2008 TP Black vs 2007

[poduski75]

I am currently using the 2007 TP Black ball and love the distance and consistancy of this ball. The only area I would change would be to have a little more greenside spin. Does the 2008 play as straight and forgiving as the 2007? Is the LDP technology gonna make a difference in distance for the extra $10.00 per dozen? Does it spin more around the green? Thanks for any responses in advance.

[duffer888]

My understanding is that the TP Black changed very little from '07 to '08, other than adding LDP, but I've yet to try the '08. Unless you play in windy conditions, my guess is the price difference isn't worth it. My local Golfsmith had the '07 Black practice balls at $19.99 / dz.

[JeffreySpicoli]

We really ought to make a sticky as this question seems to come up about three times a week.

 

Here's Dean Snell (designer of the Pro V1 and now at Taylormade) with his take on the situation:

 

GolfWRX: What improvements were made in the 2008 TP balls over the 2007 ones?

 

Dean Snell: LDP Technology, Low Drag Performance is new in both golf balls. It’s a new 360 dimple pattern that again helps players on miss-hits, helps the ball stay in the air longer on lower spinning driver shots which is an advantage for a lot of people. I think if you look back at the TP Red and TP Black, we spoke about “patent minefields.” Because of patents, those balls became very close to each other with respect to feel, spin, and performance. This year we’re really separated them out. We separated Red and Black out considerably. On Tour last year with all our players, it was about a 50/50 split. I think if you listen to what a lot of them said the biggest challenge the highest spinning players have to get to back pins with 8 irons, 9 irons, pitching wedges, and sand wedges – full short iron shots. So we worked pretty hard to create the TP Red as the new four piece ball and the inside mantle layer is very, very soft. So the feel of the Red is much softer than it used to be. We’ve also been able to lower the full iron spin by using this soft mantle layer. So the new Red is now a lower spinning full iron shot. So if players are actually spinning the ball back too much you definitely want to give the Red a try. The Black has been held to the spin rate of a Pro V1, Pro V1X so players looking for a little extra spin on the irons, its TP Black. For players that have trouble controlling spin because it’s too much, it’s TP Red. Big differences between the two this year in feel and short game spin. When you get closer to the green, where the cover and mantle work together, that’s where they get similar. Red is going to be a little softer, have a nice little check on it and Black’s going to be similar to what Pro V1X is.

 

GolfWRX: That’s a little bit of a departure from what it as last year where they were more similar off the driver and reacted a little differently around the greens right?

 

Dean Snell: Yes and the difference around the greens last year was subtle. The performance around the greens this year, probably the biggest converters that have gone to Red is they like the way the ball feels, they like the way the ball feels like it stays on the face where they have a little more control, it also comes off the face with a little bit lower flight with the irons. Because it’s a little bit softer, it stays on the face a little bit longer and can come off a little bit lower. Those players feel like they can keep it a little bit lower, less affected by the wind and the spin is not high so they’re controlling the shot a little bit better, less affected by wind. I think that’s probably been some of the best feedback we’ve gotten from tour players – the consistency of the golf ball with the irons has been very, very good into the wind, cross wind, down wind. Tour players have been very happy hitting the ball the same distances every time they play which is good because we worked on that to control spin and with irons that helps control distances.

 

<snip>

 

GolfWRX: Very interesting. Moving onto the TP Red, why did you move to a 4-piece construction this year versus a 3-piece last year?

 

Dean Snell: One of the biggest things we did and we actually came up with a new material - over the core layer there are actually two mantle layers on the TP Red. So you have a core inside and then you have a material that’s probably the softest material used in golf that forms this inside mantle layer. What that does is two things: it makes the sound of the ball much softer which is a big part of feel, and it also works with the core to make the core be effectively lower compression. When you have a lower compression core that brings spin rate down. Our goal with that was to try to work to take full 7, 8, 9, PW spin out of the ball to allow us to hit full shots without having to adjust so the ball doesn’t hit and suck back. That’s what that inside layer does. Our challenge on that was to try to make the ball feel softer and reduce that full iron spin. That inside layer accomplished both of that. A lot of players want more spin or need more spin. A lot of players today don’t have enough spin in the golf ball - the TP Black maintains that. So if you’re a lower spinning guy that needs more spin, the TP Black. If you’re a high-spin player that spins too much, I would suggest trying the TP Red. This kind of goes against what players believe in golf. People believe in golf that softer sounding ball spins more. It’s not true any more. It’s a different animal with multi-layer, we’re able to do things differently. So we’re trying to give people with TP Red a feel they used to have back when they used to be in the Titleist Professional range but not a spin that’s out of control. That’s what the design of the golf balls allows us to do.

 

Complete interview:

GolfWRX Interview - Dean Snell TaylorMade Golf

[2putter]

Great article. Thanks for posting it. I was confused myself and was looking for more info. I couldn't even find this stuff on the taylormade website, maybe I didn't look hard enough.

 

I will definitely try out the reds.