TaylorMade Red and Black TP Golf Balls Review

TAYLORMADE TP-Red

TAYLORMADE TP-Black

Grade: A
Teachers’ Comments: There’s a lot to like about these balls. They’re long enough, have lots of carry, good spin and a nice feel. I like them better than the Pro V line.

I was fortunate to be given a chance to test the TaylorMade TP Black and TaylorMade TP Red balls well before they hit the general market. I’ve been playing the TP Reds and Blacks for the last month or so and have lots of good things to say about them.

The TP Black and Red are TaylorMade’s foray into the premium golf ball market dominated by Titleist’s Pro V line. Every major manufacturer has its own pretender to the throne, and every ball in that market has to be compared to the Pro V. 

For whatever reason (and I suspect that it has to do with swing speed), the Pro V line has never really worked for me. I’ve written about this in the past on this blog, but I’ll repeat my complaints here: I don’t get nearly as much distance with the Pro Vs as with other balls I’ve tested, and I never could get the spin around the greens. I also don’t like they way that they feel off the putter.

Still, since I was trying out a new premium ball, I took a sleeve of Pro V1s along for comparison. And in a head to head comparison, I prefer the TaylorMade TP. But I am not sure that I prefer them to the Redmax and HX Hot—the other balls that I have been playing (more about that later)

The Taylormade TPs address many of my concerns with the Pro Vs.

The first is distance. A good, normal drive for me these days is in the range of 250 yards. The TaylorMade TPs are consistently right in that range. Distance with all of the other clubs also is right in my normal range.The Pro Vs, on the other hand, always seem to fall a little bit short.

Both the Red and the Black take off at a medium to high angle and hang in the air an awfully long time. This is a good thing. I have never had any trouble getting the ball up; to the contrary, I often lose distance when my balls quickly hit their apex and then drop out of sky to land with no roll whatsoever (I’m the only person I know who can plug a ball on a 250 yard drive).

With the medium to high trajectory and the long hang time, I haven’t had any of those ballooning shots that can cause me to lose yardage. The balls take off, level out a bit, hang ... hang ... hang ... and then tumble back to Earth.

In that sense, I think I got more consistent distance out of the TaylorMade TPs than out of some of the other balls I play. That alone maybe a reason to play the TPs.

TaylorMade says that the TP Red is designed for a slightly lower ball flight, and I think that I agree with that. With better players, the difference is probably much more pronounced. In spite of my tendency toward too high a ball flight, I still think I preferred the Black’s flight.

Short game results are also good. I still can’t get a ball to do one of those cool spin backs, but neither do they hit the green and roll off into the frog hair. Again, more swing speed will translate into more backspin.

In my short game, I’m a chipping-, pitching-, putt-it-30-yards-up-the-fairway-with-a-3-wood creative kind of thinker. I’ll come up with a hundred different ways to get a ball to the green before I go to a wedge and a flop shot. The key for me in all of these is feel and distance control. I’ve got a mental image of how each of these should feel, and the TP performs as I expected.

The TP feels pretty good off the putter, too. It’s a softer feel for me than the Pro V, but not as nice as the DT SoLo (my putting favorite).

Workability? Pretty good—and certainly a lot better than the HX Hot, which I am unable to work left or right to any meaningful degree. With the TPs I had occasion to punch a few shots under the wind; extra height was there when I needed it. Straight flights, and fades were easy to produce; I am completely unable to hit a draw with any ball or club, but I imagine that the TPs would respond if that’s your shot.

Despite some general complaints that I’ve read about the ball’s durability, I’ve not had any problems
in that area. It helps that I’ve been hitting fairways and greens, and not trees and cart paths, but I’m still playing with the original sleeves. (Ok, so I lost one of the Blacks in the rough. But I still have the others.).

So are they worth the premium price tag?

I don’t know. As with all balls, they’re going to perform differently for different players. (I don’t care what Consumer Reports says—the balls ARE different).

As with many of the premium balls, I think that people with higher swing speeds are going to get the most benefit. If you’re a big hitter who doesn’t like the feel or the trajectory of the Pro V line, then I think you owe it to yourself to give these a try.

For the medium hitting, 12 - 15 handicapper like myself, the main attraction of these balls will probably be in their distance consistency.

If the price tag doesn’t scare you, I can recommend that you give these balls a try. At least buy a sleeve.

TAYLORMADE TP-Red

TAYLORMADE TP-Black