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Over the past few seasons, TaylorMade Spider putters have established homes in the bags of major winners and piled up an impressive number of wins. In fact, the trophy case is bursting.
What makes the surge in popularity and usage over the last few seasons especially interesting is that Spider putters are not new. The first Spider was released nearly two decades ago. Back then, they were considered radical. Today, TaylorMade Spider putters are everywhere.
When the original Spider was released in 2008, blades ruled the world of professional golf. Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els most of the game’s best-known players were blade guys and mallets were viewed as putters for players who were struggling.
The first Spiders didn’t even try to blend in. They were massive and loaded with perimeter weighting to boost stability. TaylorMade engineers pushed weight outward, to the heel and toe, and back to increase moment of inertia (MOI) and help the head resist twisting on off-center strikes. The idea is that no one, not even Tour pros, hits putts in the perfect spot every time, so making a putter that could compensate for off-center strikes and enhance mis-hit performance could help everyone.
Andrew Oldknow, TaylorMade’s director of product creation for putters, said that while the shape has evolved and become more compact over the years, the philosophy behind Spider hasn’t changed much at all.
“Everything we’ve done in this category with Spiders has always been about stability, aim and roll,” he said.
Early versions like the Daddy Long Legs leaned heavily into the stability part of the story, and some even paired high-MOI heads with counterbalanced grips to make the entire club even more resistant twisting and subtle hand and wrist manipulation. The video below, from 2013, features the white Daddy Long Legs putter that was made available that year.
TaylorMade slowly shrank the size of Spider putters in the years that followed, and different hosel offerings and alignment features were tried to broaden the appeal of Spider … and then came Jason Day.
Ten years ago, the TaylorMade Spider experienced its first breakthrough with the Spider when Jason Day started using one to have, statistically, the best putting season of the PGA Tour’s ShotLink Era.
Day’s putter was a customized black model, but eventually he switched into a red Itsy Bitsy Spider putter hat year and led the Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting with an average of 1.13. That means that over the course of a 72-hole tournament, Day‘s putting gave him more than a 4.5-shot advantage over the average pro. It was the first (and only) time a pro has finished a season with a Strokes Gained: Putting average over 1.00.
Just as recreational players take notice of what good players at their club are swinging, success on the PGA Tour often draws attention to a player’s gear, and in this case, eyes drifted to Day’s Spider.
“You can’t have the best players in the world playing something and not have everybody else is going like, ‘What do they have that I don’t?’” Oldknow said.
While Day’s success didn’t immediately convert every blade player on Tour into a mallet lover, it opened the door and earned acceptance for mallets. Over the next few years, more and more elite players experimented with mallets as TaylorMade continued refining the Spider shape. Designers explored different weighting strategies, alignment systems, face inserts and hosel configurations.
Recently, the Spider Tour and Spider Tour X became the head styles of choice in the early 2020s.
“It still has the forgiveness of a mallet,” said James Holley, a TaylorMade PGA Tour representative who fits players into Spider putters. “But the center of gravity (CG) is a little closer to the face, so it still feels a little bit like a blade. That makes the transition easier.”
Spider’s second surge in popularity has accelerated with a pair of high-profile switches.
First came McIlroy. After years of experimenting with different putters and having won four majors, he settled into a Spider Tour in 2019, and, excluding a rocky COVID-shortened season in 2020, he's never putted better or more consistently.
Before the start of the 2026 Genesis Invitational at Riviera in Feburary, McIlroy was asked about the diminishing number of blade putters and the rise of mallets, and specifically his use of the Spider.
“So I started with the Spider seven years ago, 2019, Kapalua,” he said. “It's just more consistent. You know, I've made enough bad strokes with the Spider where the ball still went in the hole from inside 6 feet that, yeah, it's a lot more forgiving. I still practice with a blade at home because I think when you practice with a blade a little bit and then you go back to the Spider, it feels just that little bit easier. And obviously it's great to look at and it feels good, but I don't think there's any surprise why a lot of guys are not just switching to mallets and Spiders but have done really well since. Obviously look at Scottie, look at Tommy Fleetwood last year, you look at the trajectory of their putting stats, mine as well, it's definitely a big help.”
Like McIlroy, Scheffler was already an elite ballstriker and player before he switched to a Spider, but once that club was added to his bag, everything clicked.
The switch happened before the start of the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational, when Scheffler opted to use a Spider Tour X with an L-neck hosel. He won that week, won again the following week at the Players Championship and then again at the 2024 Masters. Needless to say, that putter hasn’t left Scheffler’s bag, and he won two more majors with it in 2025.
But for Scheffler, the change wasn’t about forgiveness as much as alignment. He was asked about changing to a Spider before the start of the 2024 Players.
“I had tried a Spider during the playoffs last year. It was a little bit of a different type of Spider than the one I used last week,” Scheffler said, referring to a Spider TaylorMade prototype created for him with a milled steel face. “At times last year, I struggled lining the ball up in the middle of the face, so I lined the ball up on the toe sometimes, and I struggled with a tiny bit of a heel strike, and that just became kind of my miss. Like, if I was fighting a duck hook off the tee … I was fighting a little bit of a heel miss with the putter.
This Spider putter is really easy for me to line up. I don't have to use the line on the ball. I line the putter up really well, and I line up in the middle of the face, and pretty much as simple as that. Kind of gives me just a really good visual.”
Holley said the Spider’s True Path alignment system is often the first thing players notice.
“For Scottie, the alignment was huge,” he said. “He doesn’t want to use a line on the ball, so the alignment on the putter really freed him up.”
Another reason why the Spider putters, and mallets in general, have become more popular is that there are now numerous hosel configurations and necks available. In years past, mallets were traditionally made to be faced balanced and ideal for golfers with a straight stroke. Designing mallets with flow necks, L-necks and other configurations that create some toe hang makes them swing like traditional blades and be appealing for players with different types of strokes.
“A lot of these guys grew up playing blades their entire lives,” Holley said. “So, making that switch (to a mallet) can be difficult. But when you can give them something that still feels familiar, it makes the transition easier.”
While stability and alignment get most of the attention, the third piece of the Spider equation is found in the face, the Pure Roll insert.
The insert features grooves pointing down at a 45-degree angle. The geometry adds a small amount of launch and encourages the ball to start rolling rather than skidding across the surface.
“That insert increases the forward RPM,” Holley explained. “What players notice right away is how quickly the ball gets into a consistent forward roll.”
That consistency becomes especially valuable on mid-range putts.
“Inside of 20 feet is really where everything matters,” Holley said. “Those are the putts that change tournaments.”
Longer putts often involve an element of unpredictability—small imperfections in the putting surface can influence the ball’s path, but inside 20 feet, when you are more likely to see and fix pitch marks and other imperfections in the putting surface, consistent launch and roll can make a measurable difference.
For recreational players who have never tried a Spider, the benefits be seen quickly.
Holley said the first thing many golfers notice isn’t the technology—it’s how the putter sits on the ground.
“The sole has a flat spot, so it sits really nicely and consistently,” he said. “With a blade you’ve got a thinner sole and it can move around a little bit. Sometimes the toe comes up, sometimes the heel is up. With the Spider it sits square and it’s easy to aim.”
The larger head also provides more visual reference points, making alignment simpler for many golfers.
Then there’s the stability. Because weight is distributed around the perimeter, the head resists twisting, and that can help recreational players maintain direction even on imperfect strikes.
Finally, the Pure Roll insert can improve distance control by helping the ball transition into forward roll more quickly.
Taken together, those elements can make putting feel more predictable for many players.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: TaylorMade Spider Tour putter has impressive major wins in golf
Continue reading...
- Scottie Scheffler has won a Players Championship, Masters, PGA Championship and a British Open since switching to a Spider in 2024.
- Rory McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam by winning the 2025 Masters using a Spider.
- After Tommy Fleetwood benched his blade late last summer and started using a Spider, he finally won his first PGA Tour event, the 2025 Tour Championship, and was a stud in the Ryder Cup for Team Europe.
- Heading into the 2026 Masters, Spiders have been used to win this season’s Sony Open in Hawaii (Chris Gotterup), American Express (Scheffler), WM Phoenix Open (Gotterup), AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Collin Morikawa) and Genesis Invitational (Jacob Bridgeman).
What makes the surge in popularity and usage over the last few seasons especially interesting is that Spider putters are not new. The first Spider was released nearly two decades ago. Back then, they were considered radical. Today, TaylorMade Spider putters are everywhere.
A mallet that challenged the blade era
When the original Spider was released in 2008, blades ruled the world of professional golf. Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els most of the game’s best-known players were blade guys and mallets were viewed as putters for players who were struggling.
You must be registered for see images attach
The first Spiders didn’t even try to blend in. They were massive and loaded with perimeter weighting to boost stability. TaylorMade engineers pushed weight outward, to the heel and toe, and back to increase moment of inertia (MOI) and help the head resist twisting on off-center strikes. The idea is that no one, not even Tour pros, hits putts in the perfect spot every time, so making a putter that could compensate for off-center strikes and enhance mis-hit performance could help everyone.
Andrew Oldknow, TaylorMade’s director of product creation for putters, said that while the shape has evolved and become more compact over the years, the philosophy behind Spider hasn’t changed much at all.
“Everything we’ve done in this category with Spiders has always been about stability, aim and roll,” he said.
Early versions like the Daddy Long Legs leaned heavily into the stability part of the story, and some even paired high-MOI heads with counterbalanced grips to make the entire club even more resistant twisting and subtle hand and wrist manipulation. The video below, from 2013, features the white Daddy Long Legs putter that was made available that year.
TaylorMade slowly shrank the size of Spider putters in the years that followed, and different hosel offerings and alignment features were tried to broaden the appeal of Spider … and then came Jason Day.
The best putting season ever
Ten years ago, the TaylorMade Spider experienced its first breakthrough with the Spider when Jason Day started using one to have, statistically, the best putting season of the PGA Tour’s ShotLink Era.
Day’s putter was a customized black model, but eventually he switched into a red Itsy Bitsy Spider putter hat year and led the Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting with an average of 1.13. That means that over the course of a 72-hole tournament, Day‘s putting gave him more than a 4.5-shot advantage over the average pro. It was the first (and only) time a pro has finished a season with a Strokes Gained: Putting average over 1.00.
Just as recreational players take notice of what good players at their club are swinging, success on the PGA Tour often draws attention to a player’s gear, and in this case, eyes drifted to Day’s Spider.
“You can’t have the best players in the world playing something and not have everybody else is going like, ‘What do they have that I don’t?’” Oldknow said.
While Day’s success didn’t immediately convert every blade player on Tour into a mallet lover, it opened the door and earned acceptance for mallets. Over the next few years, more and more elite players experimented with mallets as TaylorMade continued refining the Spider shape. Designers explored different weighting strategies, alignment systems, face inserts and hosel configurations.
You must be registered for see images attach
Recently, the Spider Tour and Spider Tour X became the head styles of choice in the early 2020s.
“It still has the forgiveness of a mallet,” said James Holley, a TaylorMade PGA Tour representative who fits players into Spider putters. “But the center of gravity (CG) is a little closer to the face, so it still feels a little bit like a blade. That makes the transition easier.”
Spider’s second surge in popularity has accelerated with a pair of high-profile switches.
First came McIlroy. After years of experimenting with different putters and having won four majors, he settled into a Spider Tour in 2019, and, excluding a rocky COVID-shortened season in 2020, he's never putted better or more consistently.
Before the start of the 2026 Genesis Invitational at Riviera in Feburary, McIlroy was asked about the diminishing number of blade putters and the rise of mallets, and specifically his use of the Spider.
“So I started with the Spider seven years ago, 2019, Kapalua,” he said. “It's just more consistent. You know, I've made enough bad strokes with the Spider where the ball still went in the hole from inside 6 feet that, yeah, it's a lot more forgiving. I still practice with a blade at home because I think when you practice with a blade a little bit and then you go back to the Spider, it feels just that little bit easier. And obviously it's great to look at and it feels good, but I don't think there's any surprise why a lot of guys are not just switching to mallets and Spiders but have done really well since. Obviously look at Scottie, look at Tommy Fleetwood last year, you look at the trajectory of their putting stats, mine as well, it's definitely a big help.”
Like McIlroy, Scheffler was already an elite ballstriker and player before he switched to a Spider, but once that club was added to his bag, everything clicked.
You must be registered for see images attach
The switch happened before the start of the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational, when Scheffler opted to use a Spider Tour X with an L-neck hosel. He won that week, won again the following week at the Players Championship and then again at the 2024 Masters. Needless to say, that putter hasn’t left Scheffler’s bag, and he won two more majors with it in 2025.
But for Scheffler, the change wasn’t about forgiveness as much as alignment. He was asked about changing to a Spider before the start of the 2024 Players.
“I had tried a Spider during the playoffs last year. It was a little bit of a different type of Spider than the one I used last week,” Scheffler said, referring to a Spider TaylorMade prototype created for him with a milled steel face. “At times last year, I struggled lining the ball up in the middle of the face, so I lined the ball up on the toe sometimes, and I struggled with a tiny bit of a heel strike, and that just became kind of my miss. Like, if I was fighting a duck hook off the tee … I was fighting a little bit of a heel miss with the putter.
This Spider putter is really easy for me to line up. I don't have to use the line on the ball. I line the putter up really well, and I line up in the middle of the face, and pretty much as simple as that. Kind of gives me just a really good visual.”
Holley said the Spider’s True Path alignment system is often the first thing players notice.
“For Scottie, the alignment was huge,” he said. “He doesn’t want to use a line on the ball, so the alignment on the putter really freed him up.”
Another reason why the Spider putters, and mallets in general, have become more popular is that there are now numerous hosel configurations and necks available. In years past, mallets were traditionally made to be faced balanced and ideal for golfers with a straight stroke. Designing mallets with flow necks, L-necks and other configurations that create some toe hang makes them swing like traditional blades and be appealing for players with different types of strokes.
You must be registered for see images
“A lot of these guys grew up playing blades their entire lives,” Holley said. “So, making that switch (to a mallet) can be difficult. But when you can give them something that still feels familiar, it makes the transition easier.”
While stability and alignment get most of the attention, the third piece of the Spider equation is found in the face, the Pure Roll insert.
The insert features grooves pointing down at a 45-degree angle. The geometry adds a small amount of launch and encourages the ball to start rolling rather than skidding across the surface.
“That insert increases the forward RPM,” Holley explained. “What players notice right away is how quickly the ball gets into a consistent forward roll.”
That consistency becomes especially valuable on mid-range putts.
“Inside of 20 feet is really where everything matters,” Holley said. “Those are the putts that change tournaments.”
Longer putts often involve an element of unpredictability—small imperfections in the putting surface can influence the ball’s path, but inside 20 feet, when you are more likely to see and fix pitch marks and other imperfections in the putting surface, consistent launch and roll can make a measurable difference.
Should you putt with a Spider?
You must be registered for see images
For recreational players who have never tried a Spider, the benefits be seen quickly.
Holley said the first thing many golfers notice isn’t the technology—it’s how the putter sits on the ground.
“The sole has a flat spot, so it sits really nicely and consistently,” he said. “With a blade you’ve got a thinner sole and it can move around a little bit. Sometimes the toe comes up, sometimes the heel is up. With the Spider it sits square and it’s easy to aim.”
The larger head also provides more visual reference points, making alignment simpler for many golfers.
You must be registered for see images
Then there’s the stability. Because weight is distributed around the perimeter, the head resists twisting, and that can help recreational players maintain direction even on imperfect strikes.
Finally, the Pure Roll insert can improve distance control by helping the ball transition into forward roll more quickly.
Taken together, those elements can make putting feel more predictable for many players.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: TaylorMade Spider Tour putter has impressive major wins in golf
Continue reading...
