Callaway Chrome Soft and Chrome Soft X now available

If you were to create the perfect mix for a golf ball you would make it soft with high launch that doesn’t spin excessively off the tee but gives optimum spin on shots around the green.

This would be the holy grail of ball performance but what do you make it with to get these performance attributes? According to Callaway, the answer lies in a strong, flexible material that is essentially an ultra-thin sheet of carbon and its called graphene.
 
Graphine has taken the new line of Chrome Soft golf balls for 2018 to the next level. Graphene is just one atom thick and is the thinnest material known to man. It’s stronger than diamond, more than 200 times stronger than steel and is classed as being one of the strongest material on Earth.
So what does it mean for your golf ball? Callaway’s design team believes that the Nobel Prize-winning material has led them to a breakthrough with its new Chrome Soft and Chrome Soft X balls and their graphene-infused Dual SoftFast Cores. When Callaway tried to make a softer inner core and firmer outer core in the past, the outer core would crack if the difference became too great. Adding graphene to the outer core has allowed it to become a thinner, stronger, “crash helmet” encasing a larger, softer inner core without the ball splitting in two.
The result, according to Callaway, is its best ball yet: lower spin and higher speed with driver and greater distance with irons all without sacrificing soft feel around the greens. Both Chrome Soft balls feature softer urethane covers to generate enhanced spin around the green.
In a revolutionary new performance recipe, nano-particles of graphene, in the form of a thin, flat two-dimensional arrangement of carbon atoms in a HEX pattern, have been added to the outer core of each Callaway Chrome Soft Golf Ball as a reinforcing agent.
 
 Subsequently, graphene’s strength and flexibility properties have allowed R&D experts to push the limits of compression between the inner and outer cores to new boundaries.
The soft inner core now deforms more under larger forces so on impact with a driver, fairway wood or long iron it suppresses spin, translating into explosive speed and longer distance.
 
On shorter shots, the firm graphene-infused outer core helps the ball retain its shape better, generating Tour level spin, perfect for shot-stopping control in and around the green.
The stronger graphene-infused outer core also encourages a new, softer urethane cover to effectively ‘grip’ the outer core more efficiently, generating consistently high levels of spin from shorter irons.
 
Dr. Alan Hocknell, Senior Vice President, Research and Development at Callaway Golf, said “The new Chrome Soft is unlike any Tour proven golf ball we have ever made. It’s different. Using graphene as a reinforcing agent in the outer core transforms what we can do with performance.
“To the naked eye, graphene looks like a fine powder but when it is dispersed in our rubber core matrix it significantly reinforces the inner structure of the golf ball allowing us to enhance launch dynamics, optimise distance and increase and decrease spin where required.”
 
The key differentiator between Chrome Soft and Chrome Soft X is feel. Chrome Soft X is focused towards players with higher swing speeds (105mph and above) who seek a slightly firmer feel, whereas the standard Chrome Soft, will appeal to a wide spectrum of abilities.
In particular, the spin profile in the Chrome Soft X has been dramatically reduced to appeal to players with high swing speeds. One early convertor is Sergio Garcia, the 2017 Masters champion who just switched to the new Callaway Chrome Soft X for 2018
 
The Chrome Soft and Chrome Soft X are available from Feb 16th in white, yellow and has an RRP of  €49 per dozen.
A Truvis version will also hit shelves soon