Well, y’all, I’m in Georgia today (as I have been since Saturday) covering the launch of TaylorMade’s new ball. A number of fascinating comments have been made over the course of the past couple of days — I’ll let you in on a few of them before I hit the range.
– the worst kept secret was the release of TM’s new ball — the TP Black and Red (two different balls — TP stands for Tour Preferred). The launch was actually last night, but this morning a hung over Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose hit balls while on a launch monitor to demonstrate that they are in fact longer than the ProV1x. In doing so, Rose and Garcia hit ProVs and then the new TM ball. Garcia and Rose were both consistently longer with the TM ball, though not remarkably longer. Both players said the ball is more consisten than the ProV, including into the wind and around greens.
– Yesterday TM ran a group of customers and media through its fitting system, including the new computer set up that essentially tests everything. Interestingly, I was fitted by Benoit on the range. Only after I went through the fitting did I find out he is the head of R&D for TM. Today he told me that if TM was forced to, he could easily ramp back the core of the ball to reduce distance while maintaining its other key factors.
– Ian Leggat, who is a staff player for TM, said there’s a good buzz about Hamilton as the site of the Canadian Open this year. That was reinforced by Garcia, who said he’s heard great things about the course. Now we have to wait to see if he shows up.
