Best Putters for Junior Golfers Review

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times – choosing a putter is one of the most personal affairs in golf (someone once compared it to choosing cutlery – touchy business, but once you get it done, it lasts for a greater part of your life). That said, choosing the best putters for junior golfers is just as touchy, even more so, since it’s mostly the parent who’s doing the deciding, especially if the kid is a grade-schooler. This best putters for junior golfers review will help clear things up a bit.

Similar Process for Juniors

Now, in all honesty, you can get by with buying the cheapest second-hand putter you find and then having it cut down a notch and re-gripped – it’ll still be fairly usable. However, kids’ putters aren’t that much more expensive, and most will actually be in the same range as used ones even when brand spanking new. 

Plus, most junior’s clubs come in sets, including everything your little tyke needs to get started, which is a real time-saver. For our part, we’ll be focusing on the latter.

For those of you who aren’t sure how to approach this, keep in mind that buying a putter for your child isn’t all that different from buying one for yourself. You’ll want to start with checking the length, then work it from there – weight, looks, alignment aids, feel, the works. 

Be sure to bring your kid along and let them try a couple of clubs and ask them for feedback. Still, narrow down the choices for them so you don’t spend too much time, or else they might get bored with golf before even having the chance to play the game.

Every Person is Different

One thing you’ll notice about putters for kids is that they’re mostly recommended based on age. Sure enough, this isn’t a foolproof method, but it’s adequate. Obviously, we should factor in the fact that some kids grow faster (or slower) than others, as well as the differences between boys and girls.

So, what you’ll want to do is delve a bit deeper and check out the specs – look for the shaft length. You can check out the sizing charts on manufacturers’ sites, but here are some approximations if anyone’s interested.

Best Putters for Junior Golfers Comparison Table

Best Putters for Junior Golfers Review

To save you the trouble, we did the research and shortlisted seven top rated putters for junior golfers. Of course, as you read through the reviews, you’ll find a little bit of something for everyone and their budget.

You’ll get a lot of mixed opinions about the US Kids putters, but they’re one of the rare manufacturers that sell putters as standalones (not with an entire beginner’s set or combo, which isn’t to say they don’t carry full sets).

The manufacturer has a graded system based on height and player’s skill, which is more useful than going by age. The shaft length goes from 18 inches (the USKG First Putter) to 33 inches in older kids’ models (such as the TS63-V5 Gullane mallet).

Another great thing about the US Kids Golf is their Grow Up, Trade Up, Save Up program (pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it?). Basically, all you need to do is create an account with them, fill in the form, and every time you trade in the old clubs, you’ll get a coupon.

As for the USKG specifically, it’s available in Blue or Pink (for boys and girls, respectively), but beyond the colour, there isn’t anything to differentiate the two models. Both feature a stainless steel head with matching body and nice coloured rubber grips.

Admittedly, this is a bit of an odd choice for a list of best kids’ putters, but bear with us. The SeeMore Original FGP comes with plenty of stock options for the shaft (from 30 to 38 inches), which should fit older grade-schoolers and teens, but that leaves out the preschoolers and younger grade-schoolers (up to about 8, 9 years of age). 

However, no one’s stopping you from cutting it down to size, are they? Granted, it’s a shame to spend so much money on a putter just to have it cut down, but if you have the dough and the will, it’s a simple-enough process.

Now, there are two distinct flavours of the FGP – blade and mallet, so you can choose depending on what stroke your tyke prefers (or you prefer that they adopt). A blade is better for arcing strokes, while a mallet favours straight-back-straight-through.

However, the best thing about the FGP (and SeeMore putters in general) is the RifleScope alignment system, which provides pretty much a foolproof setup. This should make it easier for the kids to align their putts and reduce, if not outright eliminate any frustration from that part of the game.

Ping is pretty much a household name when it comes to golf clubs, and with good reason. Of course, the majority of their putters are designed for adult golfers, but they do have several junior club sets, as well as a line of drivers specifically designed for kids. For our part, we’ll focus on the Ping Moxie sets, which are designed for the youngest crowd.

There are three age-specific subsets, the Moxie K (for kids aged 6 and 7), Moxie G (8 and 9) and Moxie I (ages 10 and 11). There’s also a fourth set, the Ping Thrive, which is intended for kids ages 13 and 14. All of these are unisex and available both in RH and LH.

As for the Moxie K specifically, it includes a 30-inch fairway wood, 27-inch 7-iron, 25-inch wedge, and a 24-inch putter. The Moxie G comes with all that, plus a 35-inch driver and a 29-inch 9-iron, while the I includes everything we just listed, plus a 35-inch hybrid.

It’s nice that the major OEMs have started recognizing the needs for age-specific equipment, making the parents’ job of finding the right equipment for junior golfers that much easier.

The Phenom is TaylorMade’s take on equipment for kids. Granted, it’s a bit pricey, but if you do pull the trigger, your kid will be set for a while.

The Phenom Putter comes as a part of two separate, but related sets – the 6-piece (for kids ages 5 through 8) and the 8-piece (kids ages 9 through 12). The shafts are Uniflex, so both boys and girls can use them (provided the colour suits them).

If you’re looking for a junior golfer’s putter, you’ll have better chance either a) buying a used one online, or b) getting a whole junior set. 

Either way is fine, to be honest, but if you do decide to go the latter way, you might want to check out what Wilson has on offer.

You can choose from five different sets, all age-specific and all colour-coded. The list includes: Junior Small (ages 4–7, red), Junior Medium (ages 7–10, yellow), and Junior Large (ages 10–13, black/royal blue or white/teal).

There’s another set for kids ages 4–6, though we’re not quite sure what’s the difference between that one and the Junior Small.

As we discussed earlier, parents looking for putters for their kid will have an easier time trying to find a set that contains a putter than a standalone flatstick. If that’s something you can live with, you probably want to check out the Callaway XJ Hot.

There are four distinct flavours of this set, two for boys (black/orange) and as many for girls black/purple), though apart of the highlights on the respective bags, there’s no difference between them. There is difference, however, between the sets for kids ages 5–8 and 9–12 respectively.

Obviously, the length and weight are age-specific, so the XJ Hot putter from the former set (ages 5–8) weighs in at 445.5 grams total weight, with a 26-inch shaft. Conversely, the putter from the latter set (ages 9–12) comes in at 462 grams and features a shaft 30 inches long.

If you’ve got a little tyke that’s into golf and are looking for a complete set to get them started on the right foot, then the Tour Edge HT Max-J set might just be the thing for you.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for just a putter for your junior golfer, then you can just get the putter from the set.

Either way you choose, there are three distinct flavours to choose from (six, if you count boys’ and girls’ sets as separate, which they technically are if we’re looking at the bag colour).

These include the 2x1 (ages 3–5), 4x1 (ages 5–8), and 5x2 (ages 9–12). The sets differ in configurations, but all three include a lightweight bag, and, most importantly, the putter (24, 27, and 30 inches long, respectively).

Conclusion

All in all, finding the best putter for a junior golfer is no different than finding the best putter for an adult – you just have to force… er, bring the kid along to try out a couple of flatsticks.

All jokes aside, though, it’s important to get them swinging and ask them for feedback. You’ll still have to make the decision for them, but it’ll be largely on their input.

As for age, there’s no such thing as too young – basically, you can put a putter in their hands as soon as they show interest in golf. And be sure to let us know how it worked out in the comments!