It took awhile, but TaylorMade finally have a claim to fame on the back of its Spider putter. Jason Day’s runaway success to World No. 1 in 2016 with his red version saw the Spider putter catch on like wildfire, now 60% of pros use a mallet. In comparison, 75% of pros used a blade putter in 2009, the year that the Spider first launched.

“When we first introduced the original Spider putter in 2008, we never could have anticipated the global phenomenon it has become. With widespread adoption on tours around the world, not only has it become one of the company’s top-selling putters of all time, it has truly shifted the paradigm of putter design toward high-MOI mallets.” said Bill Price, Senior Director, Product Creation, Putters and Wedges.

With access to new data not possible before the advent of putter specific launch monitors, TaylorMade’s analysis of 10,500 impacts unearthed that even the likes of Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy often miss the sweetspot by as much as 3mm towards the toe, a number that increases the higher the handicap.

Now in acknowledgement of the Spider’s 10th anniversary, TaylorMade issues the streamlined Spider X edition, marginally smaller and missing the polarising rocket pods, yet with an increase in MOI. Put that down to possibly the first use of carbon fibre in a putter’s core construction, all 15g of it, which now pushes the saved weight out to the rear of the steel frame for the most stable Spider putter yet. You’ll come up short less often as ball speed is preserved, and hole more putts with the higher resistance to twisting on off-centre hits, especially off the toe which TaylorMade has found to be the most-common mishit.

A new True Path Alignment system developed with optical specialists, sees a “Y” shaped white strip that is half the width of a golf ball with a contrasting black sightline, that helps amplify a magnified path towards the hole.

Although TaylorMade’s Pure Roll inserts work, they never quite nailed down the feel. Now a thicker insert of 80/20 surlyn and aluminium flake provides the satisfying ‘click’ demanded by tour pros, while the 45 degree angled grooves help get the ball rolling online early. The composition and construction of the new 12-groove insert is specially engineered to bring the grooves into direct and active contact with the ball during impact, even on short putts.

The Spider X has SuperStroke’s Pistol GTR 1.0 grip fitted to a new stiffer KBS C-Taper shaft for enhanced feedback, and comes in two hosel and sightline choices.