Surviving the Hot List: Season 2

What happens when you drop a golf-crazed Hollywood actor and a retired NFL player into the most grueling gig in golf? At the 2023 Hot List summit, Golf Digest's cameras followed Michael Peña and Danny Woodhead's quest to ace their new jobs as rookie club testers.

Blade Putters

The best new blade putters continue to be the glamour category of all clubs. They still reflect an enticing jewelry-like majesty that makes some of us feel like we felt about that girl in high school who’d never look at us. So fine that we clearly are not worthy. It had us trudging back to our safe zone of those Elephant Man-looking mallets. Well, hold on, young buck. Today’s blades are more accessible to all us cack-handed nerds than ever before. Even the most museum-quality pieces are investing in shape tweaks and multi-material enhancements that offer a new level of forgiveness for our less than perfect strokes. There’s no denying that being seen with one of these alluring blades is the golf equivalent of flying first class, driving off in that Lambo for your 60th birthday or buying your first pair of Manolo Blahnik’s. But frankly that’s missing the point. Blades today shouldn’t be desirable for their looks (nothing in equipment should be). It’s about their performance, and the latest models do things to the face to improve roll and feel and even distance and direction control. Reimagined groove and milling patterns, along with some oversize models, all contribute to blades becoming more accommodating to games that on the surface might seem inadequate. And be honest, you know a blade putter just feels better. We know that’s true. Our players in the Hot List rated blade putters universally higher in Feel than mallet putters. You know it’s what you want. Even better, the best blade putters are eager to show you how much you deserve to have one. Go ahead. You are worth it.