[PHOTO: Ezra Shaw]
Rory McIlroy didn’t have “golf ball change” on his equipment bingo card (we’re assuming this is a thing) for the 2025 season. More than any other piece of gear, swapping pellets is far from a lay-up.
When Max Homa made the switch from Titleist to Cobra, he revealed it was easier to embrace a new club setup with the same ball. Sure, Homa entertained the idea of a complete overhaul, but the ball change proved to be a bridge too far.
“To have to do that all over again with a different company, it just sounded like a headache,” Homa said. “We did a little bit of it, but I didn’t love the process. I love the Titleist ball. Getting to maintain that constant when we were changing a bunch of other stuff was good.”
McIlroy made the switch to TaylorMade’s 2024 TP5x last season and appeared intent on keeping the ball in play until a recent practice session at Michael Jordan’s ultra-exclusive enclave, Grove XXIII, caused him to go down an equipment rabbit hole.
Prepping for this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, McIlroy casually hit a few 2024 TP5’s around the green – the other model in the ball line-up – and began to notice a distinct difference in feel as the ball came off the face of his wedge.
“I sort of stumbled upon it,” McIlroy said. “I was messing around at [the Grove XXIII] last Thursday, and I just started to hit some chips with the TP5 instead of the TP5x. I really loved how it felt, and I hadn’t really tested the 2024 TP5. I loved how it was reacting around the greens and then I started hitting some 60 and 70-yard shots with it and it was coming off much lower launch, but spinnier.”
The brief short game session led McIlroy to dive deeper into how 2024 TP5 performed compared to TP5x with the rest of his setup. One of the first things he noticed was a lower launch angle with the irons that allowed him to control flight with a similar spin rate. For someone who doesn’t struggle to launch the ball into the stratosphere, the flight proved to be another “win” for TP5 in the head-to-head battle with TP5x.
“I used the 2019 TP5 and the difference between a 2019 TP5 and 2019 TP5x a lot in terms of the spin rates and launch angles. [The 2024 TP5] seems to launch probably a degree lower for me, but the spin rates are very, very similar, which I really like.”
It also didn’t hurt that McIlroy was able to go softer (in terms of compression) and not lose any distance with the driver. Convinced the ball could help in several areas, McIlroy tested the ball early in the week at Pebble Beach and Cypress Point (no big deal) before pulling the trigger for the first round.
The first round produced a slam-dunk ace, four birdies and nary a bogey on the scorecard. Not bad for a maiden voyage with the new ball.
“I thought, You know, I’ve got four rounds this week, no cut. You know, may as well give it a go and see how it goes.”
Maybe golf ball changes aren’t that big a deal after all.