WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Encompassing all the technology of its TP5 and TP5x golf balls, TaylorMade’s TP5 and TP5x TRK-R golf balls are designed to further enhance the launch-monitor experience. Although the balls are designed for indoor use, they are R&A and USGA-conforming and can be played in competition.
PRICE & AVAILABILITY: Australian on-sale and pricing details for both models are TBA.
3 Cool Things
1. Accurate indoor data. Much like the Titleist RCT balls, the technology beneath the cover of TaylorMade’s latest offerings enables radar-based launch monitors such as Trackman to produce more accurate data readings on indoor fittings.
In this instance, a small amount of liquid silver has been embedded that emits highly reflective waves picked up by the launch monitor. That’s important because while most radar-based launch monitors have difficulty measuring data points indoors, the inclusion of liquid silver printed in a non-symmetrical infinity pattern makes the capture of data indoors highly accurate with TRK-R golf balls. The liquid silver has no impact on the performance of either TP5 or TP5x TRK-R.
“Radar-based launch monitors can be one of the largest investments in the game,” said Mike Fox, TaylorMade’s global senior category director for golf balls. “Ensuring that these units are providing accurate information to the golfer or fitters is just as important as providing top performance.”
2. The real feel. The tracking system is cool, but it means nothing if the ball doesn’t have all the tech of the standard models. These do. Among the benefits are cores that utilise a formulation referred to as “Speed Wrap” that is less dense but just as energetic that the company refers to as “Speed Wrap”. Developed with Dow Chemical, the cores are less dense but just as energetic. The result is two designs that give the target players for each ball a different feel perception, what the company refers to as a “decoupling” speed and feel.
“Typically the ‘5’ guy is always going to focus on feel first and the ‘X’ guy is always going to focus on speed first. But with this technology it gave us the opportunity to increase the speed for the ‘5’ guy and maintain the feel, while the ‘X’ guy is going to get better feel than we were able to get him in the past when we were just pushing for more speed,” Josh Dipert, TaylorMade’s director of golf ball research and development, told Golf Digest when the standard models came out last year.
3. Layers of technology. Both the standard TP5 and TP5x have five layers as do the TRK-R balls. Those layers feature progressive firmnesses to create a larger gap, or separation, between the stiffness of the core and the stiffness of the outermost mantle layer. The greater that difference, the theory goes, the greater range can be created between lower spin off the driver and higher spin off the wedges.
