TaylorMade doubles down on fitting tech with first launch monitor-enabled golf balls

This time of year in the northern part of the country (and parts of the southeast this past week) not much golf is being played outdoors.

For us golf sickos, that means hauling the clubs indoors and heading to some sort of simulator or indoor launch monitor setup. But if that simulator is run with a radar-based launch monitor like Trackman, any old golf balls won’t do very well since radar-based launch monitors perform best when they can capture the full flight of the ball.

The solution was to develop golf balls with radar-reflective markers underneath the ball’s cover, with Titleist’s RCT Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls gobbling up the market share.

But now, TaylorMade is introducing launch monitor-enabled versions of their own premium Tour-level golf balls, the TP5 and TP5x, with the TRK-R golf balls.

“What good is designing the best equipment in the market if people can’t accurately see how well it performs? said Mike Fox, TaylorMade’s global senior category director for golf balls. “The TRK-R ball now allows golfers and fitters to see exactly how well TaylorMade equipment performs.”

Drivers

Underneath the cover of TRK-R golf balls is a small amount of liquid silver that emits radar-reflective waves allowing radar-based launch monitors like Trackman to more accurately collect data indoors, when they only have a short flight time before they hit a screen or net.

TaylorMade tested the new golf balls on Trackman launch monitors and received the company’s certification of their capture.

“Radar-based launch monitors can be one of the largest investments in the game,” Fox said. “Ensuring that these units are providing accurate information to the golfer or fitters is just as important as providing top performance.”

Aside from the silver, the TRK-R golf balls are identical to the regular TP5 and TP5x golf balls available at retail, featuring tech like the Speed Wrapped Core to deliver a soft sound at high speeds and urethane covers.

The golf balls are also another tool TaylorMade has given fitters this year, in addition to the Qi35 Select Fit heads with reflective markers to provide more accurate data for optical launch monitors (like Foresight GCQuad Max), and providing Trackman exact measurements to track new Qi35 drivers.

TaylorMade TP5 and TP5x TRK-R golf balls are available now for $64.99 a dozen on TaylorMadeGolf.com, and will be available in fitting bays at certified TaylorMade fitting locations.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2025? Find a fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.