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TaylorMade Itsy Bitsy #1 Putter

Drive for show and putt for dough. That’s a cliché often heard on the green when your buddy drains a long bomb to take that skin from you. Every golfer wants to think that they have the magic wand in their bag. They have the right flat stick. Theirs is the putter that bails them out every time they need to sink a money putt. If there is one club in our bag that can have an emotional attachment to it’s the putter. We’ll spend $300 bucks for an extra 5 yards on a new driver, but our putters can cast a spell over us.

There are so many different types, sizes, shapes and style of putters it is impossible to calculate. TaylorMade is no different from any other club manufacturer. They have a number of styles to choose from. They may have come up with one that can keep our cash in our pockets and our buddies shaking their heads in disbelief as we drop those money putts.

The Taylormade Rossa Monza Itsy Bitsy Spider is one sweet putter. It has a ton of the latest technology and too many names if you ask me, but it rolls the rock pure and sweet.

The TaylorMade folks tell us that this putter is a smaller version of the original Spider. One of the complaints about the Spider was that the head was too big. The Itsy Bitsy is 20% smaller than the original but still may appear too big for many golfers. I was one of them. I am a fan of the “old school” putters. I have used a Ping Pal for nineteen of the last twenty years and I laughed off all these new fangled, high tech, oversized Johnny Come Lately putters. Only briefly did I stray to try a newer model, but I went back to my old faithful after too many missed putts.

The advanced technical aspects of this putter are many. It has a steel wire frame that allows more weight to be moved to the outside of the head to increase the MOI and keep our off center hits from going too far off line. It has the MWT (Moveable Weight Technology) that TaylorMade uses in its drivers and other clubs. That allows even more weight to be placed to the outside and lowers the center of gravity. The face of the Itsy Bitsy is made from something called a TitalliumTM insert. That also is lighter then steel and more weight is moved out of the face. The face also has TaylorMade’s AGSI technology, Anti-Skid Groove System Insert. The AGSI face has grooves that are filled with polymer that is designed to reduce the skid and bounce at impact and promotes forward spin.

The Itsy Bitsy has some good optical alignment aides that make alignment easy and straight forward. There are two hosel types: a double bend and a plumbers neck, each available in 33, 34, 35 inch lengths.

It is easy to get lost in all this technical terminology but it all is designed to enhance the performance of the club. For me that translates into feel. The putter has to feel right during the swing and feel right at impact. I can’t give you any technical explanation of what feel is, but I know it when I feel it. This putter has great feel. It seems so balanced that it almost swings itself and the weight carries the putter past impact into the follow through to a full release. Forget how it does it, or why it does it. The point is it does it. The ball rolls with minimal skid and the club flows along smoothly.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider is a joy to putt with and will give you a better chance at sinking all those money putts you’ve been missing lately.

Thanks to George Rennie and TaylorMade for the test ride

If The Terminator played golf, he would most likely be seen wearing the Adidas ClimaProof Storm 3-way Convertible Jacket. Just the name alone should tell you that this rain jacket means business, and it is definitely a rain jacket. I got this jacket about a month ago and I love it. Usually you feel like you can’t swing in a jacket, but this was not the case at all. The combination of the 100% polyester laminated twill and the fully sealed seams and zippers, will keep you dry in the wettest conditions. This jacket can be worn three different ways, as a long-sleeve, short-sleeve and as a vest. The removable 360⁰ compression wrap gives the jacket a great body-clinging fit that allows you to swing without any interference. Since the jacket has such a slim fit, it may not look too good if you got a frame like John Daly or Lumpy, but it looks great on the flat-belly’s and Sergio’s out there. One of the features that reinforce the Terminator reference is the silicone gripper, located on each shoulder, preventing bag straps from ever slipping. Overall this is the best rain jacket you will ever find, it’s not cheap, but it is well worth the investment.

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