The forgiving ball!

Sergio Garcia plays the new TaylorMade TP Red ball with its latest LDP forgiving technology

While much of the recent focus by golf club makers has been on lowering the centre of gravity to help get the ball airborne or increasing the MOI (moment of inertia) to help keep the clubface square at impact - TaylorMade has been concentrating on its balls.

Club golfers have a tendency to miss-hit shots, with impact widely spread across the clubface but they still demand a degree of tolerance to enable the golf ball to fly almost as straight and as far as a 'flushed' shot.

Look out for latest Burner balls in February

The Basingstoke-based company has introduced Low-Drag Performance (LDP) aerodynamics in a bid to improve driver distance on miss-hit shots. It's technology that has been featured in its new TP Red and TP Black balls used by its Tour players including Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose, Retief Goosen, Raphael Jacquelin, Darren Clarke, and Natalie Gulbis and its latest Burner TP and Burner golf balls due to be launched in February.

Says Dean Snell, TaylorMade's senior director of golf ball rersearch: "We studied the driver impact patterns of more than 80,000 players of differing levels and found that the great majority of off-centre hits occur on the upper part of the clubface, above the clubhead's centre of gravity (CG).

"We compared the effects of these types of miss-hits on a variety of balls, including our own. The result was always the same - the spin-rate dropped by a large percentage, typically from 500 rpm to 1,200 rpm. Spin rates became so low that the balls couldn't sustain lift and when that occurs, drag slows the shot down and the ball drops from the sky, seriously cutting carry and distance. With some models, the loss in yardage was up to 18 yards."

Snell and his team discovered that there might be a way to improve a ball's aerodynamics in order to maintain lower drag while maintaining lift on miss-hits above the CG. This would keep the ball in the air longer and have less effect on carry and distance.

Distinctive TP Red box

Testing, says TaylorMade, indicates a clear difference in distance on miss-hits above the CG, as well as on miss-hits level with the CG toward the toe or heel, compared with balls with LDP and those without it.

It also indicates that LDP works best for players whose average driver spin ranges between 1,600 and 3,000 rpm. A miss-hit high on the clubface against today's criteria can reduce spin-rate to 1,600 rpm and results in a significant loss of distance.

The driver-spin rate of most Tour pros ranges from 2,000 to 2,700 rpm. Research found they miss the centre of the driver face approximately 30 to 40 per-cent of the time, and that their usual miss is high on the clubface, above the CG.

TaylorMade TP Black - new and improved with LDP technology

TaylorMade's new TP Red is a four-piece ball designed for higher spin players who want the ultimate in Tour performance, while the TP Red's 360-dimple pattern promotes a mid-to-low flight and promotes high speed and distance off the driver

Recommended price for the TP Red or TP Black is £40 per dozen; for the Burner £20 and Burner TP £24 . All available from February.