Gear: TaylorMade Tour Response, Soft Response golf balls
Price: $35 per dozen, Tour Response; $25 per dozen, Soft Response
Specs: Three-piece, 40-compression ball with cast urethane cover available in white and yellow (Tour Response); three-piece, 35-compression ball with ionomer cover available in white, yellow and matte red (Soft Response).
Available: Feb. 28
TaylorMade takes a lot of pride in knowing several of the game’s top players, including Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler, use TaylorMade’s five-piece TP5 and TP5x golf balls. The company started a new ball fitting program in 2019, and more than 13,000 golfers nationwide tested their choice in ball against TaylorMade’s offerings. That program hopes to conduct more than 25,000 ball fittings in 2020 to highlight the performance of not only the TP5 and TP5x but also two new balls, the Tour Response and the Soft Response.
Taking the place of Project(a) and Project(s) in TaylorMade’s stable, the two Response balls were created to feel soft at impact and deliver more speed for recreational golfers who do not want to spend $45 (or more) on a dozen balls.
The Tour Response ball has a three-piece construction and the same 322-dimple, seamless pattern found on the TP5 and TP5x, along with the same mantle layer found in those premium balls. It also boasts the same cast urethane cover material that is on the TP5x for enhanced spin and control on wedge shots around the green.
Where the three-piece Tour Response differs is in the core design. The core is extremely soft to help golfers compress it more easily and generate more speed. It also makes the Tour Response, which has an overall compression of 40, feel softer at impact than the 85-compression TP5 and the 97-compression TP5x.
The Soft Response is also a three-piece ball, but there are some meaningful differences between it and the Tour Response ball.
First, it has a slightly lower compression (35), so it should feel softer at contact. Second, it has a different dimple pattern, and the dimples themselves have steeper edges and a more shallow design to provide the Soft Response more lift and less drag for increased distance for golfers with slower swing speeds.
The Soft Response also has an ionomer cover, and while it probably will not create as much greenside spin as the Tour Response, it is $10 less expensive.