Equipment
Callaway Chrome Soft: Building a better golf ball
“Changing a tire on a bus while it’s moving.” That’s how Callaway’s Norm Smith, Vice President, Global Manufacturing, Engineering, and Quality at Callaway describes the never-ending process of upgrading and improving operations while continuing to produce golf balls and equipment to satisfy current demand — which, for Callaway, like the rest of the golf equipment world, is at record highs.
While Smith oversees operations, including Callaway’s Chicopee, Massachusetts, ball plant, which produces all the company’s Chrome Soft and Truvis golf balls, Jason Finley, Callaway’s Global Director Product Strategy, Golf Ball and his team are locked into the 18-month process of developing the next generation of the company’s flagship ball offerings.
This delicate dance can take the form of identifying opportunities to bring new products to market — such as this year’s Chrome Soft X LS golf ball — researching new technologies — such as graphene, which Callaway uses in the core of Chrome Soft balls — and looking at every element of the previous product to see what can be optimized and enhanced.
In developing the current Chrome Soft line, engineers were faced with the challenge of taking a product that has done well both on tour and at retail and determining what can be improved upon. This process relies on feedback from everyone from tour pros to retail consumers and a look at the Chrome Soft line through the lens of a few questions: What tools do we have at our disposal? How can we make it faster? How can we optimize spin? How do we cater to a range of spin profiles? How do we increase quality?
According to Norm Smith, Callaway’s well-documented Chicopee ball plant upgrades have included night-and-day changes in just the past six months. More broadly, in recent years, from start to finish, the entire process and the machines involved therein have been assessed and upgraded. Indeed, the company has improvements to the packaging operation in its sites next as it is both literally and figuratively the end of the Chrome Soft production process.
In addition to new cover molding equipment, Truvis equipment, and paint lines, as we detailed in this piece, Callaway’s $60 million-plus investment in the Chicopee ball plant includes.
- State-of-the-art rubber mixer: This giant mixer is a four-story tall machine built for absolute precision mixing batch after batch. It precisely measures chemical compounds and polymers needed to build each layer. It also regulates multiple parameters during the process to make sure the final product meets strict quality control measures.
- New 3D X-Ray system: If for some reason a bad golf ball gets past the first steps of the quality control process without fault, the 3D X-Ray system will prevent it from going any further. As Callaway has stated, “these machines can’t make the ball pieces more centered, but it prevents ones that aren’t from ever leaving the plant.”
- New core-molding tools: Balls are built from the core out, and without consistency, the rest of the pieces don’t quite matter as much. Even with automation already a huge part of the process, Callaway is adding more to not only help respond to ever-growing demand but to ensure quality core to core.
Now, a refresher on the Chrome Soft line being produced in western Massachusetts.
Chrome Soft
Callaway’s latest Chrome Soft golf ball features a Dual SoftFast Core with a 34 percent larger volume inner core. It’s also equipped with a thinner, graphene-infused outer core for better wedge spin and faster ball speed.
Beyond the Dual SoftFast Core, inside the Chrome Soft is a new mantle system made of proprietary, high-energy ionomer to promote fast ball speed.
Chrome Soft’s 10 percent thinner urethane cover is designed to promote less spin on full shots and added distance — without sacrificing soft feel and excellent greenside spin and control.
The final element of the new Chrome soft is a new lower drag aerodynamic dimple pattern that promotes higher launch, higher flight, and ultimately, longer distance.
Lower spinning than the Chrome Soft X, the Chrome Soft is the highest launching, softest ball in Callaway’s CS lineup.
Chrome Soft X
Designed to promote faster ball speed, the Chrome Soft X ball contains a significantly larger SoftFast core than its predecessor, and a 15 percent thinner cover to produces lower spin on full shots (and added distance).
Inside the Chrome Soft X is a new mantle system combines a softer inner mantle with a firmer outer mantle. Both elements feature proprietary ionomer blends.
This firm outer mantle works with the a new, thinner cover that yields increased greenside spin and control. A lower drag aerodynamic dimple pattern is also new in the Chrome Soft X. It is designed to produce penetrating flight and longer distance.
Higher spinning than the Chrome Soft with driver and irons, the Chrome Soft X features the highest wedge and greenside spin and is more workable overall, in addition to offering a firmer feel.
Chrome Soft X LS
The most recent addition to the lineup, the Chrome Soft X LS features four-piece, single-core construction engineered to increase speed through a SoftFast Core, a Dual Mantle System, and a refined urethane cover.
According to Callaway, players see a 300-400 rpm decrease in spin from the X with the LS ball on mid-irons.
The LS contains a significantly larger high-speed core design that aims to provide more distance through the bag. It functions in concert with the mantle system to deliver high resilience and speed.
The Chrome Soft X LS is equipped with a thin proprietary urethane cover for high spin, low launch, and excellent feel in a player’s scoring clubs — without sacrificing greenside control.
Higher launching with driver and irons than the Chrome Soft X, the LS is, not surprisingly, lower spinning than the Chrome Soft X across the board while offering similar feel.
The Callaway Chrome Soft family of golf balls are at retail for $47.99 per dozen. All three models are available with Callaway’s Triple Track Technology.
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Whats in the Bag
Pierceson Coody WITB 2024 (April)
Driver: TaylorMade Qi 10 (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K White 70 TX
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi 10 Tour (15 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black 80 TX
Irons: TaylorMade P790 (3), TaylorMade P7MC (4-6), and TaylorMade P730 (7-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100
Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 (50-09SB, 54-11SB, 58-08LB)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: TaylorMade TP Reserve Juno
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
Ball: TaylorMade TP5x
Check out more in-hand photos of Pierceson Coody’s WITB here.
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Equipment
Why Ben Griffin is making the surprising switch to a Maxfli golf ball
Ben Griffin might be a little too young to remember some of the iconic Maxfli golf balls that won on tour, but that isn’t stopping him from putting the newest Tour X ball from the brand in play. Today, Maxfli and Griffin announced an exclusive partnership that will see the PGA Tour player using the company’s four-piece golf ball.
While Griffin might be the first PGA Tour player to put a new Maxfli golf ball in play, he isn’t the first profesional golfer to do so. Lexi Thompson has been playing the Maxfli Tour golf ball on the LPGA Tour since the beginning of the 2024.
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We caught up with Ben at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Texas this week to ask him about the new ball switch.
“I was able to finally get my hands on some and try it and immediately I saw faster ball speed with the driver, which is always something every golfer wants to see.
“Then I had to test a lot around the greens and test irons, test spins, test everything like that. Basically, I came to the conclusion that I thought this was probably one of the best golf balls for my game.
“And so I decided to make it official and partner with them and very excited to help kind of launch this golf ball and see where it takes us.”
Griffin’s ball of choice is the Maxfli Tour X, a four-piece golf ball that is made for highly skilled players that want consistent distance off the driver and spin around the green. An updated core design helps add the ball speed that Griffin mentioned and two ionomer mantle layers separate low spin driver shots from higher spin iron and wedge shots. Maxfli uses Center Of center-of-gravity balancing to ensure each ball has consistent flight in the air and roll on the green. Like all golf balls on tour, the Tour X features a cast urethane cover for maximum performance, and it has a tetrahedron dimple pattern to enhance aerodynamics.
It is exciting to see a golf ball at a lower price point — $39.99 at Golf Galaxy — being used by a top 100 ranked player in the world like Ben Griffin, and equipment junkies will be keenly watching his performance with the new ball.
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Whats in the Bag
WITB Time Machine: Billy Horschel’s winning WITB, 2017 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
The tournament bearing the name of one of golf’s all-time greats is now known as the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. Back in 2017, it was still the AT&T Byron Nelson and Billy Horschel was still a full-bag PXG staffer. The Florida Gator leveraged those wares to a playoff victory over Jason Day securing his fourth PGA Tour win in the process.
Check out the clubs Horschel had in play seven years ago in Texas.
Driver: PXG 0811X (9 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Atmos Tour Spec Black 6 X
3-wood: PXG 0341X (15 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black 75 6.5
5-wood: PXG 0341 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black 75 6.5
Irons: PXG 0311T (3, 5-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100
Wedges: PXG 0311T Milled (52-10, 56-10, 60-07)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: PXG Bat Attack
Grip: SuperStroke Flatso 1.0
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Check out more in-hand photos of Billy Horschel’s gear from 2017 here.
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Richard Douglas
Jul 17, 2021 at 3:36 am
Are they still making balls with off-center cores? The article–which reads like a press release (because it is) wasn’t clear about this.
This is my favorite ball, but I won’t buy it again until that little quirk is addressed candidly.
Mac
Jul 17, 2021 at 5:44 am
They are not. Did you miss that part of the article?
Lou
Jul 14, 2021 at 10:52 pm
Seeing “All three models are available with Callaway’s Triple Track Technology” gets me every time. Painting three lines on the ball is not any kind of technological advancement and it’s another in a long line of ideas Callaway has stolen from other companies. Though I’ve gotta admit I didn’t expect anyone to steal design ideas from the Kick X Tour Z.
Larry
Jul 14, 2021 at 9:30 pm
Pretty skeptical until there’s some evidence. I tested golf balls last year and Callaways were in the Oncore category (i.e. they suck). The investment is only good if it goes to the product and not the marketing. Cally/TM lead the way imo of “we make bold claims that you’ll never actually experience after you buy it”.