Scottie Scheffler’s switch from a blade to a mallet earlier this season at the Arnold Palmer Invitational coincided with an intriguing change to the way he lines up the ball. The two-time major winner added a long, black sightline to the crown of his Spider Tour X that led to the removal of a single black line covering the Titleist Pro V1 side stamp.
“[K]eeping the mind as quiet as possible,” Scheffler said of the change. “Part of the problem is just trying too hard. It’s frustrating to not have the best of myself, just because I know that I can putt really well. It’s not like I’ve been a bad putter my whole career. I’ve just gone through a stretch where it’s been tough.”
The change might feel trivial, but it highlights the importance of finding an alignment aid that removes doubt and allows you to zero in on the target. In Scheffler’s case, a simple long line did the trick. For others, it’s a sight dot, multiple lines or nothing at all.
To get a sense of what’s trending at the top level of professional golf, we took a look at the alignment aids used by the 10 best players in the world to see if anything stood out. As we quickly learned, a single line on the topline remains the most popular alignment aid. Five of the top 10 players in the world currently have one on their putter. The number expands to seven if you include the single line found on the Spider Tour X mallets used by Scheffler and McIlroy.
Only two pros on the list, Wyndham Clark and Jon Rahm, currently use a wand without an alignment aid. And you could debate the Versa technology on Clark’s mallet is a built-in alignment aid.
Peruse the images below to see what the top 10 players are using at the moment.
1. Scottie Scheffler
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour X
Alignment aid: Black line (crown)
2. Xander Schauffele
Putter: Odyssey Toulon Las Vegas
Alignment aid: White lines (topline and wings)
3. Rory McIlroy
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour X
Alignment aid: Black line (crown)
4. Wyndham Clark
Putter: Odyssey Ai-One Cruiser Jailbird
Alignment aid: None
5. Viktor Hovland
Putter: Ping PLD DS72
Alignment aid: White lines (topline and flange)
6. Ludvig Aberg
Putter: Odyssey White Hot Versa One
Alignment aid: White line (topline)
7. Jon Rahm
Putter: Odyssey Ai-One Rossie S
Alignment aid: None
8. Patrick Cantlay
Putter: Scotty Cameron Phantom T5 Proto
Alignment aid: Black line (topline)
9. Collin Morikawa
Putter: TaylorMade TP Soto
Alignment aid: Black dot (topline)
10. Max Homa
Putter: Scotty Cameron Phantom T5.5 Proto
Alignment aid: Black line (topline)
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