What do Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day & John Rahm have in common? Besides hitting the ball a country mile they all recently switched over to the new Taylor Made TP5 or TP5x golf balls. Rory makes a pretty bold claim in a new ad by stating these are the best balls he's ever hit, well, ever! Well, we will see Rors.
The TM TP5/5x feature a Tri-Fast Core and Dual-Spin Cover that combine for a 5-layer golf ball construction that is specifically engineered to perform with every club in your bag. Another great golf marketing claim, but does anyone really need a 5-piece ball?
The Tri-Fast core is made up of 3 pieces, duh, that get more rigid from the inside out supposedly creating maximum energy transfer.
Looking at them right out of the box, they look pretty much the same except that the 5 uses a black number and the X uses a red number. The TP5/x use a very minimal logo scheme similar to the Titleist Pro-V1 and Pro-V1x. (Notice a similarity in those names?)
The only real way to tell the two balls are different is by looking at them from the inside out.
Here is how the TM site describes the two balls.
| COMPARISON | LAYERS | DISTANCE | TRAJECTORY | IRON SPIN | WEDGE SPIN | FEEL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TP5 | 5 | LONGER | MID | MID | HIGHEST | SOFTER |
| TP5X | 5 | LONGEST | HIGH | LOW | HIGHEST | SOFT |
PUTTING:
We used our Odyssey Versa 7H putter throughout this review. (See Odyssey Review Here)
The TP5/x has a feel that's softer than a Pro-V1, but a bit harder than the recently tested OnCore AVANT ball (Review Here). The sound coming of the putter face was more of a soft thud than the loud click associated with the Pro-V1. To be totally honest we could not detect any feel or sound differences between the TP5 and the TP5x while putting. Even blind testing the ball when we thought it was one ball and that we finally had the characteristics locked down, it turned out to be the other ball.
CHIPPING:
Chipping around the green we saw similar roll-out with both TM balls and similar to the Pro-V1. Unlike with the softer OnCore ball, it did not take us much time to feel comfortable gaging distances with the TM balls. So you get a similar feel to the softer OnCore, but characteristics similar to the Pro-V1.
SAND:
Hitting the ball out of the sand is where we started to see some real differences between the TM balls & the Pro-V1s. The Pro-V1s spun a whole lot more as evidenced by how quickly the ball stopped on the green. Both of the TM balls rolled out much farther than the Pro-V1s. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well if you often come up short on your bunker shots, as we do, the TM balls give us an assist. If you jam it on the flagstick every time then the bite of the Pro-V1 may be a better fit for you. We felt the TM balls really aided us on the longer bunker shots as they were consistently closer to the hole than with the Pro-V1.
SPECS:
Manufacturer: Taylor Made
Ball: TP5/TP5x
Pieces: 5, FIVE!
Core: 3 Proprietary cores with varying levels of rigidity
Cover: Ultra soft cast urethane with a more rigid internal cover
Compression: Progressive
Price/Dozen: $45.00
SUMMARY:
With plenty of multi-piece balls on the market who could have envisioned the need for a 5-piece ball? To be honest when we initially heard about the 5-piece ball we had some preconceived ideas that this was nothing more than a marketing gimmick. But after trying both the TP5 and theTP5x we have to say it ain't hype! The balls have great feel, that softer sound we really like and performance that fits our game perfectly. As mentioned in previous reviews, we don't do long game testing of equipment, but we did with the TP5 and Tp5x and can say were were very pleased with our increase in distance. We would say we saw better accuracy over the Pro-V1 as well, but John Rahm's claim that "these balls go so straight" didn't really happen for us. Regardless we were thoroughly impressed with this latest offering from Taylor Made and we've found our new ball(s) and its name is TP5 or TP5x, that point doesn't really seem to matter much.
The balls for this review were provided to Golf Gear Box by Taylor Made.
3 comments
I’ve had this issue quite a few times and I’ve even had it happen with brand new balls but every time Ive tried contacting TM about it I never get a response.
Played both today, really liked the tp5x best but, two times I hit wedge into the green at 50-75 yds,it tore the cover. If this gets fixed I would game this ball.
I am using the taylor made tp5x balls for few rounds now, but every time I hit the ball thin in the bunker or fairway, the ball cover broke , it never happened to me with others balls. Is anybody having the same problem?