Why pros are obsessed with this type of putter

Want to improve your putting? Look into trying the hottest type of putter on tour right now — a counterbalanced putter.

Counterbalance putters aren’t new to golf, but they’ve quickly overtaken headlines and gained popularity since the recent wins by Viktor Hovland, Wyndham Clark and Lucas Glover.

These putters are making waves on Tour, and now everyone wants one. But, what does it actually mean to ‘counterbalance’ a putter?

As in most aspects of golf, it seems complicated, but it’s just a bit of simple physics.

Essentially, it’s a method of further distributing the weight of the putter to the grip side to help put more mass in your hands by adding an additional 3-5″ of shaft length and an extra long 17″ grip.

Distributing the weight of the putter more evenly across the length of the shaft helps create more clubface awareness going into your putting which will (if executed properly) make the ball ultimately roll, well … better.

With about 40% of your golf shots statistically being putts, improving your putting could be one of the most turning point aspects of your golf game.

Maybe these counter-balanced putters are worth a try. Seems to be working with the pros.

Here’s how Ryan Barath from the Fully Equipped podcast explains the science behind counterbalanced putters, which you can read more about here.

Quite simply, it’s a putter that has a longer overall length to help create extra stability compared to a standard-length putter. This extra length, which is usually paired with a larger and heavier oversized grip helps place more mass towards the golfer’s hands to counteract a heavier putter head and assist in building a smoother putting stroke.

The reason behind this is if a putter head is too heavy compared to the rest of the putter, most golfers will struggle with distance control, and having more mass near the hands (counterbalancing) allows the head to be heavier and increases head stability while also creating more control over the head.

To take this out of the golf space and conceptualize it in a different way — imagine a broom. If you hold it at the very end of the handle and point the bristle end up and move it side to side it feels relatively hard to control. Now if you hold the bristle end of the same broom that handle is a lot easier to move because you have moved the mass of the object closer to your hands. The mass of the broom hasn’t actually changed but how it feels because of where that mass is placed relative to you makes all the difference.

This also improves tempo. And, considering tempo is one of the biggest issues golfers struggle with, especially on shorter putts, a counter-balanced putter can really help inside 6 feet — and who wouldn’t love to make a few more short ones?