The new golf balls from TaylorMade for the 2024 season (Credit: TaylorMade)
TaylorMade is launching two revised versions of its well-known golf balls: the TP5 and the TP5x. These balls are equipped with the latest technologies aimed at improving game performance, according to TaylorMade.
TaylorMade TP5 and TP5x golf balls – new versions for 2024
TaylorMade TP5: TaylorMade states that the TaylorMade TP5 is characterised by its 5-layer design, which offers a softer feel and improved spin control, especially near the greens. This is said to be made possible by a new technology, the “Speed Wrapped Core”, which offers faster ball speed and a more comfortable feel.
TaylorMade TP5x: The TaylorMade TP5x is said to be harder and optimised for speed and distance, with reduced spin on drives and long irons, which could be beneficial for players looking for distance. It shares the 5-layer design of the TP5, but utilises different materials and constructions to achieve the desired properties.
“Our learnings from countless player and Tour tests show that golfers”, explains Michael Fox, Senior Director of Product Creation Golf Balls at TaylorMade, “unsurprisingly, favour a softer more muted sound with added distance. Historically, the challenge has been the inability to improve one without negatively impacting the other. With this understanding, we’ve evolved our golf ball design process by uniquely decoupling feel and speed through material advancement, a complete departure from the conventional. The material-level advancement positions our TP5/TP5x family as having the best feel in the industry with faster constructions.”
TaylorMade TP5 and TP5x – What for whom?
While the TP5 is designed for a softer feel and more spin control close to the greens, the TP5x is aimed at maximising distance and speed, with less spin on longer shots. This makes the TP5 ideal for players who prefer more control and feel, and the TP5x for those looking for distance, according to TaylorMade. Both models are equipped with “ClearPath Alignment” technology, which should make alignment easier. The line on the golf ball has been extended for this purpose and made more contrasting to make it easier to aim on the green.
TaylorMade TP5/x pix – emojis and symbols
In addition to the standard models, TaylorMade also offers the TP5/TP5x pix™ golf balls. These balls feature modified visual technology designed to enable easier alignment and better feedback on the green. They are available in different colours, which also improves visibility. The TP5/x is also available with various colourful logos, emojis and symbols that give golfers personalisation options. “My Symbol” is the name of the programme that allows golf balls to be created according to your own wishes.
Price and availability of TaylorMade golf balls
The new golf balls from TaylorMade, both the TP5 and the TP5x, will be available from 15 February 2024. Both models are available in white and yellow. A dozen of the TP5 and TP5x golf balls will cost €63 each, while the more specialised TP5/TP5x pix golf balls will cost €65 per dozen. These price points position the balls in the premium segment of the market.
The new Titleist Vokey SM 10 Wedges 2024. (Photo: Titleist)
Titleist is launching the tenth generation of its iconic wedges this season. In an interview with Golf Post, Aaron Luttrell, wedge expert at Titleist, talks about the development process of the new Titleist Vokey SM 10 wedges and Bob Vokey’s influence on the development of the new models.
“Bob Vokey is still our wedge guru” – Titleist with the tenth generation of the iconic wedges
Golf Post: Titleist Vokey released the new SM10 wedges. What’s making them better than previous generations?
Aaron Luttrell: A lot of times people ask, what do you do to make a better wedge? So at Vokey, what Bob’s kind of narrowed it down to is if you think about what makes a better wedge player, it’s usually being able to generate spin, being versatile around the greens and having good distance and trajectory control.
That’s really what we design our wedges around. How do we make each of those segments better for all players, not just the better player? What we typically do is we’re looking at improving each one of those areas every time we come out with a wedge. One of the big areas that we worked on for SM 10 was CG placement, which relates to distance and trajectory control.
All of them were kind of interconnected. You can’t really have one without the other. If you’re not striking the club in the right part of the face, you’re probably not going to take advantage of the CG or the grooves. So grind fitting is very important. That’s very related to versatility and shots around the green.
You’re obviously not going to get the spin that you want unless you have like the best grooves in the industry. So really if you look at what we did with trajectory and distance control, it’s a CG movement. So in the higher lofted wedges, in years past, we were able to push CG actually forward in front of the face, which allows the face to square up a bit easier or return to where the players set the club in.
I shouldn’t say square up because some people worry like, Oh, if I open the face, is it going to want to shut? No, it’s just going to want to return to where it started. It’s kind of a dynamic shift. Moving it forward allows that to happen. Moving it high or up keeps that flight down and it allows the player to manage the trajectory.
It also prevents some of those shots that want to roll up the face and take off high and weak. So really what we’re trying to do is push consistency, allow the player to, you know, deliver the club the way they want to deliver it and they get the results that they expect. So that was one thing in the higher lofted wedges and now in the lower lofted wedges, we kind of looked at where CG placement was relative to face center.
Looking at modern iron sets, a lot of those CG placements have started to migrate more toward face center or more toward the toe, not outside face center, but just moving that direction. We realized we were a little more heel-ward than where a lot of our irons are. Again, having the player be able to deliver it in the most consistent way possible.
You want the flow from your irons into your wedges to be very consistent. So we were able to move CG a little more from the heel, more towards the center and saw improvements in accuracy. The players that said that sometimes if they went after it a little bit, the ball, maybe would jump left there on them.
The progressive CG of the new Titleist Vokey SM 10 wedges. (Photo: Titleist)
Once in a while, that kind of has gone away now. So we had a lot of really excited players last few weeks about their gap and pitching wedge, which normally, you know, people get really excited about high lofted wedges because they hit all the tricky shots with it. But it’s nice to hear people saying, I’m really excited about my SM 10 pitching wedge as well.
So those are the things that we’ve kind of worked on as improvements technically. And then as far as profiles go, We worked really hard to make sure that they’re as consistent as possible. Really good look that we’ve gotten feedback on over the many generations, but looking at where the highest peak of the toe is and making it consistent throughout the set, making sure the blade length is very consistent throughout the set.
And then we went through a different process of designing the shapes. Before it was the whole wedge at once. What we did was, we looked at it a different way and designed the profile and then you put the sole on afterward and then manipulate it to get the CG positioning that you want.
So what that allows us to do is when you look down at a wedge and you’re getting fit and you say have four different 56 degrees, the only difference is going to be how the club goes through the turf. You’re not going to see a difference on the ground or in an open or closed position. They’re going to look identical, the only difference in performance is going to be the performance through the turf because of the, the solid ground.
Golf Post: How many different versions of the SM10 are there in total?
Aaron Luttrell: 25 in right hand, 25 in left hand. So, 25 different loft and grind optinons, the lowest lofted being 46, highest lofted being 62.
Golf Post: Obviously they’re called Vokey Wedges and Bob Vokey has been around forever, and he’s still known as the Wedge guru. But there’s probably a huge team behind him and I wonder, how much of Bob Vokey himself is still in these wedges.
Aaron Luttrell: Every step is vetted for, you know, but in truth Bob is in every R and D meeting. What he does is he allows his team or our R and D team to really be free with their ideas. And then he helps us reign everything back in because really he’s the one that really pays attention to what the players want as far as looks and feel and sound and performance through the turf.
So if he feels like anything may jeopardize, you know, the clean, classic look of a Vokey wedge or the feel or the performance, it gets tossed out. So really he’s a part of it, but at the same time he understands he’s not hand shaping the masters anymore. We have CAD design. We have all these things that can continue to push wedge play forward, but it’s in the vein of very classic workman style type. We have 3D printers, and we will 3D print a part and he will hand measure every single one of them and go back to the CAD designer that he worked with and say we need to make slight adjustments to this toe area or the width of the sole here. So he’s still a hundred percent involved. He is at work every day, He is one of the most dedicated people I’ve ever met to the craft.
Golf Post: What about the future of Vokey wedges. Which aspects of wedges will be decisive in the future?
Aaron Luttrell: We’re continually looking at every way that we can improve accuracy and control. There’s a lot in the works. Not much we can talk about yet… We do have a lot of ideas for the next generation, the generation after. The nice part about how we go about a design though, is like we launched on tour a week ago.
That’s when we actually get the most feedback on what we did this last time. So we start for the next one. So literally every time we launch a wedge, we’re learning something to make the next one better.
Golf Post: What was the first feedback from the tour players like?
Aaron Luttrell: It was great. We had 160 wedges in play, which was the most in play for any brand. And Vokey was far and away the most played. So, the number one model was SM 10, the number two model was SM 9. So, we’re our own best competitors and the transition so far has been very seamless. All the things that we worked on for SM 10 was feedback from SM 9.
So, we, all the players were very happy because they just said, well the little tweaks we asked for, you delivered on.
Golf Post: The SM10 come in three different finishes, right?
Aaron Luttrell: We actually added a new finish, yeah. This is the nickel finish. We had a finish called brush steel. It was a bit brighter. Nickel is a little bit more matte. It’s perfect in between finish between jet black and tour chrome. We think the durability is going to be pretty good.
And the look of it at address looks fantastic. So for the player that thinks, you know, Tour Chrome might be a little on the bright side and Jet Black may be a little too dark, Nickel will be that nice in between finish.
The Titleist T-Series irons 2024. (Photo: Titleist)
The Titleist T-Series irons cover a wide range of playing strengths and requirements, from the Players iron to the Game Improvement segment. Tom Fisher, head of the iron and wood product line at Titleist, reveals what exactly is in the various models.
Titleist T-Series Irons 2024: Golf Post interview with Titleist product experts
Golf Post: Let’s talk about the T Series starting with the T 100, all the way up to the T 350.
Tom Fisher: Obviously our products are absolutely superb. We have four new models coming out. So T-100: First of all, it’s our tour model. It’s still the number one model played on the PGA Tour. And there’s a reason why. When you look to try and change this iron, you really can’t change it too much for these guys.
But what you can do is, improve the things that really mattered to them and the things that matter to a tour player. And this type of golfer is feel right. So the team have done a magical job improving the feel of this, whether it’s through improving our back bar, which runs through the middle of the golf club.
So we’ve reinforced that back bar. We put the tungsten in in a different process. So people don’t realize that all of our T-Series irons have the average of 80 grams of tungsten in all of our irons. And what tungsten does, it allows us to strategically place weight where we want it to help with feel, to help with trajectory, and to help with forgiveness, MOI, right?
So in the T100, we strategically placed it to help with that feel aspect. The other thing is how a club feels is through the turf. This is something that we’re very fortunate to have, you know, Mr. Bob Vokey just across the corridor where we work together. We’ve actually taken learnings from his Wedge sole design.
We’ve given a lot more relief on our trailing edge than prior gen. We want a fast iron in and a fast iron out. By having more relief on the trailing edge is allowing that club to just slide and get through the turf a lot easier.
And then we’ve also added our CNC process to our face. So all these faces are milled, which obviously helps with the feel, but more importantly helps with consistency. That’s what tour players want. They want to know consistent distances. They don’t want balls spinning with a wide range of deviation. They want consistent spin, consistent ball speed, consistent launch, because these irons are tuning weapons.
They need to know exactly how far it goes every time. So the summer changes we’ve made to the T 100 from prior gen have been very well received. Our teams did a wonderful job on the new T 100.
Golf Post: Whats special about the T150?
Tom Fisher: As we move into the T 150, this is a brand new naming convention. The prior generation was the T100S. That was basically the T100 two degrees stronger. We just needed it two degrees stronger to help that golfer get a bit more speed, a little bit more distance, but we decided to change it a bit more. Hence why a new name. So the T150 is a little bit bigger, so slightly larger than the T100 in terms of the sole width. But you know, all of the same ideas.
T100 is in the 150, you know: the CNC face, the relief on the sole. The one addition, the changing to the 100 is, like I said, slightly larger. It is two degrees stronger and it also has a through the muscle channel. Through the back here and you can kind of see it there.
The new Titleist T150 model. (Photo: Titleist)
That just helps to preserve ball speed and forgiveness across the face. If you look down at the golf club, this looks like the T100. But it just gives that goal for just a little bit extra right out of the gate. This has been our most popular iron out of the lineup, right out the gate.
A fantastic iron and we’re thrilled with it. Some of the tour players have actually put longer irons of the 150-series in their bag, because they see the extra ball speed. It can give them a little bit more forgiveness. Again, all about feel and performance.
Golf Post: Let’s get to the game improvement irons, the T200 and T350.
The next two irons, there’s been some significant changes. What I mean by that is not only obviously in the performance, but the feel as well. Nothing feels better than a Titleist iron when you hit it straight, when you hit it just so pure. Certainly when you hit the 100s and the 150s.
But then as you start getting into like what we call player game improvement irons and game improvement irons, you kind of have to wrestle a little bit with all the performance you put into an iron. It is kind of going against sound and feel but that’s one thing the team have done. To try and crack that code of how do we make all of our irons sound and feel like a forged product. And the team have done it with the T100 that we’ve talked about here. So again like i said before CNC face on here as well, sole design on here as well.
But the subtle changes to help with the sound and feel is again, we strategically placed tungsten in the right spot. But what we’ve got underneath this hood is an improved max impact. What we’ve got in there is a technology that helps to really dampen vibration and also at the same time, give you preserved ball speed of the off center hits.
The new Titleist T200 model. (Photo: Titleist)
And then last but not least, the biggest change is the badge at the back. This has been inserted a lot differently than the last version. It limits vibrations. Sound is vibration, right? And it has a frequency. So we’d run thousands of simulations to make sure we get the frequency exactly where we want it and how we actually, you know, adhere this badge to the back and the design language.
If you turn this badge the other way around, it’s a different shape behind it. There’s some different patterns on it. And that is by design. So it actually helps us give us a sound that we’re looking for. So this is our player’s distance iron with tons of forgiveness, tons of speed. And with a low CG (center of gravity), really easy to get the ball up in the air.
And then lastly, but not least, T350. It’s our game improvement iron. It’s got everything that I just talked about in the T200. The improved maxed impact, CG low, even lower though than the T200 because we want this to launch higher. Um, it’s got obviously the new sole design, the CNC milled face and then the badges on there, but it’s a different shape.
It’s a slightly larger than the T200. So guess what? The design language on the back of that badge is different, because this iron did a different frequency that we needed to tune. Super, super easy to hit! And again, this has been received really, really well, as being, you know, a fantastic, beautiful sounding playable performance in the game improvement sector. It’s really unique in terms of that design.
And then we’re really obsessed about fitting. These irons were all designed, as you can tell, in different shapes, they have different loft packages. They have different CGs that give you different ball flights. But believe it or not, they all have the same offsets.
So when you transition from one iron into the other, it’s an easy transition. And 90 percent of our tour players play a blended set. And why do they play a blended set? Well, there’s a point where what we call the 3Ds break. What are the 3Ds? The 3Ds are distance, dispersion, and angular descent. And what we want to make sure is that you have a consistent distance every time your standard deviation is really tight.
Your dispersion is tight and your angle of descent is at least 45 degrees or greater of the ball coming down onto the green. So there’s a point where as you transition from a seven iron to a six iron, maybe to a five, you’re going to lose those numbers. You’re going to break at some point. Your ball speed is going to drop or not be consistent because we want five miles an hour ball speed between every iron.
Let’s say your seven iron is 120 miles an hour ball speed. Your five iron needs to be 130 miles an hour, right? So we’ll test you. We have long iron kits out in the marketplace, and we’ll then know what seven iron you want, and then we’ll get you to hit our five iron. And if your ball speed isn’t 130 miles an hour, and your angle descent is not at 45 degrees, we know it’s broken.
That’s when we’ll introduce you a different model. So for example, I’m a T150 player, but I break at the five iron. So guess what got me back? The T200. So I play a T200 five iron. Guess what? It broke it before I played a T 350 iron. We have this really cool process and a really easy fitting philosophy.
And these irons allow us to do that. So it’s been incredibly successful. We’re looking forward to a great 2024 with these new T series, and we recommend everyone go get fit for them.
Golf Post: Let me add one question because, obviously, Titleist is famous for those players irons. But those game improvement irons, the T200 and T350, have taken off so well. Will we see more in this segment in the future?
Tom Fisher: These are sneaky. These are really, really good. Llike I said, 150 came out of the blocks fast. But do not underestimate the 350: performance, feel, looks – it doesn’t look like a game improvement iron, but it has all the performance of a game improvement.
This has been received very well when we’ve done independent player testing. it’s tested off the charts. It’s phenomenal. Will Zalatoris is playing this on tour. He’s got it in his bag right now as his four iron. Why? Because it hits the 3Ds that we just talked about. Don’t underestimate this or any other iron. Go get fit and you’ll find which one’s for you.
Are we going to see more game improvement in the future? I would say watch this space. I think there’s obviously a certain amount of golfers there that, like anyone, seek forgiveness. There are opportunities out there for the slow swinging golfers, certainly for juniors.
And also, as golfers are losing speed, as they get older, losing club head speed, we could do more potentially to help to get their speed back, help them play better golf, help them be more functional with their trajectory. So yeah, watch this space. We got some things in the hopper. We’re not done yet.
Titleist in an interview with Golf Post about the new golf balls for the 2024 season (Photo: Titleist)
This season, Titleist is launching three new versions of its AVX, TruFeel and Tour Soft golf balls. The brand’s 2-piece and 3-piece golf balls are designed to appeal to a wide range of golfers. In this interview, Jeremy Stone from Titleist explains the differences between the models and provides exciting insights into the brand’s development process.
Titleist golf ball expert Jeremy Stone in an interview with Golf Post
Golf Post: Three new golf balls coming this year from Titleist. Can you briefly talk us through them first of all?
Jeremy Stone: Yes. So, three new golf balls from Titleist for 2024. New AVX, new Tour Soft, new TruFeel. AVX is an alternative to Pro V1 and Pro V1X. It flies lower and spins less than than pro V1. So if you’re looking for a golf ball that has that lower flight, lower spin or softer feel, AVX might be your ball. What we’ve learned from AVX players is that they love the distance of AVX. They love the soft feel of AVX. If there’s one thing golfers wish they had was maybe a little more greenside spin.
So new for this year, we have a reformulated Core. That reformulated core lowers the long game spin. We also have a new softer cover that gives us softer feel, but increased green side spin. That’s the magic of AVX. So a golf ball where folks love the distance and love the feel, it gets longer and softer, but it also gets a little more green side spin for players that are looking for just a little bit more.
The new Titleist AVX golfball 2024. (Photo: Titleist)
The new Tour Soft is a golf ball designed for people with very specific preferences about their game. If a golfer just wants to play their best, they should be looking at ProV1 or ProV1x or ProV1x Left Dash. Those are the golf balls that through a fitting process we can fit you into the best ball for your game.
But we do know there are golfers who have preferences for the colour golf ball they use. Maybe they want to use a yellow or a green golf ball. We also know there are golfers who have a price point preference. Tour Soft is at a lower price point. It’s a two piece construction golf ball. It has our largest core. The core is a bit of the engine.
This core is faster, giving us longer distance, but it also gives us a little bit more spin into the green with irons. So it’s a more playable all around golf ball designed to be soft, designed to be at a lower price point than a ProV1 as well.
And then finally TruFeel, I mentioned preferences. TruFeel is going to be our lowest price Titleist golf ball. It’s a very welcoming golf ball. There’s a lot of people coming to the game. But they want to trust the golf ball they play and they trust Titleist. TruFeel is the perfect golf ball for them because it connects them to our brand in a really unique, special way, but comes at a really agreeable price point.
It still goes through all of the rigorous Titleist quality testing because we know that every swing that you make, if you make a good one, you want to be rewarded for a great swing. TruFeel delivers on that promise. TruFeel comes in a white, yellow, and a matte red finish. So again, leaning into those preferences.
Golf Post: I assume that, in terms of customers you’re aiming for, in terms of ability, you went from top, I don’t want to say bottom because, that doesn’t sound very nice.
Jeremy Stone: No, but you know, what’s interesting is I wouldn’t use the word ability. I’d use the word mindset. Right? The way we look at it at Titleist is every player can benefit from the benefits of a well fit golf ball. Our well fit golf balls are going to start at the top. Pro V1, Pro V1X, Left Dash, AVX. And so If you want to play your best and that could be different for a lot of golfers, for some golfers that might mean they have a goal this year to break a hundred for the very first time.
Other golfers, they might have a goal to win their first PGA Tour tournament. Whatever your goal is, a well fit, high performing golf ball can suit you. And that stands out regardless of skill level. And so certainly if a golfer raised their hand and said, I want to play my best this year. We’re going to gravitate towards Pro V1 and we’re going to fit you for that golf ball.
The Titleist Pro V1 golfball. (Photo: Titleist)
But if you have a preference, if you are price point sensitive, we get that. We understand that. We want to have offerings because you shouldn’t have to compromise on the quality of your ball just simply because of the price point.
Golf Post: The ProV1 and ProV1x are still your flagship products. Are there any plans to replace it at some point?
Jeremy Stone: The answer is yes, always. It’s just a matter of when our research and development team is constantly looking for ways to improve performance. And when there comes such a technology that absolutely outperforms Pro V1, that would be the time where we would look to replace our own product with something better.
And that’s happened multiple times throughout our company’s history. Most recently, when we introduced Pro V1 in 2000, it was replacing the current number one ball, which was the Titleist Professional. The Titleist Professional was absolutely the number one ball played on planet Earth.
It was the number one ball across the worldwide professional tours. And it just simply didn’t have the same performance opportunity that this new Pro V1 had due to the innovation of research and development. So, we don’t know when that will happen, but we know it will because this research and development team is constantly tackling the challenge of taking the best golf ball on earth and making it even better. And when that day comes, that will be when we replace Pro V1.
Golf Post: Generally in research and development, what is currently the main focus? Is it more about enhancing the performance of the current products? Is it about widening the range of products, to suit more different types of golfers? Is it both of it?
Jeremy Stone: Yes, it’s both. So we’re always looking at what golfers are striving for, and we’re always looking at how dedicated golfers play the game. That’s going to define the attributes we pursue in new golf ball development. And so when we look at new golf ball development, and we’re investigating the appropriate constructions and the needs of the golfer.
That’s what’s going to drive our decision making. We’re always looking at, to oversimplify it, the flight, the spin, and the feel. If we can fine tune the flight, spin, and feel for you, you’re going to play your best. And so, in the midst of that, we’re going to look at aerodynamics, we’re going to look at chemistries, we’re going to look at construction ratios between different layers of golf balls, and everything that would go into a core, a dual core, a casing layer, a cover, and the dimple pattern in the aerodynamics.
Through that process, we’re also going to look at ways the world around us and golfers are demanding more custom options, more alignment options, different elements to personalize their golf ball. And we love the opportunity to do that as well. So lots of different areas for us to innovate. Um, and that’s why the research and development team has over 80 scientists of a variety of disciplines to help us do that.
