Built Better: TaylorMade Introduces All-New TP5 and TP5x Golf Balls

We’ve all hit golf shots that get up in the air and then do something unexpected. Maybe it cuts when you thought it would draw. Or perhaps it flutters a touch and comes up short. TaylorMade wants you to know that the reason your golf ball flew offline might not be entirely your fault. The R&D team at TaylorMade thinks that’s due to inconsistent paint, meaning each golf ball you use might be slightly different than the last.

That’s why, for the new TP5 and TP5x golf balls, TaylorMade is overhauling its painting process with a new technique called “Microcoating” that applies an even coat of paint to the golf ball, avoiding the dripping and pooling of traditional methods.

“Golf balls are the only piece of equipment we hit on every shot, but they are also the only piece of equipment we change in a round,” said TaylorMade’s Mike Fox, Senior Category Director, Golf Ball. “Making sure we produce the most consistent product from ball to ball and shot to shot is as important as anything we do. Until now, applying paint to a golf ball to protect its appearance has carried the risk of adversely affecting ball flight. Now, with microcoating, we have a process that solves what was once an invisible problem, and allows golfers to experience greater consistency in how their shots perform from tee to green.”

Rory McIlroy has already switched to the new TP5, which has a new larger core and dimple pattern to boost ball speeds and produce a more penetrating flight. The TP5x features new mantle layers to further boost ball speed while keeping spin low.

So I know what you’re thinking…Does the paint really matter all that much? I never would have considered it either. But it’s also easy to see how painting a golf ball can cause dripping or pooling inside the dimples, leaving some areas thicker than others.

TaylorMade was only able to notice the variations in flight thanks to the state-of-the-art range technology at the Kingdom, where they can track golf balls within three inches of their flight. The company has invested $100 million in golf ball manufacturing and R&D over the past five years. They observed golf balls with identical construction launch wildly differently when launched under the same conditions by a robot.

“These golf balls look absolutely identical to the naked eye, but they can fly 20 yards differently,” Fox said. “Even three yards is too much when you’re trying to make a golf ball for the best players in the world.“Injection moulding is a precision process. Casting of urethane is a precision process. Milling is a precision process. Painting was not a precision process.”

It doesn’t matter only for Tour players, either. Amateurs will lose confidence when they hit what they thought was a good shot and then watch it dart off into the unknown. To address this, TaylorMade invested in its paint process to develop a microcoating, which required changes to the paint application guns, the paint flow into those guns, the curing temperature, and even the paint itself. Fox said TaylorMade is even controlling the paint’s atomization as it dries. “We’re controlling paint at a level that no one’s ever controlled before,” Fox said.

Part of TaylorMade’s massive investment in golf balls also led to a breakthrough. The company now has the data and the software to prototype different golf ball constructions digitally and simulate how they will perform. Instead of producing a few hundred prototype iterations in the past, TaylorMade created over 100,000 prototypes for the new TP5 and TP5x to find the best combination of materials for each ball.

“This isn’t AI,” Fox said. “This is three years of proven data being fed into finite element analysis, and it’s telling us what we’ve already proven out as fact.”

For the TP5, this meant increasing the core size, which reduces the time the ball spends on the face and improves energy retention while maintaining the soft feel the ball is known for. TaylorMade is tightening the spring to improve speed. Fox said they’ve seen about 1 mph ball speed gains in testing. The TP5 dimple pattern was also optimised for a lower, more penetrating trajectory. With the TP5x, TaylorMade engineers focused on fine-tuning the mantle layers around a firmer core to increase ball speed compared with the 2024 model.

Choosing the right TP5 for your game

TP5
The softer and higher-spinning ball with a new, larger core to drive speed gains. A new dimple pattern also optimises the lift-to-drag ratio for a lower flight and minimises turbulence. TP5 is for players looking for a lower flight, higher spin and softer feel.

TP5x
The lowest-spinning and fastest TaylorMade ball. TP5x is suitable for players seeking maximum speed and those looking to reduce excess spin. It’s a firmer feeling ball off the clubface.

My take

It’s not really hard to fathom how much of a difference a drop of paint can make when it comes to the flight of a golf ball. If there is a subtle variation in the outer-layer coating and paint pooling in the dimples, it makes sense that this would be enough to send it offline. TaylorMade were keen to emphasise that this is an industry-wide problem. Visiting the Kingdom last year and witnessing how far a bad paint job can deviate and affect flight and performance really opened my eyes to this; it matters a lot!

For me, the biggest takeaway for the new TP5 and TP5x is the speed gains with the TP5 model. I have gamed the TP5x for that extra kick in ball speed for the last 2 years. As the new TP5 is faster, I was able to switch from the X back to the standard TP5 because I saw significant increases in ball speed when I tried it for the first time at the Kingdom.

I always opted for the firmer TP5x for speed and in doing so sacrificed using a softer spinnier ball in the TP5. With the new 2026 TP5, I no longer have that problem and have made the switch to the softer TP5 without giving up any speed due to the new core and dimple pattern. My ball choice was dictated by speed, as I only generate 150mph ball speeds off my 100mph midlife crisis golf swing. In 2025, Rory McIlroy made a similar switch from the TP5x golf ball to the TP5, which launches slightly lower and spins more. It obviously worked for him, but for very different reasons.

Rory swapped balls because he liked how the TP5 feels around the greens. In addition to spinning more, the TP5 is softer than the TP5x. “A byproduct of that was with the wedges that actually spun more than the ball that I used,” McIlroy said. “So what it forced me to do is to hit more of these half and three-quarter shots.”

McIlroy explained that if he were to hit more full shots with wedges, the TP5 would spin off the green. So instead, he had to gear down and hit more three-quarter wedge shots, and he quickly realised he was able to do the same thing with his short and mid-irons, too. The three-quarter 9-iron hit on the 17th hole at the Monday playoff at the Players ultimately won him his second Players title. That shot, he said, has become a weapon for him.

“That three-quarter shot that I use, I can go down to a 6-iron with that,” he said. “And that’s something that I’ve just developed from using this golf ball.”

This is a perfect example of why players often look to add spin to the bag, rather than mitigate it. It’s much easier to take away spin by hitting a three-quarter shot than trying to add it. This was also evident at Augusta last year. On Sunday, McIlroy hit one of the greatest shots of his career when he hooked a 7-iron from behind a tree on 15 to reach the green. His ball bent right-to-left around the pines and carried to the front of the green before releasing out to 6 feet from the hole.

“I’m able to curve it more,” McIlroy said. “So 15 at Augusta on Sunday is a prime example. I’m hitting this hard drawing 7-iron, but I don’t feel like it’s getting away from me. You know there’s enough spin on it for it to land still somewhat soft. Because if I had to hit that with my old golf ball, that thing would have landed and went through the green.”

What im trying to say is, whether you are looking for speed gains like me or feel like Rory the new 2026 TP5 and TP5x offer the complete choice. Test them out, you will not look back. That, coupled with the new “Microcoating”, guarantees consistency in flight and performance too, something we have overlooked… until now.

Visually, Both TP5 and TP5x will be available in white, yellow, pix, 360˚ stripe. The TP5 and TP5x Stripe have been redesigned this year with tighter feedback lines and a new sight dot for players to focus on during the stroke. I actually got use to the larger stripe last year and the new dot system is taking me some time to adjust to but it’s definitely cleaner.

Both TP5 and TP5x will be available for preorder online at TaylorMade stockists and McGuirks Golf from today – February 2, and available to purchase from February 12. TP5 and TP5x white and yellow will have an RRP of €65 per dozen. TP5 and TP5x Stripe and pix™ will be available for an RRP of €68.