Gear: TaylorMade Spider FCG putter
Price: $350 with KBS CT Tour stepless shaft and Super Stroke X Traxion Pistol 1.0 PT grip
Specs: Compact mallet with copper and tungsten weights and grooved copper face insert. Available in 33 inches, 34 inches and 35 inches, right-handed and left-handed.
Available: Sept. 4
TaylorMade’s Spider putters have been a hit for the past several seasons. Jason Day started the movement in 2015 when he asked the company to modify a compact mallet putter initially designed for the Japanese market. That first putter, an Itsy Bitsy Spider, was black and Day loved it, but he switched to the red Spider Tour version TaylorMade created for him at the end of that season. After the Australian became the first to average better than 1.0 in strokes gained putting for a PGA Tour season in 2016, numerous pros and elite golfers started using Spider Tour putters.
In early 2019, Rory McIlroy switched to a Spider X, and soon after, Jon Rahm added an off-white Spider X Chalk to his bag. Those putters have about 30-degrees of toe hang, making them ideally suited for golfers who have slightly arched strokes, but some golfers who have always played a heel-toe-weighted blade just can’t get past the mallet-style look of Spiders. For those players, TaylorMade is now releasing the Spider FCG.
FCG stands for forward center of gravity. Unlike previously released Spider putters, which featured a center of gravity that is well behind the hitting area for increased stability, the Spider FCG’s center of gravity is much more forward. This was achieved by designing 70 percent of the head’s overall weight (247 grams) to be in the front, as opposed to only 43 percent of the Spider X’s weight being in the front.
To keep the club small in size while shifting that much weight, TaylorMade gave the Spider FCG a pair of copper and tungsten weights in the heel and toe areas. They weigh a combined 101 grams, and their positioning greatly enhances the club’s stability on off-center strikes.
While the crown and back portions of the putter have been made lighter, TaylorMade designed them with a new alignment system, the T-Sightline True Path. It allows golfers who are used to a blade to align the putter using either the lighter-colored portion of the topline or the long white area that extends straight back from the ball.
The grooved Pure Roll insert is also made with copper, and TaylorMade said it is the firmest feeling insert in the company’s lineup. It is designed to match with the solid feel of a blade.
The Spider FCG will be available with three hosel configurations – a small slant, an L neck and a single bend – to complement different putting strokes.