Mega Review: TP5 vs TP3 vs ProV1 vs ProV1X vs B330RX

For those of you that didn't see my post in the golf talk section, my gracious neighbors had a closet stocked full of logo balls from their company and gave me a dozen of each listed above except the 330RX, which is my current ball. I spent the entire weekend at the Byron so I did not get a chance to do this review sooner, but I figured some of you would enjoy a comparison and review of 5 of the most popular premium balls on the market today. But before you read this PLEASE just take this as a starting point and go do a review for yourself with a few sleeves, or get fitted for the right ball at your local pro shop, because EVERYONE is different.

A little about myself; I play at least once a week and practice 2 - 3 times a week. Over that last 18 months, with the help of lessons and consistent practice, I've increased my swing speed from 98 mph to 111mph and I've slowly knocked strokes off my handicap to get into the lower teen range.

I went through my distance ball stage, where I just wanted to hit long and straight, but could care less what the ball did on the green. Long gone are those days and for the last few months I've been playing the 330 RX with great results, while mixing in other sleeves like the NXT Tour, HEX Chrome, etc. I keep coming back to the 330 RX.

So today I set out with a mission. I played my home course, I wanted to play a course where I was familiar with green speed and conditions to better observe and rate how each ball handled all different types of shots. The course plays at 6593 feet from the tips with a rating of 72.5/133. I decided to rate all the balls in various categories with a rating of 1 through 5. To be fair, all of these balls performed well enough for me to put into tournament play if I had to so instead of rating 1 worst and 5 best I rated 1 as acceptable and 5 as best. The categories a I decided to keep track of would be Distance, Accuracy (Driver - 6 iron), Control (7 iron - wedge over 100 yards out), Greenside Spin (all wedges under 100) and Feel.

The testing went as such, for the first 9 I played the TP5 vs the ProV1x, and on the back 9 I played the TP3 vs the ProV1. I played the 330RX on each hole. With the course being wide open I played a "best ball" round with myself. I would hit each ball off of the tee box, from there I would pick the best drive and play my second shot with each ball from the same location of that best drive, and so on as I chipped or putted on or around the green in the same manner, from the best ball's location.

I tried to go in with an open mind, but I really kind of have a biased towards the ProV1 as a ball I don't like, because I just don't like to do what everyone else does. At the same time I had a bias toward the 330RX as it has been a great ball for me over the last 18 months or so. With that being said I tried to put those notions aside, and much to my surprise the balls stacked up in the following order.

Titleist ProV1

Distance 3

Accuracy 4

Control 5

GS Spin 5

Feel 5

Avg score = 4.4

I was surprised to not lose as much distance off the tee with the ProV1 as I had thought I would. I averaged around 260 off the tee, about 5 - 10 yards short of where I'm normally at. However I did find 5 - 7 front 9 fairways with both misses being just off the edge of the fairway and still in good position. The accuracy was close to tops in the group, and the way the Pro V1 acts with a wedge is just unbelievable. I don't play to draw the ball back a lot, in fact I usually play a club short, move it back in my stance a bit, and play for a hop and stop on most all of my wedge shots unless a flop and stop is absolutely required. With my longer irons and hybrids the Pro V would hit the green, take one hop and hit the breaks. With my bump and run wedge game this ball REALLY started to shine. I learned quickly that with this ball, it spins so well that I was able to go right at the pin, land it about 2 - 3 feet short and be looking at a tap in. Not a single wedge shot released and rolled off back edge, everything hit bounced and stopped, and produced some birdies on holes I've never birdied before on this course.

Taylormade Penta TP3

Distance 4

Accuracy 5

Control 4

GS Spin 3

Feel 4

Avg score = 4

Not much needs to be said about this ball. It is long and straight off the Driver, feels great, it comes up JUST SHY of the ProV1 in terms of green performance. I was a tad less confident with my bump and stop style that I could use with the ProV1 and the TP3 did roll out a few feet more than I would've liked on a couple of shots where the pin was located on front edge and the green sloped away from me. For $10 less a box than the ProV1 and the other 3 balls in this test, this will likely be the ball that I play through the end of the summer.

Taylormade Penta TP5

Distance 2

Accuracy 2

Control 3

GS Spin 4

Feel 3

Avg Score = 3

For me the TP5 was a bit of night and day for the TP3. I was very surprised to see this much difference. It spun far more off the drive than I would've liked, and ballooned a few times, it also was harder to control off the tee than it's younger more budget friendly brother. It still had a good feel (as all the balls did) and It was almost a twin to the ProV1 where wedge spin is concerned.

Bridgestone B330 RX

Distance 5

Accuracy 3

Control 2

GS spin 2

Feel 2

Avg score = 2.8

Sad to see this guy go, it had been my ball of choice for a long time now. Results don't lie though, the simple fact is although I'm still the longest with this ball, I really fell in love with the ability to put more power and confidence into my wedge shots. The 330 RX spins around the green just a hair more than a mid level ball like the Q-star or Burner Tour IMO, and I had gotten used to landing it just on the green and letting it roll. If my game has a big weakness it would be my lack of confidence from 100 in. With the ProV1 or TP3 I was able to put the ball on my back toe, de-loft the club a bit, and watch it hop and stop time and time again.

Titleist ProV1X

If your a math wizard you can tell by now that this ball sadly ranked a 1 in every category I tested. It had the hardest feel off of any club, and really was something that just didn't give any feedback off of the Driver. I though I had hit a wicked slice on every tee shot, because they all felt like mis-hits, but I think the ball is just that hard. Now I'm not saying that this isn't a ball I'd be afraid to shoot in a tournament with, but it certainly did not inspire the confidence that the other balls I tested in this group did.

For me it was NOT lower spin off the driver, and it moved the most left to right out of any ball I tried, which was very surprising as I had thought it's brother the ProV1 was going to be hardest to control laterally. It also was unbelievably hard for me to get a high trajectory on this ball with my hybrids and mid irons. To give to X it's due though, if I was able to swing the club 10 mph faster, I think my results would've been better with this ball. They can say what they want about swing speeds, this is a hard ball that needs to be compressed to do what it's supposed to do, and I was just not able to.

Pure performance wise the ProV1 was the winner of the day, however at the price point the TP3 comes in at, I'll likely have it in my bag before my next round of play.

I'm considering making the switch from the 20XI-X to either the ProV1 or the ProV1X. I'm currently hitting my driver 250-275 with a slight draw & mostly fairways, my avg 8 iron is 150 w/ a high draw. I hate how the 20XI-X feels around the greens though, even off the putter, which is the main reason I'm looking to switch. What's your recommendation based on what u saw out of the ProV1 & ProV1X?

with a 111 mph ss, i'm VERY surprised you don't like the tp5 or prov1x the best.

Nice review and write-up. Glad to see you have found your ball. I think you have may hit the nail on the head about the 1X and being able to compress the ball. I would imagine it's the same reason why the TP5 didn't perform as well for you. For R5, I would say that you would be better off with the ProV1. I think you will find that it will perform better around the green for you, and your results may be similar to Cobra's.

Solid Review! Couldn't agree more with your comments on the TP3.

Absolutely loving this Ball!

B330s

The rx is not a good comparison to those balls, its newer brother the b330 rxs is really the ball that you should be testing, all the good traits the rx has along with the short iron and green side spin the pro v 1...also give the wilson fg tour and hex black a try, best balls ive used in a long time... .02 cents

I grabbed up the Penta TP3 about a week ago and played them in my last 3 times out. This ball is really solid. Really long off of the tee with some solid green side spin. I think it is a good ball at it's pricepoint. Would agree on the Callaway Hex Black. Can't really go wrong with too many of the balls in your comparison.

Went out today & played a round with the intent to play 9 w/ the ProV1 & 9 w/ the B330 RXS. I've been playing the 20XI-X but I can't deal with the lack of feel in the short game anymore. I started w/ the ProV1 & never even got to the B330.

I immediately felt a significant difference in feel, even off my driver, and touch around the pin. Within 2 holes I had confidence to just go straight at the pin every hole & trust that the ball would do its job. I was able to hit shots that I never even thought of hitting with the 20XI-X. A couple shots that I hit a little thin & normally would've been gone over the back checked up nicely & stayed up for me.

My biggest fear leaving the 20XI-X was losing distance off my driver & maybe even a little accuracy off the tee bc of the increased spin of the ProV1. If anything I actually gained distance on center hits. On 2 or 3 holes I hit the beat drives I've ever hit in this course. I ended up hitting 10/14 fairways & the 4 that I missed weren't as severe as my misses with the 20XI-X. I play a draw & the only difference is that it's now drawing a little more, but that's to be expected.

Maybe the biggest selling point for me was the ability on Par 5's to stick a fairway wood from 200+. I've never been able to do this with the 20XI, it'd always release a good amount & often roll right off.

The final difference I felt was the pure feeling off the putter. Aside from the ability to throw the ball up in the air right @ the stick with my wedges, this may have been the most noticeable "feel" difference. It actually took me a little while to get used to how much softer it feels.

Anyways, I ended up shooting my 2nd lowest round ever & needless to say ill be sticking with the ProV1 going forward. Hopefully as I get truly comfortable with the ball & experiment with it a little more it'll only get better!

I will try the RXS, I will try the 330 and the 330s too. I find it odd that the higher spin balls were more accurate off the driver face, I've been researching all morning to see if there is any evidence to support my findings. Whispering - I like the ProV much more than the v1x

[quote name='03SVTCobra' timestamp='1337710396' post='4959132']
I will try the RXS, I will try the 330 and the 330s too. I find it odd that the higher spin balls were more accurate off the driver face, I've been researching all morning to see if there is any evidence to support my findings. Whispering - I like the ProV much more than the v1x
[/quote]

I was also surprised by how accurate I was off the tee with the Prov1. It draws a little more than the 20XI-X did but it's also much more predictable than the 20XI so it allows me to just play it as more of a draw & feel comfortable with it. . Sometimes with the 20XI I felt like I never knew what I was gonna get. I was also shocked to see that my misses with the ProV1 were not nearly as severe as my misses with the 20XI.

I've played all the balls you mentioned except the B330RX. I found the TP3 to tend to spin more off the longer clubs when compared to the TP5. 100 yard wedges are about the same spin but on the shorter pitches the ProV1 and TP5 give me the best check. Both the Penta models are good balls however. I get a bit more length with the TP5 than the TP3 probably due to the less spin. The longest off a pure hit for me is the ProV1X but I need to absolutely pure it. Otherwise the TP5 is more reliably longer. I like the feel of the TP5 the best of the four. For me the TP3 and TP5 were more durable than either Titleist model.