Golf Balls – Page 7 – Syndication Server

Titleist Tour Speed golf ball

Titleist’s Tour Speed is designed to deliver distance and greenside spin at a lower price point than premium balls.

Gear: Titleist Tour Speed golf ball
Price: $39.99
Specs: Three-piece construction with a urethane cover

When manufacturers know they can charge $50 for a dozen premium Tour-quality golf balls, it lets chemical engineers and people who specialize in aerodynamics go crazy and make the no-holds-barred, best ball possible.

When balls are targeted around $20 per dozen, those same ball designers can typically add one or two good attributes, but golfers know the bargain balls are not going to perform like their premium counterparts.

Between those types of balls in the $27-$40 range, things get tough. Consumers expect products that deliver on every shot, but price restraints mean companies have to be smart.

The new, three-piece Titleist Tour Speed is retailing at $39.99 per dozen, about $10 to $15 less per dozen than the most popular ball in golf, the three-piece Pro V1 played by Webb Simpson, Adam Scott, Tony Finau and 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland. Ask people at Titleist and they will tell you, the Pro V1 performs better than then Tour Speed, but for golfers who don’t want to pay the premium price, they made the Tour Speed to be the best-performing ball in its category.

You might recall, Titleist released the very limited EXP-01 ball in select pro shops in October. The stores that did get a shipment of those balls received only a few boxes, and it turns out the EXP-01 was a prototype of the new Tour Speed.

Titleist Tour Speed golf ball — The three-piece Tour Speed has a large core, firm casing layer and a soft, TPU cover. (Titleist)

The core of the Tour Speed is designed to deliver distance off the tee, and it is surrounded by a firm, low-spin casing layer. On top of those layers, Titleist gave the Tour Speed a 346-dimple cover pattern designed to create a penetrating ball flight that bores through the wind.

While the Pro V1 and Pro V1x are made with cast urethane covers, the Tour Speed has a cover made from a proprietary thermoplastic polyurethane. Titleist said it is more durable and provides more greenside spin than the Surlyn covers commonly found on balls in this price range, but it is more cost-effective than the urethane used in the Pro V1 and Pro V1x.

Golfers who participated in blind tests at Titleist’s Manchester Lane facility in Massachusetts said that while they preferred the short game performance of the Pro V1 and Pro V1x to the Tour Speed, they like the Tour Speed more than other balls in its category, which was Titleist’s objective.

When the Titleist Tour Speed arrives in stores, it will be available only in white, but a yellow version is expected in the coming months.

Srixon Soft Feel Brite golf balls

Engineered with a unique core, Srixon’s latest distance-enhancing ball comes in three easy-to-spot matte colors.

Gear: Srixon Soft Feel Brite golf balls
Price: $21.99 per dozen
Specs: Two-piece golf ball available in matte green, red and orange
Available: Aug. 3

The Srixon Soft Feel Brite is made for golfers who want a distance-enhancing ball off the tee that is easy to spot and that provides good control around the greens.

This update to last year’s original Soft Feel Brite includes Srixon’s FastLayer core, the same core technology found in the company’s premium offerings, the Z-Star and Z-Star XV. It is one solid core designed to be softer in the center and grow progressively firmer in its outer portions. Srixon said this construction allows the ball to feel softer at impact while providing the distance boost of a firmer ball.

Srixon Soft Feel Brite golf balls — Srixon Soft Feel Brite (Srixon)

Above the core, Srixon gave the ball a 338-dimple cover pattern designed to reduce drag off the tee and promote a more vertical angle of descent for greater stopping power on the greens. It is thin, so the grooves in wedges and short irons should be able to spin it easily on approach shots.

To make the ball easy to spot, the Soft Feel Brite comes in matte orange, matte red and matte green.

Wilson Staff Model golf balls

Learn all about Wilson’s new four-piece, urethane-covered balls for better players that will only be sold on the company’s website.

Gear: Wilson Staff Model golf balls
Price: $40.99-$49.99 per dozen
Specs: Four-piece construction with a cast urethane cover
Available: Pre-order April 20

For the past several seasons, Wilson has focused most of its attention in the golf ball category toward the creation of softer-feeling, low-compression products like the Staff Duo Soft+ and the Staff Duo Professional. Now the Chicago-based company is shifting gears, offering a new ball and a new way of getting it.

The Wilson Staff Model golf ball was created with better players in mind and with the help of Wilson’s tour players like Gary Woodland, Brendan Steele and Kevin Streelman. It’s a four-piece ball that features a synthetic rubber core that is encased in a dual-mantle system. The inner mantle is designed using the same soft, DuPont-created HPF material found in the Wilson Staff Duo Urethane ball, while the firmer outer mantle is made from an ionomer material. Working together, the core and dual-mantle system help to create more ball speed, especially with woods and long irons, for increased distance.

Wilson Staff Model balls — The Wilson Staff Model is a four-piece ball with a urethane cover. (Wilson)

Wilson designed the Staff Model ball with a soft, cast urethane cover. The material can easily be gripped by the grooves in wedges and short irons for more spin and better control around the green.

Instead of buying the balls in stores, Wilson is offering the Staff Model balls exclusively on its website, Wilson.com, as part of its new Baller Box program.

In essence, it is a subscription service. Golfers enter how many dozen balls they want to be delivered each month, subscribe for either three, six or 12 months and then select from the free customization options. The more balls you buy each month, the lower the price per dozen, from $49.99 per dozen for a one-month trial to $40.99 per dozen when you buy a 12-month subscription.

2020 gear guide: New golf balls

Golf balls have been tweaked to help players gain yards while still providing that much needed zip when they land on the greens.

For whatever your game needs, equipment designers have been busy tweaking existing lines for better performance and often introducing entirely new clubs.

Golf balls have been tweaked to help players gain yards while still providing that much needed zip when they land on the greens. Check out some of the balls introduced for this season.

Bridgestone Tour B

Price: $44.99 per dozen

The key technology in the second generation of Tour B balls is a new type of urethane used in the cover. Off the tee, the urethane rebounds more quickly than other urethanes Bridgestone has used to help golfers generate more ball speed and distance. However, on pitches and chip shots, it absorbs shock and helps the ball stay in contact with the face longer.

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Srixon Q-Star Tour Balls

Golfweek’s David Dusek chats with Srixon’s Jeff Brunski about the new Srixon Q-Star Tour Balls.

Bridgestone Tour B golf balls (2020)

Golfweek’s David Dusek chats with Elliot Mellow of Bridgestone Golf to discuss the new Bridgestone Tour B golf balls.

Titleist AVX golf ball (2020)

Titleist has updated the AVX to offer players more distance and enhanced greenside spin.

Gear: Titleist AVX golf ball (2020)
Price: $47.99 per dozen
Specs: Three-piece, urethane-covered ball. Available in white and yellow.

The most-played balls in golf are the Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x. The Pro V1x tends to fly higher off the tee, spins slightly more and feels firmer at impact while the Pro V1 flies slightly lower, spins a little less and feels softer. With cast urethane covers, both balls also produce great greenside control.

In 2018 Titleist started offering a softer-feeling, lower-spinning option, AVX, for golfers who tend to create excessive spin and players who want an even softer feel.

For 2020, Titleist updated the AVX to offer players more distance and enhanced greenside spin.

Titleist AVX (2020) — For 2020, the Titleist AVX has a larger core and firmer casing layer. (Titleist)

The AVX’s position within the Titleist premium ball lineup has not changed. It is still the lowest-spinning, lowest-flying of the three balls, and the updated AVX has a larger core to help it develop more speed off the tee. Titleist also tweaked the casing layer than surrounds the core, making it thinner. While the core of the new AVX is bigger than the original ball’s, the compression is still around 80, so it remains softer than the Pro V1 (90) and Pro V1x (100).

The 352-dimple tetrahedron pattern that covers the AVX ball has not changed, but the walls of the dimples were tweaked slightly to give the ball more lift. The 2020 AVX flies higher than the original ball but still lower than the Pro V1.

To create more shortgame control, Titleist made the cover 17 percent thinner so the grooves in wedges and short irons can grab the ball more effectively and generate more spin, which should give golfers more control.

TaylorMade Tour Response, Soft Response golf balls

TaylorMade’s newest balls for budget-minded golfers offer more distance, softer feel and enhanced greenside spin for less money.

Gear: TaylorMade Tour Response, Soft Response golf balls
Price: $35 per dozen, Tour Response; $25 per dozen, Soft Response
Specs: Three-piece, 40-compression ball with cast urethane cover available in white and yellow (Tour Response); three-piece, 35-compression ball with ionomer cover available in white, yellow and matte red (Soft Response).
Available: Feb. 28

TaylorMade takes a lot of pride in knowing several of the game’s top players, including Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler, use TaylorMade’s five-piece TP5 and TP5x golf balls. The company started a new ball fitting program in 2019, and more than 13,000 golfers nationwide tested their choice in ball against TaylorMade’s offerings. That program hopes to conduct more than 25,000 ball fittings in 2020 to highlight the performance of not only the TP5 and TP5x but also two new balls, the Tour Response and the Soft Response.

Taking the place of Project(a) and Project(s) in TaylorMade’s stable, the two Response balls were created to feel soft at impact and deliver more speed for recreational golfers who do not want to spend $45 (or more) on a dozen balls.

The three-piece TaylorMade Tour Response has a single core, firm mantle and urethane cover. (TaylorMade)

The Tour Response ball has a three-piece construction and the same 322-dimple, seamless pattern found on the TP5 and TP5x, along with the same mantle layer found in those premium balls. It also boasts the same cast urethane cover material that is on the TP5x for enhanced spin and control on wedge shots around the green.

Where the three-piece Tour Response differs is in the core design. The core is extremely soft to help golfers compress it more easily and generate more speed. It also makes the Tour Response, which has an overall compression of 40, feel softer at impact than the 85-compression TP5 and the 97-compression TP5x.

TaylorMade Soft Response golf balls — TaylorMade Soft Response (TaylorMade)

The Soft Response is also a three-piece ball, but there are some meaningful differences between it and the Tour Response ball.

First, it has a slightly lower compression (35), so it should feel softer at contact. Second, it has a different dimple pattern, and the dimples themselves have steeper edges and a more shallow design to provide the Soft Response more lift and less drag for increased distance for golfers with slower swing speeds.

The Soft Response also has an ionomer cover, and while it probably will not create as much greenside spin as the Tour Response, it is $10 less expensive.

TaylorMade TP5 Pix and TP5x Pix (2020) golf balls

With the help of Rickie Fowler, TaylorMade’s update to the high-visibility Pix balls is easier to use on the greens.

Gear: TaylorMade TP5, TP5x Pix golf balls
Price: $44.99 per dozen
Specs: Five-piece, urethane-covered balls with high-visibility pattern
Available: Feb. 28

Last season TaylorMade debuted the first TP5 Pix ball, a five-layer offering like the company’s other premium balls with the added benefit of a high-visibility pattern. In flight, the orange and red Xs were easy to track against blue skies or clouds. But for golfers such as Rickie Fowler, who prefer to put a line on their ball, there was a problem with TP5 Pix: There was no area where a straight line could be drawn that did not run into the Pix pattern.

With feedback from Fowler, TaylorMade is offering an updated version of the Pix ball and making it available in TP5 and TP5x versions.

TaylorMade TP5 Pix 2020 — The TaylorMade TP5 Pix (left) and TP5x Pix for 2020 (TaylorMade)

Instead of Xs, the updated Pix balls have triangles formed by gray, black and orange lines. It is still easy to spot the balls flying on a full shot, and when players want to use a line to align their putts, they can take advantage of a channel between the triangles.

TaylorMade calls it ClearPath Alignment, and it not only creates a good place to draw a line, it provides instant feedback on the quality of a player’s putt. On well-struck putts, the white channel area is maintained as the ball rolls on the green, but a stroke that cuts across the ball, is pulled offline or pushed will upend the pattern as the ball rolls and the channel will not be visible.

Aside from the Pix system on the cover, these are the same TP5 and TP5x balls that players such as Fowler, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Jason Day and Dustin Johnson have played for over a year. They are both five-layer balls that feature TaylorMade’s Tri-Fast Core system and a soft urethane cover that helps generate more spin on chips, pitches and approach shots.

The TP5 Pix will feel slightly softer and fly lower because it has an 85 overall compression while the TP5x Pix has a 97 compression. The TP5 Pix will produce more spin, and the TP5x will provide more carry distance.

Check out the newest golf equipment: Drivers, irons and balls

Here’s a sampling of all the new equipment recently released from major manufacturers that should garner attention as golf season kicks off.

With the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando completed last week, most of the major equipment launches for early 2020 have been announced. From drivers to irons to golf balls, Golfweek has covered them all. Check out the following 10 products, a sampling of all the new equipment recently released from major manufacturers that should garner attention as golf season kicks off.

The Tour B balls have an updated cover that helps to produce more distance off the tee and greenside spin. (Bridgestone)

Bridgestone Tour B golf balls (2020)

Price: $44.99 per dozen
Specs: Three-piece urethane-covered balls
Available: Feb. 14

The key technology in the second generation of Tour B golf balls is a new type of urethane used in the cover. Bridgestone calls it Reactiv urethane, and it contains an impact modifier that helps the material do some unique things.

Off the tee, the urethane rebounds more quickly than other urethanes Bridgestone has used to help golfers generate more ball speed and distance. However, on softly hit pitches and chip shots around the green, it absorbs shock and helps the ball stay in contact with the face for a longer period of time. That should help the grooves in wedges generate more spin and greenside control.

More from Bridgestone

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