TaylorMade Spider Tour Red Putter

The TaylorMade Spider lineup has been around for years now, but the new Spider Tour Red really picked up steam earlier this year when it was found across the bags of a ton of guys on the global Tours.  The likes of Sergio Garcia, John Rahm, Dustin Johnson, and even Rory McIlroy had a brief stint with one version or another of this putter.  The Tour Red version is modeled after Jason Day’s gamer from much of the 2017 season.

First Impressions

Let’s face it, the TaylorMade Spider Tour is a funny looking club.  It’s a mallet putter with weird weights sticking out of the back and has no alignment aid.  Once you put it in your hands, however, you can easily ignore all of that.  It’s a very balanced putter that seems to swing itself.  The matte red color has no glare, and matched with the smoked black shaft looks pretty awesome.   If you can get past the odd head shape, it’s definitely worth trying.

How Does it Feel?

Feel is very subjective when it comes to golf clubs, especially putters.  Some like a soft, muted feel in the flat stick.  Others prefer more firm, “click-y” feel.  The TaylorMade Spider Tour Red is on the softer end of the spectrum.  The Red version has a black Pure Roll insert, as opposed to the more firm, metallic Pure Roll in the Black version of the club.  The insert is much softer, and a much more gentle feel in the hands.  Off-center shots will have a more firm click to them, letting you know you missed the sweet spot.

In regards to the club in the hand, it has a very balanced weight to it and seems to swing on line effortlessly.  The standard Winn grip provides good feel off the rack and really allows you to feel the club through the putting stroke.

How Does it Sound?

Sound is another personal preference to most, and was the one drawback to me with the TaylorMade Spider Tour Red.  Center strikes have a loud, aluminum-like “ping” off of the face, sounding almost hollow.  Off center shots have a much more muted “thud” sound.  I’m not a huge fan of a loud hollow sound from my putter, but the performance is too good to not keep it in the bag.

On-Course Performance

Performance is where the TalyorMade Spider Tour Red putter shines for me, and probably why it had such a following on Tour.  The weight of the mallet putter makes the putting stroke effortless.  As mentioned in the TaylorMade Spider Tour Black review HERE, the Pure Roll insert is the best feature of this club.  The ball rolls off of the face smoothly, and the club has solid forgiveness on distance.

One negative is how off-center shots coming off of the face.  Like the Tour Black, the ball does tend to skip a bit off of the face.  If you have a big miss, you will see a good bit of skipping that can result in inconsistent distance, as you’d expect from a bad miss.  I will say that the face and the distance control can take a bit of getting used to with this club, so make sure you get some solid practice in before taking her out on the links.

Final Thoughts

I owned the original Spider Ghost and didn’t like it.  This TaylorMade Spider Tour has changed my putting completely.  The feel is fantastic, and to repeat myself for the 100th time, it just swings itself.  My confidence in short putts has skyrocketed and I find myself making a ton more mid-range and long putts.  Putters are super subjective based on the user, and everyone has different tastes in putters.  For me, I love this putter and definitely recommend checking one out if you’re in the market for a new putter and are leaning toward a mallet.

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