TaylorMade Rossa Monza Spider

The design of the TaylorMade Rossa Monza putter is one of function. It has a unique alignment aid on the top of the putter, two weights on the extreme rear corners of the putter and TM's AGSI technology. This writer test drove this putter yesterday out at the Wailea Gold Course.The Spider that was used was a 33", standard weighted, heel shafted double bend version.

I got some weird looks while using this putter on the practice green. Let's face it, it does look a little futuristic, but to be honest, I wouldn't care as long as the ball went in the puka. The first thing I noticed was the alignment aid. It is a solid white line with half circles along the length of the putter. I did feel that it did not help me in my alignment on putts outside of 10'. Inside that distance it was a winner. The ball came off the face with a nice end over end roll with no skidding or skipping. The ball rolled well all day, whether it was a good stroke or not.

At 33" and at standard weighting, this putter was light. I was consistently short of the cup all day! Because this putter has TM's MWT, it would be easy enough to increase the head weight and get the right feel. With the weights at the extreme corners it made for a very, very forgiving putter if the ball was not struck on the center of the face. Hence, the ball tracked to the hole even on mishits.

They say that the best golfers in the world would like a putter that lays open at address. Well, this putter does just exactly that. It's not too noticeable at address, but I did find some of my putts being pushed to the right.

All in all I would say that TaylorMade has a true winner in this putter. It will help the high handicapper golfer who has a problem with alignment and mishits and it will surely make more birdies for the scratch or pro golfer.

 If the shape and size scare you away, don't worry, they are coming out with a smaller version called the "Itsy Bitsy" which will have 3 hosel options; double bend, plumbers neck and center shaft.