Manufacturers flooding market with ‘soft’ balls
Designing a golf ball that fits every player’s desire is more than just challenging for the manufacturers who have turned the competitive market into a billion-dollar industry. It is almost unrealistic.
The problem they face is this: How to design a ball that launches high and doesn’t spin — the ideal characteristics for distance — but lands soft and does spin for shots around the green?
But that’s what ball manufacturers are scurrying to develop, and they’ve flooded the market with technologically advanced “soft” balls that remind a player what it’s like to feel the ball again without sacrificing distance.
“Soft is the new buzz word in golf balls today,” said Chris Marchini, manager of the Golf Galaxy store in Robinson.
The craze has been fueled by the popularity of Callaway’s Chrome Soft, which has taken the performance of the soft ball to another level. Soft golf balls have been around for years, going back to the days of balata balls and low-compression balls such as Precept’s Laddie (for men) and Lassie (women). But those balls typically sacrificed distance for feel around the greens.
Not the Callaway Chrome Soft, which debuted in 2015 and caused manufacturers seeking to play catch-up to introduce any different number of “soft” balls that spin less and fly farther to the market. Players such as Phil Mickelson and Michelle Wie have won with the ball on tour. But now Chrome Soft is raising the standard even more.
Using technology devised by two Nobel Prize-winning chemists, the new Chrome Soft ball is infused with graphene — the world’s strongest and thinnest known material. The material is 200 times stronger than steel and 1 million times thinner than paper.
When graphene is infused into the ball, it stabilizes and strengthens the core so the outer core can be made thinner. This allows for a larger inner core, which enhances feel and ball speed and reduces the amount of spin on long shots, leading to greater distance.
“By making the inner core larger, which graphene enables us to do, we’re able to increase the speed and increase the spin separation,” said Jason Finley, Callaway’s global director brand management for golf balls. Spin separation, he said, means the ball comes off the face of a full club with lower spin but generates more spin with shots around the green.
The Chrome Soft is more expensive than any of its “soft” competitors — the ball retails for $44.99 a dozen — but it is the second-most popular-selling ball of any kind after Titleist’s widely acclaimed Pro V1 and Pro V1x, according to Golf Datatech, which provides the golf industry with market research.
“It’s the fastest-growing golf ball right now,” Marchini said. “If you took a segment and did the research and asked the player why they like it, some are going to say feel, some are going to say overall performance. I think a lot of them prefer the feel, especially an older player who still remembers the feel of a golf ball.”
The popularity of the Chrome Soft is the reason other manufacturers have jumped into the soft-ball market like flies at a picnic.
Titleist, the No. 1-selling ball manufacturer in the industry, recently debuted Tour Soft ($34.99 dozen). But their biggest challenger to Chrome Soft is their new AVX ball, which recently hit the market at a suggested price of $47.99 a dozen. Developed with the same technology used for the popular Pro V1, the topselling ball in golf, AVX is designed to make the ball spin less and maintain feel but also increase speed for greater distance.
“To do that is really hard,” said Frederick Waddell, Titleist’s premium performance product manager. “Generally, if you have a lower-compression ball, you make it feel soft and spin, but you lose speed. That’s where AVX comes in. It has very high speed. We’ve seen distance gains, more especially with their irons, and not sacrificing feel.”
TaylorMade, which last year introduced the T5 and TP5x ball used by Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day, has unveiled its new Project (s) ball, an even softer version of their newly improved Project (a) ball that is designed to combine distance, launch, feel and control, said Eric Loper, the company’s director of golf ball research and development.
The difference between the balls, aside from the price, is the outer cover. The Project (a) ball ($34.99 dozen) has a urethane cover for greenside spin; the Project (s) ball ($24.99) will have an ionomer cover for off-the-tee distance. The Project (a) ball has the same 322-dimple pattern as the tour-played TP5 and TP5x balls, making it very popular for players who are seeking price and performance.
“One thing consumers and players don’t understand is that the cover equates to spin, the core equates to softness,” Marchini said. “They always thought softer golf balls meant more spin. Not true.”
Srixon is in the 10th generation of manufacturing its Soft Feel model, a magnificently performing ball considering its price point ($19.99 a dozen). But last year Srixon expanded its soft-ball stable with the introduction of Q Star and Q Star Tour, balls designed for players with swing speeds of 75 mph and higher.
The Q Star is a two-piece ball with an ionomer cover; Q Star Tour is a three-piece construction with a urethane cover that will promote more greenside spin. At $24.99 a dozen, the Q Star Tour might be the best performing softball for the price on the market, combining great feel with outstanding distance.
But, it is up to the player to find the ball that best matches up with their swing speed, launch angle and angle of descent. While television commercials are always talking about distance and ball speed with drivers, Marchini cautioned to find the ball that best performs with the rest of your clubs as well.
“They’re telling you to just pay attention to the least used club in the bag, and that’s the driver,” Marchini said. “There’s one piece of equipment that’s used in every single shot and that’s your ball.”
Amateur tour
The Pittsburgh schedule for the 2018 Golfweek Amateur Tour has been released, featuring three private clubs, two resort courses and several of the best daily-fee facilities in Western Pennsylvania.
The tour, open to players of all ages and handicaps, begins July 14 at Olde Stonewall GC in Ellwood City. Then as follows: July 21 – Shannopin CC; July 29 – Birdsfoot GC; Aug. 5 – Bedford Springs resort; Aug. 12 – Diamond Run GC; Aug. 21 – Edgewood CC; Aug. 26 – Mystic Rock at Nemacolin Woodlands; Sept. 9 – Totteridge GC.
The national championship is Oct. 19-21 at Hilton Head Island, S.C. For more information, go to EricS@amateurgolftour.net.