“I've Always Played A Premium Ball But Now I've Decided To Switch... Here's Why"

We all adopt different strategies when it comes to the golf ball we play, ranging from “anything I find” to “only what the tour pros play”. Until not that long ago I would have put myself fairly firmly in the latter camp. But things change – I’m getting older and ball technology has progressed. Although I’ve played to a handicap of between 5 and 7 for a quarter of a century, I’ve never been blessed with a tour swing speed and certainly am not now as the big 6-0 looms ever closer.

Realistically, I, like many others, don’t swing it fast enough to reap the full performance benefits of the best tour-calibre, premium balls in the long game, while simultaneously craving and relying on the short-game feel and control of their multi-layer constructions and urethane covers. Until relatively recently, this combination meant a bit of a compromise one way or the other for those with sub-tour swing speeds but, put simply, if I can’t perform on and around the greens, I have little chance of playing to handicap, hence leaning towards tour balls for their short-game benefits.

Urethane has long been the tour ball cover of choice and that is where premium balls have had their most tangible edge – the optimum in feel and performance around the greens. But more and more of the best mid-price golf balls now also feature urethane covers and multi-layer constructions that have taken their performance much closer to that of tour models. Not only that, but they also often specifically target those not blessed with the swing speeds certain tour models really require. They have formed part of a mid-price ‘superbreed’, if you like, although admittedly some are significantly more ‘mid-price’ than others.

One such ball is the latest TaylorMade Tour Response, a three-piece model with a 70-compression, Hi-Spring Core designed to help those with sub-optimal swing speeds generate as much speed as possible in a soft-feeling golf ball. Sounds just the ticket for me, right? And so it has proved. Having now played the Tour Response extensively for several months, I’ll be brutally honest - I can’t really tell the difference between this model and TaylorMade's premium TP5 balls in either performance or looks. Judge me for that, if you like, but that is the truth.

That element of looks is perhaps surprisingly important. Not only does the urethane cover have to feel right, it also has to look right, and the cover on the white version, in particular, does indeed look right to someone who has played predominantly tour-calibre balls for many years. The reality is that if the cover doesn’t look right – some urethane covers just don’t – it could prove a bridge too far when it comes to belief, and belief in what you’re playing is everything. Any niggling doubt that you might just be giving something up by playing this ball, and you’re almost certainly ‘done’ before you even tee off. Tour Response looks and feels right to me.

Is price a factor? Well, yes and no. Yes, £10 a dozen less than the premium TP5 models does represent some sort of saving, depending on how many you get through. But with an RRP of £39.99 a dozen, it’s still not exactly cheap at nearly £3.50 a ball. So, no, it’s much more that I can now get the look and feel I want in a ball more suited to the speed at which I swing the club.

All of which is to say that I’m pretty much a convert to the TaylorMade Tour Response, which I’ve been playing extensively for months now in its three different guises: white, yellow and the slightly funky Tour Response Stripe version that certainly stands out from the crowd.