The Kalea Gold Spider S putter completes the line up in TaylorMade’s latest range of clubs that are designed by women for women. By enlisting the help of four cohorts of female golfers, they provided feedback on what women like and dislike to help engineers create the best women’s golf clubs for players of all abilities.
I’ve tested the Kalea Gold driver, Kalea Gold fairway wood and Kalea Gold rescue with pleasing results, so I was interested to find out how the putter shaped up against the best women’s putters on the market.
The Kalea Gold putter uses TaylorMade’s popular Spider multi-material construction for a double bend mallet design. This has a large footprint and will initially look a little overwhelming if you’re not used to this type of putter design. It looks striking though, with contrasting colours including a blue body, a silvery grey alignment aid and contrasting colours of dark blue, navy and gold.
I used this putter over a few rounds, first in the US on slick greens, and in the UK on much slower greens in winter conditions. I was pleased how easy I found consistency using this putter from different lengths when adapting to different paced greens.
However, because of my putting style, I had to adjust my hands slightly to prevent the trailing edge from popping up. I had to focus on doing so, but once I’d got used to it, I really enjoyed the solid feel of this putter and the benefits of its high-stability design. This is due to the tungsten weight at the back of the putter that creates a more stable hitting area, so this is what helps to deliver better paced putts with noticeable forgiveness.
I like the sound off the face, which has a white TPU insert with grooves at a 45-degree angle to provide a soft feel and forward roll. Also, the ball is nicely framed by the rectangle shape formed by the cavity and lining up is made easy. The cavity also allows you to pick up the ball, so no bending down is required!
It’s also worth mentioning the grip, which is a SuperStroke Pistol Tour. It’s flat-fronted and has a tacky feel and this contributed to the overall control I felt with this putter in my hands, which obviously helped a number of putts drop into the hole from various distances. All in all, this is a putter worth considering if you struggle with distance control and consistency on the greens.
