pleasantly surprised
I'm 58 years old, a 6 handicap, and don't update equipment often. I've been using the TP5s and thought they were a good combination of feel and distance. I definitely hit the TP5X noticeably farther when I tried them. Drives went further and irons were 6-10 yards longer. My issue was they felt heavier and less comfortable with short irons and around/on the greens.
I won 2 sleeves of the TM Speed Softs and assumed they would feel too soft and certainly compromise distance. I did some reading in reviews like this (why I'm going into this much detail - paying my opinion forward) and saw a lot of positive feedback, specifically about not losing distance. I gave the Speed Soft a play my next round out and was really impressed on a few levels. I didn't lose any distance at all. The feel on my irons was much better for me than my TP5s. I felt the compression and hit the ball much more accurately with my irons. It squished and sprung off the face in the distance my irons were supposed to. My drives are usually pretty straight but I liked that distance wasn't lost at all. Nothing to say about feel here, just that drives were similar to the TP5. Approach shots were finding greens regularly and putts seemed to be better for speed than usual. Not sure if it was a comfort thing that parlayed into my swing being more fluid but my scores have been drastically better. Low 80s has been 74-76 for the past 5 rounds and the only thing different is the ball... Not sayin but just sayin.
I brought a Speed Soft, a TP5, and a TP5X to the putting green to test if I liked one better or noticed a difference. I started out going softest to firmest, then I reversed the order, then I went random and judged outcomes. There is clearly a difference in feel. The Speed Soft is the softest feel but doesn't come up short at all. The TP5X feels much much harder and the TP5 falls in between - firmer than the Speed Soft for sure but not at all like the TP5X. For me, the Speed Soft matched the distance more consistently than the TP5 or TP5X. And lag putting on the course has absolutely become not just better but automatic.
There's a reason some pros and amateurs play the softer balls. I had a preconceived notion it was inferior, but for my swing and feel it is a great fit. I can't compress a tour level ball but I can make this one perform better. Like being fitted or proper set up, it seemed to make the other stuff finally work better without having to make changes to my swing.
I highly recommend trying the TM Speed Softs with an open mind. For me, the feel and the performance was better and my game has improved. Played one ball for 2 rounds and it shows almost no wear. Love that they're less expensive, too. Again, not a paid endorsement, just a guy who tried them and realized they fit my swing much better and I became more accurate. Golf is hard enough, this has been a simple and pleasant fix for me.