Modern Classic? – The Taylor Made ROSSA INZA 13 years later

We have a theory that back in the early 2000’s someone at TaylorMade (Maybe Mr Toulon himself?) was wintering at their villa in Italy . One late afternoon while sipping a negroni and pondering their plans for the future a Lamborghini rolled by and a bolt of an idea hit them like roar of a V12. “Eureka! Ho una grande idea”!” they exclaimed. This moment in turn led to over a decade of creative direction they took with their putter design. Of course there is no real basis this theory. But when you look at the names they chose like “Spider” “Rossa” etc its obvious the folks at TaylorMade are Italian car fans.

Chatting about this led us to dig out an interesting putter that was released back in 2015. The TaylorMade Rossa Inza Mallet Putter. We’ve always dug the quirkiness and clean lines on this putter. So we thought we would take a look and see if this is potentially a “modern classic” and take it out for a few rounds.

When you first take a look you can see some of the overall mallet design cues taken from the uber popular “Spider” series. But where it is really unique is the size of the body of the putter vs the relatively small AGSI technology face (AGSI faces are designed to give a “smoother roll” with low backspin and low skid length-. Some people would be thrown of by this “minisculo” face but some of us find that having such a small face really helps to focus the eye and the strike. Additionally the very prominent alignment line that runs all the way from the front to the back really helps put things on line easily.

The design itself was all about MOI and it focuses the weight into that small spot which can help resist twisting of the face. Obviously this takes some getting used to and it might not fit everyone’s style but we really think even years later its a pretty cool concept. The official rules of putter design state that ” The width of the club face must be greater than or equal to half the overall club head width.” and in view of that it seems like the designers really wanted to walk that line and push the envelope a bit. Plus the fact that the rule even exists must indicate there must be some perceived advantage to a small face vs the rest of the putter.

Many feel that a modern classic for their collection should only be something expensive with the cachet of a fancy name. But our criteria is more about being interesting than price. This putter will definitely split opinion which is exactly what we’re looking for. That combined with its relative obscurity and its interesting overall concept makes us feel that this putter is a fun modern classic to keep an eye out for.

Arrivederci!