Should amateurs be buying Zero Torque putters? This tour pro says maybe not

Aside from perhaps the advent of the 10K MOI driver, no advancement in golf technology has promised to deliver quite as much for higher-handicap golfers than the zero torque putter.

Made popular by forward-thinking upstarts like L.A.B Golf and since adopted by names like Odyssey, TaylorMade and even Scotty Cameron, zero torque putters are the most in-demand flat sticks on the market right now, using their unique balance and centre of gravity to effectively do the job of squaring the club face for you.

That is, at least, what the big brands promise – some of them using the hype around ZT putters to charge upwards of £500 for a club. But while we've done enough testing to confirm the best zero torque putters make shorter putts significantly easier for a lot of players, one PGA Tour pro believes that your money might be better spent elsewhere.

The player in question is Michael Kim – a player who incidentally, at the time of writing, sits alone atop the DP World Tour Championship leaderboard. One of the most outspoken player voices on social on everything from golf to baseball, Kim often posts lengthy threads dissecting his own game and the insights he thinks might help other players get better. 

And as it happens, in the lead up to last week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Kim dropped a lengthy series of thoughts about the Zero Torque putter craze. Incidentally, he also uses one himself, currently playing with a TaylorMade Spider 5K-ZT. 

Why? “It’s very easy to start putts online," he explained. "I’ve always had trouble pushing putts and I don’t push putts as often anymore. That’s the biggest – and really only – benefit.”

The issue for more average players, Kim goes on to explain, is that Zero Torque putters can fix the smaller niggles that might send some putts offline, but don't necessarily address the alignment and setup issues that more commonly cause amateurs to send putts wayward. "Starting putts online is 90% in the set up, maybe 95%," he says. "A ZT putter might only be a minimal improvement on that and until you fix your set up, it might not do too much good."

"A lot of pros have transitioned to one because it just feels easier to start putts online and more and more guys are transitioning," Kim continues. However he does add a caveat: "If I just purely look at the rankings for the best putters on the PGA Tour, (I might not remember everyone’s putter) I don’t see one person inside the top 50 using a ZT putter.

"Companies have looked at stats on guys doing better with a ZT putter compared to the regular ones and it’s usually better with their regular putter (very small sample size)."

The conclusion, then? Maybe save your money for now and invest in some putting lessons instead. Or, if you're struggling within 10 feet in particular, learn the art of AimPoint green reading, which Kim, a top-10 putter on tour within 10 feet, has spoken glowingly about.

Got a zero torque putter of your own? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Let us know in the comments below.