There has been a lot of competition in the premium ball market in the last few years. One of the biggest names to gate crash the Titleist monopoly is Taylormade with their TP black and red range. They have enjoyed professional success with this ball and while the cynics will argue that a top of the range ball is de rigeur for the golfing gods who can hit it into adjacent postcodes and get it to react like a well trained family dog, for mere golfing mortals they are an expensive folly.

I am an average golfer. I play to a 14 handicap and like most, my golf balls have a built in tendency to disappear never to be seen again at the most inopportune moments. However I have to say that the TP black is the best ball I have encountered in 2008. It is slightly firmer than the TP red and responds in all aspects of the game. Of the putter there is a satisfying click of the putter face and a nice feel as you send it on its journey to the bottom of the cup. Around the green I again had a more solid feeling off the clubface on pitches and chips. I am not a spin wizard with my short clubs but I managed to get satisfying degrees of check and felt in control with this ball.

However it is with the longer sticks and particularly the big dog off the tee that the TP black reallly comes into its own. Taylormade have designed it to have a medium to high trajectory, adn even with my suspect swing and the wet fairways we have all experienced lately I was managing to eek out at least another 5 yards compared to my normal premium brand. The clincher for me though is its performance in the wind. We have all experienced standing on a long par 4 directly into a headwind or a tight hole with a howling crosswind and wondered how the ball will react. The TP black has been designed to resist the effects of these winds and it really does cut through and give maximum reward even on off centre hits.

I appreciate that premium balls are an expensive outlay but I thoroughly recommend trying a sleeve in your next monthly medal. It isn't too late to add these to your list for the big fella in the red suit and they would make a great present for any keen golfer.

Having only recently got into the game to a serious degree (i.e. not just clouting balls at the driving range and actually playing on some courses) I jumped feet first into my local sports shop buying any and all equipment I could lay my hands on. If I'm being honest, I only picked these up because of the cool-looking packaging, but I'm incredibly pleased I did.
In comparison to every other golf ball I've hit (and believe me, there've been a fair few!) this is by far the best.
I found that even if I hadn't quite hit the ball to the best of my ability that it more than compensated for it, providing me with extra distance, spin and even aiding me when drawing and fading!
To anybody out there who doubts if shelling out just that little bit more for balls will affect their game, believe me, it does!