WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The new TaylorMade TP Black line of putters is the latest instalment of traditional blade and mallet shapes all featuring the company’s roll-enhancing grooved face insert, along with seven distinct hosel/shaft bend orientations and all at a relatively affordable price.
PRICE: $359. Blades (Juno 1, Juno 2, Soto 1, Del Monte 7, Balboa 8); Mallets (Ardmore 7, Palisades 3). Available in 34 and 35 inches.
3 COOL THINGS
1. Face down. The lineage of TaylorMade’s TP putters has been rooted in two branches that move in different yet complimentary directions: shapes that adhere to the modern classics mix with a techy grooved face insert designed to enhance initial roll. The face insert on the TP Black putters is the same seen on the company’s popular Spider X mallets, a Surlyn polymer insert known as “True Roll” where 11 grooves are angled downward at 45 degrees to help putts start with less backspin and skidding and more quickly get into a forward roll. Designed with tour player input, the goal with the insert is softer feel married with that consistently resilient ball speed.
2. Finishing touches. The heads are all made from 303 stainless steel with custom milling to ensure all angles, cavities and curves are precise from model to model. The black anodised finish, matched with the black insert, enhances durability and creates high contrast to assist with aim and alignment.
3. Different looks for different strokes. The seven models may present a unified front, but each is designed to fit different types of putting strokes. Each has a different degree of toe hang, saving the one mallet that is face-balanced.
Those models targeting players with more arc and face rotation in their strokes include the heel-toe weighted cavity blades, yet each incorporates a distinct hosel connection. Most similar are the Juno 1 and Soto 1, which both feature a plumber’s neck hosel with 38 and 39 degrees of toe hang respectively. The Juno 1 features a full-shaft offset, while the Soto 1 sets up with a three-quarter shaft offset.
Also featuring a plumber’s neck hosel is the Juno 2, which incorporates a longer neck to reduce the toe hang (27 degrees) for strokes with slightly less natural face rotation.
There’s also the Del Monte 7, a wider blade featuring a single bend shaft connection for a near face-balanced feel with only eight degrees of toe hang.
Conversely, the model designed for strokes that have the heaviest face rotation is the heel-shafted, wider flanged Balboa 8. It is built with 65 degrees of toe hang.
On the mallet side, there’s the familiar Ardmore 7, a curved winged shape where the back cavity is framed by a circular cut. Like the Del Monte 7, it uses a single-bend shaft orientation for a fully face-balanced presentation, ideal for strokes designed to limit face rotation.
There’s also the parallel-pronged Palisades 3 mallet. Its short slant neck provides the kind of toe hang (25 degrees) that allows this popular mallet shape to work well with strokes transitioning from the typical arc of a blade putter to the mallet category.
