Callaway Chrome Soft Golf Balls 2020

Product Information

It’s an approach that isn’t without risk as it doesn’t leave much room for error. In the case of our sample, a single ball failed our diameter test (frankly, it wasn’t close). Consequently, it was flagged as bad.

Nobody disputes that there’s more to ball performance than what happens with the driver but Callaway understands that Chrome Soft’s driver speeds will be scrutinized. The ball needs to be more competitive off the tee. To that end, Callaway says the improvements are good for an extra 5 yards with the driver (based on a 100 MPH clubhead speed). It’s notable that Callaway says 20% of the gain can be attributed to process improvements at the factory. More on that in a bit. There’s no point in rehashing it more than we have already. Chrome Soft (and previous balls) suffered from quality-control issues. Callaway has owned up and promised to fix it. In addition to buying more machines to paint patterns and lines on balls, it has made a significant investment in technology to improve the quality and consistency of its balls. The new Chrome Soft X is the modern Tour Ball, and we’ve reengineered every aspect of the design to deliver maximum distance for the elite player. Now, let's talk a little bit about the new Chrome Soft X: the name of the game is bigger, better, faster, more, and speaking of bigger, the core in the X version is 117% (yes you got that right) larger in terms of volume compared to the previous design. Go big or go home, right? The new core is built using exotic materials, i.e. high molecular weight Neodymium rubber, provided such a thing even exists (just kidding). The new compound is faster and stronger compared to the “vanilla version” (sans X), which results in ludicrous ball speeds. Also, the Chrome Soft X 2020 boasts a single-core mantle, compared to the standard variant, which employs a dual-core thing. Why did Callaway choose a single core design for Mr. X? The answer my friends is “Jail Break Effect”, and if you are wondering what on Earth is that, well, that's what the company told us. Allow us to elaborate on that a little: a single core mantle provides faster balls speeds and more energy throughout the bag dixit Callaway, as in not only with the driver. Brands like it when their tour staff play the same ball you and I can buy at retail. It adds validation, credibility…that sort of thing. Before Left Dash hit the market, about 80% of Titleist staffers were playing one of the two retail flavors of Pro V1 balls. Bridgestone and Srixon both claim that 100% of their guys play the retail model – no secret items on either company’s menu. TaylorMade? A story for another day.Callaway told us that their latest duo is designed to be as premium as humanly possible, i.e. these babies are built for performance, just like a Ferrari, and, on top of that, they come loaded with the company's latest technologies and innovations. All these features make the new Chrome Soft the flagship ball offering in Callaway's 2020 portfolio, as they're crafted to be more consistent and longer than ever before. The Callaway Chrome Softis a 332-dimple ball with a urethane cover. It’s a 3-piece design which is notable if only for that fact that the prior Chrome Soft was a 4-piece design, which is unusual, though not entirely unheard of, in the low compression space. Golfers love Chrome Soft. That is not in dispute. It’s also true that Callaway has some work to do if it’s serious about making the best, highest-quality ball in golf. It just seems interesting to me that the testing isn’t broken down by box, since that is another variable in the test that doesn’t seem to be accounted for. For example, if you had been told that of the 3 dozen balls tested, 2 boxes had no bad balls but one box had 4 bad balls, would that change your view on the quality of the balls. Knowing that, I would probably argue that it seems the one box was a bad batch, and another should be tested since the majority of the small sample (2 out 3 boxes), had 0 issues. An entirely new mantle system for increased ball speed. The Soft Inner Mantle and a highly resilient Firm Outer Mantle work together to generate increased ball speed off the club face. This innovative system is specifically created to increase total distance.

Extremely durable, resilient, and thinner cover material increases ball speed and creates lower spin on full shots, while maintaining high spin and control around the green. The other thing that is interesting is that the data doesn’t tell us if the “bad” balls had multiple issues. So was of the total 4 balls that had concentricity issues, was one of those also one that had the significant off-center core or the one that had the cut on the cover or one that was too small? In that case, that is a total of just 4 bad balls out of 36 or 11% of balls that are bad. So does the data show that a ball with one manufacturing flaw tends to have multiple flaws? Or was a defect found on what would be 7 distinct golf balls, so 1 was too small with no other issues, 1 was cut with no other issues, 1 had an off-center core with no other issues, and 4 had concentricity issues? that would get to the 22% of “bad balls” listed, but I don’t remember seeing anywhere in the “how we test” or write up that clarifies that point. And if it was 7 balls with one issue each, then it would be interesting to know the breakdown between the boxes, since that would also provide insight of a potential outlier that may need to be removed from the sample and retested. It also goes the other way as well – so if you got another box and then that box had 4 bad balls in it, then maybe the two perfect boxes were the outliers so those should be removed and really the percentages are worse than what the results show here. By introducing new materials and altering the relationship between the three inner layers, Callaway gets what it describes as a “jailbreak” effect for the golf ball. More speed, same soft feel. On the clubface: It's soft all right. Softer than “tour” models like the Titleist ProV1 or Bridgestone Tour B330, to our hands, yet firmer than the ultra-low compression likes of the Wilson Staff Zip. In our book, that's a happy medium.In robot testing at 120 MPH club speed, Callaway found the new ball to be 7 yards longer. As with CS, a portion of that comes from process improvements. “Part of that is that this ball is ready good,” says Toulon, “but part of it is that the ball it replaced wasn’t.”

The True Price will always be equal to or greater than the retail price. The greater the difference between the retail price and the True Price, the more you should be concerned about the quality of the ball.

With a thin injected urethane cover, the Chrome Soft fits loosely into what’s generally called the “tour ball” category. It’s a four-piece design with a mid-sized inner core. On full shots, the 2020 Chrome Soft is classified as a high-launch, low-spin ball, which makes sense given where it falls on the compression scale. As you would expect from a urethane-covered ball, Callaway claims high green-side spin. All Callaway Chrome Soft golf balls are made at the company’s plant in Chicopee, Mass. 2020 Callaway Chrome Soft – Compression We deem individual balls under the size limit as “bad”; however, the lot itself would be conforming under USGA rules. Consistency and Roundness It’s too soon to say but Callaway may have created its first legitimate tour-level retail ball in quite some time. If the market approves and the split moves closer to 60/40, you may see some special-edition Truvis models in the future.

The massive (and firmer) core is paired with a soft inner mantle that acts as a dampening layer. It’s how Chrome Soft X retains softer feel despite the higher compression. The firmer outer mantle provides the speed while helping to increase spin around the green. A healthy percentage of golfers love the Callaway Chrome Soft. You don’t lay claim to +/-20% of the market with a product consumers hate. This is why the quality and consistency aspect is so important. If you have two balls with similar performance specs (and in the market you’ll find several options for any given spec), the bigger difference is going to be found in how often a given manufacturer is able to achieve that spec (our consistency metrics), and how often what we classify as a bad ball makes it to a store shelf. No matter what the spec of the ball is supposed to be, if it can’t be delivered consistently than, much like mamma’s box of chocolates, you don’t actually know what you’re going to get (from one ball to the next). For Callaway, and the Chrome Soft line in particular, concentricity is where the (synthetic) rubber meets the road. It has been the primary point of emphasis for the current generation of Chrome Soft, and I’m happy to report that we found no notable issues within the sample. Core Consistency

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Improvements to Callaway’s painting and finishing processes will ensure an even coating and uncompromised aerodynamic performance. Soft feel + performance. That was the goal. Even if they weren’t aware of the theory driving Chrome Soft design, golfers bought into it to the tune of 20%, positioning Callaway as clear #2 with plenty of distance between it and #3. Like the standard Chrome Soft, previous X versions were 4-piece, dual-core designs (a little ball inside a bigger ball with two thin layers around it). The 2020 Chrome Soft X is a 4-piece, dual-mantle design (a big ball with three thin layers around it). It’s a distinction that’s likely lost on most golfers but the change affords Callaway the opportunity to differentiate the performance of its two Chrome Soft offerings significantly more than it has in the past. None of the balls in our 2020 Callaway Chrome Soft sample exceeded the USGA weight limit of 1.620 ounces. Modern day, tour-quality golf balls are multi-layered constructions that go through numerous manufacturing stages and processes before they end up in our golf bags.