Spider Tour X Proto

[dkoeller88]

Just now, PSUJJH86 said:

Same here! Excited to get it. Says backordered until 4/20. 

says 4/10 now...so who knows

[TM golf guy]

I ordered an "L-neck" the other day off that long link a page or two back, and it'll be here on Monday. My current putter is working well, but I wouldn't mind trying out a little more forgiveness.

[swoosh21]

Congrats on those that got it this time.  Looks like they're all gone already.

 

Nevermind, it just came back.  So weird.

Edited April 5, 2024 by swoosh21

[Cooper408]

Just saw the L-Neck sold out. If anyone on here or someone they know missed out, let me know. I got a slant neck and also have an L-Neck from the original release. I was planning on keeping both, but seeing resellers gouging people on ebay pisses me off, so I'm willing to let my L-Neck go for or below retail. I'll be posting it in the classifieds for retail+shipping once I get my custom shaft out/stock shaft back in later this week, but if someone wants to hit me up before that, I'm all ears.

[MerryTex]

1 hour ago, Cooper408 said:

Just saw the L-Neck sold out. If anyone on here or someone they know missed out, let me know. I got a slant neck and also have an L-Neck from the original release. I was planning on keeping both, but seeing resellers gouging people on ebay pisses me off, so I'm willing to let my L-Neck go for or below retail. I'll be posting it in the classifieds for retail+shipping once I get my custom shaft out/stock shaft back in later this week, but if someone wants to hit me up before that, I'm all ears.

 

You, sir, are a good man.

[Green_in_Reg]

I just received my slant neck proto and it’s gorgeous! Feels amazing! 

[Cooper408]

7 hours ago, MerryTex said:

 

You, sir, are a good man.

Man, I’ve just been there: missed releases, and procrastinated pulling the trigger too long only for stuff to sell out… it sucks, especially when there are so many people purposefully preying on, and profiting off that. WRX’ers have helped me out and hooked me up in the past. It’s just an opportunity to try and pay it forward. 

[PSUJJH86]

12 hours ago, Green_in_Reg said:

I just received my slant neck proto and it’s gorgeous! Feels amazing! 

Mine hasn’t shipped yet! Ugh!!

[Cooper408]

2 hours ago, PSUJJH86 said:

Mine hasn’t shipped yet! Ugh!!

I checked this morning and it still said mine is undergoing quality check. 5 minutes later I got a doorbell notification of it being delivered. So there's hope!

Edited April 9, 2024 by Cooper408

[tacticalpanda]

Opinions on the L neck vs slant neck, or reviews with the slant from those having played around with it a bit?  46* feels like a lot of toe hang for a mallet, maybe the forward CG will prevent it from wanting to stay too open… that said, I decided to pull the trigger on the slant neck since it’s a limited release.

Edited April 10, 2024 by tacticalpanda

[bogeypro]

Just ordered slant neck 34". Says in stock tomorrow.  It let me purchase, so guessing that's a go.  

[swoosh21]

Just saw this https://www.taylormadegolf.com/MySpider-Tour-X-L-Neck/DW-TC900-SS.html?lang=en_US

[TheMoneyShot]

8 hours ago, swoosh21 said:

Just saw this https://www.taylormadegolf.com/MySpider-Tour-X-L-Neck/DW-TC900-SS.html?lang=en_US

A stock SS putter at the my spider price?

[Golfrnut]

2 hours ago, TheMoneyShot said:

A stock SS putter at the my spider price?

A my spider at my spider price. Not stock though, L necks are only available custom. 

[swoosh21]

I don’t see any options on the link I posted. 

[Golfrnut]

That’s either a direct link or they have batches of L necks to sell and just gave them a direct link. But, with a 5-6 week lead time looks like they are not assembled. The link and head cover are both for my spider versions though. 

Edited April 12, 2024 by Golfrnut

[TheMoneyShot]

26 minutes ago, swoosh21 said:

I don’t see any options on the link I posted. 

Right, that’s why I was saying a stock SS putter because it has no custom options🤷

Edited April 12, 2024 by TheMoneyShot

[StoutKing]

How do TaylorMade not sell this as a stock option for less?  Seems like they got caught flat footed.  Asked for this putter years ago as stock.

[bogeypro]

Got shipping notification.  It's on its way! 

[Cooper408]

On 4/9/2024 at 9:05 PM, tacticalpanda said:

Opinions on the L neck vs slant neck, or reviews with the slant from those having played around with it a bit?  46* feels like a lot of toe hang for a mallet, maybe the forward CG will prevent it from wanting to stay too open… that said, I decided to pull the trigger on the slant neck since it’s a limited release.

You're not wrong. It is A LOT of toe hang. With that said, the forward CG design definitely helps to counteract that. This question really made me want to do not-so-deep deep-dive into the differences of the two putters.
 

On my putter rack, I have an
-OG copper slant neck Spider X (OGX)

-Proto L-Neck (LN)

-Proto Slant Neck (#3) (S3)

-blade with 45* of toe hang...
I hit 10 putts with each, 5 at a time to try and capture exactly what I was feeling with the protos compared to their design influences.

The LN definitely still maintains a mallet feel, but with far better ability to release the face than the OGX. The best way I can describe how I noticed it, is when I went back to the OGX, it felt like someone tied a string to the back right (toe side) corner of the putter and was ever so gently pulling it when I was trying to make a stroke. The absence of the rear weighting in the LN became immediately evident . It's a very easy putter to get along with, and it is easy to release compared to a normal mallet, but I wouldn't call the feeling "blade-like." One thing to note from my 12-15 rounds I've played with my LN... if you're coming from a normal slant neck spider, be prepared for a little bit of a sense of disconnection to the putter head. The slant gets the shaft so close to the head so you feel super connected to it, but the L-neck almost feels like the head is hanging from the shaft. This wears off over time, but it might take 9-18 holes to get comfortable with, and it IS worth the effort and patience. I didn't think anything could knock it out of my bag until TM started teasing the S3

 

The S3 is the trickier of the two because it's so good, but not right out of the box. I IMMEDIATELY could feel the difference between it and the LN's toe hang profiles. It just felt very toe heavy, even more so than my blade. IF I released it like a blade, it was easy to start on line, but here's where it gets complicated. The stock swing weight that the S3 comes in at is on the heavier side. You have to be very deliberate when releasing the club through impact, otherwise you will tend to push putts. After the initial 10 putts, I swapped out the stock 10.5g TSS weights for a pair of 7.5g weights, dropping about 3 swing weight points, as well as bringing the CG a little further forward than stock. It worked a miracle. It almost felt identical to my blade as far as release characteristics. Very easy and comfortable, but you'll obviously need to spend a bit of money on the weights and a wrench (a cheap set of torx wrenches will have the size you need) to fit the smaller gauge torx screws.

Hope that made sense and answered some questions for at least somebody haha.

Edited April 12, 2024 by Cooper408

[tacticalpanda]

Thank you, this makes total sense and is super helpful.  I generally get along best with a decent amount of toe hang - my old gamer was a scotty 2.5 blade, and my current gamer is a scotty fastback 1.5 - so I am very optimistic that I will get along well with the S3, even if there is some weight and length tinkering that needs to occur.  Really appreciate the review, I will come back and add my own thoughts vs those 2 and my Spider X flow neck hydroblast after I've had the new S3 proto for a bit.

[MattM97]

17 hours ago, StoutKing said:

How do TaylorMade not sell this as a stock option for less?  Seems like they got caught flat footed.  Asked for this putter years ago as stock.

 

Why would they want to sell it for less? They're selling out at current price and sold out when higher priced before. 

 

Probably involves more mill time and hands on it as well. 

[chiefyarbs]

I have an older Spider Tour SN with sightlight that is starting to really loose paint. Was looking at refinishing it but also looking at the new Proto slant. Has anyone compared the Spider Tour to the Spider X Proto SN?

[Cooper408]

On 4/12/2024 at 10:52 AM, Cooper408 said:

You're not wrong. It is A LOT of toe hang. With that said, the forward CG design definitely helps to counteract that. This question really made me want to do not-so-deep deep-dive into the differences of the two putters.
 

On my putter rack, I have an
-OG copper slant neck Spider X (OGX)

-Proto L-Neck (LN)

-Proto Slant Neck (#3) (S3)

-blade with 45* of toe hang...
I hit 10 putts with each, 5 at a time to try and capture exactly what I was feeling with the protos compared to their design influences.

The LN definitely still maintains a mallet feel, but with far better ability to release the face than the OGX. The best way I can describe how I noticed it, is when I went back to the OGX, it felt like someone tied a string to the back right (toe side) corner of the putter and was ever so gently pulling it when I was trying to make a stroke. The absence of the rear weighting in the LN became immediately evident . It's a very easy putter to get along with, and it is easy to release compared to a normal mallet, but I wouldn't call the feeling "blade-like." One thing to note from my 12-15 rounds I've played with my LN... if you're coming from a normal slant neck spider, be prepared for a little bit of a sense of disconnection to the putter head. The slant gets the shaft so close to the head so you feel super connected to it, but the L-neck almost feels like the head is hanging from the shaft. This wears off over time, but it might take 9-18 holes to get comfortable with, and it IS worth the effort and patience. I didn't think anything could knock it out of my bag until TM started teasing the S3

 

The S3 is the trickier of the two because it's so good, but not right out of the box. I IMMEDIATELY could feel the difference between it and the LN's toe hang profiles. It just felt very toe heavy, even more so than my blade. IF I released it like a blade, it was easy to start on line, but here's where it gets complicated. The stock swing weight that the S3 comes in at is on the heavier side. You have to be very deliberate when releasing the club through impact, otherwise you will tend to push putts. After the initial 10 putts, I swapped out the stock 10.5g TSS weights for a pair of 7.5g weights, dropping about 3 swing weight points, as well as bringing the CG a little further forward than stock. It worked a miracle. It almost felt identical to my blade as far as release characteristics. Very easy and comfortable, but you'll obviously need to spend a bit of money on the weights and a wrench (a cheap set of torx wrenches will have the size you need) to fit the smaller gauge torx screws.

Hope that made sense and answered some questions for at least somebody haha.

So I played 36 holes with the slant, and I’ll be keeping my L-Neck, so I’m glad I didn’t sell it. It’s an awesome freaking putter, I just had to take too much weight out of the head for my particular stroke. I love the feel and look of it at address, but the plain and simple truth is I hit the ball out of the center more often with the L-neck. So now I’ll be selling the slant neck haha. It was a fun experiment. Keep an eye out for it on the BTS later this week once I get the stock shaft back in it. I’ll be listing it for $450 in case anyone wants to speak for it now and save themself $100. 

[iRod]

On 4/11/2024 at 5:39 PM, StoutKing said:

How do TaylorMade not sell this as a stock option for less?  Seems like they got caught flat footed.  Asked for this putter years ago as stock.

They will. It's in the pipeline. It's months out since you have to set up a new supply chain to build those L-necks along the current slant neck and double bend inventory.

Edited April 15, 2024 by iRod

[Pnwpingi210]

4 minutes ago, iRod said:

They will. It's in the pipeline. It's months out since you have to set up a new supply chain to build those L-necks along the current slant neck and double bend inventory.

Agree.   They are just giving you an option to purchase at a reasonable cost vs buying them 2nd hand from a flipper for twice as much.  While not perfect, I still prefer oems doing this vs people gouging.

[swoosh21]

They came out with the Scottie putter officially naming it.

 

https://www.taylormadegolf.com/Spider-Tour-X-Scottie/N7541926.html?lang=en_US

[StoutKing]

18 minutes ago, swoosh21 said:

They came out with the Scottie putter officially naming it.

 

https://www.taylormadegolf.com/Spider-Tour-X-Scottie/N7541926.html?lang=en_US

Oh man.  Not sure if I should buy a Scottie or a Scotty now.  Wonder why they won't let me order is with 71 degree lie.  For $350 that should be an option.  Not everyone is 70...

Edited April 16, 2024 by StoutKing
edit

[noubrat]

22 minutes ago, swoosh21 said:

They came out with the Scottie putter officially naming it.

 

https://www.taylormadegolf.com/Spider-Tour-X-Scottie/N7541926.html?lang=en_US

Surprised they aren't releasing a "masters" version like they did with DJ's spider

[tarrantian]

Golfweek posted an excellent video/write up on Scottie's Spider version:

 

https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2024/04/15/scottie-scheffler-new-taylormade-spider-tour-x-putter/

 

Enjoy,

 

 - Ian