Kirkland (Costco) Premium Golf Ball

[jkelley9]

I played 9 holes with this ball. I only played 1 ball even though the course was slow enough I probably could have played 3 or 4 >_>

Now I'll preface this by stating that I've only been playing for maybe 18 months now. I have not hit a plethora of golf balls. However I have played several and I'm able to distinguish the feel of the golf ball primarily off the driver and on short approach shots. I'm not skilled enough to know if my ball should hold a green, release, or spin back. I have no idea how to do those shots... I just aim for the center of the green and pray lol. Edit: when I say I can tell the difference, I can easily tell the difference between a Top Flite, or other cheap, hard, suryln covered ball. Not all suryln cover balls are cheap of course, that part is preference. But I can certainly tell the difference on the face.

With that said, I do believe this ball is comparable to a higher quality URETHANE cover, 4-piece ball. I can't comment on it's likeness to a ProV1 however I personally felt no difference between these and the ProV1s, as I had been playing them the last few rounds immediately before switching to these.

They felt SLIGHTLY harder on putting and off the face, however I attribute this to it being the first time I was out and it was a tad chillier than I had been playing all Summer/Fall. The weather started to take it's turn for the colder this weekend here in NC. I'm familiar with the difference in feel from a cold ball to a warm one in that last season I played a LOT in the time transition from early fall (nice and warm) and played all through Winter.

I will continue to play these balls so long as they're available. Maybe ignorance is bliss, but for $1.25 and having played other ball I really have nothing negative to say about them. Of course, I've only played 9 holes (I didn't lose any balls this time) so I can't attest to the durability other than they still look totally fine, better or equal to what a ProV1 would have looked like in the same round. 

I'll say this but please take it with 37 grains of salt. I found myself 10 yards further than where I normally find myself on my tee shots (but not my approach shots, those were on point). However, I believe this was due to the ground being a little firmer from the season transition and we hadn't had any rain the past several days. So I think I got some nice roll-outs. It was just odd that it was on pretty much every hole... I really don't think I would attribute this to the ball, honestly. But I figured I'd mention because I believe there is no LOSS of distance with these balls.

Edited October 24, 2016 by jkelley9

[newtogolf]

 

28 minutes ago, jkelley9 said:

I played 9 holes with this ball. I only played 1 ball even though the course was slow enough I probably could have played 3 or 4 >_>

Now I'll preface this by stating that I've only been playing for maybe 18 months now. I have not hit a plethora of golf balls. However I have played several and I'm able to distinguish the feel of the golf ball primarily off the driver and on short approach shots. I'm not skilled enough to know if my ball should hold a green, release, or spin back. I have no idea how to do those shots... I just aim for the center of the green and pray lol. Edit: when I say I can tell the difference, I can easily tell the difference between a Top Flite, or other cheap, hard, suryln covered ball. Not all suryln cover balls are cheap of course, that part is preference. But I can certainly tell the difference on the face.

With that said, I do believe this ball is comparable to a higher quality URETHANE cover, 4-piece ball. I can't comment on it's likeness to a ProV1 however I personally felt no difference between these and the ProV1s, as I had been playing them the last few rounds immediately before switching to these.

They felt SLIGHTLY harder on putting and off the face, however I attribute this to it being the first time I was out and it was a tad chillier than I had been playing all Summer/Fall. The weather started to take it's turn for the colder this weekend here in NC. I'm familiar with the difference in feel from a cold ball to a warm one in that last season I played a LOT in the time transition from early fall (nice and warm) and played all through Winter.

I will continue to play these balls so long as they're available. Maybe ignorance is bliss, but for $1.25 and having played other ball I really have nothing negative to say about them. Of course, I've only played 9 holes (I didn't lose any balls this time) so I can't attest to the durability other than they still look totally fine, better or equal to what a ProV1 would have looked like in the same round. 

I'll say this but please take it with 37 grains of salt. I found myself 10 yards further than where I normally find myself on my tee shots (but not my approach shots, those were on point). However, I believe this was due to the ground being a little firmer from the season transition and we hadn't had any rain the past several days. So I think I got some nice roll-outs. It was just odd that it was on pretty much every hole... I really don't think I would attribute this to the ball, honestly. But I figured I'd mention because I believe there is no LOSS of distance with these balls.

You experiences are very consistent with mine and others that have tried to Kirkland ball on other sites.  Most are impressed with the ball and consider it as good as the premium ball they had been using in terms of performance.  It's slightly higher compression over the current version of Chrome Soft and softer premium balls could cost those with lower swing speeds some distance but those that have played a ball more comparable in compression to the Kirkland have reported no loss of distance and some (placebo effect?) have reported longer distances.

Around the greens spin is outstanding, ProV1's would check up for me where as the Kirkland balls actually spin back for me on PW - SW shots.   

Durability is just as good as other premium balls, the cover is soft but tough, I've finished multiple rounds with the same ball and with the exception of cart path rash, the balls were still in playable condition.  

I'm headed to Myrtle Beach this week and I'm only taking the Kirkland balls with me.  I'm pretty sure my buddies will bust my chops about them, but if my scores are even close to the last two weeks, they will be asking to give them a try by the 3rd round so I'm bringing some extras.   

[Valleygolfer]

At the rate it is going, I will be finding some of these to try. I don't have a Costco membership although I would have if there was one close by. I think my gf's parents might have one...

[newtogolf]

7 minutes ago, Valleygolfer said:

At the rate it is going, I will be finding some of these to try. I don't have a Costco membership although I would have if there was one close by. I think my gf's parents might have one...

They only hit you up with a small surcharge ($1.25 or so) if you don't have a membership and order online.  

[baller7345]

1 hour ago, newtogolf said:

Kirkland have reported no loss of distance and some (placebo effect?) have reported longer distances

I've found anytime I think I hit a ball considerably farther than average it usually is a placebo effect exacerbated by a few really flush shots.  Hell I hit a Taylor Made Project A 180 with an 8 iron last week, the last thing I thought was it was because of the ball.  Just a fluke swing.

 

I've definitely had some balls (the really cheap Wilsons for instance) that I know I don't hit as far, but I've yet to see a ball I consistently hit 5+ yards farther.  I could probably say I've yet to find a ball I hit 2+ yards farther.  In the end they all seem to fly about the same, which is to be expected as they can only do so much and keep it conforming.

Edited October 24, 2016 by baller7345

[Valleygolfer]

10 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

They only hit you up with a small surcharge ($1.25 or so) if you don't have a membership and order online.  

I did not know this. I may have to check into it.

[jsgolfer]

On 10/24/2016 at 9:03 AM, newtogolf said:

Around the greens spin is outstanding, ProV1's would check up for me where as the Kirkland balls actually spin back for me on PW - SW shots.   

Durability is just as good as other premium balls, the cover is soft but tough, I've finished multiple rounds with the same ball and with the exception of cart path rash, the balls were still in playable condition.  

This happened to me as well, I backed up the ball more with the Kirkland Ball than with the Pro V1x, which would hit, bounce forward and stop.

I'm waiting to see how it plays at my home course, that will give me a better feel for the distances and reaction on the greens for both chips and iron shots, since I haven't played this ball at the home course yet.

[No Mulligans]

I've played a couple rounds with the Kirkland balls.  To me, they seem as good as any premium ball I've played.

[jsgolfer]

Played this evening with the Kirkland ball and I have to say it's just a good ball.  Is it better than any other premium ball, no, but you can't beat the price. Not sure how they are making them for this price but it's a good ball.

Gave my buddy a couple to try, he birdied the first hole he played with it. I had him hooked on Snell MTB but he loved the ball. Said when he ran out of his Snell's, he's going to have these in his bag.

 

[newtogolf]

I continue to be pleasantly surprised by this ball, I can't say that it's better than a ProV1 or Chrome Soft but at $1.25 per ball it's as good and definitely not $2.50 worse.  

[No Mulligans]

17 hours ago, jsgolfer said:

Played this evening with the Kirkland ball and I have to say it's just a good ball.  Is it better than any other premium ball, no, but you can't beat the price. Not sure how they are making them for this price but it's a good ball.

You can look up both Costco and Titliest (Acushnet) financial information on the internet.  

Costco has about an 11% gross margin on their products. Costco does about 16 billion in revenue and their golf ball sales are certainly an extremely tiny part of their revenue.  My fairly educated guesstimate is they do not include any allocation of their salaries, rents, etc. to the costs of the golf ball as that was probably outsourced and any allocations would be immaterial to their financial statements.  The cost of their golf balls is probably about $1.10 which is also probably about their direct variable cost.

Titliest has about a 50% overall gross margin.  Titliest does about 1.5 billion in revenues and golf ball sales represent about 35% of that toral.  I have talked to a CPA that works in the golf industry and Titliest does capitalize allocation of salaries, R&D, rent etc to their cost of golf balls.  The direct variable cost of a ProV1 is probably similar to the Kirland ball at $1.10 but their is probably another $.90 or thereabouts of other expenses capitalized to the cost of the ball bringing their financial costs to about $2.00.  $4.00 price minus the $2.00 cost = $2.00 Gross Profit or a 50% Gross Margin (I'd guess the ProV1 margin is probably higher than their overall margin, probably higher than 50% but no need to fine tune what is just a guess anyways).

This is how I believe Costco can price their balls so much lower than the Titliest.  Costco just goes for the 11% gross margin, Titliest is certainly trying to optimize their gross profit based on price points, supply and demand.

The revenue and margins are from the Companies reported numbers the rest of the above are just rough estimates/guesstimates.  

[No Mulligans]

Correction, small error/typo above. Costco does 116 billion in annual revenues (not 16)

[No Mulligans]

One thing I really missed on Costco vs. Titliest... The retail markup at the store that sales Titliest can be large.  Costco doesn't have that at all.  Now that I've given this some thought, Costco selling a premium ball with the same quality as a ProV1 under their own brand at $1.25 is not surprising at all.

[Valleygolfer]

I wonder who or where Costco purchased their ball formula from. Would not surprise me if they purchased a small ball makers formula that had decent statistics and performance.

[iacas]

4 minutes ago, Valleygolfer said:

I wonder who or where Costco purchased their ball formula from. Would not surprise me if they purchased a small ball makers formula that had decent statistics and performance.

For a few thousand dollars you can just have balls made for you in Vietnam or China or something.

Like this: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/4-Layers-Golf-Ball-Urethane-White_60445479954.html?s=p . If we could raise $90k, we could have 120,000 newly made "The Sand Trap" "Troll" balls.

But whether or not these balls a) are good products, and b) don't violate patents, few of us could say… Titleist did sue a bunch of ball makers earlier this year, including Vice, KickX, Monsta… and they did more than just order pre-designed balls from China.

P.S. Look for them under bridges on the courses you play!

[jsgolfer]

7 hours ago, No Mulligans said:

You can look up both Costco and Titliest (Acushnet) financial information on the internet.  

Costco has about an 11% gross margin on their products. Costco does about 16 billion in revenue and their golf ball sales are certainly an extremely tiny part of their revenue.  My fairly educated guesstimate is they do not include any allocation of their salaries, rents, etc. to the costs of the golf ball as that was probably outsourced and any allocations would be immaterial to their financial statements.  The cost of their golf balls is probably about $1.10 which is also probably about their direct variable cost.

Titliest has about a 50% overall gross margin.  Titliest does about 1.5 billion in revenues and golf ball sales represent about 35% of that toral.  I have talked to a CPA that works in the golf industry and Titliest does capitalize allocation of salaries, R&D, rent etc to their cost of golf balls.  The direct variable cost of a ProV1 is probably similar to the Kirland ball at $1.10 but their is probably another $.90 or thereabouts of other expenses capitalized to the cost of the ball bringing their financial costs to about $2.00.  $4.00 price minus the $2.00 cost = $2.00 Gross Profit or a 50% Gross Margin (I'd guess the ProV1 margin is probably higher than their overall margin, probably higher than 50% but no need to fine tune what is just a guess anyways).

This is how I believe Costco can price their balls so much lower than the Titliest.  Costco just goes for the 11% gross margin, Titliest is certainly trying to optimize their gross profit based on price points, supply and demand.

The revenue and margins are from the Companies reported numbers the rest of the above are just rough estimates/guesstimates.  

Great points. 

I have now played 4 rounds with the ball and it continues to amaze me how well the ball pllays.  

[baller7345]

2016 Costco Kirkland Signature Review - GolfBallTest.org

Pretty much confirms what everyone thought to be, the ball is really good and really cheap.

Quote

Golfers looking for a “tour ball” should strongly consider the 2016 Kirkland Signature golf ball as they perform consistently across all ball speeds in delivering distance and spin performance comparable to other leading golf balls. Distance is a function of ball speed and the other two elements in concert and both models optimize across all ball speeds well. Add to this the value element in getting 2 dozen golf balls for $29.99 and this golf ball should appeal to golfers of all types looking for a softer performance-focused golf ball.

Edited October 28, 2016 by baller7345

[caniac6]

I'm sure this is a minor complaint, but the printing on the costco ball is kind of crummy looking.