How ‘zero-torque’ putters changed the golf landscape in 2025

The past twelve months have had a little bit of everything: a Grand Slam career, Ryder Cup chaos and much more. With 2026 on the horizon, our writers look back at the most memorable moments from 2025 and explain why they mattered.

Stories from 2025 No. 15: The ‘zero-torque’ movement

After JJ Spaun’s 65-foot bomb sealed his US Open victory and catapulted him into the international golf spotlight, he threw his LAB Golf DF3 putter into the air. Somewhat appropriately, the putter seemed to stay square the entire time.

Spaun’s breakthrough victory at Oakmont highlighted the major shift both at the highest levels of golf and in recreational play to zero-torque putters, as the victory marked the first major title for a player using a zero-torque model.

A “zero-torque” – or low torque putter – is designed with the axis of the shaft pointed directly through the center of gravity of the putter head, creating a putter that balances with the toe pointing straight up, as opposed to the toe pointing downward or the face pointing upward. This design creates a putter face that naturally wants to remain square throughout the stroke to keep the ball on line.

When inserting the shaft through the CG axis, it should usually be positioned with the onset behind the face, as opposed to the offset of a traditional putter. To combat this, many low-torque putters have a forward shaft that leans to place the user’s hands in the correct position.

This design doesn’t remove all the torque from the putting stroke, but the name “zero-torque” caught on early.

Spaun wasn’t the first player to use a low-torque putter or even win on the PGA Tour, but his move early in the season coincided with his best PGA Tour year and underlined the rise of the game’s new category.

Low-torque putters first appeared on the PGA Tour when LAB Golf, maker of Spaun’s DF3 putter, was spotted in Adam Scott’s bag. Scott became a textbook example of the early low-torque putter motion, using the putter in a long, sweeper configuration, similar to the long-anchored putter he used to win the Masters.

The putter genre really caught fire in late 2023 when Lucas Glover, whose career had fizzled due to lousy putting, suddenly returned to the spotlight with back-to-back PGA Tour wins in August. Glover used the LAB Mezz.1 Max sweeper, similar to Scott.

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour SuperstoreLAB Golf

But it wasn’t until late 2024 that major OEM competitors like Bettinardi, PXG and Odyssey started entering the low-torque space. Those putters saw a PGA Tour green for the first time late that season and better acceptance in 2025.

But this season things started to reach a fever pitch.

Major OEMs TaylorMade and Scotty Cameron, two of the three biggest players in the putter market, along with Odyssey, introduced their versions of low-torque putters in 2025. Ping also unveiled its PLD Ally Blue Onset putter.

Moreover, companies continued to innovate the concept. LAB was able to create its first low-torque putter with a heel shaft, and Odyssey created a version that required no significant lead or forward lean of the shaft.

Spaun made waves early in the season with his second-place finish at the Players before his victory at Oakmont, while Brian Harman won with the then-yet-released TaylorMade Spider ZT and Garrick Higgo won with LAB OZ.1i, Scott’s own designed putter. Meanwhile, Gary Woodland had his best season since 2020 with a prototype Scotty Cameron Onset Center putter.

Spaun, Higgo and Harman were the only players to win the Tour this season with a low-torque putter model, and Higgo was the only player in the top 10 of Strokes Gained: Putting, but the trend has arguably had a bigger impact on the retail space.

LAB Golf’s marketing strategy reversed the traditional thinking of letting Tour players influence recreational golfers, by first approaching regular golfers to see if they could influence usage on Tour. For the most part it seems to work.

TaylorMade Spider 5K-ZT custom putter

LOW TORQUE DESIGN The KBS putter shaft is drilled directly to the forward direction near the center of gravity, with a 1° shaft slope and an origin 25mm behind the face, allowing golfers to realize the benefits of a new stable toe-up design. UNIQUE SOLE SHAPE New and improved sole shape to work specifically with this unique Hosel configuration. The engineers have worked tirelessly to find new ways to improve accuracy from the moment the putter is placed behind the ball. The new sole curvature accommodates different player types and ball positions, helping golfers find a consistent and repeatable stroke. SPIDER STABILITY The combination of high-density stainless steel and low-density aerospace-grade aluminum provides the perfect foundation for a high-MOI design and allows for a shaft orientation closer to the face. MILLED TRUE PATH™ ALIGNMENT Based on feedback from tour players, we were tasked with finding a new premium alignment system. Building on classic TaylorMade True Path™ technology, milled lines have been added to the width of the golf ball, allowing golfers to properly index to the center of the clubface.

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour SuperstoreTaylorMade

More and more low-torque putters are being sold every day, and Odyssey’s VP of Product Strategy, Jacob Davidson, told GOLF that we may see the creation of a “game improvement” putter category, as is the case for other club categories.

“Maybe, just maybe, we’re starting to see for the first time the dichotomy of putting styles emerge for casual golfers and the best players in the world,” Davidson said.

For now, low-torque putters are still relatively new to the game, but unlike early 2025 when many major OEMs were still trying to determine whether the putter style was just a fad or a trend with legitimate staying power, we now appear to have an answer.