The 2024 TaylorMade TP5 and TP5x golf balls are all about commitment. As in, TaylorMade is committed to being a bigger player than it already is in the golf ball market.

That commitment comes with a price tag: a cool $100-million investment in its golf ball business.

A big chunk of that went to buying the Nassau ball plant in South Korea outright. The deal adds considerable capacity to TaylorMade’s ball-making machinery. There’s also the South Carolina plant, which puts cast urethane covers on Nassau-made cores. And TaylorMade owns a major stake in the Foremost ball plant in Taiwan.

The company has also made huge investments in golf ball R&D over the past three years and has built a state-of-the-art indoor test range at its headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif. Additionally, TaylorMade has completely remade its outdoor test area, with Trackman units lining the range to capture performance data at every stage of ball flight.  

Why all that investment? There are two key reasons.

First, TaylorMade is a solid, albeit distant, third in golf ball market share. It’s well behind Callaway and not even in the same area code as Titleist. And when it comes to market share, to quote Ricky Bobby, if you ain’t first, you’re last.

But maybe most importantly, TaylorMade has high hopes for the 2024 TP5 and TP5x golf balls because, at least according to MyGolfSpy’s testing, the previous models simply weren’t very good. The 2021 TP5 model was, in fact, the shortest ball at all three driver speeds tested.

Can $100 million make a difference? It all depends on whether TaylorMade really has figured out how to make a soft-feeling yet fast golf ball.

2024 TaylorMade TP5 and TP5x: Telling the Story

My second favorite poem that isn’t a limerick of questionable taste reads as follows:

If you have a thing to sell
And go and whisper in a well,
You’re not as apt to get the dollars
As he who climbs a tree and hollers.

For TaylorMade to make its $100-million golf ball investment pay off, it needs a story to holler from the tree tops. Fortunately, that’s something TaylorMade is very good at.

Yes, technology and performance are a given, like jacks or better to open in poker. But the story TaylorMade tells and how well it tells it is going to determine if it can keep up with, or even close the gap with, Callaway or Titleist. While TaylorMade’s ball sales have grown dramatically (176 percent between 2017 and 2021 according to Golf Datatech), taking a larger bite out of the Callaway and Titleist apples will be a tough task. Grabbing market share from Bridgestone, Srixon, Wilson and other legacy ball makers might be an easier lift.

Make no mistake. TaylorMade is coming after them all. And it has a story to tell.

And that story starts where form and function intersect with performance and personality.

Sound, Feel and Speed

“Typically, golf balls are white, round and sit on the ground,” says Michael Fox, TaylorMade’s Senior Director of Golf Ball Product Creation. “However, the market is shifting. Golfers want to express themselves in every product that they use without sacrificing performance.”

As for climbing the tree and hollering, TaylorMade thinks it has a pretty compelling story to tell with the new TP5 and TP5x and all their custom permutations.

In a perfect world, we’d all play golf balls that felt like marshmallows but flew like bullets. Soft feel and distance, however, are mutually exclusive. If you want soft feel, lower the compression. It feels great but you lose ball speed. To get that ball speed back, you make it firmer, but it starts to feel like a rock.

Simply stated, you can’t make one better without hurting the other.

TaylorMade, however, thinks it has cracked the code with something called “Speed Wrap.”

“We’ve created a new technology and a new material that’s never been used before in golf,” says Fox. “It allows us to create a product that’s significantly faster with a better feel and a softer feel.”

The Speed Wrap material was co-created by TaylorMade and Dow Chemicals. In simple terms, the material allows TaylorMade to control sound without affecting speed so it’s still firm without sounding or feeling harsh.

“It changes the density of the core,” says Fox. “When you have a less dense core with this new material, there are longer distances for sound to travel and you get a lower audible product.”

In effect, while the new 2024 TaylorMade TP5 and TP5x golf balls will still have a similar compression as the 2021 models (88 and 93, respectively), they’ll actually feel softer due to a more muted sound.

Five Layers of Soundproofing

While Hogan said it best (“…a feeling that goes up the shaft, right through your hands and into your heart”), feel is really about sound. Whether it’s a click, a clack or a smush, the brain “hears” feel.

TaylorMade has been making five-piece urethane balls since the Penta in 2011. Those balls featured a core, three mantle layers and a urethane cover. However, those three mantle layers had very similar compressions and stiffness gradients, which made them essentially one layer that’s three times as thick.

“What we’ve done now is make each of these layers completely different,” says Fox. “Now, each of these materials goes from a core compression of five up to a firmness compression in the 90s. With that large of a speed gradient, these layers are truly performing like completely different products.”

Each of the three mantle layers is progressively firmer. In the softer, spinnier TP5, the delta is 53 compression points. With the firmer TP5x, the delta between the layers is 71 compression points.  

So, in theory, when you hit the driver and activate that core with a compression of five, you’ll get a high-launching, low-ish spinning shot. It won’t be as low as the lower-compression Tour Response for example, but lower than the 2021 TP5 models.

“With wedges, you’re only interacting with the super-firm outside mantle and super-soft cast-urethane cover,” explains Fox. “That’ll create more groove interaction and more spin around the green.”

Will You See a Difference?

That’s the $100-million question, isn’t it?

There are differences you can measure with a launch monitor but it’s often hard to quantify or even notice a one- or two-mile-per-hour ball speed difference on the course. That’s one of the key reasons golfers fall back to feel as a preference. It’s something you can actively experience.

“’Noticeably better’ is a way higher bar we set for ourselves when we design product,” says Fox. “Give someone a new TaylorMade ball and they fly a green with their 6-iron, the next time they’ll know to club down to a 7-iron. You’ve now changed that game.

“That’s a ‘noticeably better’ product.”

TaylorMade is making an effort to help golfers get into the right golf ball for their game. The TP5 is the softer of the two, but it will spin more off the driver, irons and wedges. The TP5x, alternatively, is firmer but spins less across the board than the TP5. On the new 2024 TaylorMade TP5 and TP5x packaging, you’ll find a small QR code. That will take you to a quick, 12-question survey that will tell you which ball is right for you.

Additionally, you’ll see TaylorMade rolling the “cast urethane but not quite Tour-level” Tour Response ball into the fitting equation. Tour Response was TaylorMade’s best-performing ball in MyGolfSpy’s 2023 ball test. It’s a softer-feeling, lower-spinning alternative to the TP5 and TP5x, and it’s less expensive.

Every pix Tells a Story

The 2024 TaylorMade TP5 and TP5X pix balls are also getting a bit of a facelift. TaylorMade says its most prolific pix-playing PGA Tour pros, Tommy Fleetwood and Rickie Fowler, are big pix fans. The big change for 2024 is a bit of a shapeshift, as the pix insignia goes from what TaylorMade calls its orange and black Motion Triangle to an orange and black Motion Diamond with a silver-gray filling. The black alignment line is also getting noticeably longer.

“This allows us to put more orange onto the product, which makes it easier to see,” says Fox. “It also creates further separation between the black on the outside of the diamonds and the black centerline for easier and clearer feedback as the product rolls.

“For us, visual technology is a huge component in bringing emotion into the game, but also helping golfers play better.”

And to bring more fun into the equation, expect TaylorMade to offer limited-edition specials throughout the year, whether it’s a pix U.S.A. model in red, white and blue or up to 22 different college and university logos. You can also expect to see a personalized option through MySymbol, so you can make your own.

2024 TaylorMade TP5 and TP5x Golf Balls: Price and Availability

Has TaylorMade cracked the code and decoupled feel and distance? Well, if you read between the lines, they’re pretty sure they’ve cracked the sound and distance code. That, however, may be enough. Based on the previous models’ showing in the MGS ball test last year, TaylorMade has considerable ground to make up, which lends a certain urgency to its $100-million investment in its ball program.

Further testing will be needed but, at the very least, a firmer, faster, more aerodynamic ball that feels (all right, sounds) softer certainly looks like several steps in the right direction.

These 2024 TaylorMade TP5 and TP5x golf balls hit the streets and the World Wide Web today in white, yellow and the new pix model for $54.99 a dozen.

For more information, hit up the TaylorMade website.  

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