TaylorMade quietly turned the most consequential page in modern putter design at the RBC Heritage two weeks ago, and the implications are just becoming clear on tour. The company’s new Spider Tour F — a winged-mallet shape unlike anything in the existing Spider family — and a redesigned Spider Tour V are now in the bags of multiple PGA Tour players, with adoption accelerating in the run-up to the PGA Championship. Here’s what TaylorMade actually changed, who is using what, and which version makes sense for amateurs.
What’s New: Two Putters, One Family
The Spider Tour F is the headline. It is the first all-new shape to enter the Spider lineup in years — a forked or “fanged” mallet with two pronounced rear wings that frame the ball on setup. Pierceson Coody put one in the bag at Harbour Town, and Tommy Fleetwood was spotted testing the model on the practice green during RBC Heritage week. The wings function the same way they do in the Odyssey #7 and Ping DS72 lineages: the perimeter mass moves the center of gravity rearward, raises moment of inertia (MOI), and makes off-center strikes finish closer to the cup.
The redesigned Spider Tour V is a more subtle update. The new V is smaller in overall footprint with a shorter total length than its predecessor, and the heel and toe angles are more pronounced — closer to the chiseled, geometric look of the older Itsy Bitsy Spider. The True Path Alignment slot — that clean white channel that runs from front to back of the putter and helped Scottie Scheffler reset his stroke years ago — is gone on both new putters. Instead, TaylorMade has gone with a single bold sightline and a burnt-PVD finish inspired by Rory McIlroy’s torched Spider Tour X.
Why It Matters: The Most Successful Putter Franchise In Golf
Some context on what TaylorMade is updating. Spider models have been the winningest putter franchise on the PGA Tour for a decade running, and Scottie Scheffler’s switch to the Spider Tour X L-Neck in 2024 set off the most dominant putting stretch the modern game has seen — Scheffler has now collected 14 worldwide wins and an Olympic gold medal since making the change. Rory McIlroy’s 2026 Masters victory came with a Spider Tour X in his hands. Lauren Coughlin won the Aramco Championship in February with a Spider on the LPGA. When you redesign the Spider, you are not redesigning a putter — you are redesigning the putter.
That is what makes the dropped True Path Alignment so striking. For five years, the white channel has been the visual signature of the Spider line, and several tour players — Scheffler explicitly among them — have credited it with helping their stroke path. By removing it on the new V and F models, TaylorMade is signaling that the tour-player audience for the new heads is players who want a cleaner, more traditional address picture. That is a shift away from “alignment-aid maximalist” putter design and back toward minimalism.
Spider Tour F vs Spider Tour V: Which Is Which
Spider Tour F — Choose this if you tend to miss putts toward the toe or heel. The wing geometry pushes MOI to roughly Odyssey 2-Ball XG levels (TaylorMade has not officially published the spec yet, but tour sources suggest 5,800+ MOI in both axes). It also visually frames the ball, which helps players who line up by feel rather than by the back-of-cap line method.
Spider Tour V — Choose this if you putt better with a cleaner, smaller, more compact head. The redesigned V is closer in profile to a slightly bigger blade than to a true mallet, which means it pairs naturally with players who came up on Anser-style heads. The shorter overall length also makes it more responsive to wrist-action strokes — a slight knock against arc-stroke players, but a benefit if your stroke is straight-back-straight-through.
If you are unsure, the rule of thumb on tour right now is that anyone who has previously gamed a Spider Tour X is likely to land on the new F (it is the closer cousin in feel and MOI), while anyone moving from a blade or smaller mallet is likely to be tested on the V first.
What Tour Players Are Saying
The Spider F’s most public endorsement so far came from Pierceson Coody, who putted his way to a top-15 at Harbour Town with the new model in the bag — the first competitive event of any kind to feature the design. Tommy Fleetwood has tested the V model and has not yet committed in competition. Several players in the Cadillac Championship field this week are reported to be in the testing process, with formal switches likely before the PGA Championship at Aronimink in two weeks.
What Scheffler does is the question that matters most. The world No. 1 has stuck with his original Spider Tour X L-Neck through the entire 2026 season so far, and there is no indication he plans to change. But TaylorMade tour reps have privately said Scheffler is testing the new shapes — and any switch by the No. 1 player ahead of a major would be the loudest endorsement the new line could receive.
What This Means For Amateurs
Retail availability of the new Spider Tour F and V is expected this summer, with full launch through PGA Tour Superstore and other major retailers. Pricing will sit in the $400–$450 range, in line with the existing Spider Tour X. Three practical pieces of advice if you’re considering one:
1. Get fit, especially for a mallet. MOI gains do not cure a stroke that’s incompatible with the head shape. A 2,500 MOI blade fitted to your tempo will outperform a 5,800 MOI mallet that’s swinging the wrong arc. The same advice applies for the choice between the F and V — a 30-minute fitting session is worth more than reading any review.
2. Don’t switch off a hot week. The single most common reason amateur golfers buy the wrong putter is reading a magazine list and rushing the decision. The right mental model: putters fail in cold weeks, not hot ones. Test what you already have over a 30-day rolling window and only switch if multiple stretches go badly.
3. Decide on alignment style first. The single biggest practical change in the new Spiders is the loss of True Path Alignment. If you already use it, the new putters are not for you — stay in the Spider Tour X. If you have always preferred a clean topline with one sightline, the V and F are exactly the lineup TaylorMade has been missing.
Key Takeaways
TaylorMade’s RBC Heritage launch quietly resets the most successful putter franchise in modern golf. The new Spider Tour F adds a winged-mallet shape never before in the family; the redesigned V offers a smaller, cleaner address picture; both drop the True Path Alignment that defined the line for half a decade. Amateurs should treat this less as a “Spider Tour X is now obsolete” moment — it is not — and more as TaylorMade widening its lineup so that more stroke types can find a putter that fits.
If you are in the market, get fit before you buy. If you are a Scheffler-style True Path user, stay where you are. And if you have been waiting for a Spider with a different look — quieter, more chiseled, less alignment-aid heavy — TaylorMade just delivered it. For broader putter context, see our deep dive on how to choose between mallet and blade putters, and how the rest of the major manufacturers stacked up in our 2026 TaylorMade Qi4D driver review.
