How TaylorMade meet $199 price for TP Black Collection Putters

TaylorMade have dropped a surprise addition to putter season with their TP Black Collection.

It isn’t just the timing of the release that is surprising but also the price.

TaylorMade have dropped a milled putter collection that retails for a suggested $199 per club.

The TP Black Collection differs from other lines of milled putters in that it begins as a cast putter. This implies that molten metal is poured into moulds. Once cooled, the rough forms are milled to smooth up the geometries.

Putters that are completely milled, on the other hand, begin as a block of metal that is then chopped away by the milling machine until the desired shape is exposed.

The contrast between 100% milling vs casting and then surface milling boils down to the metal’s consistency.

Will the TP Black Collection Putters be a good buy?

TaylorMade’s TP putters may be traced back to two distinct but complementary branches: Shapes that correspond to current classics, combined with techy grooved face inserts aimed to improve initial roll.

The face insert on the TP Black putters is the same as that found on the company’s successful Spider X mallets: a Surlyn polymer insert known as “True Roll,” with 11 grooves oriented downward at 45 degrees to assist putts start with less backspin and skidding and more rapidly transition to a forward roll.

The insert design, devised with feedback from tour players, aims to deliver a softer feel while maintaining constant ball speed.

The heads are all manufactured of 303 stainless steel, with unique machining to guarantee that all angles, cavities, and curves are consistent from model to model.

The black anodized finish, along with the black insert, improves longevity and provides strong contrast to aid with aim and alignment.

Seven versions?

Although some of the seven versions appear to be similar, they are individually built to accommodate different sorts of putting strokes.

Each has a varying degree of toe hang, with the exception of one mallet that is face-balanced.

Models designed for players with more arc and face rotation in their strokes have heel-toe weighted cavity blades, although each has a unique hosel connection.

The Juno 1 and Soto 1 are the most comparable, since both have a plumber’s neck hosel with 38 and 39 degrees of toe hang.

The Juno 1 has a complete shaft offset, while the Soto 1 is set up with a three-quarter shaft offset.

The Juno 2 also has a plumber’s neck hosel, but with a longer neck to lessen toe hang (27 degrees) for strokes with somewhat less natural face rotation.

There is also the Del Monte 7, which has a bigger blade and a single-bend shaft connection for a nearly face-balanced feel with only eight degrees toe hang.

In contrast, the heel-shafted, wider-flanged Balboa 8 is built for strokes with the most face rotation. It has 65 degrees of toe hang.

On the mallet side, there’s the iconic Ardmore 7, a curving winged form with a circle cut framing the rear chamber. Like the Del Monte 7, it has a single-bend shaft orientation for a completely face-balanced presentation, making it excellent for strokes that minimise face rotation.

It is unclear what this means for the TaylorMade TP Reserve line of milled putters.

There’s also the Palisades 3 mallet, which has parallel prongs. Its short slant neck offers the toe hang (25 degrees) required for this popular mallet shape to function well with strokes going from the conventional arc of a blade putter to the mallet category.