TaylorMade Golf is using the eve of the Masters Tournament to make a major move back into the golf ball market. The company introduced the new TaylorMade TP Red and TP Black golf balls at an exclusive media event on Sunday at Reynolds Plantation in Georgia, and The Sand Trap was there to get you all the details.
While there have been rumblings for a few months that TaylorMade would bring golf balls to market, many people assumed the product would be a rebranded version of current Maxfli products like the BlackMax ball – an assumption based on the fact that TaylorMade owns the Maxfli brand. Those assumptions are wrong, as were rumors that the new balls would be called the “Tour Arrow.”
TaylorMade made a previous run at the golf ball business at the turn of the millennium with the InerGel line. But the company chose to focus on golf clubs with the TaylorMade brand and left the golf ball business to sister brand Maxfli. With TaylorMade now atop the retail market and tour usage chart thanks to products like the r7 drivers, the company has decided to take another shot at the ball biz.
Some of TaylorMade’s most popular club models carry the TP – “Tour Preferred” – mark, and the company has wisely chosen to extend that name to its new golf balls. By putting these products under the TaylorMade name and not the Maxfli brand, the company is hoping to leverage the high-performance reputation it has built with its metalwoods and irons. Maxfli balls will now be geared toward players seeking a combination of value and distance with John Daly as the main tour presence, while TaylorMade balls will be the ball brand aimed at better players and used by players like Sergio Garcia.
TaylorMade senior director of golf ball technology Dean Snell and his team have built the TP Red and TP Black as three-piece solid-core balls that are meant to compete head-to-head with products like Titleist’s Pro V1 and Callaway’s HX Tour balls. The TaylorMade TP Red and TP Black balls each have the same core, mantle layer, and cover materials, but with different thickness to create distinct performance characteristics. The TP Red is engineered to create a lower ball flight on iron shots than the TP Black, and both models are constructed to create high-launch, low-spin conditions off the driver. So far, tour professionals using the balls are split evenly between the two models.
Both balls are built around a core made of a proprietary rubber compound called NdV4. This material uses the metal neodymium as a catalyst to create what TaylorMade says is a core that is both highly elastic and low in compression for a high COR with soft feel. The TP Red has a slightly larger core than the TP Black version.
Between the core and cover of each TP ball is a firm ionomer mantle layer that is built to boost ball speed. TaylorMade says that all golfers – at least those with swing speeds of more than 60mph – will be able to take advantage of the ball velocity characteristics of the TP balls. The mantle layer of the TP Red ball is thinner than the TP Black’s, giving the TP Red ball slightly softer feel and sound properties. Meanwhile, the thicker mantle layer of the TP Black allows it to slightly “slide up” the clubface at impact, which results in a higher launch angle and lower spin with all clubs – the formula for increased carry distance.
TaylorMade has elected to use a proprietary thermoset urethane material for the cover of the TP golf balls. This is a more durable, yet softer, formulation of urethane than the thermoplastic urethane used in some golf ball covers. TaylorMade says the use of thermoset urethane was crucial to creating the spin, feel and performance that tour players expect out of a golf ball. The TP balls also have a paint system that is different and more advanced that the system employed by Maxfli balls.
The dimple pattern of the TP balls is called the Pentangular Di-Pyramid (PDP) pattern. It consists of 322 dimples that have been designed with multiple shapes, sizes, depths and edging characteristics to increase lift at the beginning of a ball’s flight and decrease drag toward the end. TaylorMade’s goal was to increase the amount of time the ball spends in the air, especially in the second half of the ball’s flight, to increase carry distance. The tour pros that tested the ball and are using it at Augusta this week are also praising how the TP balls hold their line in windy conditions.
Sergio Garcia has been using the TP Red ball. As you may know, Garcia kept playing Titleist Pro V1x golf balls even after switching the rest of his equipment to TaylorMade three years ago. Garcia was never comfortable with any of the Maxfli balls he tried, but he’s enthusiastically embraced the TP Red, which he says helps him reduce spin and get the penetrating ball flight he wants from his drives. It must be working, as Sergio has already clubbed three drives that have topped the 400-yard mark using the TP Red on tour this year, which is three more than he hit all of last year.
Sergio first played the TP balls six months ago as a prototype on his home course in Spain. He says the balls are the culmination of three years’ worth of trial and error, and extensive feedback from him and other tour professionals. “When I joined TaylorMade I was looking to play all of the company’s products,” Garcia says. “For me, it was hard not to play another company’s ball. But after a lot of hard work, now we’re in a much better place with this ball.”
Other pros already using the TP balls include Hale Irwin, Justin Rose, JL Lewis, James Driscoll, and Robert Damron.
One more interesting design note: TP balls are seam-stamped, meaning the ball’s name is stamped on the seam in the cover to help players line up putts. While TaylorMade says this is intended to help reduce distractions at address, the company says that seaming the ball a certain way will not increase distance.
Packaging-wise, the box and sleeves for the TP balls are visually aggressive. The box is black with a prominent embossed version of the TP logo that is familiar from TaylorMade clubs. There’s also an strong automotive motif, as there are a series of hole-punched areas that look like the grill from a GMC Yukon Denali, a Pontiac Solstice, or an Apple G5 desktop computer. The TaylorMade TP Red and TP Black golf balls will carry a suggest retail price of $55 for a dozen balls when they hit retail shops in mid-May.
Now if Sergio could win something big, these would sell even better.
Seriously though, I’m interested in seeing where this ball goes in the future. I’ll definitely try them out in the near future if I get the chance.
I have a feeling they will be more successful with this golf ball run than they were the last time.
Good article Don!
Good job guys. Like always.
Kind regards
the only design flaw I noticed so far is, that this ball doesn’t putt well on sundays… right Sergio? 😉
as an avid Taylor Made kool-aid drinker – can’t wait to get my hands on it. Thanks for the tease!
You can also discuss this in our forum, where we’ve posted some initial impressions.
Compared to Callaway & Titleist, WHAT???!!! I hope the hype is’nt just to sell. The big bold red numbers makes the ball looks as if produced from the 70’s.
Go Taylormade!! New MB TP irons, R7 (various version) drivers, and now the ball. You may yet put callaway and Titleist out on the back burner this year if the Goose and Serg can win. Good luck TM. I’m with ya. By the way, send this active soldier a dz (Red & Black)each if you support your troops overseas. I think we deserve it. Thx e
i rekon the the taylormade tp symbol with the shield and flags should of been on the ball to make it look more attractive
Ben, I think that would like kinda tacky, personally. It’d probably have to be way too large to be clear enough to see the detail, too. Too big for a ball, anyway.
yea i know what i mean its thust that they have this really mad box that they come in witch symbolises the technological break through with modern designs but the ball looks not much different to their old balls witch wer a failure
Titleist rules the premium golf ball world…and for good reason…they have the best products because they have the best R & D, marketing and management. This may be a decent ball (Dean Snell learned how to make golf balls at Titleist)…but the Pro-V and Pro-Vx’s are such high performing balls that even Titleist is challanged as how to improve upon them!
Sergio went up in flames in the final round of the British Open. So much for the TP. In my youth TP stood for toilet paper. Taylormade may want to rethink this. I predict this is going to be another failed attempt bt Taylormade at getting into the ball market. The big three are Titleist, Callaway and Nike. The rest are fighting over crumbs.
i have always used the pro v1 x , due to its lower spin rate than the pro v1, as some of you may know it can be quite annoying when you have a sandwedge going stright at the pin and …. oh no ! its zipped stright off the green . but hopefully the tp red will not spin as much as the pro v1 .
Look, having Sergio as a spokesperson is bad enough…always badmouthing Tiger makes him a jerk and a spoiled twenty-something…he’s a loser personality-wise and so will the TP balls as long as he’s your main spokeperson. Yes, I will try the balls but if they’re only marginally better than Titleist Pro V1’s then forget it. If the price of the ball is as you have suggested $55…who would think of switching for that price? It’ll be cost prohibitive to the good golfer-based players you need to consider. That’s my view…but, I will definitely give them a try…have tried them all and ProV1’s so far rule the roost.
A friend gave me one to try and i hit it close to 30 yds longer…that is true accomplishment as I am considered “Freaky Long” in any circle (I hit 2 drives Fri right at 376 yds here in So.Fl with the PRO V1x) and this TP RED ball drilled through the air with a lower stronger trajectory, which I prefer…especially in the wind here in SO FL coming off the water, so those drive could have been on the green instead of 20 yds short.
I also have never researched or looked into a golf product over the 42 years I have been playing, I go by feel and now play the Tour X20 Irons..so I must be impressed and wanted to make sure I got the right one.
What does it cost to have the Pro treatment in Carlsbad to get club fittings like the PROS? I’m still hitting the Nike 410 Driver and a Cleveland Classic 17 degree and would love to upgrade but a trip to Carlsbad might be pushing the budget form So Fla.
RT
🙂 I love your ball but can only play the ones that I find. Unfortunatly I am in the $20 dollar bracket for balls. But I will just keep on looking for you though.