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Should You Play The Same Putter As A Tour Player?
About a week ago, TaylorMade released the version of their Spider Tour X putter that Scottie Scheffler has been using on Tour. You can likely find it online or at a store near you right now. But should you?
Normally, I pay very little attention to Tour player clubs.
Last time I checked, I did not have a “Tour-level” swing. It seems unlikely that a Tour player’s hard-stepped X-flex driver shaft is going to improve my game. As such, I don’t spend much time exploring What’s in the Bag? type of information.
Obviously, I’m not talking about Tour player putters, though. Tour putter usage fascinates me.
The putters used on the professional tours tell so many stories. Some putters have been in the bag since the player was an amateur. Other players have a new putter in the bag every week. Tour players’ putters may be unique creations from their sponsoring manufacturer or off-the-rack finds from the local Golf Galaxy.
From bag to bag, tournament to tournament, the diversity of the putters easily eclipses that of the other 13 clubs.
Why is that the case?
Simply stated, Tour players know the putter they use can make a difference in their scores.
Scottie Scheffler is an average putter
Scheffler’s ball-striking is elite. If you pop over to his stats page at pgatour.com, you’ll see he is currently first on tour for Strokes Gained overall, scoring in the top 10 for four of the five key areas.
As far as Strokes Gained putting, he is 85th.
Obviously, that stat reads worse than it is, once you consider that Scheffler has six wins this year and has made more money with his 85th-ranked putting than most of us will make in our lifetimes. He is definitely having a more lucrative year than the 84 guys making more putts than him.
But 85th in putting is still pretty rough for the No. 1 player in the world.
Prior to this season, 19th-hole discussions about Scheffler’s potential usually ended with something like, “Once he learns to putt, he will win everything.”
Finding the right putter …
In retrospect, learns how to putt was a ridiculous statement. Scheffler is a better putter than I am, and likely a better putter than you are as well. I know that some of you are outraged by my discounting your putting prowess. Maybe I got that wrong but I tend to think that in a putting competition, Scheffler would walk away with more of your money than you would of his.
Admittedly, he does look like a bad putter sometimes. Scheffler was a streaky putter prior to 2024. Some tournaments, he would get hot and make everything. Other days, he could miss a 36” cup.
That changed once he started playing a new version of the Spider Tour X. He’s still not the best putter on Tour by any stretch but his putting is more consistent and getting the job done well enough to hoist trophies.
Not his first Spider
It was about this time last year when Scheffler put another Spider putter into play since his blade putter was no longer cutting it. That Spider Tour Prototype SS had a plumber’s neck and a milled face. The idea behind the Spider was to give him a putter that felt like his familiar blade but had the enhanced alignment options of a mallet.
TaylorMade was nice enough to give us a limited edition version of that Spider Prototype with the milled face. For a bit, it was the hottest collectible putter out there.
Ultimately, that Spider was not the answer but it laid the foundation for the one he is using currently.
The new baby Looks a lot like Rory’s
At first glance, Scheffler’s Spider Tour X L-Neck is what you would expect if his Spider Proto and Rory McIlroy’s Spider Tour X had a baby. The plumber’s neck is likely the thing that you will key in on first, and justifiably so, since it is the primary design component that allows this mallet to play like a blade.
Once you get past the neck, this putter resembles McIlroy”s Spider Tour X more than it does the Scheffler prototype Spider. The milled face of the prototype was replaced with a Surlyn PureRoll
insert and the weighting is closer to that of a Spider Tour X as well.
The Spider Prototype had the weight positioned near the front to feel more like a blade. This Spider Tour X L-Neck putter has rear-positioned weights like the current version of the Spider Tour X.
TaylorMade gives their True Path alignment scheme some of the credit for Scheffler’s improved putting. True Path provides a more consistent alignment scheme for him to strike the center of the face than the sight dot on his old blade putter.
Be it one specific feature or a combination of them all, it is apparent this new Spider Tour X L-Neck is allowing him to putt better.
Should you consider the TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck?
Let’s circle back to that initial question. Should you game the Scottie Scheffler Spider or any putter that a Tour player is currently using?
You bet!
Unlike Scheffler’s TaylorMade eight-degree Qi10 driver with the Ventus Black 8X shaft, the TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck putter could be used by anyone. You have the skill to swing this club.
If you like the feel of a blade but are looking for a more overtly helpful alignment system like True Path, then this Spider should be on your must-try list.
If you are putting really well, head to your bag right now and apologize to your putter for even considering the Spider Tour X L-Neck. You should also probably burn some sage just to be on the safe side.
However, if your full-swing game is on point but your putting is suspect, you may only be a putter change away from the club championship.
Find out more about the new Spider Tour X L-Neck at TaylorMade.com
FAQ TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck
His build specs are a little different but is the same model head. The Spider Tour SS Prototype head that was available to the public was different than the one that he put in play but this putter head is the same as the one in his bag.
I know there are folks out there who believe a good putter can putt with anything. I don’t disagree with that statement. The thing is that not everyone is a good putter.
Some people need some help from the putter design and technologies. Scottie Scheffler is the poster child for how the putter can make a difference in performance on the green.
I did initially. The milled face was “the thing” with the Spider Proto he tried before. My guess is that once he got comfortable with the feel of the Surlyn material and the PureRoll grooves, a milled face became an unnecessary, and expensive, option.
Players using TaylorMade Spider putters have won 13 PGA Tour events this year. Granted, six of those are Scheffler’s wins but 13 wins in six months is some serious scoreboard.
The post Should You Play The Same Putter As A Tour Player? appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
