Golf Blog

What TaylorMade Say

TaylorMade has come a long way toward being recognized as a leading putter company during the past few years, thanks to the wonderful work of Kia Ma and the extraordinary success of our Monza Spider line of putters. Now, with great excitement, we’re unveiling the Monza Spider Vicino, which means “near” or “next” in Italian, because this is the next generation in this phenomenal family of putters.

It’s common knowledge that we focused on function, not form, when developing our Monza Spider putters Our goal was to create the most forgiving, best-rolling putter that we possibly could regardless of what it looked like. The result was a revolutionary club that quickly became tour-proven, quickly was used to win on tour and quickly became a big seller all over the world. However, many tour pros reported that although they loved performance of our Monza Spiders, the shape didn’t suit their eye. Give us a cleaner, more streamlined head, they said, but don’t sacrifice any of the performance.

That was a major challenge. So much of Monza Spiders’ performance is dependent on its bulky, ugly-duckling shape. Nonetheless, Bill Price and Bret Wahl and the rest of the putter team went to work to massage the famous shape into something sleeker and more pleasing, while keeping the high MOI and forgiveness that made the original Monza Spiders such a breakthrough. That took a lot of thought, time, effort and engineering, but creating innovative products and then improving on them is what we do.

The most frequent request we heard from the tour had to do with the “aft wings,” which contain the weight ports, of the original Monza Spider. Players asked if we could tuck them in close to the body to create a more graceful, streamlined appearance. However, the vaunted stability on off-center hits of the Monza Spider and Itsy Bitsy Monza Spider is rooted in its weight distribution, and a key component of that is how the wings are positioned wide apart from each other. Tucking the ports in meant bringing them closer together, which would reduce MOI and resistance to twisting.

Eventually we determined that yes, we could shift the ports inward without losing significant MOI by employing a lighter material for the central core of the putter head and a heavier material for the wings themselves. We switched to a lightweight polymer core weighing just 24 grams, which weighs 107 grams less than Monza Spider 08’s core – a huge difference. That allowed us to put dramatically more weight into Monza Spider Vicino’s perimeter by using a 316-gram steel frame, compared to Spider 08’s 202-gram frame.

Those changes allowed us to move the weight ports closer together while also creating high MOI and greater stability on off-center hits at the same time. That’s right, Spider Vicino allows you to have your cake and eat it too because its new, more pleasing shape doesn’t force you to sacrifice noticeable forgiveness.

Vicino’s new shape is accompanied by a less visually busy crown design, also at the behest of the tour. The busy-looking black and white “basketball court” alignment aid on the Monza Spider 08 has been replaced by a thin, silver-colored layer of steel that contrasts beautifully with the black PVD frame. The steel crown layer features a single black line to aid in alignment, because when tour pros asked for custom versions of Monza Spider and Itsy Bitsy Monza Spider, one of the most common requests was for a single alignment line. Also, Monza Spider Vicino’s crown is flush with the topline, (in previous Monza Spiders the crown lies lower than the topline, so the two meet unevenly). This flush juncture between the crown and topline makes for a cleaner and more cohesive appearance.

Vicino also incorporates a new composite AGSI+ insert. Past Rossa inserts consisted of Titallium, a lightweight alloy composed of seven metals, Monza Spider Vicino’s insert is made of carbon fiber and resin, like a graphite shaft. The advantage of the composite insert is that it flexes and “holds” the ball in its grooves more effectively at impact, promoting more forwardspin. The composite insert is also lighter than its predecessor, allowing for the redistribution of 3 grams to the perimeter. TaylorMade testing indicates that the composite AGSI+ insert promotes up to 30 RPM more forwardspin compared to the Titallium AGSI+ insert.

Like previous Monza Spiders, Vicino features TaylorMade’s Movable Weight Technology (MWT), with two weights. Vicino comes equipped with two 4-gram weights, and heavier or lighter weights can be purchased separately to customize the feel by increasing or decreasing the head weight. Also, the same MWT weights used in TaylorMade metalwoods can be used in any Monza Spider putter, including Vicino, and any MWT wrench can be used to remove or install weights.

Size-wise, Monza Spider Vicino falls between the Monza Spider and Monza Itsy Bitsy Spider. Vicino’s face-width is equal to Monza Spider’s, while the width between Vicino’s weight ports is equal to Monza Itsy Bitsy Spider’s. The result is mallet with a mid-size look that combines plenty of confidence-inspiring face area with a compact and non-distracting back end.

With Monza Spider Vicino, we’ve taken the Monza Spider 08 and Itsy Bitsy Monza Spider – two modern classics – and improved on them by making them look better and perform better while maintaining the essence of what made those putters great in the first place – outstanding stability on off-center hits and incredibly smooth roll. Many players who found the shape of Spider 08 disagreeable will be pleased with the refinements we’ve made to the shape of Vicino, and will be equally pleased to know that the performance has been enhanced, as well. We expect a great response from the tour, since we made these improvements at the request of tour pros. We also expect a great response from golfers of all types who want a mallet that’s easy on the eyes, easy to aim, ultra-forgiving and which promotes a true, bounce-less, easy to control roll.

The NEW TaylorMade Monza Spider Vicino Putter is available at Golfbuyitonline from April 1st 2010

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