Non-traditional balls new trend
Colors, patterns takes golf industry by storm, allows players to feel ‘cool’
What has happened to the golf ball? Where have all the traditional whitedimpled spheres gone?
On any given course, golfers are using balls that look like they belong on a soccer field or have more color than a water -balloon fight.
And it’s not because they perform any better, which is usually the reason a golfer will try anything if it shaves a stroke or two off his handicap. The nontraditional ball they are playing — whether Callaway, Titleist, TaylorMade or any other brand — is the exact same one they used before. It just looks different.
And, in this age of appearance and customization, sometimes that’s enough.
“It is a way for us to separate ourselves from the pack if you will,” said Jason Finley, global director of Brand and Product Management for Callaway Golf that introduced the trend-setting “Truvis” model among its line of high-performance Chrome Soft balls several years ago. “Golf balls, generally speaking, all look the same. For the general consumer, Truvis has given us a way to call that out.”
Truvis (short for true vision) is the soccer-like ball with a series of 12 geometrical patterns that was designed to help players focus on the ball and follow it easier in flight. What’s more, the patterns, which come in different colors, provide an optical illusion — making the ball look bigger even though it’s the same size as the traditional white ball. Because the ball looks bigger, it gives the player more confidence he or she can hit it easier.
Callaway’s latest Truvis design is perfect for the upcoming summer holidays — a red, white and blue stars and stripes ball. Finley said Truvis balls make up 65 percent of the Chrome Soft sales, which, on its own, would make it the fourth- or fifth-biggest golf ball company in America.
“It’s been one of those things, the more people have used it, the more they liked it,” Finley said. “With a greater percentage of the people who have tried it, it ends up being the ball they play. It’s certainly crazy.”
“It’s very popular,” said Chris Marchini, manager of Golf Galaxy in Robinson. “The philosophy behind it is, it’s designed to raise your focus level. Some people just like using them because they’re cool.”
Indeed, golf has reached a point where players are choosing balls the way they choose apparel — preferring a look that’s lively, distinctive and, well, just plain cool.
“Style has come into the golf industry more than ever before, whether apparel, headcovers, bags or fashion,” said Mike Fox, golf ball category director for TaylorMade, which recently introduced the “Pix” model on its best-selling five-piece TP5 golf ball. “If we can create something that’s not only better performing but also cooler looking, you’re now satisfying a large segment of the market that’s way more open to it than it’s ever been in the past.”
TaylorMade uses a multicolored pattern of X-shaped images that, like Callaway’s Truvis ball, produces a visual indicator of the ball’s rotation. The images on the TP5 Pix are a pixilated combination of red and yellow and were designed by researchers at Indiana University.
The intent of the color combo is to allow the eye to better process darker images more efficiently when it’s lighter and lighter images when it’s darker.
“It’s amazing what has happened in the golf ball category the last couple years,” Fox said.
But it’s not just geometric patterns that are changing the look of the golf ball.
More than ever before, recreational golfers are embracing color — yellow, orange, pink — when it comes to the ball they are playing. And manufacturers are listening.
“We’ve actually seen over time the color golf ball market develop substantially,” said Michael Mahoney, vice president of golf ball marketing for Titleist, the No. 1 golf-ball manufacturer in the world. “Like we do with everything, we try to follow the golfer and see what golfers are looking for.”
In 2010, Titleist didn’t have a colored ball in its line of products. Since then, they’ve added yellow, orange and pink to their Velocity ball and yellow to the world’s top-selling ball, the Pro V1 line that includes Pro V1X and AVX.
While the yellow ball performs exactly the same as the white Pro V1, Mahoney said the final coating on the ball is so vivid and dramatically different it promotes reflectivity in the sunlight, making it easier to follow.
“The thing that influences this or any trend in any consumer category is allaround customization,” Mahoney said. “We see it in our business, people want to play with their own number or their name on the ball. The number of golfers ordering that stuff has grown and grown.”
While players on the LPGA Tour have used colored balls for several years, the popularity went to a new level when former two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson began using the ball this year on the PGA Tour.
“People saw it on TV, so it was very much in demand when it came out,” said Marchini, whose shelves at Golf Galaxy are stacked with plenty of non-traditional balls. “We have countless amounts of colors. It’s still a pretty popular category.”