How does Ionomer compare to Surlyn in regards to spin?

[mazzofab]

In regards to golf ball cover material, as per subject, how do the 2 compare when it comes down to spin? Which of the 2 tends to generate more spin on iron shots?

[monks66]

neither are Urethane of course, but I would say ionomer would overall, but I have seen some surlyn cover balls fair pretty well around the greenI (i.e Snell Get Sum)

[the bishop]

Ionomer is basically surlyn by another name. The best surlyn covered balls can come close in spin to the lower spinning urethane balls IIRC. It's been a while but Golf or GD did a test and the Nike Ignite (I said its been a while!) had the highest spin of all the surlyn balls tested and its wedge spin was within a couple hundred rpm's of the lowest spinning urethane ball tested (forget which one it was).

[mazzofab]

OK great! Didn't know that the ionomer and surlyn are the same!! Learnt another thing today!!!

[North Butte]

Ionomer is a generic word for a category of thermoplastics. Surlyn is the trademarked name of one specific thermoplastic that has long been used for golf ball covers.

A lot of people say "Surlyn" about balls that aren't strictly, legally, made of DuPont Surlyn brand ionomer. Kind of like we say "Kleenex" to mean any sort of tissue, not just the Kleenex brand ones made by Kimberly-Clark.

[monks66]

i learned something new too, didnt know ionomer was basically surlyn

[Hack Daddy]

On 8/3/2020 at 4:33 AM, the bishop said:

Ionomer is basically surlyn by another name. The best surlyn covered balls can come close in spin to the lower spinning urethane balls IIRC. It's been a while but Golf or GD did a test and the Nike Ignite (I said its been a while!) had the highest spin of all the surlyn balls tested and its wedge spin was within a couple hundred rpm's of the lowest spinning urethane ball tested (forget which one it was).

 

I'm almost positive it was the e5? The two piece urethane.

[North Butte]

4 hours ago, Hack Daddy said:

 

I'm almost positive it was the e5? The two piece urethane.

 

As far as I could tell, the e5 was the perfect anti-modern ball. It spun like the bejeebers off any full swing (I recall a few spectacular 8-iron and 9-iron shots on Par 3's coming back 20+ feet) but did not spin much around the greens on chips and bunker shots. Also tons of spin off the driver. 

 

It was like a throwback to those massively spinny soft cover balls of the 1990's. 

[the bishop]

5 hours ago, Hack Daddy said:

 

I'm almost positive it was the e5? The two piece urethane.

That may very well be.  Those balls were released around the same time frame IIRC.

 

14 minutes ago, North Butte said:

 

As far as I could tell, the e5 was the perfect anti-modern ball. It spun like the bejeebers off any full swing (I recall a few spectacular 8-iron and 9-iron shots on Par 3's coming back 20+ feet) but did not spin much around the greens on chips and bunker shots. Also tons of spin off the driver. 

 

It was like a throwback to those massively spinny soft cover balls of the 1990's. 

Bridgestone did tout that someone won a professional event using the E5.  Somewhere in Asia, possibly Japan.