If you thought painting golf balls was about as exciting as watching wet gloss dry, TaylorMade is here to disagree with you loudly. The brand has unveiled its all-new 2026 TP5 and TP5x golf balls, and the headline act isn’t a new buzzword about speed or spin – it’s how the thing is painted. Yes, painted. And in true TaylorMade fashion, they’ve turned the humble paint job into a full-blown technology story.
Solving a Problem No One Could See
Over the last five years, TaylorMade hasn’t just tinkered in the lab – it has thrown millions of dollars at golf ball R&D: people, equipment, software, the full touring rock band. The result is one of the most advanced golf ball operations in the game, armed with a test range that tracks what previously wasn’t trackable and measurement kit precise enough to spot flaws thinner than a human hair.
And that’s where the invisible gremlin showed up.
During the development of the 2026 TP5 and TP5x, TaylorMade’s R&D team discovered that traditional finishing processes have an annoying habit: excess paint likes to pool at the bottom of the dimples. That means the coating across the ball’s surface isn’t uniform, which sounds harmless until you realise it can nudge ball flight and consistency off line – the sort of thing you’d normally blame on your swing, your shoes, or your childhood.
Microcoating: When Paint Becomes a Performance Part
Armed with that knowledge, TaylorMade set about reinventing the way a golf ball gets its paint job. The result is a revolutionary microcoating process that ensures an ultrathin, even layer of paint across the entire surface of the ball.
This isn’t someone with a spray gun and a good attitude. TaylorMade re-engineered the whole paint operation – precisely controlling cure times and temperatures, and optimising atomisation down to the one-millionth of a gram of total paint used. That’s the kind of detail that would make a Swiss watchmaker look a bit slapdash.
The payoff for golfers? Predictable full-shot dispersion:
Optimised peak height
Consistent distance
A tighter left-to-right window
More reliable overall performance – especially when the wind’s doing impersonations of the Open Championship
As Mike Fox, Senior Director of Product Creation for Golf Ball, puts it: “Golf balls are the only piece of equipment we hit on every shot, but they are also the only piece of equipment we change in a round. Making sure we produce the most consistent product from ball to ball and shot to shot is as important as anything we do.
Until now, applying paint to a golf ball to protect its appearance has carried with it the potential to adversely impact ball flight. Now, with microcoating, we have a process that solves what was once an invisible problem and allows golfers to experience greater consistency in how their shots perform from tee to green. In short, TP5 and TP5x make up our most consistent Tour golf ball family, ever.”
Mike Fox, Senior Director Product Creation, Golf Ball
In other words, TaylorMade has dragged the paint booth into the performance conversation.
Built Better, Core to Cover
The paint is just the glossy finish on a deeper engineering job. TaylorMade’s R&D splurge also funded serious digital prototyping – the sort of virtual tinkering that lets engineers test ideas before a single ball is physically built.
For TP5 and TP5x, they analysed more than 100,000 variations of five-layer construction to find the sweet spot that maximises distance, spin and consistency. It’s like going through every possible set-up of a Tour bag, then handing you the one that actually works on a cold, windy Sunday medal.
The result is a new TP5 and TP5x family aimed squarely at delivering Tour-level performance with far less guesswork from ball to ball.
TP5: Softer Feel, More Speed – and Some Serious Star Power
On the course, the early verdict is coming from some fairly reliable sources. Rory McIlroy, the 2026 Masters champion and newly minted career Grand Slammer, and Collin Morikawa have already switched into the 2026 TP5 – TaylorMade’s fastest TP5 to date.
The new TP5 features TaylorMade’s largest Tour core, engineered to minimise contact time with the clubface at impact. Less dwell time means greater energy retention and, as any launch monitor addict will tell you, that translates into higher ball speeds on full swings.
TaylorMade has also gone back into the aerodynamics with an updated Tour Flight Dimple Pattern on TP5. The re-engineered dimples are designed to:
Minimise turbulence
Create a more efficient lift-to-drag ratio
Deliver a lower, more penetrating flight
In plain English: shots hold their line in the wind more reliably, and there’s less of that ugly ballooning you see when the wind gets hold of a ball and chucks it back in your face.
TP5x: Low Spin, High Heat
If TP5 is the soft-feeling, speed-loving all-rounder, TP5x is the low-spinning rocket ship in the TaylorMade garage. It’s the brand’s lowest spinning, fastest five-layer Tour ball, built for those who like to see launch, hear crack, and watch it go.
The speed story in TP5x starts with new mantle layers, which use new materials to generate serious ball speed at the top end of the bag. The core underpins a firmer material composition in the three mantle layers that make up the speed gradient, further driving velocity while fine-tuning spin throughout the flight.
Despite that more aggressive engine room, TP5x hasn’t thrown greenside control overboard. The ball features an ultrathin cast urethane cover that provides:
Plenty of wedge spin around the green
Precise distance control
A surprisingly soft feel for a ball that’s built to fly like it’s late for its tee time
Leaders in Visual Tech: Stripe, pix™ and NFL Flair
Of course, this is TaylorMade, so they’re not just leaving the visuals to chance either. As one of the industry leaders in golf ball visualisation technology, the company is rolling out TP5 and TP5x in:
Classic white
High-visibility yellow
pix™ patterns
Stripe models
Officially licensed NFL designs for those who like their golf balls to match their Sunday jersey
The TP5 and TP5x Stripe models have been re-engineered with better players in mind. A new Tour Stripe with 360° Tour ClearPath Alignment™ features tighter feedback lines designed to help you start putts on line and confirm roll.
There’s also an all-new performance dot to give golfers a single, sharp focal point over the ball – the kind of visual cue that can help you lock in on the line, stop second-guessing yourself and, crucially, hole more putts.
The Bottom Line
Strip away the technical jargon and this is what TaylorMade is really selling with the new TP5 and TP5x:
A golf ball family whose paint job now behaves like a precision part, not a cosmetic afterthought
Five-layer constructions that have survived more than 100,000 digital experiments
Two distinct Tour-level offerings – TP5 for softer feel and flight control, TP5x for low spin and max speed – both sharpened by microcoating
And if, the next time your tee shot clings to its line in a crosswind, you feel an irrational urge to thank whoever thought to measure paint down to a millionth of a gram… well, that’s exactly the kind of madness TaylorMade is counting on.
Both TP5 and TP5x will be available for preorder online at TaylorMadeGolf.co.uk and at trusted retail outlets on February 2, ahead of full retail launch on February 12. TP5 and TP5x in white and yellow will RRP at £47.99 / €65 / SEK 649 / NOK 649 / DKK 449 / CHF 62 per dozen, while TP5 and TP5x Stripe and pix™ versions will set you back £49.99 / €68 / SEK 699 / NOK 699 / DKK 499 / CHF 65.
