After three years in development, TaylorMade has announced the release of their new golf ball the TaylorMade Penta Golf Ball.

The name Penta, comes from the greek word pente, means five. It’s mainly used as a prefix to many of the commonly used words today, pentagon, pentagram. Also, some of the not so commonly used, pentathlon, pentateuche. The name suits the ball, considering it’s golf’s first five-piece golf ball.

The goal of this ball is to improve performance in five (clever marketing, anyone?) areas, driver, long-irons, mid-irons, short-irons and partial wedge shots.

According to Golf.com

The cover of the Penta TP is made of a soft urethane material to promote a high-spin rate, but lower trajectory on wedge shots and pitches for more control. The outer mantle layer, which can be found directly under the white cover, is the most-easily compressed. Of the three mantle layers in the Penta TP, it’s the fastest, and TaylorMade says it is designed to create optimal spin and flight conditions when ball speeds are below 120 mph (short irons for tour pros).

The middle mantle layer is semi-firm, and TaylorMade designed it to be compressible on shots with a ball speed between 120 and 140 mph (mid-irons). According to a TaylorMade memo, the inner mantle is designed to create high-launching, low-spinning shots with a ball speed between 140 and 160 mph (long irons).

Encased under all those layers is the core, which is made from an extremely fast, low-compression material that only the fastest swingers will be able to activate. However, TaylorMade says those who do can expect more ball speed and less spin on drives for increased distance.

That last paragraph makes me long for a fast swing speed, it makes me want to strive to active that inner “elite” layer.. 🙂

The article says they’re going to begin selling this to the public on December 1st, 2009, but I’ve heard rumors they’re pushing for an earlier date.

This week Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen will be using the ball during the 91st PGA Championship.

Seems like a risky thing do, changing balls for the 91st PGA Championship..

It’s rumored that the TaylorMade Penta is going to replace the TaylorMade TP Red.

I’m hoping to get some of these for a review relatively soon!

I think I might be slowly becoming a TaylorMade Man, what with the new ball coming out and my new custom 2009 TaylorMade Burner Irons.

🙂

-Dave