PGA Tour Putting for the 2024 Season - Shocking or Not?
Golf Maniacs,
The Putter Shop has been pondering putting here at the end of 2024 and the start of 2025. At the time of writing this blog post The Sentry is about start for the first official PGA Tour tournament for the 2025 season. 2024 was such an exciting PGA Tour season with Scottie Scheffler having a hall of fame season, Xander Schauffele winning two majors and personally keeping Cohiba in business, and my favorite Shane Lowry finishing the 2024 season with 359 consecutive holes without a three-putt. Even with LIV Golf growing stronger, I feel new talent is strengthening on the PGA Tour and 2025 will shape out to be a very exciting season. I am personally cheering for a Jordan Spieth (trusty rusty Scotty Cameron 009) return from surgery with a win!
In thinking about the 2024 season I wanted to look at the top putters according to PGA Tour stats and see which putters they were using this past season. I'm a firm believer that it is the golfer, not the putter, but it is fun nonetheless to see what they were using to be the best this past season.
The following are stats directly from the PGA Tour Stats website: https://www.pgatour.com/stats/putting. For deeper explanations of each category please visit the website above and click on the i next to the putting stat.
Leaders for 2024 PGA Tour Season:
Strokes Gained - Taylor Montgomery, 0.866, 2013 TaylorMade Spider Ghost (beat to hell, he uses it like a 40 year old hammer: https://www.bunkered.co.uk/gear/pga-tour-best-putter-2013-taylormade-spider/)
Total Putting - Denny McCarthy, 46.3, Scotty Cameron GoLo N7 Circle T (https://www.golfwrx.com/745604/denny-mccarthy-witb-2024-august/)
Putting Average - Scottie Scheffler, 1.680, TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck (boy did it work for him this year once he got it all figured out. Killed it in his last tournament at the Hero World Challenge! (https://www.golfwrx.com/747015/scottie-scheffler-witb-2024-presidents-cup/).
Overall Putting Average - Sam Burns, 1.543, Odyssey Ai-One #7SB (https://forums.golfwrx.com/topic/2019224-sam-burns-witb-2024-tour-championship/)
Birdie or Better Conversion Percentage - Sam Burns, 37.35%, Odyssey Ai-One #7SB
Bonus Putting - Max Greyserman, 102.38, Odyssey Triple Track Jailbird (say that three times fast). (https://www.golfwrx.com/744701/max-greyserman-witb-2024-august/)
There are plenty more stats to look at so head on over to the PGA Tour Stats website and plow away. It is clear to see that Taylor Montgomery and Sam Burns have been top putters on the PGA Tour these past few years and I especially love seeing Taylor's Spider putter looking like someone's favorite stuffed animal after years of love. He obviously trusts the heck out of that putter!
Are you shocked or not? Shocked that Scottie lead in putting average after a tough end to last year and tough start to this year?
One common denominator between the top putters on tour in 2024 is their use of a mallet putter, particularly ones with high MOI. Shocked or not? Probably not shocked. I've been a blade guy my entire playing career (since 1995) but a smooth mallet like the Never Compromise Reserve 4, PXG Battle Ready 2 Bat Attack, or Cleveland HB Soft 2 11 have each tempted me lately. These types of mallets have obviously been working for tour players and they may be just what you need to feel confident again on the greens. There's no time like winter to practice your putting! As we always say, "Stroke It!"
Here's to hoping for an exciting 2025 PGA Tour Season, all to start with The Sentry tomorrow. Happy New Year 2025!
Jordan
Founder of The Putter Shop
