©TaylorMade Golf

The TaylorMade Spider Mini Putters are here, as they've became available in stores world-wide starting with June 8th for a price tag of $299 (MSRP), with SuperStroke Pistol GTR 1.0 grip. The new Spider Mini from TaylorMade follow the company's very successful Spider line of putters, and with this new model, the goal is to provide the same level of performance and stability, in a smaller form factor this time. It's interesting to notice that Jason Rose became number one in the official World Golf Ranking by playing a TaylorMade Spider tour-putter, and he's not the only one, as numerous Tour pros have already added this club to their golf bags. The Spider Tour putter's success was due to its amazing balance, which made it the ideal choice for professional golfers looking for a forgiving and stable putter in a relatively small form-factor. The new Spider Mini putters are delivering the same levels of Tour proven performance, yet in an even smaller package, and this is as interesting as it gets, considering the huge success of the “regular” Spider tour. The new Spider Mini putters are available in two colorways, Diamond Silver and Tour Red finish respectively, and they're fifteen percent smaller compared to the previous Tour version.

More precisely, the Spider Mini weighs 355 grams and, most importantly, it boasts the exact same stability and moment of inertia (MOI) when it comes to off center hits as the previous (larger) generations. It's interesting to notice that the Spider Mini's head was engineered by TaylorMade's research and development department to have the identical weight as the regular Spider Tour, yet in a smaller size, thus allowing for the center of gravity to be shifted slightly forward. This clever trick allows the putter to act more like a blade-design rather than a mallet, despite the Mini Putters' face balanced design. Moreover, to make sure that the Spider Mini would appease a wide variety of golfers in terms of swing weight and balance, the putter has an adjustable sole weight. The design of the sole weight does not allow golfers to tinker with it, but custom fitters can select from 2.5-, 5-, 7.5-, 10-, 15- and 20-gram weights, i.e. one can fine tune the Spider Mini to achieve one's desired feel and swing weight. Just like the Spider Tour, the Spider Mini putters boast the company's proprietary/patented Pure Roll face insert, which is designed with grooves that point downward at a forty five degree angle, featuring a polymer-material inserted between each groove. This technology softens the feel of the putter at ball impact, and also encourages rolling instead of skidding. As expected from a blade style putter, the Spider Mini's T-shaped alignment lines, which by the way are derived from professional Tour players' feedback, go way back as far as possible, and this system is aimed at helping golfers who want to switch from a blade to a mallet design for the first time. To make a long story short, the Spider Mini is built and designed to deliver the Spider Tour's performance in a minimalistic design, which mimics the classic blade putter in terms of dimensions, and makes for an interesting choice for golfers seeking for a mallet design.