William L. Coney Blog: Callaway Chrome Soft Gets an X Rating

Monday, January 16, 2017

Callaway Chrome Soft Gets an X Rating

Attention, devout fans of soft balls. Callaway has just announced the Chrome Soft X, its firmest soft ball to date.

Weird, right? No…not really.

Unless this is literally your first day shopping for golf balls, it should be reasonably obvious what this whole X thing is all about.

Good, but Not For Everyone

While Chrome Soft has been immensely popular with consumers – so much so that it’s the #1 selling ball at off-course shops (where the shop’s ball selection isn’t driven by exclusivity discounts) – it’s reasonable and fair to say that it wasn’t for everyone.

Chrome Soft X was created for the same perfectly good reason why the Pro V1x, ZSTAR XV, B330, RZN Black, TPx, and even the Kirkland Signature were created. Better players, or at least higher swing speed players, need a different kind of ball.

Callaway concedes that some of its tour staff struggled with the 2016 models. At higher swing speeds, ball speeds would suffer as a result of too much deformation. Couple that with the low spin characteristics that made it difficult for some around the green, and you start to understand why Callaway felt there was a need for an X ball in its lineup too.

Which reminds me, if it’s not abundantly clear, Chrome Soft X isn’t a replacement for the 2016 Chrome Soft. It’s a complementary product for a different segment of golfers.

Moving on…

The challenge was to create a high-performance ball for higher swing speed players that is still worthy of the Chrome Soft name. That means increasing spin throughout the bag, but not firming things up to the point where Chrome Soft X wasn’t among the softest in the category.

Spin Baby Spin

That previous sentence is important. More Spin. Through the entire bag. Not just a club or two. That’s not to say it’s a flatline comparison with the 2016 Chrome Soft. Driver spin isn’t significantly higher. The same is true for those partial wedge shots and chips inside of 40 yards. Where golfers will see the most significant difference is with long irons and hybrids.

Callaway achieved this through 4-piece construction built principally around a firmer version of its Dual SoftFast Core. That’s Trademarked, by the way.

While I’m not supposed to talk about the competitive research with any degree of details, sufficed to say the spin curve is right in line with other prominent balls in the category.

Because of that extra spin, Chrome Soft X won’t fly as straight as Chrome Soft, but higher speed players will get more distance and greater control of the ball (workability).

Soft-ish

While, as is always the case, the X ball isn’t as soft as the non-X model, it’s still soft within the relative confines of the X category. By way of comparison, the 2015 Pro V1x has a compression rating of 105, while the Pro V1 sits at 90 – the same as the Chrome Soft X. My expectation is that both Titleist balls will soften a bit with the upcoming release, but it’s unlikely we’ll see the Pro V1x - the most relevant comp - come in under 90.

Updated HEX Cover

The Chrome Soft X features a softer cover material and tweaked aerodynamics, which contributes to the soft feel while producing a lower ball flight than the 2016 model.

Performance TBD

With the right baseline, I think you can get a decent sense of golf ball performance from looking at a spin chart. What I’ve seen suggests a ball that’s likely to be more to my liking than the first two iterations of Chrome Soft.

The slight bump in driver spin is a modest concern, but that should be at least partially offset by the higher ball speeds and the lower trajectory. What intrigues me most is the performance off hybrids and long irons. Perhaps it’s a bit of a unique approach, but once I’m satisfied with greenside performance, hybrid and long irons often prove to be where I differentiate between golf balls. That’s exactly why I think Chrome Soft X could work for me.

While the 2016 Chrome Soft likely remains the best choice for the majority, those of us who didn’t fall in love with Chrome Soft, may feel differently about Chrome Soft X. Who knows…I may even order a few dozen custom print Tonk balls.