gaining strokes on the field on the putting surface? Which players are saving their scores with clutch putting most often? Are there certain putters that tend to be used most? Let’s take a look.

*All WITB information courtesy of GolfWRX.
 

Stroke Gained: Putting

Player Average Club
1. Maverick McNealy 0.956 Odyssey Toulon Stanford MM Custom
2. Taylor Montgomery 0.919 TaylorMade Spider Ghost S
3. Denny McCarthy 0.724 Scotty Cameron Tour GoLo N7
4. Harry Hall 0.698 Odyssey O-Works #7W
5. Xander Schauffele 0.667 Odyssey Toulon Design Las Vegas
6. Max Homa 0.612 Scotty Cameron T-5.5 Proto
7. Tyrrell Hatton 0.597 PING Vault Oslo
8. Sam Burns 0.584 Odyssey O-Works 7S Black
9. Peter Kuest 0.575 Scotty Cameron Timeless Circle T-5.5
10. Justin Suh 0.529 Nike Method Core

Starting off with Strokes Gained, Maverick McNealy takes the crown using a custom blade-style Odyssey Toulon Stanford putter. He’s one of four players in the top 10 using an Odyssey putter, which was the most popular manufacturer. There wasn’t a single putter that was used by multiple players, but mallets were slightly more popular with 6 players having one in their bag. Justin Suh’s Nike Method Core or Taylor Montgomery’s Spider Ghost S definitely standout as the most unique putters among the top 10. Suh’s putter was released in 2010, while the Spider Ghost S was released in 2011, yet they still perform.

Total Putting Average

Player Putts Per Hole Club
1. Taylor Montgomery 1.521 TaylorMade Spider Ghost S
2. Eric Cole 1.542 Odyssey White Hot OG #1 CS
3. Maverick McNealy 1.554 Odyssey Toulon Stanford MM Custom
4. Byeong Hun An 1.557 L.A.B. Mezz.1 Broomstick
5. Sahith Theegala 1.558 PING TR 1966 Anser 2 Prototype
6. Tommy Fleetwood 1.559 Odyssey White Hot Pro #3
7. Max Homa 1.562 Scotty Cameron T-5.5 Proto
7. Brendon Todd 1.562 Scotty Cameron Timeless 2
9. Aaron Baddeley 1.564 Odyssey Rossie/Scotty Cameron Masterful
9. Sam Burns 1.564 Odyssey O-Works 7S Black
9. S.H. Kim 1.564 Odyssey O-Works Jailbird Mini/Odyssey White Hot OG 2-Ball
9. Peter Malnati 1.564 Scotty Cameron TourType SSS

Strokes Gained factors in several variables for its calculation, so let’s take a look at a simpler stat, Total Putting Average, which calculates how many putts per hole on average each player has. As you can see, three of the top 10 players from Strokes Gained were also three of the top 10 in least amount of putts per hole in Taylor Montgomery, Maverick McNealy and Max Homa. Odyssey is once again the most popular manufacturer with six players in the top 10, though Aaron Baddely switches between manufacturers and S.H. Kim switches between a pair of Odyssey putters. Once again there’s not a consensus top model, but several intriguing options. Byeong Hun An uses the same L.A.B. Putters Mezz.1 Broomstick that Adam Scott has made popular as L.A.B. Putters has had a breakout year on the PGA Tour.

Birdie-or-Better Conversion Rate

Player Conversion Rate Club
1. Taylor Montgomery 38.21% TaylorMade Spider Ghost S
2. Ludvig Aberg 35.87% Odyssey White Hot Versa #1
3. Jon Rahm 35.83% Odyssey White Hot Rossie S
4. Eric Cole 35.72% Odyssey White Hot OG #1 CS
5. Max Homa 35.47% Scotty Cameron T-5.5 Proto
6. Adam Scott 35.16% L.A.B. Mezz.1 Broomstick
7. Patrick Cantlay 35.14% Scotty Cameron T-5 Proto
8. Viktor Hovland 34.98% PING PLD DS 72 Prototype
9. Rory McIlroy 34.27% TaylorMade Spider
10. Xander Schauffele 34.21% Odyssey Toulon Design Las Vegas
10. Cameron Young 34.21% Scotty Cameron T-5 Proto

What good would it be to find the green in regulation and not convert those opportunities into birdies or better. Some of the top players on Tour are all present in this list, and that should be expected as the better you are at converting scoring opportunities, the better your scores and therefore results will be. Odyssey continues its reign as the most popular manufacturer with four players, narrowly beating out Scotty Cameron, which had three players. The L.A.B. Mezz.1 Broomstick makes its second appearance with Adam Scott, who made that popular in the first place. Odyssey’s White Hot line was also very popular with three of the top four players all gaming one, though each with a different model. But the most popular model was the Scotty Cameron T-5 Prototype putter used by both Cameron Young and Patrick Cantlay.