TaylorMade Penta TP

The Penta TP golf ball is what TaylorMade calls "the first five-layer tour ball."

TaylorMade spent a lot of time with tour pros asking questions," and most think the ball they play is lacking somewhere. Some say their ball performs great in the short game but costs them distance, while other players said the opposite about their ball. Some feel their ball performs great off the middle and short irons but isn't long enough off the tee and doesn't spin enough on short shots."

The five layers are demonstrated in the cutaway shot above; they are (working from inside to out) the core, inner mantle, middle mantle, outer mantle and cover.

The cover is made from a soft urethane and produces lots of spin off the scoring wedges with lower launch and a soft feel.

While the ball is called a tour ball, the company claims players of all levels can benefit from its design. For example, the firm outer mantle and semi-firm middle mantle are designed to be easily compressed by slower swingers, helping generate ball speed.

The inner mantle is soft, and the core is called "extremely soft," with the low compression said to promote higher launch and less spin off the longer clubs - the long irons, woods and driver.

The TaylorMade Penta TP golf balls come with the company's "LDP" technology, an approach to ball aerodynamics that is designed to provide additional lift (and thereby, distance) on driver mis-hits; as well as a dimple pattern aimed at maintaining a straight line through the wind.