Page 2: Why Rory chose the TP5x golf ball

Bazzel: “Honestly, our plan was to start with the golf ball... and I think we had him at our golf ball. I don't know how a player of that caliber could walk away from the performance that he witnessed with TP5x. If your career going forward is about winning major championships and putting yourself in history books, you want the best equipment. It was clear as day how incredibly well the TP5x was working for him. It was a defining moment.”

Loper: “We knew going into the test that he wasn't happy with the Pro V1x—and he mentioned that during our test. His feedback on golf balls he's played in the past was that his Nike ball was pretty good in the wind, but it lacked control around the greens... the Pro V1x was better around the green, but it would spin too much and get held up in the wind.

EQUIPMENT: TAYLORMADE TP5 & TP5X BALLS

Every player has this challenge of using a ball that either has better iron performance at the expense of losing spin around the green or a ball with more spin around the green at the expense of iron performance—it's that choice. The benefit of TP5x is that it provides the greenside control AND the iron performance that players are looking for. You don’t have to make any sacrifice."

Sbarbaro: “I think the initial ball test was the winning moment. The advantage our ball has is that it's so much better in the wind—what happened with his old ball at Augusta won't happen with TP5x. And we were able to show him that during testing. In his words, he was "shocked” at how good this golf ball is. It was by far the star of the day."

Loper: “I've had quite a bit of experience working with our Tour players, and each of our Tour players has come from a competitor at some point. What I enjoy most is working with players when they are in transition from their old brand to TaylorMade because I know for a fact that our product can offer something more.

Having Rory come from playing the Pro V1x after saying it's not working for him and transition into our ball just further reinforces that we have an excellent product.”

Bazzel: “As it relates to metalwoods and Rory, there are few golfers that seem to be a step above when it comes to driving the golf ball. DJ is one of them, no doubt about it. McIlroy as well—when you look at the numbers and his ability to overpower golf courses with his driver, his performance with the driver in his hands is insane.

When you take arguably the best metalwoods on the planet and pair them with arguably one of the best players on the planet, it's a pretty powerful combination.

He left the fitting with a little bit more ball speed and the right launch conditions to ensure that his great shots were going to be great and his mis-hits were going to be as good as possible.

At the end of the day, we had 10 driver setups that were within 1-2 yards of each other, but it's not just about maximizing distance—it's about how it reacts when you're trying a certain shot, what happens when you try to go after one... we did all of that.

And he plays at a D8 swingweight, which is pretty heavy relative to the average Tour player. But we tried everything to see if we could pick up any performance and we concluded that D8 was the best fit for him.

The fitting was extremely thorough and he left with three drivers that he could legitimately go start a major championship with.”