New 2020 Callaway Chromesoft

[StillCantPutt]

I just received this email from Dick’s and see the new X ball pictured but when you click the link, it’s not listed. Hmmmm

[GoGoErky]

I noticed that too when I got the email. Calllaway doesn’t listS the X as coming soon with no date or preorder. Just another issue with this release

[Jeff58]

What I see as the current state is that many of their tour players don’t or won’t use the balls, the price has increased, and they have been completely redesigned in some unknown ways with unknown results in both form and function.

Alternatively, I could choose, for the same price, a Titleist product with industry leading quality that is the choice of the majority of professional players that I have complete confidence in. Or I could choose my ball of choice, a TM ball that costs less and has the best performance of any ball I’ve ever used.

The new Chrome Soft may be a great product, but Callaway’s response to their issues is not at all optimal. They need to regain consumer confidence. a suggestion-

Take 1000 dozen CS balls. In each box, place a coupon with a one-time use code. The buyer will test/demo/try out the new balls and post a review, either on the Callaway site or another, such as major retailers or interest sites like this one. Send the link to Callaway with the coupon code to receive another dozen free balls. All the free balls will have a message thanking the customer for playing.

[tsecor]

why SHOULD WE? We pay $50/dzn, WE as consumers keep these companies afloat. Without us, they fold. Without us they cease to exist.

and not to mention, many companies have this business model. Why shoud we as the consumer who makes these companies what they are, be supplied with a substandard product when WE are the ones who pay thier bills and make them what they are......

[GoGoErky]

nobody is forcing you to spend $50 on a ball. You have spoken highly of the TP5 balls yet wonder if TM players have tour only balls. So are you saying that you are playing a substandard ball? There’s plenty on here that think the TP5 offering are the best on the market.

The balls that the tour players use don’t mean the retail versions are sub standard, they tend to have different characteristics that some of the tour staff want. Titleist has 3 different tour only balls with 2 of them not being at retail and nobody is really questioning the quality standards of a prov1.

With the original CS phil played a version that was higher compression. That ended up becoming the second iteration of the ball. He then played a firmer compression of that which became the csx triple track. The vast majority of the golfing public doesn’t need the tweaks made to the tour balls and many times the tour offerings become the retail version in a following release. The left dash prvo1x is the 2019 retail version. The left dot prov1 is played but less than 10 people on all the tours, should Titleist make a large quantity of that ball and sell it at retail to have it sit on shelves eating up space for the standard Prov1 and Prov1x or even avx? Should the retailers have to eat the cost because Titleist has another ball offering? There’s a reason Titleist is not stocking the shelves with the left dash version and were requiring a minimum of 6 dozen to be ordered by an account.

 

 

[tsecor]

If i found out the TP5 cores were off and not centered, id say the same thing........and i think you can deduce i wonder about the TM quality because the TP5x i originally played was hard to keep straight. The TP5 is excellent and i love it....but if i found out it was substandard, id be mad

I agree 99.9% of amateur players do not NEED a certain tweak of a ball but when money is thrown into the equation, we should get cores that are at least centered.

[GoGoErky]

Using your logic TM has been known to have tour versions of their ball and since they don’t control the whole process like Srixon, Titleist and Bridgestone they are a subpar product.

isn’t that what Callaway is fixing with this release? If they are found out to be bad still it will come out thru social media and Callaway will have to answer for it. As much as I think it’s bad optics for Callaway to have to delay the csx release they deserve credit for making sure that when it’s released they are perfect. When they do get released you will have access to the same version that the tours who are playing the retail version are playing which is 40% of their staff once everyone starts using this version, just like the newest version of the cs

[Jarlaxle]

You may have already read but just in case, here is a good write up from MGS on this topic (both the new balls and the QC issues). I will admit, I just bought a dozen of the current (2019) Chrome Soft and they are as much as a club shorter vs. my ProV1. Probably have 8 or 9 left, likely to just pop them in the shag bag and move on. Will wait and see how the new ones turn out because, as the article points out, I do like the "soft feel" but not if its going to cause me to have to hit a 5 iron from 170.

Callaway Chrome Soft Golf Balls (2020) | MyGolfSpy

[tsecor]

thats not the logic....let me reiterate....if i found cores off center, they would be substandard........

i loved the chromesoft when i tried it and was hating the fact they found qc issues with the process.....if TM had the same issue, the company name would be interchangeable.

[herbert7890]

I think people need to separate out the 2 different issues with the Current (2019) Chromesoft and X:

Issue 1 - Non-Centered cores (biggest issue, of course, and no one knows the % of balls with this problem)

Issue 2 - Short distances due to being too soft (why was proven by many independent tests already)

[GoGoErky]

I was pointing that you were clamoring for the brands to give the consumer the tour balls and/or equipment and that every brand should have the business model of companies like Srixon and bridgestone, but these brands have led tour presences than the other brands in both balls and equipment. Also seemed like you didn’t understand the difference between what a tour ball is.

In reality the consumer gets the same product that many of the players on tour do but there are exceptions in balls that have a design for a specific player or subset of players yet they come off the same assembly line as the retail balls as do equipment. The difference with most of the equipment is the once with a tighter tolerance get set aside for tour vans.

if there’s a substandard product the market will dictate to the brand they need to change which is what’s happening at Callaway now.

 

[short game]

I test drove this ball today and i like it a lot better than the previous version. Long off of the driver, decent spin with irons and felt great off of the putter. I would recommend getting a sleeve and trying them out.

[nsxguy]

"In reality the consumer gets the same product that many of the players on tour do but there are exceptions in balls that have a design for a specific player or subset of players yet they come off the same assembly line as the retail balls as do equipment."

How can a ball or balls come off the same assembly line yet be designed for a specific player ?

I can understand a player having much narrower spec for other equipment, especially weight and stiffness but those items will lhave an "approved" tolerance range.

But I can't quite understand how a ball would be "designed" for specific player.

[GoGoErky]

the tour balls are typically prototypes that brands use for feedback and see what tweaks they may make before sending to retail. Left dash Prov1x is/was played by 4-5 players. Do you think that titleist would spend millions of dollars to have an assembly line for a ball that have very limited use.

its no different than how they make Prov1, Prov1x and avx. Outside of the molds and such the processes and machinery to make the balls. There’s no special section for tour balls

[Stanks]

Just wait boys

 

[phil75070]

Having toured Callaway, I seriously doubt that tour/prototype balls are made in the production plant. Headquarters has a ball assembly area that is a mini production facility having all the machinery and capability that the Chicopee plant has but on a much smaller scale.

[tsecor]

ok, i gotcha....thats a fair point.

[monks66]

i cant get past the triple track ...just me

[Morry]

Any real comments on this ball or just backward looking opinions or promoting other balls?

 

[J13]

The Callaway balls that are on tour never had QC issues. At their HQ in Carlsbad they have the largest R&D facility out of anyone and by a lot. Part of that R&D facility is a small ball plant that produces all the balls played on tour. So if a player isn't using the Cally ball it could be because they have a ball deal and prefer another ball not because of any fear they have. Just preference

[phil75070]

The 2020 CS also comes without the Triple Track.

[GSDriver]

Great question! I'm looking forward to new CSx in yellow, until then I have a few dozen 2019 model and some Vice Pros (my winter ball) to get me by.

[dalehead]

So Callaway put out a ball that was woefully bad by today’s manufacturing standards and their QC wasn’t good enough to detect it. How prevalent were the bad balls? Well if the guys who did the investigation had to cut open 1000 balls to find one bad one that might be a different story, but it was many fewer than that.

So Callaway has been selling us a substandard product, presumably for years. Now they spend $50 million dollars revamping their ball plant and they increase their price to the consumer. Essentially saying “we’ve been selling you a bad product but now we have a good product and you’re going to have to reimburse us for the money we spent to upgrade the plant that made the bad product we sold you.” No thanks.

[groach]

@dalehead - great point on your post. I do feel like Callaway is totally passing that cost onto us as consumers. What I'm also struggling with is the fact I love that chromesoft ball. I personally did some on course testing, as best I could, three years ago. I was previously playing a Pro V1x. I tested all the big boys - Pro V1X, Pro V1, Bridgestone BX, BXS, Chrome Soft, CSX, Srixon Z, ZV, TP5, TP5x, even the original Kirkland. I would have never thought I'd land on the chromesoft but I did. Absolutely loved the feel off the putter and chipping around the green. And for me, not sure how or why, it was marginally shorter off the tee from the Pro V1x, TP5x, and Kirkland. So I went all in on that ball for the last two years. Then just a week ago, I sold my 4 dozen 2019 inventory and am still planning to buy the new ball and hope their claims are accurate. But I'm not going to lie, I'm tempted to do a whole nother ball test myself and see what may have changed for me over the last three summers.

[dalehead]

A question this thread raises for me :

Some ball tests concluded that a soft ball is a slow ball. Many here have commented that they find the CS to be short off the driver. It has been said that the balls for Callaway tour players are specially made in a small facility in Carlsbad. So are these Chrome Softs really soft?

[GoGoErky]

The old versions were around 85 on compression iirc and were slowly increased each release. The previous triple track was roughly 7% higher compression than the non TT version of the csx. The new ones are supposed to be around the old TT or higher

[Stanks]

Gotta spend money to make money and spending money costs...money. How else is Callaway gonna pay for their new stuff. Hiking a price a little bit. Golf balls have climbed in price the past few years. That's how it goes.

[GoGoErky]

Except the Prov1 that’s been $47.99 forever

[dalehead]

If you want to reward Callaway for having to spend $50 million to bring their plant up to a point where they can produce a consistent product don’t let anything I say stop you.

[third-times-a-charm]

Well to their credit, they were the first wildly overpriced ball to be such.