For nearly two decades we’ve seen the rise of the TaylorMade Spider putter range, becoming one of the most well-known brands in the game today.
Now, TaylorMade are looking to revitalise the essence of the iconic Spider with a new family of putters featuring even more renowned technologies in the new Spider Tour range.
We take a deep dive into the standard Spider Tour model, which sits with the highest MOI across the whole range, promising great forgiveness, feel, and performance.
The Tech
TaylorMade has removed excess weight from the head this time around to engineer a super stable structure with a thin wall undercut. The Spider putters feature a steel wireframe to better control the weight distribution and CG location, with every Spider Tour model featuring a different CG location to allow for the optimal putter fitting.
We also see the addition of the Hybrar Echo Dampener, which sits behind the face to reduce any unwanted vibrations and give the best sound and feel on every putt. This is combined with grooves angled at 45 degrees for a better sound, feel, and overall roll characteristics.
TSS weighting at the back of the head helps to provide balance and can be optimised for different lengths of putter, while a durable PVD coating gives these putters a high-quality finish.
As usual with the TaylorMade Spider putters, we see the True Path Alignment system running all the way across the top of the putter to help golfers better envision the line to the hole.
To give a soft feel on impact, these putters feature a white TPU Pure Roll insert made from a blend of Surlyn and aluminum. This white insert combines with the white true path alignment to give an overall symmetry to the putters.
Throughout the series we see two different hosel shapes and designs – the small slant for more toe hang, and double bend for a more face balanced design.
Each putter comes finished with a KBS CT putter black PVD stepless shaft and a Super Stroke Pistol GT 1.0 white grip.
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TaylorMade Spider Tour Putter Review
Looks
The standard Spider Tour model features the traditional Spider shape and small slant hosel giving 29 degrees of toe hang.
Previously, we’ve seen some very bold colour schemes throughout TaylorMade’s iconic putters, but not so much in the new Tour series. TaylorMade has opted for a very clean black, white and gunmetal grey finish with only very small, subtle pops of colour.
On the base we see the blue spider design, which also takes centre stage on the headcover alongside the small yellow ‘T’ logo. In my opinion, this colour scheme helps to elevate the putters and flows consistently through the head, shaft and grip for an overall premium and coherent feel. This putter looks really great.
In general, the Spider putters have never been my favourites in terms of overall looks and shaping as I find them very big and bulky. Although this element is still there in the Tour series, the white insert and alignment helps to add a bit more sleekness to the very large putter head.
I can however imagine this feature might be somewhat off-putting for some players, as the bright white patches on the darker clubhead makes it really stand out. We tested both the standard Tour and Tour Z models, which had different mallet shapes to them, which I found had a difference.
The Tour had more of a winged backing to it as the white alignment spread out towards the back corners of the putter where we see the weights. I much preferred the design of the Tour Z in this regard which didn’t have the ‘wings’ and made the head look smaller and more precise towards the target to my eye.
Feel
The Spider Tour putter has its weighting at the back of the putter head, allowing the CG to sit at 35mm away from the putter face, giving this the highest MOI across the range.
This combined with the face insert meant the ball came off very soft from the face, and I also noticed a lot of forgiveness helping you ensure a more central-feeling strike across a variety of different length putts.
The Tour also felt lighter some of the other models available, and I was certainly feeling as though I had to put a bit more behind it to get it to the hole. This did feel a bit counterintuitive with how big the putter head looks at address, but as someone who isn’t currently using a Spider, I feel like this is just something you’d get used to more over time.
Performance
To test out the Spider Tour, I hit a variety of different putts over at Denton Golf Club, and overall, the Tour performed very well.
The added forgiveness was very noticeable in the longer putts, seeing them finish consistently closer and more on target than the Spider Tour Z that I tested alongside it, whose weights were sat closer to the face.
Initially I thought I wasn’t going to like the Spider Tour putters for those 3-5 footers due to how big the head was, as I felt like I was going to hit it just as far past each time.
However, I was beginning to see why the Spiders have been so popular over the years as the added mass and size behind the face meant it felt very stable and there was very little twisting of the face at impact, which is just what you need to knock in those nervy short ones.
TaylorMade Spider Tour Putter Verdict
The Spider Tour putter had a great feel, improved looks from previous models and a great amount of forgiveness allowing for lots of confidence when I stood over the ball, especially on longer putts.
In the past, I’ve not been drawn to Spider putters as the aesthetics didn’t really suit my eye with their shape being so bulky. Although this shape is very much retained in the Spider Tour, I feel as though the overall colour, detail and design does help to elevate it that bit higher than some of the [older Spider models, for example the red Spider GT, the gold Spider X and the loud original TaylorMade Spider Tour Putters
If I was being really picky, I’d have loved to have moved the white alignment path over from the Tour Z onto this putter to combine the great feel of the Tour and sleeker looks of the Tour Z.
Coming in at an RRP of £299 the Tour putters may sound very expensive but in context of a highly inflated putter market, they do sit slightly below some of their ‘premium competitors’. I can appreciate these putters might not suit everyone in terms of looks, however the Spider Tour did win me over in terms of feel, sound, and performance.
Would I Use It?
Given some time to get used to how it looks at address and that bold alignment shape, I think this would be a great putter to use given how confident I felt with it across different lengths of putt.
Special shout out goes to the headcover, one of the best I've seen in a long time in terms of quality and design!
TaylorMade Spider Tour Putter Pros and Cons
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