Review: TaylorMade Daddy Long Legs

Did the Daddy Long Legs scare us or the hole?

Andy Roberts's picture
Andy Roberts
Fri, 31 May 2013
Review: TaylorMade Daddy Long Legs

There is no escaping the Daddy Long Legs, lolloping around and battering into every window, wall, light and person that gets in their way.

Now we can add golf hole to that list. 

The TaylorMade Daddy Long Legs is a 'counterbalanced' putter engineered with a heavier weight at the grip end to increase the MOI of the putter and promote a consistent 'on-path' stroke.

So the idea behind the new DLL is to grip the club as you would a normal-length putter, with two or three inches of the butt-end of the grip extended above your hands, which gives you the maximum benefit of counterbalancing.

Thus, if you normally play a 35” putter you should opt for the 38”; if you play a 33” putter should use the 35”; if you play a 34” putter you can experiment with both the 35 and 38” to find which you prefer.

Given I use a 33”, the 35” was to become my new best friend for the day.

In terms of appearance, I'm pretty sure this one will divide opinion but I'm very much a fan of its futuristic look. I was a little bemused at first, however. With a two-tone colour scheme and red plastic insert on the bottom, there is a stream-lined feel to the putter.

A little too oversized for my liking - bigger than the original Spider - but its lovely 395g weighted head aided terrific confidence. The removal of the bar in the back of the putter has a slimming effect and that adds to the sleek looks.

The alignment is very simple but effective with a single line, and the design does a great job of framing the ball.

This mallet is incredibly soft. It feels like you’re pushing the ball into the hole inside 10-feet. The PureRoll Surlyn insert promoted me with a soft-yet solid feel and smooth roll straight off the face. However, as soon as I started to move away from the hole, I lost a little bit of feel for the longer putts. 

The heavier weight at the grip end allowed me to take the putter back on a consistent 'on path' stroke. The mallet head just stayed true to the ground as my hands went back and through. 

Stability was superb throughout the entire stroke. This counterbalanced putter stays on line with ease. The evenly weighted club means it’s easy to get a good rhythm to your stoke and the long alignment line saw me knocking everything in from inside 10-feet. From 20-feet the loss of feel meant I found it harder to judge distance.

Verdict

If you’re an oversized mallet fan then you’ll love the TaylorMade Daddy Long Legs. It's unbelievably stable thanks to the counterbalanced weighting system and it has a large sweetspot while being very easy to wield.

With heavier weight at the grip end, you really do feel like you're using a belly putter - only you're not - so this to me, presents the perfect response to the controversial anchoring ban. This putter will certainly suit high and mid-cappers who suffer from their putter twisting offline. 

You want more?

Click here for TaylorMade Daddy Long Legs owner reviews. Click this link for our Ten of the Best putters test? Got any questions about the DLL? Let us know below.