TaylorMade TP5, TP5x balls (2024)

Gear: TaylorMade TP5, TP5x balls (2024)Value: $54.99 per dozenSpecs: 5-piece, urethane-covered golf balls obtainable in white, yellow and Pix patterns.Out there: February 15

Who It’s For: Golfers who need an elite mixture of distance off the tee and with lengthy irons, plus greenside spin and a softer really feel.

The Skinny: Including a brand new materials to the core of the 2024 TP5 and TP5x balls allowed TaylorMade to decouple the connection between velocity and really feel, so its most-premium balls might every be made quicker however really feel softer.

The Deep Dive: Traditionally, the 2 issues that golfers need essentially the most from a golf ball — extra velocity and higher really feel — have labored in opposition to one another. Producers have labored with completely different supplies and completely different manufacturing methods to create higher golf balls, however to get extra velocity, they’ve historically elevated compression and produced firmer-feeling balls. Softer, better-feeling balls with decrease compressions have been extra satisfying to hit, however that softer really feel usually got here on the expense of velocity.

After taking three years as an alternative of the standard two years to launch an replace to the 2021 TP5 and TP5x balls, TaylorMade feels that it has decoupled the outdated relationship between velocity and really feel and developed a strategy to give gamers extra of each. 

Working with Dow Chemical, TaylorMade has added a fabric it calls Pace Wrap to the rubber within the core of the TP5 and TP5x. Based on TaylorMade, this core additive has by no means been utilized in golf balls earlier than however modifications the best way the ball sounds once you hit it, producing a softer, deeper sound. 

Golfweek had an opportunity to tour TaylorMade’s golf ball manufacturing facility in Liberty, South Carolina, in late 2023, the place TP5 and TP5x cores are was balls. When a TaylorMade consultant dropped an outdated core and a brand new core on the bottom and bounced them, the distinction in sound was instantly obvious. The 2021 core produced a higher-pitched, clicking sound, whereas the 2024 core with the Pace Wrap additive sounded quieter and virtually muffled.

The five-layer TaylorMade TP5 for 2024. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The Pace Wrap additive makes the balls sound and really feel softer, however it doesn’t make the brand new TP5 and TP5x balls quicker. Nevertheless, TaylorMade golf ball designers have been in a position to make the cores within the 2024 TP5 and TP5x balls firmer, which provides them extra velocity, whereas the Pace Wrap softens the sound and really feel produced at affect. The end result, for many golfers, is a quicker ball that additionally feels and sounds higher.

Past altering the composition of the core within the TP5 and TP5x balls, TaylorMade has additionally up to date the three mantle layers that encase the core. Every of the mantles has a special degree of firmness, with the firmness rising as one layer is added over one other. The change within the degree of compression, known as the delta, within the TP5 is about 53. The compression delta of the TP5x is 71.

On full-swing photographs like drivers and 3-woods off the tee, the blunt strike from the membership sends vitality into the ball, via the mantle layers and into the core, activating it to generate velocity and cut back spin. Full-swing photographs hit together with your brief irons and wedges, which have extra loft, make the balls behave in a different way. In these circumstances, the tender urethane cowl can simply be grabbed by the grooves. Together with the added loft, it helps to create extra spin for added management. On delicate chips and pitch photographs, the core might not be activated in any respect, however the softness of the urethane cowl layer once more helps gamers generate extra spin and management.

Whereas each the 2024 TP5 and TP5x have a softer really feel than their predecessors, the TP5 ought to nonetheless really feel softer than the TP5x as a result of it has a decrease total compression. The TP5x ought to present gamers with extra velocity with wooden and lengthy irons as a result of it’s firmer, and it’ll generate a better launch angle, too. The TP5, nonetheless, is designed to create barely extra spin than the TP5x with wedges.

The five-layer TaylorMade TP5x golf ball. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

TaylorMade’s tour employees has added the brand new balls to their bag rapidly, with Rory McIlroy experimenting with the TP5 early in 2024 earlier than opting to play the usual TP5x and successful his fourth Dubai Desert Traditional on January 21. LPGA Tour star Brooke Henderson additionally added the 2024 TP5x to her bag earlier this season.