TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck Putter

The mallet that convinced the world's best ball-striker to stop giving away strokes on the greens.

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The Big Picture

The Spider franchise has spent nearly two decades converting blade loyalists into mallet believers, and the Spider Tour X L-Neck may be the most compelling argument yet. This is the putter Scottie Scheffler put into play before the 2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational -- and promptly won. Then won The Players Championship. Then won a second green jacket. Then won Olympic gold. Then won the FedEx Cup. The putter did not do all of that, obviously. But the timing is impossible to ignore.

Golfer retrieving ball from hole with Spider Tour X visible

What makes the L-Neck version special is how it bridges two worlds. TaylorMade took the proven Spider Tour X head -- the compact, high-MOI mallet Rory McIlroy had already validated -- and paired it with a plumber's-neck hosel that creates roughly 21 degrees of toe hang. That means the putter swings like a blade but forgives like a mallet. For golfers who grew up on Anser-style putters and have been reluctant to switch, this is the putter designed to change their minds.

At $349.99, the Spider Tour X L-Neck sits in the upper-middle tier of the premium putter market. It is built for golfers who want enhanced stability and alignment without sacrificing the feel of a traditional stroke.

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At Address

The Spider Tour X has always been one of the more compact mallets on the market, and the L-Neck variant preserves that identity. It is not an oversized mallet that dominates your field of vision -- it is a tidy, flowing shape with rounded body lines that sit comfortably behind the ball.

The True Path alignment system is the visual centerpiece. A white contrasting path runs along the top of the putter, widening at the back and narrowing to the width of a golf ball at the front. TaylorMade worked with an optometrist on the design, and the white-on-dark-gray contrast is genuinely effective against green grass. It frames the ball cleanly and makes it easy to get the face pointed at your intended start line without overthinking.

The Gunmetal PVD finish is a significant upgrade over previous painted Spider models. Earlier generations were notorious for chipping, but this finish is far more durable and produces zero glare at address. Combined with the stepless KBS CT 120G black PVD shaft and the SuperStroke Pistol 1.0 grip, the overall look is sleek and understated for a mallet putter.

The L-Neck hosel itself deserves mention. It creates a slightly different visual relationship between the shaft and the head compared to a slant neck or flow neck. If you have spent years looking down at a plumber's neck blade, you will see something familiar here. That visual comfort matters more than most golfers realize.

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Sound & Feel

The Spider Tour X L-Neck uses a 5mm Surlyn PureRoll insert with 45-degree downward-facing grooves. The feel at impact is soft but solid -- it does not feel like a marshmallow, but it is noticeably cushioned compared to a milled-face blade. You get enough feedback to know whether you caught the center or drifted toward the heel or toe, without that feedback being harsh or jarring.

Angled rear view showing Spider Tour X blue carbon insert

Behind the face sits a Hybrar Echo Damper, a concertina-shaped vibration control element borrowed from TaylorMade's iron technology. It dampens sound at impact and tunes the feel to a more refined, muted character than previous Spider models. The result is a quieter putter that gives off a low-pitched thunk rather than a sharp click. On longer putts especially, the dampened feedback helps you focus on pace rather than getting distracted by acoustics.

On mishits toward the heel or toe, the multi-material construction -- steel and aluminum with rear-positioned tungsten weights -- resists twisting effectively. You can feel the miss, but the ball does not punish you the way it would with a blade. That stability is the whole point of this putter.

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Performance

Ball Speed & Distance

The PureRoll insert's downward-angled grooves grab the back of the ball and promote immediate topspin, reducing the initial skid phase that plagues many putters. In practice, this means the ball gets into a true end-over-end roll faster, which translates to more predictable pace control on both short and long putts.

The rear-positioned weights create a deep center of gravity -- approximately 30mm from the leading edge -- which adds to the overall stability. On off-center strikes, ball speed loss is minimal compared to a traditional blade. The practical effect is that a putt struck half an inch toward the toe still travels close to the same distance as a center strike. For pace control from 30 feet and beyond, that consistency is significant.

Dispersion & Shot Shape

The high MOI design is the Spider Tour X's calling card, and it delivers. The putter resists face rotation on mishits, keeping putts on or near the intended start line even when contact is imperfect. From 10-12 feet, where PGA Tour professionals make roughly 50 percent of their putts, the stability helps maintain accuracy on the strikes that are not quite perfect.

Side profile showing L-neck hosel and sole plate design

The 21 degrees of toe hang from the L-Neck is moderate -- enough to promote a natural release through impact for players with a slight arc, without feeling overly active. If you tend to miss putts left because you cannot get the face to release with a face-balanced mallet, this hosel configuration may solve that problem. It wants to move with your natural stroke path rather than fighting it.

Where this putter genuinely earns its reputation is in alignment. The True Path system makes it noticeably easier to aim the putter consistently. Scheffler himself cited alignment as the primary reason he switched from a blade, and after spending time with this putter, I understand why. The combination of the wide-to-narrow path and the clean Gunmetal head creates a setup that takes the guesswork out of aiming.

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