Rory McIlroy will be using the TaylorMade Spider Tour Red putter as he attempts to win a second US Open title at Erin Hills.
The Northern Irishman made the big money move to TaylorMade recently but in his last outing at the Players he was still using an Odyssey flat stick.
He hinted at the time that he’d been testing out a number of TaylorMade putters but was yet to find the right one.
And ‘the one’ seems to be the TaylorMade Spider Tour Red which helped Sergio Garcia to Masters glory earlier this year.
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TaylorMade Spider putters have been around for years but this latest model first came to prominence after Jason Day had a special model made to mark the colour of the Redback spider – native to his home country Australia.
The likes of Dustin Johnson, Garcia, John Rahm and dozens of other Tour players must have seen Day holing putts from everywhere as he reached the top of the world rankings and wanted a piece of the action.
Read NCG’s TaylorMade Spider review
The model McIlroy looks set to use at the US Open has a black alignment aid whereas Garcia and Day’s putters have a clean crown with no alignment.
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“That’s one of the reasons I went to the mallet — I sort of figured it helped me align better and helped with my aim,” McIlroy told the PGA Tour website.
“It’s awesome with the Spider because you set this thing up and you know exactly where you’re aiming, and it sits so square with that with that flow neck.”
This is the fourth putter McIlroy has used over the past year. In his first switch from the Nike method putter he went to a Scotty Cameron Mallet then to the Odyssey with microhinge insert.
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There’s a ‘Rors’ stamp in green on the sole of this Spider model but that doesn’t mean this relationship is set in stone. I seem to remember some Callaway irons with his name on being used not so long ago…
He hasn’t won a major since 2014 but claims he has never been more excited by his equipment. It did take McIlroy a while to settle into his new Nike gear and he has been suffering with injury so there’s not much evidence pointing to a victory in Wisconsin.
You do get the feeling McIlroy will need a hot putter to get in the mix at the majors this year so we’ll be watching closely to see how this latest model works out.
