Is Zero Torque The Future Of Putting?

Today’s AskMyGolfSpy question comes from Twitter (still not calling it X) follower David G., who asks:

“Do you feel with other manufacturers copying L.A.B. Golf putter designs is an admission that the tech is the best in class? Will we all be playing zero-torque putters in years to come?”

Picture this: You’re sitting in golf’s equipment war room circa 2015 and someone shows you a putter that looks like it escaped from a satellite dish factory. They tell you with a straight face that this ungainly contraption is going to revolutionize putting.

You’d probably laugh them out of the room.

L.A.B. Golf DF2.1

Fast forward to 2025 and that same frankly bizarre-looking putter has spawned an entire industry revolution. The zero-torque phenomenon feels a bit like a mile-long fuse leading to a cargo tanker full of dynamite—a long, slow burn to get here but an absolute explosion in the market as we’ve gone from just one or two brands that almost nobody knew about offering zero(ish)-torque putters to full market penetration.

Nearly every mainstream brand now offers a zero-torque option and I can confidently state that more are on the way.

If you don’t make a zero-torque putter, are you even trying, bro?

I’ve been writing about golf equipment for 15 years and I can’t recall any equipment trend that’s taken off to this extreme degree. It’s probably similar to what writers (and golfers) experienced during the transition from persimmon to steel, steel to titanium or balata balls to modern solid-core construction.

It’s been a wild ride and it’s not slowing down.

The L.A.B. DF3 is the meat in Odyssey’s Square 2 Square Max sandwich

The copycat validation theory

Golf has always been a copycat industry and, with few exceptions, imitation is validation of the original. It’s inarguable that L.A.B. has been copied. I mean, the Odyssey Ai-ONE Square 2 Square Max is about as gratuitous a first-generation knock-off as you’ll find.

To be clear, I use “first-generation” here because I believe others will launch similar shapes. While I’m not sure wholesale replication is the type of strategy a category leader should be engaging in, I suppose one could argue there’s a modicum of courage in being the first to copy the DF2.1.

It’s not a given but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the signature L.A.B. shape becomes one of those every-brand-ubiquitous designs like the Anser, Fang and Spider.

None of this should suggest that L.A.B. was the first company to bring something akin to a zero-torque putter to market. Nor would I suggest it’s incontrovertible proof that L.A.B. is best in class. But as the company that took big-headed zero-torque mainstream and achieved Tour success, it’s certainly positioned as the one to emulate (I’m being diplomatic) and overtake.

Following the money, not necessarily the science

Bettinardi Antidote putter

While there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence (and some emerging data-backed research) to suggest zero-torque putters can be beneficial, the emergence of multiple competitors doesn’t so much prove the efficacy of zero-torque putter technology as it acknowledges that golfers are buying them.

The industry-standard market share reports currently show L.A.B. as the #3 brand in dollar share.

To varying degrees, manufacturers may or may not believe in the benefits of zero-torque, but you can bet they believe there’s an opportunity to make money.

Welcome to the business side of golf.

L.A.B.’s “lie-angle balancing” approach fundamentally differs from traditional putter fitting methods (and other zero-torque approaches). Where conventional wisdom fits putters based on stroke type, L.A.B. putters are “balanced in a way that has them sitting on the shaft where their biased position is towards the target and it stays throughout the stroke.”

The promise is elegantly simple: let the putter do the work so you don’t have to.

The reality check

The Spider ZT is TaylorMade’s first zero-torque putter

As for the second part of your question … No. We won’t all be playing zero-torque putters.

I’ve talked about this several times before but it’s applicable here. Several years ago, a longtime industry friend provided his wisdom into the realities of new equipment.

I’m paraphrasing a bit but the gist is that for any given golfer, relative to what you have in the bag right now, the performance of any piece of new equipment is either going to be better, worse or the same.

Some golfers will make the move to a zero-torque putter and will putt better than ever. Others will putt worse. Some will see no difference and there’s going to be a large group that’s content with conventional blades and mallets and may never feel the need to try one.

Zero-torque represents evolution in putting, not revolution. It’s an approach that extends your options rather than replacing everything that came before.

PXG’s Allan and Bat Attack ZT putters

The bottom line

The proliferation of zero-torque designs doesn’t necessarily validate L.A.B.’s technology as “best in class” but it does validate the market opportunity. When PXG (Allen), Odyssey (Square 2 Square), Bettinardi (Antidote), TaylorMade (Spider ZT) and others start dedicating R&D resources to chase your concept, you’ve clearly struck a chord.

The real question isn’t whether zero-torque is objectively better; it’s whether it’s better for you. And the only way to answer that question is the same way L.A.B. CEO Sam Hahn suggests with his Revealer apparatus: Try it and see.

Just don’t be surprised if what you see changes everything you thought you knew about putting.

Or absolutely nothing at all.

The beauty of golf equipment evolution is that it gives us more ways to chase that elusive perfect round. Zero-torque putters are a new (or new to many) tool in an ever-expanding arsenal of hope, frustration and the occasional moment of pure putting bliss.

Whether we’ll all be playing them in years to come depends less on the technology itself and more on whether golfers keep buying them.

What do you think?

Have you tried a zero-torque putter? Do you think the new trend is the future of putting? Drop a comment below.

Got a question of your own?

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