TaylorMade Project (a) Balls Review Thread

[d_in_la]

Played a few holes over the weekend with these. Nice balls. Soft, good spin around the greens. The seam didn't bother me too much, it isn't that noticeable. I couldn't really judge distance, but it felt pretty close. The one or two that were short were definitely within first down distance of expectation, but I don't think I put a particularly good move on those swings.

 

[JonD]

Good initial thoughts in here so far guys. I got my box this weekend but due to a family emergency I wasn't able to get any time with them... I'll have some photos and initial thoughts up here shortly. I will say I dig the double numbers.

 

[sparksjr]

I think the rain is finally over so I'm gonna get out for some short game work with the (a) at lunch this week. I will report back!

 

[deuce]

TaylorMade Project (a) Balls Review Thread

So took these two balls out to play today. It's the first time I hit the Project (a) so I wasn't sure what to expect. Let me say, around the greens, this ball flat out performs.

Off The Tee
I was getting similar numbers for both balls. I'm pretty much a 200 yard hitter with my driver (I know, pathetic) and I have a significant fade. Both the Project (a) and Duo were giving me similar numbers, right around the 200 yard mark. I wasn't getting much roll today but it was dreary, cold, and wet so that killed a lot of my roll out. I managed to hit a little over 50% of my fairways today (4 of 7) and neither ball exacerbated the fade.
Advantage: Push

Iron Shots
Full swings exhibited similar ball flights. I have a problem getting the ball up into the air and so neither ball really conferred an advantage here.
Advantage: Push

Wedge Shots (Chipping/Pitching)
Wow. I did not expect what I saw happen the first time I chipped onto a green with the Project (a). With the Duo, I can chip it onto the green, I get a bit of a catch and then it releases and gives me a roll. With the Project (a) it caught, slowed down and stopped. I left a fair number of chips short. The same went for pitches. After my round I went back to the 18th hole and took turns hitting the Duo and Project (a) onto the green from 15, 25, 50 and 75 yards. Every time, the Project (a) catches and stops. The further out I was, I'd get a bit of roll with the Project (a) but nothing like I was seeing with the Duo. The Duo hits, checks up slightly, but then rolled further. Problem is right now, for me, I'm used to the roll so this is going to take some adjustment. But the Project (a) lives up to its marketing here.
Advantage: Project (a)

Putting
I use a putter with an extremely soft insert, and the Duo gives me a click upon contact. The Project (a) gives a very muted sound. I'm not a sound guy, so this really doesn't bother me. Despite my poor putting on the day, neither one rose to the top which would leave me with a ball that I would prefer to work on the green.
Advantage: Push

Conclusion
These balls performed very similar everywhere except in the short game. Here the Project (a) really excelled. I game Tw9 wedges (with non-conforming grooves) but even if the Tw9 is applying more spin, only the Project (a) is taking advantage of it. Like I said, if I stay with the Project (a) I'll have to adjust my game to play to this added spin and stoppage but I think it'd be worth it. So while the Duo has an advantage in price ($19.99 vs $31.99) it doesn't win in performance.

Winner: Project (a)

Next up: Bridgestone e5.

 

[sparksjr]

Nice deuce! I took these to the putting green today at lunch. They were very soft off the putter. I didn't notice it as much Saturday but they were quite soft.

 

[deuce]

TaylorMade Project (a) Balls Review Thread

Nice deuce! I took these to the putting green today at lunch. They were very soft off the putter. I didn't notice it as much Saturday but they were quite soft.

Definitely. Compared to the Duo (a two piece Surlyn cover ball), the Project (a) is a super soft ball. I never really compared covers before, but you can feel the difference just by holding the two in your hands. Then again the Project (a) is a three piece urethane ball so it's almost unfair to compare the two. The one area the Duo did best the Project (a) was in the "Duo drop challenge". If price is your major concern, the Duo is still a great ball. If cost is not a factor, and you want better control around the greens, the Project (a) is your ball.

I think I will eventually compare this ball to the B330RX (since I was given a sleeve at the HHI) to see how it stacks up to a top notch ball. Given my handicap I would hypothesize that it will hold its own, but we shall see.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Mmaynard11]

Great early reviews being provided by the testers. I haven't had the opportunity to put my sleeve into play yet.

 

[Aussie Dave]

Has anyone compared it to the Callaway Supersoft yet.

 

[v.man]

TaylorMade Project (a) Balls Review #1


I got to play 18 holes with TaylorMade’s new Project (a) golf ball today and will share my initial observations.

TaylorMade’s tag line for these balls is “Engineered to Bring Out the Pro In You.” What they are really referring to is giving the mid-handicapper the ability to hit approach shots with more spin “like a pro.” In fact, I believe, after playing it, the Project (a) ball does facilitate hitting approach shots with a little more spin than some other balls. “Like a pro?” Not to that degree. But, the added green holding one gets, along with the other ball’s attributes, and its price point, should make this ball attractive to a lot of golfers.

Putting: After warming up. I dropped three balls on the putting green—two (a)s and one Lethal. I putted in a sequence of (a), Lethal, (a) to compare the (a) before and after the Lethal. The first thing I noticed that the (a) had a softer sound coming off the putter, almost muted. The lethal had a little more click. The roll was similar, as was distance. I should note that my putter has a PureRoll Surlyn insert, so sound is quieter than, say, a milled putter. The feel of the (a) off the putter was nice. That, along with the muted sound, gave me the impression that the ball was a little softer than the Lethal. But, I saw no performance differences while putting. To be sure that I was sensing correctly, I called over one of my playing partners and asked him to listen as I putted. He heard same muted sound from the (a) that I heard compared to the Lethal. Please note that this sound difference is very subtle. I doubt anyone would find this to be a negative. I actually liked it.

Irons: Since spin and holding power on the greens is reportedly the selling attribute of the (a), I’ll start with that. On the very first hole, I had a 9-iron approach to the green of about 118 yards (I’m not a long hitter). The pic below would seem to illustrate pretty good holding power. I am not a high spin player, even with wedges.

[/URL][/IMG]

I was generally quite pleased with the (a)’s green holding all day. The ball off the mid irons also seemed to hold well. I had one 5-iron approach that I was sure was going to go off the back of the green. It not only held, it gave me about a 15 foot birdie chance (that I missed, of course). Feel off the irons did nothing to disprove my sense that the ball is soft feeling.

Driver: TaylorMade simply says the (a) is “long off of every club and feels great”. On this round off the tee, I compared it to the Lethal. I did not hit two halls on each tee, but, rather alternated balls every hole or so, with more drives taken with the (a). The first observation I made was that the sound off the driver is not noticeably different (for me), nor did I notice one ball feeling a lot softer than the other off the driver. Of course, I was not hitting them immediately following one another off the same tee.
- Side spin: I hit a pretty straight ball off the tee normally. I did not notice excessive side spin with the (a), nor did I see any unusual movement. I did hit a couple of nice tight draws with the (a), which is not always easy for me. But, I would need more playing time with the ball to know whether they were just good swings, or the ball helped.
- Distance: I was quite pleased with overall distance with the (a). My best drives the day came with the (a), and some were longer than my norm. Again, I would need more rounds to know if I was just having a good day swinging, or the ball is longer for me. But, on this day, the (a) did not take a back seat to the Lethal.

Durability: I played 18 holes with the (a), except for the few drives I hit with the Lethal, and the ball looked just like new when I finished. That’s impressive.

To sum up this first review, I quite enjoyed playing the new Project (a) ball. I was impressed enough with its performance that I’ll be playing it Saturday in our Opening Day tournament. It’s only a Scramble, but still should give me some good testing opportunities, especially approach shots. I’ll post up more thoughts on Sunday.

 

[TRyan]

Initial Thoughts and Testing: http://www.thehackersparadise.com/f...64-TaylorMade-Project-(a)-Balls-Review-Thread

Date: 4/20/2014
Location: Heart of America 9 Hole and Practice Range
Time: Late Afternoon
Weather: 70 Degrees and Sunny. Wind 20+ MPH
Purpose: Putting and Short Game Practice

Hey guys, I am back with some more thoughts about the Project (A) Golf Balls. Today after work I decided to hit the range and practice are to work on some more stuff with these golf balls. If you remember thus far I have 9 holes with them as well as some putting practice. My early thoughts were that they performed very similar to the Chrome + so today I decided to go out to the short game area after hitting some balls. I brought with me 3 Project (A) balls, 3 Hex Chrome +, and 3 SR3 balls.

I focused on 4 things: Putting, Chipping, 40 yard pitch shots, and sand shots. My thoughts will be provided below.

Putting: With putting all of these balls the feel is very similar. If I had to compare I would say the Hex Chrome + and the Project (A) are a bit softer than the SR3, but I think that is to be expected. The SR3 is a bit firmer, as it is similar to me to the Hex Black, but the Hex Chrome + and the Project (A) almost felt IDENTICAL off of my Metal X Milled #7. The feel is soft, by no means is it as soft as the Duo or Supersoft, but definitely on the softer side with a bit of an audible click, but nothing displeasing here to report. I quite like the feel off of the putter, I found it to roll true, but no different than any other premium golf ball.

Chipping: These balls are really solid when it comes to chipping. They are giving me a very predictable roll. If I loft it up towards the hole most of the time it will hit and almost stop, but I can bump it and get it to roll across the green as was evidenced by my practice today. I took all 9 and worked on various different shots, and as can be expected, they all performed very similar. They are all Urethane covered balls, with the SR3 being a 5 piece vs the other two 3 piece balls, but the spin was very similar.

40 Yard Approach Shots: Here I saw much of the same as pitching. All of these balls performed nearly identical for me in this. When I caught the ball clean I could expect them to hit and stop, occasionally spin back a bit, but all 3 balls performed just like I would expect a Urethane Covered golf ball to perform. I will say the feel off of the face with the Project (A) is very pleasing. You can almost feel it compress and roll up the face, whereas I find the SR3 to feel a bit firmer.

Sand Shots: Shots out of the sand are more of the same. With clean contact all 3 balls have a lot of biting action, which is to be expected out of the sand, and all three performed very similarly for me.

I will say that thus far I am impressed by this ball. It performs similarly to both the Chrome + and the SR3 and comes in at a very attractive price point. I would say for anyone considering a Urethane Covered ball at a decent price, give these a try. I have 18 holes planned in the cold weather on Saturday so I will have much more to report after that. I plan on playing the Project (A) exclusively.

As always feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to answer.

 

[TRyan]

Has anyone compared it to the Callaway Supersoft yet.

Sorry Dave, I missed this. I haven't compared them directly, but have played both. IMO it isn't a true comparison. One is a two piece extremely low compression surlyn covered ball, and the other is a 3 piece Urethane ball.

I find the Project A Spins much more around the greens, you might find the SuperSoft to be a bit longer depending on your swing speed.

Hope that helps.

 

[BigErn]

Has anyone compared it to the Callaway Supersoft yet.

I took the project (a) out a few weeks ago. I was not impressed off the driver or long irons. Wedges were ok and putting I thought was excellent. There seemed to be more side spin with these balls. And it's hard to look at a seam you could land a jet on. I switched back to the super soft after 13 holes and my game fell right back in to place. I normally game a u4/x or z star but I find the ss very serviceable on cold or wet days and have used one for my last 36. Not bad.

 

[Smallville]

Now that I have the TP Cb's. I will have to try these balls with them.

 

[TRyan]

Now that I have the TP Cb's. I will have to try these balls with them.

I will give you a couple when we play next if I have some still

 

[coers]

Got out to play my first round today and I got to say hitting these into the green was working awesome for me. IDK if it was the damp greens or what but it wasn't rolling away like I am use to. So I really enjoyed this with the irons. With putting well the green was rough and it was hard to tell how it was really working. Overall i thought it was a great ball.

 

[Smallville]

I will give you a couple when we play next if I have some still

I got a sleeve in the mail, so I am good to go. I think the Velocities will be my ball for 2014, but I do want to try these out.

 

[Aussie Dave]

Sorry Dave, I missed this. I haven't compared them directly, but have played both. IMO it isn't a true comparison. One is a two piece extremely low compression surlyn covered ball, and the other is a 3 piece Urethane ball.

I find the Project A Spins much more around the greens, you might find the SuperSoft to be a bit longer depending on your swing speed.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for that I was playing the Hex Chrome and find the SS longer and straighter than the Chrome as my swing speed is in the low 80's, and it seems that people are comparing the Project (A) to the Chrome.

 

[TRyan]

Thanks for that I was playing the Hex Chrome and find the SS longer and straighter than the Chrome as my swing speed is in the low 80's, and it seems that people are comparing the Project (A) to the Chrome.

I think that is a fair comparison man. If the SS is working well for you then keep using it man. It's a good ball

 

[Nebgolfer]

TaylorMade Project (a) Balls Review #1


I got to play 18 holes with TaylorMade’s new Project (a) golf ball today and will share my initial observations.

TaylorMade’s tag line for these balls is “Engineered to Bring Out the Pro In You.” What they are really referring to is giving the mid-handicapper the ability to hit approach shots with more spin “like a pro.” In fact, I believe, after playing it, the Project (a) ball does facilitate hitting approach shots with a little more spin than some other balls. “Like a pro?” Not to that degree. But, the added green holding one gets, along with the other ball’s attributes, and its price point, should make this ball attractive to a lot of golfers.

Putting: After warming up. I dropped three balls on the putting green—two (a)s and one Lethal. I putted in a sequence of (a), Lethal, (a) to compare the (a) before and after the Lethal. The first thing I noticed that the (a) had a softer sound coming off the putter, almost muted. The lethal had a little more click. The roll was similar, as was distance. I should note that my putter has a PureRoll Surlyn insert, so sound is quieter than, say, a milled putter. The feel of the (a) off the putter was nice. That, along with the muted sound, gave me the impression that the ball was a little softer than the Lethal. But, I saw no performance differences while putting. To be sure that I was sensing correctly, I called over one of my playing partners and asked him to listen as I putted. He heard same muted sound from the (a) that I heard compared to the Lethal. Please note that this sound difference is very subtle. I doubt anyone would find this to be a negative. I actually liked it.

Irons: Since spin and holding power on the greens is reportedly the selling attribute of the (a), I’ll start with that. On the very first hole, I had a 9-iron approach to the green of about 118 yards (I’m not a long hitter). The pic below would seem to illustrate pretty good holding power. I am not a high spin player, even with wedges.

[/URL][/IMG]

I was generally quite pleased with the (a)’s green holding all day. The ball off the mid irons also seemed to hold well. I had one 5-iron approach that I was sure was going to go off the back of the green. It not only held, it gave me about a 15 foot birdie chance (that I missed, of course). Feel off the irons did nothing to disprove my sense that the ball is soft feeling.

Driver: TaylorMade simply says the (a) is “long off of every club and feels great”. On this round off the tee, I compared it to the Lethal. I did not hit two halls on each tee, but, rather alternated balls every hole or so, with more drives taken with the (a). The first observation I made was that the sound off the driver is not noticeably different (for me), nor did I notice one ball feeling a lot softer than the other off the driver. Of course, I was not hitting them immediately following one another off the same tee.
- Side spin: I hit a pretty straight ball off the tee normally. I did not notice excessive side spin with the (a), nor did I see any unusual movement. I did hit a couple of nice tight draws with the (a), which is not always easy for me. But, I would need more playing time with the ball to know whether they were just good swings, or the ball helped.
- Distance: I was quite pleased with overall distance with the (a). My best drives the day came with the (a), and some were longer than my norm. Again, I would need more rounds to know if I was just having a good day swinging, or the ball is longer for me. But, on this day, the (a) did not take a back seat to the Lethal.

Durability: I played 18 holes with the (a), except for the few drives I hit with the Lethal, and the ball looked just like new when I finished. That’s impressive.

To sum up this first review, I quite enjoyed playing the new Project (a) ball. I was impressed enough with its performance that I’ll be playing it Saturday in our Opening Day tournament. It’s only a Scramble, but still should give me some good testing opportunities, especially approach shots. I’ll post up more thoughts on Sunday.

Great review, Ken. Happy to hear how the (a) held up against the lethal, at least in that round, and I'm sure others are interested as well. I look forward to hearing more thoughts from you, but sounds like the (a) is working alright for you at this point.

 

[Ranger5022]

Getting a sleeve of these for the princely sum of £1.99 from Todays Golfer over here in the UK so I will post my thoughts , keep up the good work guys , these are a very interesting product.

 

[v.man]

I got a sleeve in the mail, so I am good to go. I think the Velocities will be my ball for 2014, but I do want to try these out.

This would be an interesting comparison, Smalls. I played Velocities for several rounds last year and liked the ball. They are billed more as a "Distance Ball", and are two-piece, whereas the (a) is three piece. The (a) also has a urethane cover vs. the Velocities' NAZ2 cover. I don't remember the Velocity feeling hard, but I would expect the (a) to be softer feeling and have more spin. I'll rummage around and see if I have any Velocities left, and, if so, try a heads up comparison. It sounds like you have some of both, so, you might get the chance for your own comparison.

 

[deuce]

Hopefully going to make it out today to play 9 today. Plan on playing the (a) and the e5. With any luck the course will empty-ish and I can play both balls side by side.

Don't think I mentioned this in my Duo vs. Project (a) review but the durability of the ball also had me impressed. Had one cart path shot with the (a) and there was only a small scuff on the ball. It appears to be a very durable ball, so much so that I imagine that if I don't dunk it in the drink, and keep it off the cart path and out of the woods as much as possible I could get a couple rounds out of a single ball.

 

[JonD]

Some great thoughts in here so far guys! I'll be getting out for a round tomorrow and these will be in play. Initial comparison will be against the '14 B330 RX (only one left!), then I've got a couple other random sleeves laying around that I may put in play later rounds (ProV1, Z-Star, Duo, etc.).

Initial thoughts on golf balls isn't easy. They're golf balls.

Appearance wise, I like the look of the ball. Nothing crazy about the graphics. Standard TM logo with the Project (a) moniker down the putting line. Think the Project (a) logo on the putting line is pretty clean, and as someone who works with marketing folks and branding from time to time, I can appreciate the choices they made there. I am a fan of the double numbers. It's a little thing, but I like it because it's different and makes the ball more easily identifiable. Other than the double numbers, pretty traditional layout.

When I first pulled these from the sleeve, I initially thought that they may have gone with a more hex like dimple but it was just my eyes playing a trick on me. Standard round dimples. Didn't count but TM says there's 36 dimples. Don't know what that means from a performance standpoint, but we'll find out about that soon enough. Agreed with an earlier poster that the seam is noticeable. Don't think that this will bother me on the course but I noticed it immediately so I wanted to note it.

I'm a bit of a Bridgestone homer when it comes to golf balls, so I'll be interested to see how this one holds up. The price point falls in between the two balls I play the most. If I can get RX-like performance at $32 a box, this ball has a chance to be a contender for me. Let me know if anyone has any questions or is looking for a specific comparison.

Photos in the spoiler.

Spoiler

 

[Just_Hacking]

Gonna at least make it out for some chipping and putting with these today. Will post my thoughts later on.

 

[deuce]

Bridgestone e5 vs. TaylorMade Project (a)

Bridgestone e5 vs. TaylorMade Project (a)

So today I took the e5 out to play against the Project (a). Thanks to ChristoperKee for sending me a sleeve of the e5's (your Project (a)'s are in the mail) so I could test them head to head. Another day of interesting results, especially since I have never gamed the e5's before.

Off the tee
Was doing fairly well again off the tee (with the exception of one pop-up on the last par 5 where I went for it). Was hitting both off the tee and alternating so as to not confer too much of a bias for one ball or the other. My GPS died about four holes in the nine so I couldn't get numbers but I do know one thing ... the e5 was about 20 yards longer than the Project (a). And that was a consistent 20 yards too. Ball flight, I still had to play a slight fade with the Project (a) (looks like I'm starting to straighten it out a little bit) but the e5 was going pretty much straight as an arrow. That was another surprising development.
Advantage: e5 (strong)

Iron shots
I was able to push, pull, and otherwise mishit both balls equally well. They both seemed to getting similar distance on mishits and well struck balls alike. Maybe the e5 was getting a little bit more, but since I wasn't closely monitoring the distances of each shot, I cannot say that definitively.
Advantage: Push

Wedge Shots (Chipping/Pitching)
Both balls performed pretty well in this area. When chipping (within 15 feet) both the Project (a) and e5 would hit the green, check up, and then slowly roll a bit further. The Project (a) wasn't checking up as much this time as opposed to last, but I think that partly had to do with how I was swinging the club today. Both were getting me close to the hole, and the Project (a) was rolling just slightly less than the e5. Shots from 50 yards out were behaving similarly with the e5 producing slightly more roll. I suppose the ruling could go either way on this one because if you like to play just a bit more roll on your shot, the e5 would be the better performer. However people seem to really like the ball that stops on the dime, so I'll give this one to the Project (a).
Advantage: Project (a) (slight)

Putting
Once again, the Project (a) is the softer ball so it was a much more muted sound off the face. The e5 produces a faint click, but both rolled true. I have no preference here as to which ball I would prefer to play.
Advantage: Push

Conclusion
Both the Project (a) and e5 are good balls. The e5 is a two piece urethane covered ball, while the Project (a) is a three piece urethane ball. Both were extremely durable. My e5 made it through the round unscathed, while the Project (a) ball has now made it through two rounds with only minor scuffing. For me, it really came down to performance off the tee. I was consistently hitting the e5 20 yards further which, for someone who isn't long to begin with, is a huge deal. Since both play very well around the green, the distance really seals the deal.

Winner: e5

I'll be honest. I'm probably going to eventually switch to the e5 as my gamer once I run out of Duo's, Project (a)'s and the TP Black LDP's.

Next: Project (a) versus TaylorMade TP Black LDP