Review: TaylorMade Penta TP Golf Ball

Written by: Tony Korologos | Thursday, November 10th, 2011
Categories: Golf • Golf Balls • Golf Equipment • Golf Gear • Reviews
Tags: TaylorMade

TaylorMade Penta TP Golf Ball – click to zoom

Golf Ball Week 2011 is heating up. Today and tomorrow I’m covering my picks for the two best “tour” golf balls and two best “amateur” golf balls. This post today is a review of one of my two best 2011 picks for tour performance golf balls, the TaylorMade Penta TP.

Earlier this year I spent some time in the local TaylorMade Performance Lab (review coming soon). The tech handed me a box of Pentas at the conclusion of the lab, and raved about the performance of the ball. I thought, “yeah, and if he sold Yugos, they would be the best car in the world.” But after I threw the first Penta onto the tee and played a round with it, I was a believer.

Penta Construction

I think I’m the world’s only Greek Golf Web Geek. So naturally I knew that the ball would be a five layer ball since it is called a Penta, which in Greek means “five.” Most high performance balls have three layers and some four, but five? Cool. What do they do?

I could go into great detail covering what each layer is made out of, citing odd proprietary polymers and materials, but mostly that stuff is gibberish. Let’s just mention quickly what each of the five layers does.

TaylorMade Penta TP Golf Ball – 5 Layers

Layer 1 – Cover: Soft feel on putting and short wedges. This layer is made of Urethane, a typical cover material for high performance golf balls.

Layer 2 – Outer Mantle: Spin on short irons and wedges.

Layer 3 – Middle Mantle: Control for mid iron shots. Prevents ballooning. Promotes distance.

Layer 4 – Inner Mantle: Helps launch long irons high with low spin.

Layer 5 – Core: The inner most layer is primarily what provides distance, carry and low spin when driving the ball.

On The Course

Okay so the ball has a lot of layers. But who cares if it has 498 layers if they don’t produce great performance? How does the thing work on the course, when I HAVE to get up and down from 41 yards to tie my opponent and save myself a $2.00 bet? That’s the biggie.

I’ll start with driver performance. This ball feels fantastic off the driver and goes LONG. When talking to a TaylorMade buddy of mine, he told me that this ball and all its layers can compress properly for any swing speed, from the senior amateur to PGA Tour. Not really sure about that, as I haven’t seen anything regarding that in TM’s ads or web site. But it sounds good.

I’m able to work the driver very well naturally, as the ball does have spin, unlike distance balls which are meant to reduce spin.

Hitting iron shots with the Penta TP is also fantastic. I can feel the ball compress on the club face and have a great sense of control. Any shot I’m capable of executing can be performed well with this ball, from carving shots to controlling trajectory. When the ball hits the green, it stops quickly.

Short game is perhaps the best part of this ball’s performance curve. Chipping and pitching shots with some nice check spin is a joy. I’m just a lowly amateur, but it is fun to hit those quick two hop and stop shots which stop on a dime and leave seven cents change.

Putting is solid with the Penta TP. The ball rolls true, and I have a great feel for distance control.

Critiques

My only critique with this ball is its durability. With some crisp wedge shots and short to mid irons, I can shave the cover pretty quickly. It isn’t uncommon for me, a guy with a pretty slow swing speed, to need to replace the ball before 18 holes is done. I DO realize though, that part of that soft feel and great short game performance is as a result of having such a soft cover.

Conclusion

The TaylorMade Penta TP is one of my top two tour performance golf ball picks for 2011. This is a fantastic ball.

Snow – Time to head to Hawaii

Written by: Tony Korologos | Thursday, November 10th, 2011
Categories: Golf • Miscellaneous

kaui golf The weather has turned here. Snow on the ground. Too cold to golf. Sometimes the snow will melt and we can get a few rounds in during December, but sometimes it doesn’t melt and the next round in this area (Salt Lake) could be a March or April.

Having read a recent golf travel press release on Kaua’i resorts being honored as one of the 75 best golf resorts in North America, makes me want to head down there and log some rounds of Hawaii Golf. Wait a sec. Hawaii is in North America? I guess Golf Digest needs a geography lesson.

Anyway. Hope to stay warm and loose over the winter and hope to head down to the pacific to play some golf.

Australian Open and Singapore Open TV times

Written by: Tony Korologos | Thursday, November 10th, 2011
Categories: European Tour • PGA Tour • Pro Golf • Tiger Woods

Australian Open TV Coverage

(Tiger Woods in the field)

Wednesday – 8:00 PM ET – 1:00 AM ET – Golf Channel
Thursday – 8:00 PM ET – 1:00 AM ET – Golf Channel
Friday – 8:00 PM ET – 1:00 AM ET – Golf Channel
Saturday – 8:00 PM ET – 1:00 AM ET – Golf Channel

Singapore Open TV Coverage

(Phil Mickelson in the field)

Thursday – 1:00 AM ET – 5:00 AM ET – Golf Channel
Friday – 1:00 AM ET – 5:00 AM ET – Golf Channel
Saturday – 1:00 AM ET – 5:00 AM ET – Golf Channel
Sunday – 1:00 AM ET – 5:00 AM ET – Golf Channel

Review: Srixon Q-Star Golf Ball

Written by: Tony Korologos | Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
Categories: Golf • Golf Balls • Golf Equipment • Golf Gear • Reviews
Tags: Srixon

I’ll have to preface this post by disclaiming that the Q-Star isn’t exactly the best ball for my game, a lower single digit handicap player (2). The Srixon Q-Star is primarily meant for higher handicap players, above a 10 to be precise. That being said, I could easily put this ball in my bag permanently and score well.

STAR Performance

The technology behind the Srixon Q-Star is geared toward helping higher handicap players increase their accuracy, and keep them out of the rough, hazards, lakes, parking lots, windows… So what does it take to improve accuracy for a higher handicap player? A proper “STAR performance” golf ball…

Srixon Q-Star Golf Balls - click to zoom

Srixon rates their golf balls with a STAR Performance measurement. That measurement factors in spin, trajectory, acceleration and responsiveness. Players of varying levels will have different STAR ratings. One of my favorite new players Keegan Bradley for instance, would be a Z-Star rating. Your 22 handicap buddy with the 87mph driver club head speed however, would NOT be a Z-Star rating. He would be a Q-Star.

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2011 Golf Ball Week Continues

Written by: Tony Korologos | Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
Categories: Golf Balls • Golf Gear • Site News

2011 Golf Ball Week reaches the midway point today. Monday and Tuesday I posted reviews of FOUR golf balls, some quite amazing in their construction (The OnCore hollow metal core golf ball), technology used to locate them (Prazza radar golf ball finder), or just in the fact that they perform fantastically for less than half the cost of top name brands (Innovex).