TaylorMade’s new five-piece golf ball, the Penta TP, was added to the USGA’s list of conforming golf balls on Wednesday. As a result, both Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen plan to use the ball next week at the PGA Championship at Hazeltine. The Penta, aptly named for having five pieces, is the first five-piece golf ball to be created and is scheduled to be publicly available on December 1 (which upsets me because I won’t be able to try it out until next season).
Multiple tour players have tested the ball, and so far it has gotten great reviews. TaylorMade also says the ball should appeal to a large number of amateurs because it has been designed to promote higher ball speed.
The cover of the Penta TP is made of a soft urethane material to promote a high-spin rate, but lower trajectory on wedge shots and pitches for more control. The outer mantle layer, which can be found directly under the white cover, is the most easily compressed. Of the three mantle layers in the Penta TP, it’s the fastest, and TaylorMade says it is designed to create optimal spin and flight conditions when ball speeds are below 120 mph (short irons for tour pros).
The middle mantle layer is semi-firm, and TaylorMade designed it to be compressible on shots with a ball speed between 120 and 140 mph (mid-irons). According to a TaylorMade memo, the inner mantle is designed to create high-launching, low-spinning shots with a ball speed between 140 and 160 mph ( long-irons).
Encased under all those layers is the core, which is made from an extremely fast, low-compression material that only the fastest swingers will be able to activate. However, TaylorMade says those who do can expect more ball speed and less spin on drives for increased distance.
I don’t know how to feel about this news. On the one hand, as someone who desperately wants to be a scratch golfer, I can’t wait to try out anything that might help my game out. On the other hand, was there anyone really clamoring for a better golf ball? Tour pros can already make a golf ball do just about whatever they wish (stop, back up, curve, go low, go high, etc.). Is there a point where equipment advancements will be stopped? Technology will always be progressing, so conceivably golf will continue to get “easier” if the USGA doesn’t put an end to things. I don’t mean to slam the USGA, because at least they’re starting to do something by regulating the grooves on wedges and irons next year. But is it hypocritical to scale back one piece of equipment that promotes too much spin, while approving a different piece of equipment with the same goal in mind?
Or maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s possible that a five-piece golf ball won’t really amount to much difference than the balls currently being used on tour. Perhaps it’s more of a marketing strategy to sell more balls. Either way, it will be interesting to see how Sergio and Retief play next week at Hazeltine.
TaylorMade announced that Y.E. Yang has started using their new Penta golf ball at the Barclays Championship. At the PGA Championship, Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen tried the new ball out for the first time. However Yang won the tournament with his old ball, the TaylorMade TP Red LDP. Additional TaylorMade pros have now added the ball to their arsenals.
The American team players so far are: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Kenny Perry, Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink, Sean O’Hair, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim and Justin Leonard. The International team players so far are: Geoff Ogilvy, Vijay Singh, Camilo Villegas, Retief Goosen, Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera, Mike Weir, Robert Allenby, Y.E. Yang and Tim Clark.