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You have all seen the putter that crawls around on the greens dropping putts on golf tours around the world right? Or course, I’m talking about the TaylorMade Spider Si Putter. I have heard so many good things about this putter, but I took out the Spider Si putter with no expectations, simply because I’m not a mallet style putter guy.
I decided to go about this review with an open mind.
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So what has TaylorMade Golf done to make this putter one of the top performing mallet style putters? I am always interested to see who still step up next with new technology or ideas to make improvements.
Technology:
- Pure Roll Insert – The PureRoll Surlyn insert that TaylorMade has put into the Spider Si is meant to give you a soft-yet solid feel at impact and to create a smooth roll along the green’s surface.
- MOI – Moment of Inertia: TaylorMade claims that the Spider Si is the most stable putter they have ever created. With counterbalancing the putter, it increases the overall MOI of the club. The high MOI head helps with off center hits.
- Counterbalance – TaylorMade has added a heavy grip (150 grams) to counterbalance the mallet head of the putter. The ideas is to give you the benefits of a belly putter without having to anchor it to your body. The head weighs 380 grams and they also have a 15 inch shaft.
To answer my question above, TaylorMade has utilized the PureRoll Insert to create a very nice rolling golf ball off the face that is solid pretty much every stroke and changed the MOI by creating a counterbalanced putter. Yes this club is considered a mallet, but it feels a plays unlike any mallet I have hit. It actually feels more like a long handled blade.
Looks:
I you are afraid of spiders, this club probably isn’t for you. All joking aside, TaylorMade went all in with the Spider theme. The Spider Si comes with a sweet head cover that is blasted with a giant spider on it. The grip also has a spider on it and then of course the club head itself looks like a spider. I thought it was pretty clever marketing how they incorporated the spider theme throughout the entire golf club. The spider theme is unlike any golf club I have seen, which makes it very unique.
As you can see from the photos, it is a mallet style putter with a lot going on. Looking down at the putter though it’s actually quite simple. It has a solid black finish in the middle of the club face area, with three lines and a small tab leading out the back for alignment. Then you have the long spider legs that are white coming off the side of the putter leading to the back. The contrast in the black and white also help you align your putts and square up the club head.
As far as the shaft goes, like I mentioned above, it is a bit longer shaft with a thick red grip that looks pretty darn cool if you ask me.
Feel:
Let’s start at the top of the club, which is the grip. As mentioned before it is a bit heavier to help with the counterbalance of the club. It is a thick red grip that is very tacky. You won’t lose your grip on this putter even if your hands are sweaty or wet. A very nice addition to the Spider Si putter.
The Spider Si putter feels very nice at impact. It has a quietness to it, but you can still feel the ball come off the face extremely solid. On the face of the club you will see grooves of the PureRoll technology. (Photo Above) If you hit the ball within the PureRoll area on the face you will get the same exact solid feel every time.
Be careful with this putter because if you mis-hit on the toe or heel out of the PureRoll area, it will noticeably effect your putts. That being said, it’s nearly impossible to miss the designated area of the PureRoll grooves.
Performance:
First thing I want to discuss about performance is the adjustment period of switching to a counterbalanced putter. I have heard a lot of people say there is a long adjustment period in learning how it works and getting used to it. I’m not sure exactly what is taking them so long to get used to. Let’s be honest, a putter is a stick with a club at the end. You swing it and hit a golf ball. Ok, it’s not quite that simple, but you get my point. I have been a standard blade putter guy my entire golf career and I was able to get used to the counterbalanced feel of the Spider Si within the first time using it.
The only thing that took a bit getting used to was choking up on the grip since the shaft if longer than your standard putter.
When testing out putters here at Bunkers Paradise, we like to see how they perform with long putts as well as the short up close putts. Let’s take a closer look
Long Putts – I set up balls ranging from 20 to 30 feet. The first set was from about 20 feet away from the hole. After about five putts I knew this putter was a performer. I was impressed with the consistency in distance the Spider Si had. Putt after putt I was finishing right around the hole with about a 2-foot dispersion. I then backed up further and again had the same results. I did have to get used to the mallet style and the alignment, but that only took a few strokes. Each putt was staying low to the ground with hardly any bounce off the face.
Short Putts – The Spider Si is extremely easy to square up on short putts. With the contrasting white and black and the three line ball alignment, I had no problems setting up my line to drop putts. With the easy alignment and it’s consistent distance control I had no issues with short putts.
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Overall:
I was very impressed with how the TaylorMade Spider Si putter performed. Like I mentioned above, I have been a blade style player my entire golf career and was a bit leery trying out a putter with so much more technology behind it. But after getting used to the counterbalance and longer shaft, I was rolling putts with a lot of consistency and accuracy.
