Each year there are hundreds of equipment nuggets we dole out to our readers. And every year there are some that stand out as being truly notable and worth revisiting. Certainly, the ongoing saga of the golf-ball rollback was chief among them in 2025, but others caught our attention as well. Two of the best players in the world had drivers taken away before the start of a major, a golf-ball brand enjoyed its first tour win in 20-plus years and a once little-known putter company forced a paradigm shift on the greens.
With that stage-setter, here are our top gear stories of 2025.
The ball rollback’s ‘murky, emotional pool’
It seemed like such a long runway when the USGA and R&A initially announced their plan to adjust the rule for testing golf balls, and effective roll back what was allowed in terms of distance. That was December 2023, and it was to go into effect for professional and elite amateur events in 2028 and for everyone else in 2030. Now as we head into 2026, that runway looks more like a regional airport than JFK, and one important constituency has yet to firmly state it will go along: the PGA Tour.
Although USGA CEO Mike Whan reiterated in June at the U.S. Open that the governing bodies were “full-speed ahead on what we’ve announced,” it’s a situation one who’s been in the room called “a murky, emotional pool.”
The PGA of America has voiced its opposition, but it is unlikely they would go it alone in opposing the rule. The PGA Tour is a different matter altogether, and with new CEO Brian Rolapp at the helm, no one is quite sure where things end up. Distance sells and going along with a rollback potentially lessens the appeal of the product. It also provides a potential opening for LIV to be “Golf, but Longer” if the rival league chose not to implement the rules change.
If the PGA Tour were not to go along, it could bring chaos to the game, potentially permanently damage the authority of the USGA and R&A and putting put the tour in the equipment rulemaking business. It would create a situation where elite golf played would be played under two different sets of equipment standards with three of the four major championships (U.S. Open, British Open, Masters) contested under the shorter ball standard, while PGA Tour events, the PGA Championship and selected other events like the Ryder Cup contested using some yet-to-be determined equipment guidelines.
Where it ends up is TBD, but the runway is only getting shorter—and the decision to takeoff or abort needs to be made soon.
Xander Schauffele is among the top players in golf who uses a mallet putter, claiming victory at the Baycurrent Classic this fall with a Odyssey prototype mallet.
Kenta Harada
There was a time not that long ago where tour players using a mallet putter were considered among those needing a fix for putting woes. In the early 2000s, only three of the top 20 players in the world used a mallet. However, when Collin Morikawa switched to a TaylorMade Spider Tour V mallet at the Procore Championship in September, it marked what was believed to be a first: Every player in the top 10 of the World Ranking was playing a mallet putter.
Why the paradigm shift? Players have come to realize the added benefits of the extra stability and alignment features. On the manufacturing end, designers have found ways to match mallets to more stroke types while making them look more palatable.
And, of course, all putters look better when the ball starts finding the bottom of the cup.
J.J. Spaun helped validate zero torque technology in putters while using a L.A.B. Golf mallet to win the U.S. Open at Oakmont.
Andrew Redington
Perhaps no equipment trend was more talked about in 2025 than zero torque putters. We won’t bore you with the science (you can read about it here), but driving the conversation was the remarkable success of putter maker L.A.B. Golf, a decade-long “overnight” success story. L.A.B. promoted the concept with an earlier version of its Directed Force putter, but gained traction in 2024 with usage from PGA Tour veterans and former major winners Adam Scott and Lucas Glover. The good times kept rolling when J.J. Spaun used a more recent version of the odd-looking Directed Force putter to win the U.S. Open with a 62-foot putt on the final green at Oakmont. By late 2025, L.A.B.’s market share was greater than every putter company not named Odyssey, TaylorMade or Scotty Cameron, with sales north of $200 million—not to mention nearly all L.A.B. rival companies jumping into the zero-torque game.
A win 22 years in the making
When Ben Griffin won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with good friend Andrew Novak, he did something that hadn’t been done in more than two decades—claim a PGA Tour title with a Maxfli golf ball. That’s right, Griffin’s victory was the first for the brand since Fred Funk used a Maxfli A10 (a ball with windings!) in winning the 2003 Southern Farm Bureau Classic.
In speaking to Golf Digest about his decision to play the Maxfli Tour X, Griffin said, “There were a lot of questions from the other [tour pros] … like, ‘Why are you doing this? You know, the golf ball is the most important piece of equipment in your bag. You’re using it on every single shot. How are you going to take that risk? You’re top 60 on the FedEx Cup. This is a big risk you’re taking.’ And I was like, ‘Trust me, it’s a calculated risk.’ I’ve done my due diligence, and I know this is going to be best for my golf game and I immediately had success with it and that’s gotten even better this year.”
Maxfli, now a house brand of Dick’s Sporting Goods, didn’t have to wait nearly as long to get back into the winner’s circle. Griffin won again a month later at the Charles Schwab Challenge, then again in six month’s time at the World Wide Technology Championship.
