Jacob Bridgeman is only in his third full season on the PGA Tour, but he’s already proven that on the greens, he’s among the game’s best.
During his rookie season, the 26-year-old ranked seventh in SG:Putting. He followed this up with another strong performance with the hurlers during his second campaign as he finished 2025 21st in the category. This season, which contains a win the Genesis Invitational, Bridgeman sits atop the tournament in SG: Putting, gaining almost a full field stroke per round with his putter.
“I’ve always been a very aggressive player,” Bridgeman said earlier this year.
That aggressiveness served him well in junior golf — but it started to cost him strokes once he got to college golf. So, with the knowledge of the statistics gained from hitting to guide him, Bridgeman focused more and more on the number of the number in his peed to reduce the three shots.
“I dialed it back a little bit, focused more on speed,” Bridgeman said. “And by the end of my college career I got really good at it — really good at putting.”
Dropping three shots is a tried and true method for improving your stats, but that’s not the only secret to Bridgeman’s success on the green. He also practices with two different putters — a blade and a hammer — to make sure his shot is sound.
Early in Bridgeman’s pro career, he came exclusively with a blade. But after experimenting a bit with the Spyder, he decided to bag the ever-popular Taylormade hammer.
“I looked at the stats and I doubled my blade hits on the Spyder, so that’s helped me a lot,” Bridgeman said. “This year I’ve done well to start the year and I think I’ll stick with the Spider for a while.”
However, while the hammer may have gained player status, his old blade still proves quite useful as Bridgeman practices with the blade every week to ensure his hitting is technically sound.
“(The Spyder) is super big, very forgiving,” he said. “A blade putter is less forgiving. If I hit it a few millimeters off center, I’m going to feel that … It’s just a lot harder to hit the blade putt.”
When using the blade gauge, the Bridgeman has a much smaller margin for error than with the check hammer. So if he’s hitting clean blade shots, he knows his swing is technically sound and will translate on the course.
“When I’m doing well with the blade, I know my shot is in a position where it’s going to be miles better,” he said.
