Taylor Made Penta TP Ball Review

After being in posession of three of these newly released TM balls for over a week now I finally managed to get out on the course today. 7 nights of carpet putting was seeing the frustration rise but as the clouds broke around lunchtime today and blue sky was visible from my home office window I decided that my work for the day was done and headed off down the A12 to my home course.

Instead of giving you a shot by shot account of my round and how the ball performed i'll break everything down into 4 or five key performance areas. Course conditions were soft without being boggy, temperature was about 4* and the wind was probably around 20-25mph....so pretty cold and breezy....but nice blue skies....apart from the 10 minutes when it snowed!!!

Distance
My personaly belief is that within similar classes, balls are much of a muchness when it comes to distance. I really couldnt care less if a ProV1x is 5 yards longer on average than a ProV1 or whatever. In todays round I didnt feel that the ball delivered significantly longer or shorter distances...they were what I expected for the conditions.

Ball Flight
One of the key standout features of this ball that I noticed over the 18 holes is its stability in the wind. Well struck shots delivered a penetrating ball flight that just seemed to cut through the air effortlessly and the ball held its line like few others that I've hit. Even in some of the stiffer cross winds there was remarkably little deviation in ball flight.

Putting
One of the key things that I look for when choosing a ball is how it feels off the putter face and how it feels for short shots around the greens. Happily, whilst not being as soft as say a Px3 Soft Spin or even my current ball the Callaway Diablo, I can report that the Penta seems to have a unique blend that i can only describe as "soft/crisp"....there was no harsh clickyness about the ball but the strike was firm and responsive allowing good control of putt distance.

Short Game
Again the "soft/crisp" feeling came to the fore allowing good feedback and control around the greens. You could easily close the face and deliver a nice low running chip, controlling distance with ease. Opening up the clubface and delivering a sharp descending blow ensured high levels of spin helping the ball land softly, check and run out to the target.

Durability
Use a decent new wedge with sharp grooves and a milled face and the ball will become marked....but so will most other "soft" balls. I've just cleaned up and checked the ball I played with yesterday and there are two or three obvious scuff marks on it....the ball however is perfectly playable and I'd expect it to last three or four rounds rounds before being "retired" due to ill health!!


Iron Shots
Right here and now I will state that I have never hit a ball that feels as good as the Penta does off the irons. The level of feeling is phenomenal, firm and solid but it just feels like it is launching off the clubface. Levels of spin generated with all irons was exceptional as well. I fired a five iron from 170yards into a tightly cut pin position front right of the green on our 9th....everything drops away to the right from mid fairway and the best shot to play is to simply aim for the mid left of the green and let the ball work its way to the right. Aiming left I set up to fade the ball slightly to help it sit down on landing...I caught it sweetly but just over cooked the fade and the ball pitched just right of the flag. Normally this would have resulted in the ball running through and off the green....but not today.

When I reached the green I found that my ball had pitched and checked and stopped in the grand total of 6ft....the green in question is one of our firmer ones (being at the highest point on the course) so I wouldn't attribute too much of this to the ground conditions either.

Time and time again I found that iron approaches into the green landed and held beautifully...indeed some shots from distance had enough action on them to pitch and pull back a couple of feet....very impressive performance indeed.

Conclusion
If the Penta only had its "iron feel" qualities going for it then it would be a great ball, but add in its stability in the wind and short game feel and it becomes a fantastic ball. Indeed if the Penta had come out of the Acushnet stable then allready it would have been on the front cover of every golf magazine from Andorra to Zaire, such would be the scramble of the editors to secure their staff a box load of freebies.

I've tried most of the premium offerrings from the major ball manufacturers over the last 12-18 months and can quite confidently say that the Penta knocks each and every one of them into a cocked hat. It is that good.

If I can drag my hazy recollections of the past into my present day conciousness I might say that this ball reminds me very much of the old Maxfli A10....but is better in every respect.

So good is this ball I'm not even going to bother trying any others before settling on a ball for 2010....the Penta is in my bag....all I have to do is to not lose the three I've got before I can find a source for them here in the UK.

The Penta is possibly the most exciting golf product to pass through my grubby mitts in the last three years.

(except maybe my Vega wedges...but hell its a close run thing!!!).