The last time a blade putter won a major championship was the 2024 U.S. Open where Bryson DeChambeau used his SIK Pro C-Series Armlock.

The streak, major by major

• 2024 U.S. Open — Bryson DeChambeau, SIK Pro C-Series Armlock, a blade. This is the last one.
• 2024 Open Championship — Xander Schauffele, Odyssey Toulon Design Las Vegas Prototype 7CH
• 2025 Masters — Rory McIlroy, TaylorMade Spider
• 2025 PGA Championship — Scottie Scheffler, TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck
• 2025 U.S. Open — J.J. Spaun, L.A.B. Golf DF3, the first men’s major ever won with a zero-torque putter
• 2025 Open Championship — Scottie Scheffler, TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck
• 2026 Masters — Rory McIlroy, TaylorMade Spider
• 2026 PGA Championship — Aaron Rai, TaylorMade Spider Tour V
• 2026 U.S. Open — Wyndham Clark, Ping Scottsdale TEC Ally Blue Onset

That’s eight straight majors won with a mallet since DeChambeau’s blade at the 2024 U.S. Open. Five of the eight went to a TaylorMade Spider specifically.

What our own testing says

PuttView is the tracking system we use to measure putting performance. It scores every putt against a handicap-style baseline so a lower number means better performance relative to that baseline. Across 79 putters tested (26 zero-torque, 29 mallets, 24 blades) and more than 50,000 putts total, the category averages tell the story on their own. Zero-torque finished at -6.29. Mallets averaged -3.99. Blades averaged -2.65.

Only one mallet putter in the entire field, the Bettinardi BB 6.0 at -6.30, was able to match the zero-torque average. Every other mallet and every blade fell short.

Why this is happening

It’s not that blades have gotten worse. It’s forgiveness. A zero-torque head resists twisting on off-center hits in a way a traditional blade can’t and on the fastest, most difficult greens in the world, a hit that stays online even when the strike isn’t pure is worth more than it used to be.

Tour players have historically been slower than the rest of us to give up feel for forgiveness. That’s changing. The equipment is catching up to what our testing has said for a while now: the putters that resist twisting the most are the ones producing the most consistent results. Not all Tour players need the stability of the zero-torque or want that much resistance to twisting but the move away from the blade in these major championships is one to keep an eye on.

If you’re still gaming a blade because that’s what “good” putters are supposed to look like, the last two years of majors and our own testing are telling you something different.

The post When Was The Last Time A Blade Putter Won A Major? (Hint: It’s Been A While) appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

Well, COBRA now has company and that trickle is about to turn into a tidal wave.

We have it on pretty good authority that at least one major OEM will be introducing 3D-printed metalwoods within the next year. More, no doubt, will follow.

But here’s the kicker: Sub 70 is already there.

The Sycamore, Ill.-based direct-to-consumer brand launched its TAIII 3D driver a few months ago. We got to try it this past week and we have to say that the only people who’ll be disappointed will be the hopelessly cynical who want to label 3D printing a gimmick.

Sub 70 might just be on to something here so let’s take a closer look.

The Sub 70 TAIII 3D driver: Speed and forgiveness

To the best of our knowledge, the Sub 70 TAIII 3D driver is the first commercially available 3D-printed driver. We know other DTC brands have flirted with the idea (we’ve seen the prototypes) but Sub 70 took the plunge and made one to actually sell.

“Our factory approached us and said it was possible,” Sub 70 owner Jason Hiland tells MyGolfSpy. “We didn’t have a tight timeframe or anything so we said, ‘Sure, let’s see what we can come up with.’”

“We asked if they could 3D print titanium,” adds Sub 70 design consultant Bob Renegar. “Turns out they could.”

With help from brand ambassador Tommy Armour III (the TAIII of the TAIII 3D), Renegar came up with a 440cc driver with Sub 70’s patented Axis of Rotation (ART) face technology. According to Renegar, 3D printing has sidestepped two key limitations of standard titanium driver design and manufacturing.

“State-of-the-art driver manufacturing would be a forged titanium face plasma-welded onto a cast titanium body,” he explains. “The limitation is you can’t control the variable face thickness properties around the edges because of the welding process.”

Weld lines limit how far variable face thickness can extend to the perimeter of the club face. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, weld lines limit potential face flex. By removing weld lines, those two limits go away.

“What this does is that within the 460cc volume limits and MOI limits set by the USGA, we can increase the sweet spot,” says Renegar. “That means we can make the trampoline bigger without making the club head bigger.

“That opens the door to new thinking about face design.”

460cc worth of forgiveness in a 440cc head

Since the entire body and face are printed as one high-strength shell with no welds, Renegar says Sub 70 can make the face extremely thin which promotes ball speed. It also allows him to optimize weight placement. The result is a compact 440cc driver that’s more forgiving than any 440cc driver has a right to be. That’s something our on-range and on-course testing bore out.   

“Nobody hits it dead center every time,” Renegar explains. “We can’t make the center any faster due to the rules, but how far away from the center can I still have high CT on that face? By printing the head and eliminating the weld lines, we’re able to push the high CT area farther away from the center and closer to the boundaries.”

Because of 3D printing, the Sub 70 TAIII 3D driver has a deeper face than a typical 440cc driver while retaining the compact shaping that better players prefer. In fact, according to Renegar, the TAIII 3D’s face is even deeper than that of a typical 460cc driver.

“It’s only by two millimeters. But if you can make the face just a little deeper, you open the door to a little more spring effect high and low. A high or a low miss will end up working better than you’d think.”

The 3D process also allows for precise CG placement. Specifically, the hosel adapter connection sits considerably lower in the driver head than it does in a conventionally made driver, to the point where it looks like a no-hosel design.

“That helps us push the CG lower and toward the heel area. With our ART design, you want weight low in the heel and high in the toe.”

Can an average golfer see the benefits or is it only for better players?

“The real benefit,” says Renegar, “is that you can manage face thickness a lot more efficiently and enlarge the size of the trampoline. Combine that with our ART technology and it’s going to be more accurate and plenty long enough.”

ART is Sub 70’s patented face technology. While most drivers use a traditional bulge and roll face curvature, ART employs a single continuous face curvature extending from the low heel to the high toe. In theory, this helps the golfer control the gear effect so toe strikes won’t hook excessively and heel strikes won’t slice off the planet unless the face is completely open at impact.

“It’s a 440cc head so it’s meant to be workable,” says Hiland. “But it’s still very forgiving. Even on mishits, even though you’re trying to work it, it’s going to be more accurate.”

Understand, forgiveness is relative. If you want 10K Max level forgiveness, this ain’t it. It might be more accurate to say that it’s close to the same level of forgiveness as any OEM’s core model 460cc driver but it’s a lot more workable.

So, for the average golfer, the Sub 70 TAIII 3D is a forgiving driver, just not in the way you might think. A 10K driver just wants to go straight. You’ll pay a ball speed penalty but the sunuvagun wants to go straight.

This driver is meant for the better player who wants to – and can – hit a power fade one hole, a high draw on the next and a low cut on the one after that. With the TAIII 3D, when that player misses the center, the penalty is much less severe.

We tested the Sub 70 TAIII 3D: Here’s what we found

First off, let me say that I am not the kind of player who can, on command, hit a high fade on one hole, a high draw on the next and a low cut on the one after that. I can hit a cut on command alright, maybe about half the time.

Maybe a little less than half.

Anyhow, my first session with the Sub 70 TAIII 3D was at the Club Champion in Portsmouth, N.H. It took a little getting used to but here’s what I had once it was dialed in:

94 mph swing speed
139.6 ball speed
1.49 smash factor
229 carry
256.5 total
2,160 spin
14.5 launch

The next session was outdoors at the Sagamore Golf Center in North Hampton, using the Flightscope Mevo Gen2. My swing was slower that day but the numbers held up:

90 mph swing speed
135 ball speed
1.51 smash factor
228 carry
242 total
2,390 spin
11.9 launch

One thing about the Mevo Gen2 is that the new update shows impact location on the face. Interestingly, most of my strikes were to the toe side of center with one well toward the toe. You’d figure some of those strikes, given the path info the Gen2 also provides, would be hooks that would be lucky to land in the left rough. ART, combined with ball speed courtesy of the 3D-printed face, kept them relatively close to the center line.

That tells me two things. First, the clubhead is pretty forgiving, likely approaching 460cc levels. Second, I don’t care how skeptical you want to be about modern technology; there does appear to be something to Sub 70’s ART technology.

Sometimes, people, you have to admit that these new technologies with snappy names sometimes actually do what their creators say they’ll do. It happens.

My nine-hole round at Exeter Country Club made me even more confident. It’s not a long course but according to Arccos, I drove the ball like a 2 handicap that day (I’m a 6 so I’ll take it). The shot of the day was driving the green on the 259-yard par-4 sixth hole.

Where does 3D printing go next?

Hiland is one of the more straightforward figures in golf equipment. He says that if they found no discernible difference with 3D printing, they wouldn’t have done it.

“But with Bob designing, it’s legit, man. When you combine the ART face with 3D printing? We were like, wow. We gave it to Tommy, and he shared it with a bunch of Tour pros. They were like, wow, too. Then it’s like f**k it, we have to do it.”

Hiland also says this is just the start for Sub 70 with 3D printing.

“Going forward, our 869 drivers will be 3D printed. We’re working on them this summer. We’ll have a standard and a Max model. Once you do a Max model with 3D printing, it’ll be pretty wild to see how straight we can make it go.”

Sub 70 TAIII 3D driver: Specs and pricing

The Sub 70 TAIII 3D driver is available in 8-, 9.5- and 10.5-degree heads in left- and right-handed models. Thanks to 3D printing, there are no molds so offering left-handed options is a snap.

It comes with front and back sole weights to fine-tune launch and spin. The standard setup is with a five-gram weight in front and a 25-gram weight in back. It also comes with extra 10-, 15- and 20-gram weights.

Sub 70 uses a TaylorMade hosel adapter so each head loft is adjustable up or down two degrees.

And it comes with a freakin’ sweet real leather headcover. TAIII insisted.

The Lamkin Crossline 360 black is the stock grip. Standard shafts include the LA Golf A-Series and the Project X Denali Red, Blue and Black Frost. Other grips and stocks are available at an upcharge.  

The standard driver runs $549 which may sound high for a DTC brand. 3D printing, however, simply costs more. That price is still well below the mainstream OEMs.

For more information on the TAIII 3D, hit up the Sub 70 website.

The post Sub 70 Quietly Built A 3D Printed Driver — And It’s Worth Your Attention appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

You know your handicap. You know you want it lower. What you probably don’t know is what that takes, in real strokes, broken down by category.

Arccos pulled 329,000 rounds from about 21,000 golfers with USGA-verified handicaps to answer that question for us. Knowing how many strokes separate you from the golfers one level better than you right now and where those strokes are hiding is valuable information.

It’s nice to know you’re a 15 handicap and you’d like to be a 10. What’s less clear is what that jump requires. Turns out it’s not the same answer at every level and it’s not the answer most golfers assume.

The data

Arccos looked at full 18-hole rounds over the past year, counting only golfers who’d logged at least five rounds. Every figure below is a median, the typical result, not an average skewed by one blow-up round. And it’s split into the four parts of the game that make up a scorecard: tee shots, approach shots, short game and putting.

Table: The Gap to the Next Level

What the numbers are telling you

Approach play is the largest single category in every jump, sitting between 38 and 40 percent of the total gap. It doesn’t matter if you’re a 20-handicap or a single digit, the biggest chunk of ground you need to make up is the approach.

Tee shots are the second biggest factor everywhere. The thing that surprised me with this data is that tee shot importance grows as you get better. It’s 24 percent of the gap for a 20-handicap trying to break into the teens and climbs to 29 percent for a six-handicap trying to get to scratch. The better you already are, the more your tee shots matter to the next jump.

Add tee and approach together and you get roughly two-thirds of every single band jump.

Short game and putting combined make up the other third.

Putting is never the largest lever at any level. It ranges from about a fifth of the gap for a beginner down to 14 percent for a single-digit player. That doesn’t mean putting doesn’t matter. It means it’s consistently the smallest of the four pieces, at every level measured.

Your stroke budget

Here’s the same numbers, reshaped as a straightforward roadmap. Whatever band you’re in, this is what it takes to play like the next one up.

Final thoughts

Averages describe the typical golfer in your band. Whether you’re typical is exactly what you can’t know without tracking your own game. This chart tells you what’s costing golfers at your level in general. It can’t tell you what’s costing you specifically, on your home course, with your swing.

That’s the part only your own data can answer. Arccos Air tracks every shot of every round without needing sensors screwed into your clubs or your phone in your pocket. It finds the exact part of your game costing you strokes right now. It will then help you build a practice plan around those weaknesses. The chart helps bring some awareness but Arccos Air can make it personal.

The post How Far Are You From the Next Handicap Level? (Full Chart) appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

I pulled our own testing numbers on five drivers that are currently discounted and ranked them by how they performed and which ones I would buy.

COBRA DS-Adapt Max K, $299.98 (45% off)

This is the deepest discount of the five and it’s built specifically for a fast swing. In our 2025 high swing speed testing, the DS-Adapt Max K finished first in distance, fourth in forgiveness and produced the second-fastest ball speeds in the entire high swing speed test.

If your swing speed is 105 mph or higher, this is one of the strongest options we’ve tested at any price, let alone $299.98.

What stood out most in our results is that it holds up on mishits. Faster swingers who tend to over-spin the ball found a stable, high MOI head that didn’t balloon shots or sacrifice ball speed.

TaylorMade Qi35, $449.98 (25% off)

The Qi35 was the highest-ranking TaylorMade driver in our 2025 testing and finished 13th overall. It had strong distance and ball speed but it didn’t crack the top 10. Like the COBRA, it performs well for high swing speed players, ranking well for distance in our high-speed results.

Where it comes up short is forgiveness.

It finished well down the field on that metric, in the bottom half of the 37 drivers we tested. It’s built for players with consistent swings who don’t rely on the club to bail out a mishit.

PING G430 Max, $419.98 (24% off)

This is the one built for the other end of the swing speed spectrum. In our low swing speed testing in 2024, sub-90 mph, the G430 Max was the best driver we tested for distance. It finished third overall in that category and sixth for forgiveness. It also posted strong accuracy marks across our broader testing pool.

If your swing speed is on the slower side and you’ve been told that means giving up distance for forgiveness, this is the driver that says otherwise. For a sub-90 mph swing, it’s one of the strongest options on this list.

Titleist TSR2, starting at $399.98

The TSR2 isn’t a new release; it’s a couple of generations old at this point. In our 2024 high swing speed testing, it ranked seventh th overall and finished as the second-best driver for forgiveness in that category with above-average distance and accuracy.

That combination, forgiving and fast, is unusual. Most drivers that hold up well on mishits at high swing speeds give something back in distance. The TSR2 doesn’t, at least not much. It’s an older model competing against 2025 releases at a similar price and it holds its own.

Wilson Dynapower Titanium, $299.98 (30% off)

Same price as the COBRA and the one I’d be most careful about. Our testing consistently places the Dynapower Titanium below average across the board, weakest on accuracy and distance, with forgiveness as its lone relative strength.

It’s not a bad driver for a casual, no-frills buyer. But at the exact same price as the DS-Adapt Max K, and without a swing speed category where it actually leads the field, this is the one on the list where the data doesn’t back up the discount.

Where this leaves you

Three of these five are built around swing speed in a way that matters here. The COBRA and the Qi35 both lean toward faster swingers: the COBRA with more forgiveness built in, the Qi35 demanding more consistency to unlock its numbers. The TSR2 is the rare driver that’s forgiving and fast-swing-friendly at the same time. The PING is the pick if your swing speed is under 90 mph. The Wilson is the one I’d skip. It’s the same price as the COBRA without a category where it actually wins.

If you know your swing speed, that should do most of the deciding for you. If you don’t, that’s step one before any of this matters.

The post These 5 Drivers Are On Sale Right Now. I Used Our Driver Testing Data To Rank Them appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

The lead wrist in a cupped position opens the face and can make it so golfers need to manipulate the club too much on the downswing.

I get what the drill is trying to do.

I’ve just never liked it.

Gripping the club and holding a coat hanger against it at the same time is awkward and, for me, the awkwardness gets in the way of feeling the position I’m trying to build.

Instead of a coat hanger, I use a six-inch (15 cm) ruler.

The six-inch ruler drill

Slide a six-inch ruler under the wristband of your glove so it sits flat against the back of your lead forearm. A six-inch ruler is narrow enough that it doesn’t get in the way of your grip or change how the club sits in your hand, the exact problem I have with the coat hanger.

Make slow backswings without a ball. If the ruler digs into your forearm, your lead wrist is cupping. If it stays close to your arm through the top of the swing, you’re staying flat. Once you can feel the difference on slow reps, start hitting shots at low speed and work your way back up to full swings. Check in at times to make sure the wrist is still flat.

The ruler gives the same feedback the hanger does. The good thing is that your grip pressure and hand position stay normal. For me, that’s a better way to transition the drill to the course.

If you want something wider

A credit card works the same way and gives you a bit more surface area for feedback. I just prefer the ruler because it’s narrower and it pinpoints the wrist area a bit better.

Which do you prefer? The ruler or the hanger?

The post I Don’t Like Wyndham Clark’s Coat Hanger Drill. I Use A Ruler Instead. appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

They want the coach to find the problem quickly, explain it simply and make the ball behave before the hour ends. Many also feel they are being tested. They apologize for bad shots, speed through warm-up swings and try to prove that the miss they described is real.

After decades of coaching, here is what I wish more golfers understood: a good lesson is not a one-hour repair shop. It is a diagnostic appointment and the first draft of an improvement plan. The goal is not to make your final five shots look perfect. The goal is to leave knowing what matters, what does not and how to practice the priority.

Bring the problem, not your diagnosis

Tell the coach what you see and when it happens. “My 7-iron starts left and keeps going left” is more useful than “I am coming over the top.” So is, “I drive it well on the range but miss right when I get nervous.” One describes evidence. The other assumes the cause.

A visible miss can come from several permutations of face angle, swing direction, strike location, setup and timing. Your job is not to arrive with the correct technical answer. Your job is to give the coach an honest picture of the ball flight, contact and situations that are costing you shots. If you have trouble describing the pattern, learning to read your ball flight on the range will make the conversation much more productive.

Choose one main outcome for the session. You may mention the rest but do not ask one lesson to cure the driver, bunker game, three-putting and fear of the first tee. A narrow target gives the coach room to diagnose instead of racing through four unrelated mini-lessons.

Let the coach see your normal golf

Warm up enough to move comfortably but do not hit a large bucket before the lesson and arrive exhausted. Once the session starts, hit several normal shots without trying to manufacture your best swing. A coach needs to see the pattern you bring to the course.

Do not hide the ugly shot. Do not immediately explain every miss. The pull, block, top or heavy strike may provide the most useful information of the day. Mention any physical limitation, recent equipment change or practice constraint that affects what you can reasonably do. A correction that requires four range sessions each week is not a useful plan for someone who only has 20 minutes at home.

A lesson should narrow your attention

Golfers often judge a lesson by how many ideas they receive. I judge it by how clearly the priority emerges.

The coach may identify several contributing pieces but you should not leave trying to rebuild all of them at once. Ask three direct questions: What do I work on first? What should I ignore for now? What will tell me I am doing this correctly? Those questions turn information into an order of operations.

This is one reason the most important lesson point is not always the most visible swing position. The root problem may be a setup choice, clubface condition or sequencing issue that creates the motion you were trying to eliminate. Fixing the symptom can make the swing look different without making the strike more predictable.

Leave with a practice contract

Before you leave, be able to write down five things: the priority, the feel or cue, the feedback method, the practice dose, the transfer test.

For example, the priority might be controlling the clubface earlier. The cue might be a specific checkpoint in the takeaway. The feedback might be the ball starting inside a narrow window. The dose might be three sets of eight balls with a pause between sets. The transfer test might be hitting five different targets with the normal pre-shot routine.

That is much stronger than “keep working on it.” It also connects the lesson to the larger question of when instruction helps and when practice must take over. The lesson creates clarity. Practice builds ownership.

Record a short summary in your phone before driving home. If the coach allows video, capture only the key demonstration or drill. A folder full of clips is not a plan. One clear note that you can repeat is more valuable.

Do not grade the lesson by the last ball

A new movement can produce a few excellent shots, a few poor ones and plenty that feel unfamiliar. That does not automatically mean the lesson worked or failed. Test the plan across two or three focused practice sessions. Track the feedback the coach gave you, not only whether every ball reached the target.

If the pattern is not improving, communicate what you are seeing. Good coaching is a conversation, not a verdict delivered in 60 minutes. The plan may need a different cue, a simpler drill or a revised diagnosis.

The best lesson does not make you dependent on another lesson. It gives you a clearer understanding of your golf, one useful priority and a way to measure progress. Arrive ready to show the truth. Leave with less to think about and something specific to do next. That is a lesson worth taking.

The post What I Wish More Golfers Knew Before Taking A Lesson appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

This week, the Tour heads to Southport, England, for The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. 

• Date: July 16-19, 2026
• Location: Southport, England
• Course: Royal Birkdale Golf Club
• How to watch: NBC, USA, Peacock
• Purse: $17,000,000
• Defending champ: Scottie Scheffler

Which skills the course rewards

Royal Birkdale was founded in 1889 and primarily designed by Frederick G. Hawtree and J.H. Taylor. Mackenzie & Ebert, the firm that has worked on all Open rota courses, did a significant renovation in 2023 to prepare for this year’s Open Championship.

It will play as a par 70 at more than 7,200 yards, making it a longer course for Open Championship standards. Both par 5’s are on the back nine and very gettable, while the course has a diverse set of par 3s and plenty of difficult par 4s. 

The difficulty of Opens at Birkdale have largely been dependent on weather, but it’s still one of the toughest tests in the Open rota. Jordan Spieth reached 12-under in 2017 with fairly easy conditions and a third round that gave up a record-breaking 62 from Brendan Grace. Padraig Harrington won at 3-over in 2008 by four shots during a week that saw terrible weather and brutal conditions. Mark O’Meara also only managed even-par in 1998. 

This week, we should expect an extremely firm and fast golf course due to the hot and dry weather in England over the past few weeks. But winds are expected to be fairly tame, which should overall create a fair but difficult challenge for the world’s best. 

At Birkdale, I’m primarily looking at strong, accurate drivers of the ball and elite short-grass scramblers, along with the usual preference of elite iron play. Birkdale’s fairways can be tough to hit and feature narrowing short grass around the yardage many players hit their driver. Those who can be aggressive can cut off the distance on a lot of these par 4’s, but the firm conditions will make it tough to do so accurately. Birkdale has favored accuracy off the tee, so any players who can combine distance with that will obviously have a great advantage. 

Birkdale also has very tricky green complexes with short-grass runoffs all around them. It should come as no surprise then that Spieth and Harrington took down the last two Opens here, considering they were possibly the best in the game at the time at creative scrambling. 

With firm conditions expected, players who can flight their ball multiple ways and work it in both high and low should be at an advantage. The R&A will be able to cut the greens a little shorter than many years due to the expected low winds. 

How the model works

The weighted model this week over the last 36 rounds is 20% SG: Approach, 15% SG: Off the Tee, 15% SG: Total (Links), 10% SG: Around the Green, 10% scrambling (short grass), 10% greens in regulation %, 10% distance from edge of fairway, and 10% SG: Putting.

Power rankings

(DraftKings odds—winner/top 5/top 10 with favorite picks in bold)

10. Tom Kim (+5900, +880, +405)

Model rank: 16^th

This checks all the boxes. Kim won last week in Scotland, which makes it five straight top-17 finishes in that tournament. He was 3^rd at the U.S. Open, and he also finished runner-up in the 2023 Open Championship. Kim has been trending upward for a while now, and he always seems to enjoy links golf. His iron play has been elite lately, and the scrambling is also superb. Ranks 2^nd in SG: APP. 

9. Russell Henley (+5200, +750, +340)

Model rank: 11^th

Henley has been struggling with his short game for whatever reason as of late, but I’d expect that to turn around soon. He’s always been great scrambling from short grass, and Henley is a very accurate driver of the ball who can get scorching hot with his irons at any moment. He’s finished 5^th and T10 at the last two Opens. Ranks 4^th in DFEF. 

8. Jon Rahm (+1850, +345, +174)

Model rank: 5^th

I’m struggling with how to grade Rahm this week. At a quick look, he checks the boxes statistically and is one of the best players in the world. But the recent form is not ideal—especially the irons last week in Scotland in a rare chance to tee it up with PGA Tour players. He also missed the cut at Shinnecock. But Rahm has been in the mix consistently at The Open and could surely contend again. Ranks 4^th in SG: OTT. 

7. Xander Schauffele (+2500, +445, +220)

Model rank: 3^rd

Schauffele is another top player coming in poor form after struggling at the Travelers and Scottish Open. His iron play was a disaster in both starts, as was much of the bag. But Schauffele tends to always bring it for major championships, and The Open has been no different. He won in 2024 and defended with a solid T7 last year. He also had a valuable T20 at Birkdale as a debutant in 2017. Ranks 1^st in SG: TOT (Links). 

6. Tyrrell Hatton (+3600, +590, +285)

Model rank: 8^th

Hatton has a pair of great runs at majors this year, with a T3 at the Masters and T7 at the U.S. Open. He didn’t hit it well at the Scottish last week but had a hot putter to manage a T17. I’ve always felt like Hatton would win an Open, as he’s been solid here throughout his career. Birkdale is the type of fair test that will fit better with his temperament as well. Ranks 9^th in SG: APP. 

5. Cameron Young (+3100, +530, +260)

Model rank: 7^th

Young hasn’t exactly had his best stuff since that incredible stretch through the Cadillac Championship in May. The putter has completely cooled off, which was always expected, but maybe not this drastically. His ball striking has also cooled down as well but not in a concerning way. Young started his Open career with a runner-up and a T8 in 2023 but missed the cut at Royal Portrush last year. Ranks 12^th in SG: OTT. 

4. Matt Fitzpatrick (+1850, +335, +166)

Model rank: 9^th

Shockingly, Fitzpatrick managed his first finish better than 20^th at The Open last year with a T4 at Portrush. It’s a bit concerning that he hasn’t managed much in this championship, but it doesn’t make any sense. I expect Fitzpatrick to find his way in the mix more often now at The Open, and Birkdale seems like the right spot considering he’s been one of the game’s top few players throughout 2026. Ranks 2^nd in SG: ARG. 

3. Tommy Fleetwood (+1800, +325, +160)

Model rank: 4^th

It could be a magical week for Fleetwood in his hometown. The Southport native played decently here in 2017, but he’s added three top-10’s in the Open since, and he’s coming in with fantastic form of five straight finishes of T14 or better. Fleetwood is one of the most balanced players on Tour and should be in the mix if his iron play is strong. Ranks 11^th in SG: ARG. 

2. Rory McIlroy (+850, +184, -104)

Model rank: 2^nd

McIlroy had a nice prep week in Scotland with a T7 finish despite struggling with his approach play. The driver could be a real weapon at Birkdale if he’s hitting it straight, as he could cut off a ton of distance on some of the par-4’s and give himself more wedges than most. He was T4 here in 2017 and would surely like to add another Open after winning his last in 2014. 

1. Scottie Scheffler (+620, +132, -146)

Model rank: 1^st

I’m still not panicking. Scheffler missed his first cut since 2022 last week at the Scottish Open. I almost think it may have been a good thing for the defending champion. Scheffler got to Birkdale earlier than expected to work on his game, and perhaps it could help him manage a better start than he’s had in most tournaments this year. Scheffler still easily grades out No. 1 in the model, and he’s finished 2^nd, T14 and T4 at the three majors this year. Ranks 1^st in SG: APP.

Top Photo Caption: Royal Birkdale is ready for the Open Championship. (GETTY IMAGES/Michael Reaves)

The post The Open Championship: Power Rankings, Gambling Odds And Favorite Bets appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

Why the quick turn

When Titleist built the GT280, it zagged. While most of the category clustered around 300cc (and Callaway went all the way to 340), Titleist went small on purpose, betting that a genuinely compact mini, one you could hit more easily off the deck, was the version of the club the market was missing.

It wasn’t wrong. The 280 has fans and it still does a specific job better than most. But “compact and versatile” and “what the PGA Tour wants” turned out to be two different conversations.

“We loved the 280. We did this for a reason,” Titleist’s Tom Fisher told us when we sat down with the metalwoods team. “Launch and spin was pretty good, where we wanted it. We loved the versatility of it. But feedback was, ‘Can we go a little bit bigger to get more inertia? [But] not too big to make it that it’s not good off the ground.’”

Two of the louder voices in that feedback loop belonged to Justin Thomas and Cameron Young. “Both those players were really excited about GT280 and also had some commentary about potential performance improvements,” said JJ Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist’s Senior Director of Club Promotions. The read between the lines: the small head was a good start; now make it more forgiving without wrecking what made it playable.

What’s bigger and what isn’t

The GTS300 grows to 305cc, a 25cc bump over the 280. Written down, that reads almost trivial. In practice, a bigger footprint and a deeper center of gravity buy meaningfully more MOI which is the whole point.

“The main goal in development was to make GTS300 a more forgiving mini driver,” said Stephanie Luttrell, Titleist’s Senior Director of Metalwood Development. “The increase in volume and shift in CG gave us approximately 15 to 20 percent greater inertia to do just that. At the same time, we’re still putting a premium on versatility and performance off the turf with this club.”

That last part is the tell. The one number Titleist deliberately left alone is face height. The 300 carries a larger footprint but sits the same off the ground as the 280 and that’s by design. Go too deep, Fisher notes, and the thing “falls off a tightly mown fairway” which is death for confidence on the exact shot a mini is supposed to make easier.

The face is carried over in philosophy from the GTS fairways: a forged L-Cup design with a high-strength ATI 425 steel insert that wraps under the leading edge. It’s fairway-wood DNA, built to hold ball speed on the low-face strikes you’re going to catch swinging a mini off the turf. A composite crown frees up discretionary weight which is how the engineers got the CG where they wanted it in the first place.

Don’t sleep on the fitting

Here’s the part most people will skip past and shouldn’t.

Yes, there’s the Fairway SureFit hosel for loft and lie. Yes, there’s a dual-weight system: an 11-gram and a three-gram flat weight you can run heavy-back for a higher, more stable flight or flip heavy-forward for a lower, flatter, lower-spin one. Standard stuff.

But the weights aren’t just a front-to-back switch. Titleist offers them in a range (down to minus-six and up to plus-six grams), which means a good fitter can also dial the head’s overall weight up or down to land you where you actually perform. That matters more on a mini than most clubs because a mini can be a driver replacement, a 3-wood replacement or a situational 15th club depending on who’s holding it and each of those wants something a little different.

The catch is that almost nobody gets fitted for a mini driver. If you’re going to spend the money, spend the extra 20 minutes, too. (One SureFit note worth filing away: because the GTS300 hosel is longer, a 43-inch fairway shaft plugs in and plays 43.5.)

Still a Tour idea, mostly

None of this rewrites the math of the category. The mini is, at its core, a solution that trickled down from the Tour, where the 3-wood off the deck is basically extinct and the best players want something between driver and fairway when the big dog is too much club. For a lot of amateurs, the honest answer is you’d be fine letting the driver hunt. For some (the ones who genuinely can’t keep it between the stakes or who never hit 3-wood off the ground anyway), a mini is a legitimately good idea.

What’s no longer up for debate is whether the category sticks around. Every mainstream OEM but PING now sells one and several are three-plus generations deep into what qualifies as their modern minis. That’s not a fad. That’s a shelf.

My take on 280 versus 300

I haven’t spent real time with the GTS300 yet so file this under “first impressions.” I like the larger footprint off the tee and the forgiveness story makes sense. I also still think Titleist was onto something with the smaller 280 even if the Tour and the broader market have made it clear they’d take a touch more size.

For most golfers, the move up won’t cost much. If you’re comfortable hitting the 280 off the deck, odds are you’ll be fine with the 300. That said, I wouldn’t be shocked to see a strong secondhand market build up around the 280 because the people who bought it small bought it small on purpose. If that’s you, note that Titleist has dropped the 280 to $399 which turns the club that might already be the right one for you into a genuine bargain.

Specs, pricing and availability

The Titleist GTS300 comes in a single 13-degree loft, right- and left-handed, at 305cc. Standard length is 43.5 inches (men’s) with 42.5-inch (women’s) and 41.5-inch (junior) builds available. Standard lie is 56 degrees.

Stock shafts include the Project X Titan Black and Mitsubishi’s Tensei 1K in White (low), Blue (mid) and Red (high) with Rip Technology. Premium options bring the Graphite Design Tour AD DI, VF and FI.

MSRP is $549 or $749 with a premium shaft. The GTS300 reaches golf shops worldwide beginning July 23.

For more information, visit Titleist.com.

The post Titleist GTS300 Mini Driver: The Case For Going Bigger appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: zero-torque putters are not magic. But results like this should make you stop and think.

Every buying guide at MyGolfSpy is informed by independent testing and millions of equipment data points, helping golfers separate marketing claims from measurable performance.

The numbers nobody wants to own

Across our Blade, Mallet and Zero-Torque tests, 17 testers played all three categories. On blades, the pool averaged a -2.47 PV handicap. On mallets, -3.80. One tester’s blade average was +4.55. His mallet average was +3.98. He is the only tester in that group of 17 with a positive handicap in either category, meaning by our measure he was worse than scratch on both.

Then we handed him a zero-torque putter

His zero-torque average came out to -0.97, a swing of more than 5 1/2 strokes from his mallet number alone. Saving five shots with a club change is huge.

But I want to be careful with what that number does and does not mean.

A -0.97 is not this tester climbing to the top of our leaderboard. The 17-tester Zero Torque average was -6.57 so he was likely still below the pack even at his best. Zero-torque does not make him elite. However, we can see that whatever was breaking down in his stroke on a blade or a heavier mallet largely disappeared once his putter stopped twisting through impact.

What the distance data shows

On mallets, his medium-range putts, the eight- to 15-foot zone that decides more rounds than most golfers want to admit, cost him 8.82 strokes above the field average. With zero-torque, that same zone cost him 2.28. Short and long putts improved, too, but the medium-range gap is where decisions about switching putters should be made.

His best in each category

The numbers we’ve been looking at up to this point have been averages. It’s also interesting to break down his best putter in each category. I like seeing the Scotty Cameron putts show up on this list twice. The Cameron name has always been associated with better players but you can see here that the SS Newport 2 and Phantom 11 OC were top performers for a golfer who needs some help on the greens.

What this means for your own fitting

What a zero-torque head is engineered to do is keep the face square through impact without your hands correcting for it. For this golfer, it fixed something that helped him save strokes instantly. Have you tried a zero-torque putter yet?

The post What Happened When the Worst Putter in Our Testing Tried a Zero-Torque Putter (Data-Backed Results) appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

As you can see, golf jargon is expansive. And, for the most part, golf is a game with plenty of fun lingo.

Albatross. Sandbagger. Waggle.

However, golf’s lexicon has a few stragglers as well. These are the terms I hate to hear. Quite frankly, they make me wince like I just three-putted from 10 feet.

For one reason or another, here are the 10 golf terms that make me cringe.

(And, yes, I am the old man yelling at the cloud.)

1. Golfing

Look, I’m not here to be the grammar police but the term golfing just doesn’t make sense.

You don’t add “-ing” to any other major sport in this context. Tennising? Baseballing? Basketballling? I’m not sure how golf got roped into this racket.

This is one of those little things where you can tell the ballknowers from the novices. If someone says they are golfing rather than playing golf, the chances are high that they are new to the game or don’t play much.

Does it matter? Not at all. Does it make me cringe? It sure does.

2. Pin

I’m not sure who is doing PR for the word “pin” in golf but they must be the same people who turned Brussels sprouts around.

Pins exist in bowling alleys, ATM machines and bulletin boards. Flagsticks exist on golf courses. That is how the USGA defines it and that word makes a lot more sense given how there is, you know, a flag involved. Flagstick is a cool term unique to golf while pin is definitely not.

But somehow we’ve decided to incorporate pin (pin high, pin seeking, etc.) into virtually every reference to the flagstick.

Make the flagstick great again.

3. Playing through

Taking things in a slightly different direction here, I cringe at “playing through” for a different reason than the first two.

First of all, I now associate “playing through” with TV coverage when they give us 18 percent of the screen for the golf while a commercial plays on the rest. I would rather just get straight commercials and then see the shots on tape delay.

And then we have one of the most awkward encounters in golf: playing through a group (or having a group play through you).

It’s weird either way. If you are playing through someone, you inevitably rush while the group watches you finish the hole. If someone is playing through you, that means they were on your ass and you have to take a forced break.

No matter how you slice it, playing through isn’t ideal.

4. Gimme

If you’ve followed my writing, you know my feelings on gimmes. We should just cancel them and everyone can finish out the hole instead of negotiating their score.

Gimmes are one of the oddest things in golf. Within a certain circle—and nobody can fully agree on what that circle is—golfers are expected to say “that’s good” so their playing partners don’t have to hole out.

I’m also just against the term “gimme” in the first place. Hey, I want that putt, gimme it.

Is this actually serious in a fun game of golf? Not really but it grinds my gears.

5. Shank

The dreaded S-word.

Shank is a full-on cringe but for much different reasons than the previous four terms listed here.

Everyone who has played golf has hit a shank at some point. It’s the most embarrassing shot in golf and it can be a recurring sickness that rears its ugly head at the most inopportune times.

You wouldn’t wish the shanks on your worst enemy. You would rather have just about any other swing problem.

The only exception is…

6. The yips

While the term of “the yips” or “being yippy” extends into other sports—like when a second baseman can’t throw to first all of a sudden—the word is synonymous with golf.

Shanks and yips can sometimes overlap but the biggest difference is that the yips are purely mental.

A golfer gets over the ball and can’t take the club back. Or their mind goes completely blank once the downswing starts.

Usually, it’s a talented golfer who has the physical ability but is struggling with a mental burden. He or she has become infected and needs to visit a sports psychologist.

Some golfers never recover.

7. Foot wedge

“Foot wedge” is a term used for when golfers move their ball into a better position. It can be said for a golfer moving their ball away from a root during a casual game or a serial cheater improving their lie while nobody is looking.

Similar to gimme, my issue with the term is two-fold:

• If you are playing golf for score, you might as well play the ball as it lies and see what your real score is rather than negotiating with yourself. You can’t brag about shooting 78 if you use the foot wedge liberally.

• If you are playing golf for fun and score is irrelevant, just do whatever you want. There doesn’t need to be any pomp and circumstance around “taking a foot wedge” to give yourself a better lie. That makes it sound like you are doing something wrong. You can do it on virtually every shot where you don’t have a perfect lie. Honestly, it’s a nice way for beginners to learn the game.

The term is also just kind of a dad joke that isn’t funny.

8. Fore

After playing a lot of competitive junior golf, I have PTSD from the word “fore.”

There is no good news when that word is heard on a golf course. Either you hit a bad tee shot that is headed toward another group or someone hit an errant tee shot in your direction.

As bad as it is to hear the word, not hearing someone yell it is almost more cringey. Hitting into someone and not even warning them is even worse.

9. Provisional

Interestingly enough, I think I’ve only heard the word “provisional” in a competitive golf context.

Similar to fore, there is no good time for a provisional to be played.

First, you hit a ball that might have gone out of bounds or been lost. Next, you have to declare your provisional. Then you have to make another swing, often with the uncertainty of knowing whether the original ball is still in play.

Sometimes you are better off playing the provisional rather than finding the original ball in an unsavory location.

So, yeah, provisional is a tough word to hear.

10. Skull

Another word unique to golf in this context, skull is a brutal word.

There are many humiliating shots that can be hit in golf but skulling a short game shot might take the cake in the non-shank division.

That feeling of hitting the equator of the ball and seeing it fly past the hole—often ending up in a much worse position than where you came from—is one of the most deflating feelings in the world.

The “skull” must stand for “skull and crossbones” because you are dead in that scenario.

That is my list. What are your most cringey golf words? Let me know below in the comments.

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