Callaway Chrome Soft vs the Duo vs The Pro V

Hi All,

I just thought I would give you a guys a quick breakdown of my golf ball experience so far this season. Although I maintain a single digit handicap I am still getting enlighten on a few things. One thing I never thought was a big deal was the golf ball we use. I use to think that any old rock would perform just the same and if I wanted to be careful just in case it did make a difference, I reached for the king (a Pro V). Wow my opinion sure has changed! I have now started my journey to finding the right golf ball!

So far this year I started out playing a TM Burner. I quickly banished this ball to the bottom of the bag. I soon realized these rocks were wild and consistently rolled out to far around the greens. I then took out a new Pro V. I played great with it and seen the improvements immediately. However I am not to fond of paying $60/dozen, so I set off to find a value somewhere in between. I then picked up a sleeve of Callaway Chrome Softs. This ball flew the same distance as the Pro V, had relatively the same short game performance and was straight as an arrow off the tee. Needless to say I was in love. But... I carried on with my search for the ball of choice.

I heard a ton this year about the Wilson Duo. So I bought a dozen. Well I played one 18 and will play another today with them but I am not loving it to say the least. I felt like I lost a lot of distance off the tee and that they scuffed rather easily. I played slow greens that day and it felt like I had to slam it to get there. I think I will give them a fair shake and play another couple rounds before I go back to the Chrome soft for further evaluation.

So far though....

Chrome Soft

Pro V

Duo

Burner

Thanks.

You might try the ProV1x.

The best deal on ProV1 balls occurs each Spring when Titleist has a Buy 3, Get 1 Free deal with free personalization. It usually works out to about $36/dz. It's the only time I buy a Titleist ball.

Heard many good things about the Chrome Soft. The only debate is that some golfers say greenside spin on less than full pitching is great, others question it. Must be a "you've got to try it yourself" on hard greens to see what happens for you. I understand Phil does not use the retail version but a prototype of the Chrome Soft, probably to account for his speed and other needs.

Not sure how many other brands you want to try, but I would throw in MAXFLI u/4 or u/4x in the mix. These are 4 layer 'performance' balls but Dicks sells these at $20/dozen. They also have a 6 layer ball but have not tried it and are $40+/dozen so am not really interested as I could just do ProV or Callaway Chrome. Hard to ignore IMO for the general season but I do switch to ProV in tournaments. Don't know why but they almost always come out a tiny-tinee bit ahead no matter who they compete with. Maybe it is psychological.

The Duo is only a 40 compression ball and made for slower swing speeds, so if your swing speed is above 85, this ball will not benefit you. As for slow greens, regardless of what we play, it will take a little extra effort to get it to the hole.

I use the MG C4 (20/doz). I think it is better than a Pro V. I still have a few Pro Vs in the bag and will use them randomly but if I have an important hole, or a match is on the line I always search in the pocket for the C4 to tee up. I also tried Wilson duos (yellow), like them but not as much as the C4. I like that I can carry a yellow ball in my pocket for easy provisional identification.

I have played the Duo a good bit with vintage equipment. In this roll, it performs quite well. The greens at my course are usually pretty fast, so the soft feel off the putter is welcome.

I have experimented with the Chrome Soft, and did not like it as well as the Supersoft on vintage gear, but did like it better with more modern gear. I used it on a couple of holes last week with a Titleist 905T driver with good results.

I play most of the time with vintage gear, and use the Wilson Staff Duo, the Titleist DT SoLo, and the Callaway Supersoft. I don't have a strong preference between these $20 balls with vintage gear, but the SoLo and Supersoft seem to do better off modern gear.

In premium balls, you might try the Bridgestone B330 series. I feel they are very comparable with the ProV series; I might like them a smidge better, regaredless of price. The fact that they are usually found for around $38 doesn't hurt my opinion. Nothing wrong with ProV's except the price.

I am playing in a shcramble soon, and will use modern gear. I am debating between the 330RX and the Chrome Soft. I am right on the edge of swing speed for the regular 330, and even so, I feel I get a scoosh more distance with those as well.

My Swing speed with the driver is 110-115 so that makes sense! I don't mind losing distance as long as the ball fly's straighter.

There are some people who like the softer core balls, mainly for the feel, even with 100+ swing speeds. Some say they lose a little distance off the driver but gain with the irons. But certainly a 110+ speed makes it more likely you won't get along with them. Interestingly, the Chrome Soft which you like also has a relatively soft core (though not quite so much as the Duo, 65 vs 40 compression).  You might compare to the Callaway SR3, which is supposed to be optimized for swing speeds over 105.

In general, there are three things you want to look at:

1. Cover material, basically urethane vs. anything else. The balls that spin the most around the greens will all be urethane covers.

2. Number of layers; the cheaper balls will be 2-piece. Multilayer balls cost more to manufacture, but can be made to spin less off tee shots (higher velocity shots) while still spinning well around the green (lower velocity shots).

3. Compression - how soft the core is. The confusing thing about compression ratings is that balls with higher ratings actually compress less (or require more force to fully compress).  Which might seem backwards if you think of it that way.

and then the basic categories of ball:

1. Tour balls - pretty much always urethane and multilayer

2. urethane two piece - not too many of these, but mainly for players who want the greenside spin of urethane but at a lower cost. Perhaps there are a few players with lower swing speeds who also need more spin off the driver to keep it in the air longer, but mostly they would be better off simply using a higher lofted driver.

3. surlyn or ionomer covered mullti-layer - a popular intermediate ball, especially for players who want low spin for better distance and straighter drives, and for whom that is more important than having more spin around the greens.

4. Two-piece surlyn/ionomer cover.  The main benefit of these are that they are cheap.  For many players the benefits or urethane covers or multiple layers seem rather small, and not worth the cost given the number of balls they lose. Even for good players, the better more expensive balls are probably only gaining them 2-3 strokes per round.

From your description, it sounds though like you are a good low handicap player who notices when you are getting too much roll out on the greens, and who is definitely noticing the difference between these balls. As such, assuming you aren't losing too many balls per round either, you will probably be happiest with the "tour" category balls. They don't have to cost $60 a dozen, but they probably start at around $30 a dozen.

With those #'s I think the PRO-V1x, Bridgestone Tour B330 (retail for >45/doz) and SRIXON Z-Star XV (retail >45/doz) would be your options? I am jealous :) wish I had those swing speed  numbers...

Ok last question about Balls. I am starting to think that I should stick with just using urethane golf balls for my swing speed. My question for straightness off the tee is their a big difference between surlyn or urethane golf balls?

I found Duo to be better suited for slower swing speed.  The ball went straighter (less spin) but the trajectory was a bit too high for me    I also liked Chrome Soft (didn't play with it much though) and thought it was good all around ball.   Between V1 & V1X, I prefer V1X but I think the difference is negligible for me.   IMHO, given the choice of balls out there, Pro V1* is probably too costly for most casual golfers who can't exploit the ball's characteristics.     The ball that suites me the best is Titleist NXT Tour & NXT Tour S and I have tried many different balls, too many to mention.

I wouldn't relate the urethane much to swing speed. It's more because of your short game that you need the urethane. Without the urethane, you will need to plan for more roll out when you hit the green, so might need larger landing areas, and might have more balls roll off the green.  And the urethane can have some influence on the ball being less straight off the tee, but that is why they make multi-layer balls to counteract that. The cover has more impact on the spin at lower velocities, while the layers will have more impact on your tee shots.

I don't think there will be a big difference for you off the tee, but you might want to compare for yourself. Try a Bridgestone E6 (multi-layer Surlyn, known as a straight ball). Compare that to any premium ball.

Also, for premium balls, add Taylormade to the ones already mentioned. The Tour Preferred X is a 5-piece ball designed for players with your swing speed, and should be a bit straighter for you (with mid irons to driver) than the 4-piece Tour Preferred. The 3-piece Project (a) is a good value at around $32 a dozen. And there are still Lethal "practice" balls available on Amazon for under $25 a dozen. The discontinued Lethal was a 5-layer ball very similar to the newer Tour Preferred X.