MOI Isn’t Just A Driver Thing… Here’s Why Some Of The Best Players In The World Are Using High MOI Putters

The next time you attend a professional golf event or watch the best players in the world battle it out on television, keep a close eye on what putters are being used. There has been a significant shift happening over the past decade or so, with mallet putters quickly outnumbering traditional blade putters.

Nowhere is this trend more evident than at the top of the Official Golf World Rankings right now, where on the men’s side, four of the top five in the world are using a mallet-style putter. The women's world number one, Nelly Korda, and both the men’s number one and two, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, have all made the switch to the TaylorMade Spider Tour putters within the last couple of years and have achieved a level of dominance unseen since Tiger Woods was in his prime.

Scheffler made the switch to the TaylorMade Spider putter shortly before the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2024, where he went on to win eight times across the season, including The Players Championship, The Masters, and a gold medal at the Olympic Games. While Scheffler's game was certainly trending in the right direction before this meteoric rise to the top, the putter switch was the only piece of equipment that changed before his historic run.

So, why is the TaylorMade Spider the ‘go-to’ choice for both Scottie, Rory and Nelly among many other top players? The first thing to point out would be that all of these players possess fundamentally sound putting strokes, and so switching into a high MOI mallet putter isn’t necessarily about fixing major flaws; it’s about minimizing the tiny, imperceptible misses that can happen under the pressure of winning major championships. However, the large mallet footprint, perimeter-weighted design and Pure Roll insert are all things the TaylorMade R&D team implemented to help both professional golfers and amateurs find a more consistent roll and better pace control.

While there is plenty of technology that goes into the making of this putter, for Scheffler, a lot of the reason for switching to this putter was the confidence it gave him visually.

“Centering the ball itself is so important when it comes to aiming correctly,” explains Andrew Oldknow, Director of Product Creation for TaylorMade Golf. “When Scottie Scheffler moved into the Spider with the PureRoll system, the white bar just allowed him to find the center of the face more easily and acts as a really quick alignment system.”

Scheffler was considered somewhat ‘streaky’ on the greens while using a blade-style putter back during the season before he made his switch to the Spider. He made a monumental leap from 162nd in Strokes Gained putting all the way up to 25th, where he currently sits. While originally the University of Texas alum used a prototype milled Spider, he quickly made the switch to an L-neck Spider with the regular Pure Roll insert, and the rest is history.

“The Scottie Scheffler effect is real. Every time Scottie won last year, we saw a surge in demand on both our website and with our retail partners across the world," Oldknow added.

"I think it helped when Rory said “I think Scottie should try a mallet putter.” He made that switch and then went on a tear because he was able to focus more on alignment and less on the putting stroke.”

McIlroy has been gaming a TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter for a couple of years and, despite dabbling with a blade early after the switch, the Northern Irishman has stuck with the Spider for the past two years and has seen great success, notably early in 2025, winning the Players Championship and then picking up his 5th major championship at The Masters. During the 2019/20 season, while McIlroy was in limbo on which putter was going to make it to each event, he ranked 122nd in Strokes Gained putting on the PGA Tour. This current season, he sits in 11th place, averaging just 28.15 putts per round.

“I’ve spoken to Rory in depth about why he initially made the switch, and he simply believes the technology helps him get the ball in the hole easier," Oldknow recalls. "These putters have more stability with the way they sit on the ground, not to say a blade doesn’t, but there is more surface area to put the putter on the ground and have it stay in place and sit properly. He mentioned the longer line on the putter really helps with those six to twelve-foot putts. I think on average a tour player makes 50 percent of eight-foot putts, so if we can change that by just a few percentage points and they make one more put per round, then they’re going to play the tournament in four fewer strokes. That could easily be the difference between a win and coming in 10th place.”

Despite having already won six times in 2024, including a stretch of winning five in a row, Nelly Korda did what the world's best always do - continue to find ways to improve. The women’s world number one struggled to find form over the summer, missing the cut at the U.S. Women's Open and the KPMG Women's PGA Championship.

In a search to rekindle some form, Korda went through a testing process of Spider mallet putters before eventually putting one in play at the Women’s AIG Open, where she finished in a tie for second. From there, the Spider kept its place in her bag as she went on to win her seventh event of the season at The Annika in November that season and hasn’t looked back at a blade putter since. Korda had used her stretched-blade design putter consistently before making the switch to the Spider towards the end of last year. Korda has made a significant move up the putting Strokes Gained rankings from 34th to 24th from the 2024 season to the 2025 season.

As much as it is the advice and premium-level club fittings as these players go through that helps them, sometimes speaking to other players who are seeing success is enough to convince them to give something else a try.

“Nelly had seen what Scottie and Rory were doing, and they talk. She was at our huge photoshoot in November and saw the benefits of the alignment systems on the Spider and focusing on that rather than focusing on hitting the center of the face, especially on the brutal greens those guys play on. Blades are beautiful and we all like the look of them, but at the end of the day, if you have to make a six-foot putt, the longer alignment aid, a more stable head and one that sits on the ground and doesn’t want to wobble is going to give you the best chance at making that putt.” continued Oldknow.

The reasoning for these top-ranked players all moving into a high MOI TaylorMade Spider putter may all be slightly different, but they did so with one thing in mind: to keep getting better. These putters act as somewhat of an insurance policy on the greens thanks to the forgiveness offered on heel and toe strikes, turning potential misses into makes and reducing costly three putts.

The large, symmetrical-shaped head helps boost confidence down behind the ball thanks to the alignment technology and allows them to focus their attention on the read of the putt and not on their stroke. While the necks used by all three of these players differ, the Pure Roll insert is the one constant. The ability to get the ball rolling end-over-end quickly ensures consistent pace control and keeps the ball on the golfer's intended line more often than a standard milled putter will.

The choice of a high MOI putter helps minimise the variable of the strike and makes it less impactful on the outcome, and allows the player's natural ability to read greens and match up the pace of the ball more often than not. TaylorMade has recently launched the new 5K-ZT putter, which offers even more forgiveness thanks to the zero-torque design and features much of the same technology as the Spider Tour putters. This new franchise has already picked up a win on the PGA Tour since its release, and so it certainly wouldn't be a surprise to see more of these put in play by the world's best players.

When you next see Scheffler, McIlroy, Korda, or anyone of the large roster of players using a TaylorMade Spider putter, you'll know this was not only a choice based on aesthetics, but one based on physics and performance. Golf is a sport of marginal gains and high MOI mallet putters have allowed some of the very best practitioners to elevate their games to new heights. We don't see this trend slowing down any time soon.

Click here to shop the lineup of TaylorMade Spider putters.