How TaylorMade Engineers Test and Develop TP5 and TP5x Golf Balls

When creating the fastest and softest five-layer Tour golf ball, testing is perhaps the most crucial aspect of the development process. Our TaylorMade golf ball engineers leave nothing to chance when it comes to testing.

The development process for TP5/TP5x took approximately 42 months. That process included:

• 236 hours of robot testing
• 19,477 player test shots
• 18,876 robot test shots
• 30,312 ARL shots
• 555 Prototypes
• 67,000 total ball measurements
• 30 dimple iterations
• 106 materials

In other words, you don’t produce a ½ club longer* TP5x golf ball by doing the job half-way.

All the hours spent testing, hitting, replicating and recording nearly 69,000 golf shots created our all-new TP5 and TP5x golf balls. The groundbreaking Speed Wrapped core and refined five-layer construction created a golf ball that is unlike any other TaylorMade has brought to the market. TP5x is now proven to be a ½ club longer* than prior generations, while TP5 is faster and softer than ever.

The creation of testing process came from one simple question: how can we simulate golf ball performance in a way that matches what a golfer would experience on the golf course?

Many people know The Kingdom at TaylorMade’s headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif. As a premier fitting facility where the best players in the world swing by to dial in their gear. While that is certainly true and at the forefront of the purpose of The Kingdom, the facility also serves as one of the most advanced golf ball testing facilities in the world.

TaylorMade and TrackMan worked together to develop a Downrange Aerodynamic Radar Tracking System (DARTS), a first of its kind driving range delivering the highest level of accuracy for TaylorMade’s testing robot. The range is equipped with five radar poles with two radars on each pole, strategically placed from the front to the back of the driving range. Instead of relying on algorithms to track ball performance, the system allows our engineers to track the golf ball from impact to when it lands.

For example, when trying to measure performance on a 310-yard Tour level drive, the system can track the drive during its entire flight.

Being able to know the characteristics of a shot during every one-thousandth of a second throughout the entire flight produces several thousand data points on every shot. This allows engineers to manipulate and perfect where the golf ball lands, while simultaneously knowing how it got there.

Where the golf ball goes matters, but when developing the only five-layer Tour golf ball on the market, how the ball gets there is even more important. DARTS and our testing robot can virtually answer any question from any scenario a golfer would experience on the golf course.

How can the ball launch high and spin low? How can it launch low, stay low, but spin when it hits the ground?

Every detail matters. Wind conditions, club selection, even the height of the golfer is factored in.

Those questions, amongst a bevy of others, are answered during our testing process to produce our TP5 and TP5x golf balls. Two golf balls that are built from similar DNA, but also fit multiple player types.

Inside our TaylorMade HQ is a golf ball testing tunnel that resembles an indoor baseball batting cage called the Aerodynamics Research Lab (ARL). It is here where even more iterations of flight characteristics can be reported and manipulated.

Engineers in the ARL can produce 64 different combinations of speed, spin and launch in a temperature/humidity-controlled room to further measure where the golf ball goes once it is launched. Lift and drag coefficients can be measured for that specific speed and spin combination, and the process is repeated through all 64 combinations. Then, certain aspects can be modified and combined to see how the results vary to the point where engineers know exactly what is going to happen.

In order to accomplish the goal of understanding every element of what the golfer would experience in a real-life situation, of course you need to test with golfers themselves. TaylorMade’s player testing program includes golfers of all skill levels from Rory McIlroy and Nelly Korda, to amateur golfers with handicaps ranging from zero to 20.

Testing with Tour pros happens both in a controlled environment at The Kingdom, but also on the driving range at Tour events and in a situational environment on the golf course. Feedback from the world’s greatest players is imperative in the development process of our golf balls.

For Rory McIlroy, who gained seven to eight yards after his switch to 2024 TP5x, most of his testing took place in Dubai during the start of the 2024 season. Since then, it has produced two wins including the Wells Fargo Championship.

TP5x is a lower spinning ball compared to TP5, which at higher ball speeds and maximized distance could impact how the ball performs on and around the greens. To McIlroy’s surprise, the new TP5x core performed above and beyond his expectations during his first few tournaments with the new ball in Dubai.

“With slightly less spin, you’re thinking, how is this ball going to perform on firm greens?," McIlroy said. "In my second week playing the new TP5x in Dubai, the greens were super firm and it performed really well with my mid irons. On shots that could be a little too hot, the ball spun enough to produce the ideal shot.”

Nelly Korda made the switch from TP5 to TP5x at the end of 2023 and since then has won six times in 2024, including a major title at The Chevron Championship. When looking back on the switch, Korda wishes only one thing went differently: that she switched to TP5x sooner!

Tour feedback is crucial, but at the same time it doesn’t tell the complete story of the performance golfers of all skill levels are looking for. Thus, we have a player testing panel that consists of local golfers in the greater San Diego area that test various iterations of TaylorMade golf balls.

These players range from former college golfers to the everyday low-mid-to-high handicapper. Players test hundreds of shots with various clubs from their bags as our engineers are gathering the data in real time.

Testers provide feedback on what they think, feel and perceive about the golf ball and compare that to what the data our engineers are capturing. That feedback is combined with robot testing on the DARTS system, ARL testing and Tour athlete testing to create the most comprehensive data analysis possible.

We’re Beyond Driven to bring you the best golf ball for your game. Stay tuned to The Clubhouse to learn more about how we create our golf balls.

*½ club longer claim based on robot iron testing at Tour launch conditions showing 2024 TP5x is five yards longer than 2021 TP5x