ATLANTA — As Tommy Fleetwood prepares to defend his Tour Championship title, there is a sturdy risk he’ll accomplish that with a unique TaylorMade Spider putter than the one he wielded final 12 months at East Lake.
Fleetwood has spent the higher a part of two seasons working a TaylorMade Spider, however he wasn’t all the time a mallet person. “He was in a blade for a really, very very long time,” mentioned TaylorMade putter rep James Holley.
That historical past issues once you take a look at the TaylorMade Spider Tour V mallet that Fleetwood has been testing this week. In comparison with the Spider Tour, the Tour V has a extra ahead middle of gravity (CG) that is geared for arcing strokes—just like what one would possibly discover on a blade.
A blade sometimes pushes the CG farther ahead with an extended blade size, so Fleetwood’s newest transfer seems like a possibility to get the very best of each worlds: mallet forgiveness with the move of a blade.
“The CG for him particularly this week is extra of like a really feel factor,” Holley mentioned, paired with “a bit bit greater blade size” and a unique sole draft than what he’d been utilizing.
Holley credit the three variables collectively—CG place, sole draft and a brand new alignment piece—for what’s clicked in testing up to now. “I believe it’s the mix of form of all three issues,” he mentioned, “that’s been at the least working initially with testing that we’ve finished, is a pleasant really feel for him.”
The ahead CG shift modifications greater than numbers on a launch monitor. “If the CG is a bit bit nearer to the face, it hits a bit bit extra of like a thump and a bit bit totally different really feel off the putter,” he mentioned. For a participant with Fleetwood’s blade background, that’s a key element.
After all, Fleetwood’s stroke and launch sample have formed extra than simply head choice. Holley pointed to Fleetwood’s ball-striking because the throughline: He’s among the best iron gamers on the earth, taking part in a managed draw with sturdy face consciousness. TaylorMade has leaned into that in prior Spider builds, together with the tour flow-neck model, giving him “one thing to work off and shut the face,” which Holley mentioned has carried over into the putter fittings as nicely.
Whereas most eagle-eyed gearheads will decide up on the top change, essentially the most visually putting piece of this week’s putter is the alignment sample, which options 11 laser-etched strains working the size of the putter. (Fleetwood has used an analogous visible up to now, however the strains solely prolonged the size of the topline on Spider Tour.)
Holley mentioned single alignment marks haven’t traditionally labored nicely for Fleetwood.
“Anytime you give him one singular lengthy line, as an example, or one small line, he form of struggles a bit bit,” mentioned Holley.
The multi-line method offers Fleetwood a broader visible observe quite than a single mark to line up completely, which, Holley famous, is a part of why Fleetwood initially gravitated towards the Spider X with no True Path alignment, relying as an alternative on the form of the top and a shadow-alignment impact.
The 11-line model is new {hardware}, made attainable by laser engraving quite than conventional milling.
“Now we will do numerous stuff with laser that perhaps we will’t essentially do as effectively with an everyday mill,” Holley mentioned. Reed Potter, TaylorMade’s CAD designer, developed the visible ideas earlier than the laser model was minimize, and the primary design out of the laser was the one which caught.
Whether or not all of the work Holley and Fleetwood have finished on the putter result in him giving it the inexperienced gentle on Thursday stays to be seen. For now, it’s a real-time take a look at how TaylorMade’s tour van adapts a mallet round one participant’s very particular stroke and visible historical past.