TaylorMade drops an all-black version of the prototype putter Scottie Scheffler tinkered with.
Gear: TaylorMade Spider Tour X Black Proto putter Price: $500, equipped with a KBS CT Black PVD Stepless shaft and a SuperStroke Pistol GT 1.0 Black grip Specs: Steel-body mallet putter with a milled face insert and black PVD finish. Available in lengths ranging from 33 to 35 inches. Who it’s for: Golfers seeking improved distance control, forgiveness, and a putter with an anti-glare finish.
What you should know: The Spider Tour X Black Proto retains the shape of the popular Spider Tour X putters, favored by both tour professionals and recreational golfers. Its milled face offers a firmer feel at impact while the black PVD finish minimizes glare and delivers a distinct aesthetic.
The deep dive: TaylorMade introduced the Spider Tour family in August 2023. Toward the end of the season, Scottie Scheffler, the world’s top-ranked golfer, used a TaylorMade Spider Tour prototype with a milled face at several PGA Tour events. While the milled-face Spider Tour X Proto has been available since September 2023, TaylorMade has now released the Spider Tour X Proto Black, featuring an all-black design.
The Black version mirrors the previously released Spider Tour Proto putter in having 3 degrees of loft and a 70-degree lie angle. It also includes both an L-Neck hosel and a short slant neck hosel, like Scheffler’s prototype.
The True Path Alignment system is blacked-out in the Spider Tour X Black Proto putters. (TaylorMade)
Unlike earlier Spider Tour Proto models with a silver-toned aluminum chassis and a white True Path alignment system featuring a single black line for aiming, the Black version incorporates a subtler design. The True Path alignment shape remains but is finished in black PVD, blending with the chassis. The alignment line from the topline to the back of the head also persists, but its black-on-black appearance is understated, requiring golfers to look closely to discern it at address.
From a performance perspective, the Spider Tour X Black Proto shifts more weight to the front of the head. The milled stainless-steel insert is heavier than the Hybrar Echo Damper material used in standard Spider Tour X putters. This forward center of gravity encourages a putter face rotation resembling that of a blade-style putter, ideal for golfers with an arced putting stroke.
Below are several close-up images of the TaylorMade Spider Tour X Black Proto putters.
The world’s No. 1 won an Olympic golf medal, seven PGA Tour events and the FedEx Cup.
Every golfer has a breaking point, and Scottie Scheffler reached his after shooting 68-66-66-66 at the WM Phoenix and finishing tied for third. It was a solid result, but statistically, he was among the worst putters to make the cut. After the West Coast Swing, Scheffler was still the No. 1 player in the world, he had earned four top-10 finishes in five PGA Tour starts, but he had failed to win a tournament.
Before the start of the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Scheffler, who had been using a heel-toe weighted blade putter, switched to a TaylorMade Spider Tour X with a unique L-shaped hosel. The rest of the PGA Tour now wishes he hadn’t because Scheffler won that week, and then won again the following week at the Players Championship. And again, a few weeks later, at the Masters.
The True Path alignment system makes aiming the Spider Tour X L-Neck easier. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The gunmetal-finished TaylorMade Spider putters have an aluminum wireframe body and TaylorMade’s True Path alignment system on the top, comprising a white area with a single black line extending from the topline and forks in the back. The white is designed to grab your eyes’ attention and make it easier to focus on your putt’s intended path. There is also a vibration-dampening system behind the leading edge in the sole.
Scheffler’s Spider Tour X L-Neck has a hosel that creates about 20 degrees of toe hang. It’s subtle, but for golfers like Scheffler, who make a slightly arced putting stroke, the balance is ideal.
Like other Spider Tour putters, it has a Pure Roll insert made with Surlyn that has a series of grooves that point down at a 45-degree angle. The grooves grab the back of the ball at impact and encourage a forward roll instead of skidding and bouncing.
Scheffler’s putter has 3 degrees of loft, a 72-degree lie angle and 35.5-inches long.
How is Scottie Scheffler’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck putter made?
This video created by TaylorMade shows the step-by-step process of creating Scottie Scheffler’s Spider Tour X L-Neck putter.
How much did Scottie Scheffler’s putting improve in 2024?
The best way to judge how well a PGA Tour player is putting is to look at his Strokes Gained: Putting average. This statistic, which can be measured within tournaments and over a season, reveals how much of an advantage or disadvantage a golfer is getting over the average player based exclusively on the quality of his putter, measured in fractions of a stroke.
The PGA Tour leader in Strokes Gained: Putting in 2024 was Justin Suh, with an average of 0.742. That means over the course of an 18-hole round, Suh’s putting earned a 0.742-shot edge on the field’s average score. On the flip side, Justin Thomas struggled on the greens last season and finished with an average of -0.499, which ranked 153rd and meant that Thomas was losing about a half-shot to the field average due to his poor putting.
Scottie Scheffler’s driving, iron player and short game are so good that he is almost always in contention at PGA Tour events. He still has an off-week on the greens from time to time, but as the chart below shows, his Strokes Gained: Putting average and his consistency improved after he put the TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck in his bag at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. (The number in parenthesis is his finishing position at the tournament.)
How does Scottie Scheffler’s 2024 putting compare to previous seasons?
Scottie Scheffler has never been among the elite putters on the PGA Tour, and in 2022 he putted well, but his performance on the greens has never matched the quality of his driving, iron play or short game.
As the chart below shoes, Scottie Scheffler’s Strokes Gained: Putting average in 2023 was among the worst on the PGA Tour, but he rebounded in 2024 to finished ranked 69th after using his TaylorMade Spider Tour L-Neck for most of the season.
Scheffler was asked before the start of the Players Championship why he changed to a mallet putter, and this was his answer:
“So 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 [the Spider X Tour L-Neck]. 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 was just — you know, 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.”
IRONS: Srixon ZU85 (3), with Nippon Pro Modus3 Hybrid Tour X shaft, (4), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shaft, TaylorMade P-7TW (5-PW), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts.
WEDGES:Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (50, 56, 60 degrees), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts.
Gear: TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck putter Price: $349.99 Specs: Stainless steel and aluminum body with a grooved urethane face insert. 34- and 35-inch clubs for right-hand players only.
Who It’s For: Golfers who want a putter that can help create a more consistent roll while also helping the player aim and align the face more effectively.
The Skinny: Like the previously released Spider Tour putters, the L-neck hosel is designed to be easy to aim and to create forward roll quickly. Its moderate toe-hang makes it ideal for golfers with a slight-arc stroke.
The Deep Dive: Scottie Scheffler was already the world’s No. 1 player before he switched to the TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck putter on the eve of the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational. He won that week and then won again the following week at the Players Championship. Since Scheffler put the Spider Tour X L-Neck in his bag, he has earned over $21.2 million in PGA Tour prize money (through the 2024 Travelers Championship).
TaylorMade released four Spider Tour putters during the summer of 2023, but Scheffler’s L-Neck was not one of them. Now, after his success, TaylorMade is adding the L-Neck to the cluster of Spiders and making it available to everyone.
Previously released Spider Tour putters had a single-bend, double-bend and short slant-neck hosel, but this putter has an L-shaped hosel that creates about 20 degrees of toe hang. It’s subtle, but for golfers like Scheffler, who make a slightly arced putting stroke, the balance is ideal.
Like the other Spider Tour putters, the Spider Tour X L-Neck has TaylorMade’s True Path alignment system on the top. The white area extends from the topline to the back of the head forks in the back and has a single black line inside it. It helps your eyes to focus on the path your putter establishes at address and makes it easier to aim the face. It was this feature, the True Path alignment system, that made Scheffler bench his blade putter and switch to this mallet.
The Spider Tour X L-Neck is large enough to contain the True Path alignment system. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The allure of the Spider putters has always been how stable they are for their size. Yes, some Spider putters have been massive, like the Daddy Long Legs that Brian Harman used to win the 2023 British Open, but most golfers like Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and several others have been drawn to compact Spider putters that have extra weight in the back to boost the moment of inertia and the stability. On off-center hits, the Spider Tour putters resist twisting, so putts stay online more effectively. Energy is also transferred to the ball on off-center hits more efficiently, so mis-hit putts roll nearly as far as well-struck putts for better distance control.
Spider Tour X L-Neck also comes with a Pure Roll insert made with Surlyn and a series of grooves that point down at a 45-degree angle. The grooves grab the back of the ball at impact and encourage a forward roll instead of skidding and bouncing.
Below are several close-up images of the TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck putter.
Scottie Scheffler won over $21 million in prize money last season and was one of the PGA Tour’s worst putters. His driving and iron play were that good. He played in 23 events and made the cut in all of them, earning top-10 finishes in 17 to go along with two wins and two runner-up finishes. He did all that while finishing No. 162 in Strokes Gained: Putting.
Scheffler tinkered with different putters in the second half of 2023, benching his Scotty Cameron blade-style putter for a prototype TaylorMade Spider with a milled face at the end of the PGA Tour season. That didn’t work, so Scheffler played a few events with a blade made by the Olson Putter Company at the end of 2023 and in early 2024, but that didn’t work out either.
Then, in the days leading up to the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, Scheffler switched back into a TaylorMade Spider and won, leading the field that week in Strokes Gained: Putting. The following week, he won again at the 2024 Players Championship, finishing first in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (naturally) and 37th in Strokes Gained: Putting.
Rory McIlroy’s prophecy appeared to be coming true because, speaking with Amanda Balionis at the Genesis Invitational in February as Scheffler struggled on the greens, McIlroy had said, “I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet, but selfishly for me, Scottie does everything else so well that he’s given the rest of us a chance.”
A few days before the Masters, Golfweek talked with Andrew Oldknow, TaylorMade’s director of product creation for putters, to learn what makes Scottie Scheffler’s new Spider Tour putter unique, how it is similar to Spider Tour X putters sold at retail and more.
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TaylorMade created two prototype Spider mallet putters with milled faces for Scheffler to try at the 2023 Tour Championship. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Golfweek: Let’s go through a progression. Towards the end of last season, Scottie Scheffler started using a TaylorMade Spider putter with a milled face. Was the goal to create a mallet that would feel like the milled blade putters that he had before but that would provide the forgiveness or stability?
Andrew Oldknow: The goal, honestly, was to give him better alignment. While centering the ball with the alignment system, we were actually trying to get that thing to perform just like a blade.
We put a massive amount of tungsten in the front of that putter. We used all aluminum in the back. We gave it a profile of the Spider X shape, but under the backside, it really was all cut out. We were hollowing the whole thing out to get as much weight forward as possible so that the putter actually closed like a blade.
At the time, he loved the performance of his blade, he just felt like he didn’t have enough alignment out of it. True Path worked really well for him in terms of centering the ball. One of his biggest issues is he doesn’t always hit the ball center face.
Scheffler’s Spider Tour X putter is large enough to contain the True Path alignment system. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
GK: Got it. A blade simply doesn’t have the size to be able to accommodate a True Path-style alignment system.
AO: Correct.
GW: After playing a few events with an Olson blade, Scottie and his team asked TaylorMade for many different Spider putters with different hosel configurations, neck styles, and even different inserts. Obviously, he was very open then to the alignment system you talked about, and he wound up settling on a Spider Tour X with an L-neck hosel. That configuration is not available at retail. How much does that hosel configuration play into the way his putter swings for him?
AO: Yeah, great question. So, over the last few years, even Rory McIlroy has gone into a slant-neck version of the Spider Tour. They’re very similar, but the toe hang is going to be slightly different.
Scheffler’s Spider Tour X has an L-neck hosel designed to create some toe hang. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
We know that toe hang is slightly more toe down with the L-neck, so that helps [Scottie] rotate and feel more blade-like performance. Again, we’re trying to get him the good feel that he wants. He’s been in the blade for the majority of his life, and winning majors and so forth in a blade product.
So, we want to make sure that when he’s releasing the putter, that it has the right feel. A slightly more toe-down putter is going to have more of a familiar feel, and so that’s been the most important thing for him.
And yes, he asked for everything under the sun and our team has done everything we can to provide him with that.
GW: I noticed on the retail putters there is an X7 in the sole in the toe area, but on Scottie’s but an X1.
AO: Yep.
GW: Does that mean anything?
AO: Yeah, hosel, that’s the type of hassle on there. We have code names for our hosels.
Scottie Scheffler lines up his putt on No. 11 during the final round of the Masters Tournament. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Network
GW: So, the motivation for Scottie to change was really rooted in wanting to be able to align the putter more easily, and then you designed a Spider that would swing like his blade. But now, instead of hitting off a milled metal face, he’s using a grooved Pure Roll face. Is it the same one that is in retail putters?
AO: He was in the camp of wanting more metal face inserts versus the Pure Roll Surlyn insert. We provided him with milled prototypes and metal versions with different thicknesses to get different feels. And then, low and behold, Joe Ryon, who runs our putter lab, was like, “Let’s just throw one in with the actual, stock, Surlyn insert even though they’re not asking for it.” We wanted to give it to him.
A blend of Surlyn and aluminum powder create the feel Scheffler likes while the Pure Roll grooves encourage the ball to start rolling quicker. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The Pure Roll insert has a little bit of aluminum powder in it, so it’s 80 percent Surlyn. We’ve player-tested pure Surlyn inserts (essentially ionomer resin) in the past, but they test too soft.
AO: Yes. The addition of the Aluminum flake slightly firms the compound to create a perfect balance of feel, sound and roll performance. And, as you can see, the score lines and grooves are angled down slightly. They will grab the ball better and get it rolling. In everything we’ve ever tested on our Quintic Ball Roll system here in The Kingdom, you will see that if you put somebody in this 80/20 Pure Roll insert, they will instantly get better numbers.
GK: What is the loft on Scottie’s putter?
AO: Our traditional Spider Tour putters have 3.5 degrees of loft, but Scottie’s has 3.1 degrees. You need some loft in there because the ball sits in a depression created by its weight. You have to get it out of the depression or else you end up just jamming it into the ground, but the grooves grab the back of the ball and stop it from back spinning.
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