How Collin Morikawa broke his winless drought with a ‘borrowed’ Spider putter

Collin Morikawa has been looking for a new flatstick for seemingly forever, but he may have found one through his friend Kurt Kitayama.

The two-time major winner has tried half a dozen putters over the past ten months, but the one he took to victory this weekend was a new one TaylorMade SpiderTour Flow Neck that he knocked off Kitayama’s brother during a friendly match a few weeks ago.

After closing with a 67, in which he took more than 1.6 Strokes Gained: Putting, Morikawa earned his first victory since October 2023 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this weekend. He revealed that the putter was actually made for Kitayama on Saturday night, after he lost strokes on the greens but still managed a 62 to get into contention.

TaylorMade Spider Tour X Custom Putter

THIN WALL UNDERCUT CONSTRUCTION We developed a super stable structure by removing excess weight to create a high MOI and legendary Spider performance. STEEL WIRE FRAME Allows engineers to better control weight distribution and center of gravity location. HYBRAR ECHO® DAMPENER HYBRAR sits behind the clubface to dampen unwanted vibrations, delivering premium sound and feel on every putt with the best possible sensation. DIFFERENT CG Locations Each Spider Tour model has different CG locations for optimal putter fit. TSS WEIGHT TSS weights provide balanced weight distribution and help optimize performance across all different putter lengths. GUNMETAL PVD FINISH The durable PVD coating provides a beautiful high-quality finish. TRUE PATH™ ALIGNMENT The patented alignment system provides visual clarity and helps golfers better visualize the line to the hole. WHITE TPU PURE ROLL™ INSERT The white TPU Pure Roll™ insert is made from a combination of Surlyn and aluminum and provides a softer feel. The grooves are angled at 45° to promote optimal forward roll and better sound, feel and overall rolling characteristics. The white insert also provides better symmetry with the white True Path alignment. SOPHISTICATED HOSEL DESIGNS The Spider Tour series includes two different Hosel shapes and designs. The slight slope creates a toe hang, and the double bend creates a balanced face design.

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He then said he would likely be “troubled” with his putter for the rest of his career.

“It’s a comfort to me. I think I play a lot with my feelings and a lot with my feelings, and unfortunately that changes a lot,” he said Saturday evening.

Morikawa has played several different blade putters throughout his career, tending to stick with a TaylorMade TP Soto for the past three seasons, but last year he started experimenting with more mallet putters. That led him to start the year with a new Spider ZT Black, before switching back to a TaylorMade wide-body knife. similar to the one Nelly Korda used to win the LPGA season opener.

That was after his debut at the Sony Open and before his next start at the Phoenix Open and when he said he was playing a match at home in Las Vegas with Kitayama, his brother Daniel and Min Woo Lee. The wide blade and him didn’t get along until he saw the flowneck Spider Daniel was using.

“I went along with it, didn’t make any money. I looked at Daniel, his brother, his caddie. I said, ‘Oh, let me try.’ I might have tried it on the 13th hole,” Morikawa said Sunday. “It felt great. I was like, I jokingly said maybe I should take this. Then I just putted with that putter for the rest of the round.”

Collin Morikawa's putter. — Collin Morikawa’s new Spider Tour
TaylorMade

Morikawa said he was drawn to that particular putter because of its rear “T” alignment aid and unique flow neck, because he wanted to feel more relaxation through impact.

“It sits nicely where it can flow a little bit, but it doesn’t have as much toe hang as the neck assumes, just because of the hammer look,” Morikawa said Saturday.

That weekend before the WM, Morikawa said he was only making putts with that Spider and he put it in the bag that week and it stayed in the bag with Pebble.

He hit a go-ahead birdie putt from 30 feet on 15 and then another 8-footer on 16, before using the putter from the green on the 72nd to the 2-putt to hold the clinching birdie for a one-shot win over Lee.

He joked that he’s not sure if the putter has any staying power right now — he lost 0.05 strokes putting this week — but it looks like he should keep the putter.

“I don’t know if he wants it back,” Morikawa said of Kitayama. “He looked at it again this week. I think he’s trying to replicate it with maybe another club or whatever.”

“But now it’s mine.”

The victory is the Taylor Made Spider has now won four of the first five events on the PGA Tour this season. Ironically, the last player to win with a blade putter on the PGA Tour was as noted by Alistair Cameron of PGAtour.comwas Kitayama in July.

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