For Callaway, Feb. 2, 2024, was more than just Groundhog Day.

It represents a stake-in-the-ground moment for their flagship golf ball franchise.

The new Chrome Tour golf balls have hit retail shelves.

Callaway says the names are different because the products are different. Sure, but to understand how we got here and why the change matters, we need to rewind almost 10 years to the original Chrome Soft.

(Clearing my throat and doing my best 30 For 30 voice.)

What if I told you Callaway’s “Ball That Changed the Ball” wasn’t supposed to be “THE BALL” at all?

When the original red-box Chrome Soft came to market, Callaway was entering its second year with Speed Regime. While history may not remember Speed Regime fondly (or at all), at the time, it was Callaway’s flagship (i.e., most premium) ball franchise. The two balls planned for the new “Chrome” family were slated to sit underneath Speed Regime as value balls (it’s all relative) in the Callaway lineup.

The year before, Callaway launched the first generation of its budget-friendly Super Soft. Exceeding expectations, Super Soft provided Callaway with a strong signal that there was significant consumer demand for soft golf balls.

The original Chrome Soft was designed to be something akin to an advanced Super Soft. Callaway’s thinking was that a soft, three-piece urethane ball would have broader appeal but a category-redefining launchpad to No. 2 status in the ball category?

Yeah, probably not so much, at least not in the beginning.

Plans for Chrome Soft and, ultimately, the trajectory of Callaway’s ball business changed in 2014 as Chrome Soft was nearing production.

“We were working on a new ball called Chrome Soft,and there was a group of us, including Harry Arnett (Callaway’s former SVP of Marketing), that went to Bandon,” says Jason Finley, Callaway’s Global Director Brand and Product Management for Golf Ball.

“We started playing that ball because we had the earliest samples. I think that was the first sign. Wait a minute, we’re not all playing this Speed Regime ball. We’re playing this Chrome Soft prototype that everyone likes. We started getting a lot of people playing it. Now, none of us would be accused of being super high swing speed players, but the reaction to that product was amazing.”

The plan for Chrome Soft was to launch side by side with Chrome Speed. Chrome Speed was significantly firmer (90 compression) and more of a true “Tour” offering but inside the walls of Callaway, Chrome Soft had all the buzz.

Nobody wanted Chrome Speed.

“Everybody started to get pretty excited about it [Chrome Soft], even to the point where we had Phil [Mickelson] trying it,” says Finley. “Phil was giving it out to his dad, club pros, everybody. He was playing with it and the feedback was positive.

“So pretty quickly, the feeling became that we had a very differentiated product unlike anything we had seen in the marketplace and so we ended up launching it on its own rather than with Chrome Speed.”

Chrome Soft went to market and caught fire. Chrome Speed was never released.

In 2016, Callaway launched a redesigned dual-core Chrome Soft with slightly higher compression. The objective was to offer something closer to Tour-level performance with the dual-core providing a more robust spin profile.

Speed Regime was still in the marketplace but Chrome Soft had cemented its position as THE ball in the Callaway lineup.

The Consequences of Success

It’s hard to look at Chrome Soft as anything other than a success. Today, it accounts for +/-8% of the dollars spent in the golf ball market but, in hindsight, one could argue it put Callaway at a disadvantage with the better player.

As 2017 rolled around, Chrome Soft X launched, but despite the X naming, for all intents and purposes, Callaway didn’t have a true Tour-level ball on store shelves.

The first iteration of Chrome Soft X was higher compression than Chrome Soft but not nearly as firm as it is now. Looking back, the performance wasn’t what it needed to be for a Tour ball.

“It certainly wasn’t at the level of performance that we have today,” says Finely, “and that was a problem in the in the early days of us being more serious about the golf ball business.”

A “Tour” ball wasn’t Callaway’s top priority and that was reflected in its Tour contracts where, in many cases, the ball wasn’t part of the deal. Even when it was, the letter of those deals wasn’t always honored.

“You can put it in a contract all you want,” says Finley, “but if a player doesn’t view it as something that’s beneficial their game, they’re still not going to play it.”

In retrospect, there can be little doubt some of that boiled down to the quality of the product. As has been discussed at length, Chrome Soft tested poorly in our first robot tests and as we (and golfers) started cutting them open, concentricity issues became a part of the conversation.

During that time, Finley says that feedback from the Tour “wasn’t all super-positive”.

Callaway eventually owned up to the quality problems and, while the company is focused on the present, Finley concedes, “we knew we had to get better.”

Precision Technology

Much has been written about the significant upgrades Callaway has made to its golf ball manufacturing facility in Chicopee, Mass.

An initial $50-million investment became $80 million and has climbed to more than $100 million.

“Versus my time when I first walked in there in 2014, everything is different in there now, other than our packing line,” says Finley. “Every single piece of that process has been upgraded and changed since then … a lot of that, unfortunately, doesn’t happen over night … If you want to call that acknowledging that we weren’t world-class, yeah, that’s probably fair.”

The investments in making a better golf ball go well beyond machinery. Significant investment has been made in human capital as well. The most visible addition is Eric Loper, who moved from TaylorMade in 2019 to head up Callaway golf ball R&D but he’s just one of many who have worked to overhaul Callaway’s ball business.

“I don’t have any metrics for you,” says Loper, “but if you were to go look at the leadership team there, in general, bringing in new talent that has experience, whether it be in golf ball or in general manufacturing, there’s a new approach and it’s centered around making excellent product.”

That new approach was the impetus for the Precision Technology label that adorned the boxes of the 2022 Chrome Soft, Chrome Soft X, and Chrome Soft X LS.

A 3D X-Ray machine inside Callaway’s Chicopee ball manufacturing plant

In that first iteration, precision technology spoke to Callaway’s use of 3D X-Ray technology to identify concentricity defects in its balls before they reached consumers.

Manufacturing experts will tell you that attempting to inspect quality in a product isn’t viable over the long haul but, in its first years of leveraging its X-Ray machines, that’s exactly what Callaway was doing.

The inspection process was costly as it resulted in significantly more scrap and lower production yields but it helped keep bad balls out of the hands of golfers.

For Callaway, it was part of the learning process.

“To be able to solve the problem, you have to be able to see and recognize the problem,” says Finley. “Having full visibility throughout every step of the way and collecting all that data has allowed us to get better but that didn’t come without the cost along the way of taking some stuff that we weren’t proud of and not letting it get into the marketplace.”

“I think what’s great about what’s been done,” adds Eric Loper. “Most companies would have adjusted their concentricity specs to align with yields. Let’s make improvements slowly. That’s one way. Our approach is really more consumer- or golfer-centric.

“Leadership said, ‘We want to focus on what’s best for the customer.’ R&D set those specs and we accepted the yields, which weren’t great, but that was what was best for the golfer.”

Callaway set tighter tolerances and was willing to adhere to them even if it meant eating the cost of more waste while it worked to improve. Several years ago, Callaway’s former VP of R&D Alan Hocknell described the process as changing the tires on a moving car. Shutting down completely was never an option.

The core of a 2024 Chrome Soft X LS

Over the last few years, the company has seen its efforts bear fruit as the amount of scrap has diminished significantly.

Since the 2022 ball launched, Precision Technology has evolved into a company-wide rallying cry that signifies a dedication to the goal of producing the most consistent golf balls on the market.

Where that leaves Callaway on a relative basis today will take time to quantify but Loper believes the consistency of Callaway product is as good as anyone’s … if not better.

Call that redemption but it’s only half of Callaway’s battle.

Finding an Audience with the Better Player

Patterned golf balls (Triple Track, Triple Track 360, True TruTrac, and Truvis) account for 65%-70% of Callaway’s urethane golf ball business.

Callaway has found success in other areas of the golf ball market (Chrome Soft and Super Soft are the market leaders within their respective segments) but has struggled to make any serious headway in the “Tour” ball category and, by extension, with the better player.

That’s not an opinion. It’s a fact that repeats itself monthly with each new market share report.

Despite what consecutive MyGolfSpy ball tests have shown to be excellent performance, Chrome Soft X accounted for less than two percent of the market. Add the LS to the mix and it takes a generous rounding effort to get to three percent.

To put those numbers in perspective, Callaway’s share of the tour ball market is significantly less than what TaylorMade has with TP5 and TP5x and it doesn’t come close to sniffing Titleist’s 1-2 punch of Pro V1 and Pro V1x.

The lack of retail success of Callaway’s Chrome Soft X and Chrome Soft X LS likely boils down to a few factors.

Finley acknowledges that having “soft” in the product name has likely hurt Callaway with some golfers (he also suggested that some of that might be my fault).

While Callaway believes the Chrome Soft X LS is one of the most overlooked hidden gems on the market, the “LS” branding may have implied a golf ball that’s low spin across the board, not just off the longest clubs in your bag.

Nobody wants low spin around the green.

Lastly, starting with the original Chrome Soft, Callaway has prioritized its red box ball to the near exclusion of Chrome Soft X and LS.

“If I’m critical of us, I think there are some branding challenges that we’ve dealt with there but we balance that with the fact that Chrome Soft was our franchise. We have focused on Chrome Soft. It goes back to putting your weight behind winners and believing we had a truly differentiated product.”

Chrome Soft was THE ball. Chrome Soft X and X LS got whatever they got by being along for the ride.

That’s all in the past. With the 2024 Chrome Tour offering, Callaway is planning a dramatic shift.

“The New Gold Standard”

The signature piece of a revitalized Callaway golf ball lineup and strategy is the Chrome Tour – a 90 compression ball designed to compete with the Pro V1. It’s the ball the Callaway lineup has lacked since Chrome Speed hit the scrap bin and Speed Regime faded from shelves.

Why now?

First, the realities of now lack the immediacy the word suggests. Chrome Tour is three to four years in the making.

“Don’t think for the last couple of years we haven’t had the conversation about the name. You and I have joked about it for multiple generations,” says Jason Finley,

“But I think what we have done from a product perspective, and I say that primarily talking about the performance of the product, but also everything else we’ve talked about, we couldn’t be prouder of the product we’re delivering to the marketplace now.”

Part of that pride no doubt stems from the advancements in Chicopee.

“You can’t design and launch a product that you can’t make,” says Eric Loper.

“We definitely have enough experience on my team to know what the limits are, and it’s important that we push those limits, but we do it in a way where we’re pushing the limits to improve performance but understand what needs to be done on the manufacturing side to ensure that we hit great quality.”

As Callaway transitions into a new year, a new product line and a new effort to reestablish itself as a “Tour” brand within the golf ball category, no detail is too small.

The balls are better, sure. But the paint is brighter, the fonts are different and the side stamp is bigger. The logo, the player number … everything has changed.

“I’m almost embarrassed to say how much time we spent looking at some of these things,” says Finley.

Nowhere will the changes be more apparent than your local big box retailers where gold will replace Callaway’s typical sea of red on the endcaps. That should clue golfers into the idea that something is different.

“I’m not going to tell you that going from red to gold is going to solve all the world’s problems for us,” says Finley, “but I do think it will get people to think about us a little bit differently than they have in the past.”

The red box Chrome Soft, Callaway’s signature ball over the last nine years, remains in the lineup. A segment of golfers love it, and Callaway isn’t about to take it away from them. The new Chrome Soft is better, says Callaway, but don’t expect to hear too much more about it and don’t expect to see red boxes front and center as they have been in the past.

Out of the gates, Callaway has led with its firmest offering, Chrome Tour X. At the 2024 PGA Show, it challenged attendees to hit Chrome Tour X side by side against Pro V1x. Callaway says Tour X is faster off the driver and spins more off wedges than Pro V1x. At the show, it didn’t lose often.

Neither faster nor spinnier or even both irrefutably translates to better but, for golfers to make a switch, you need to show them something.

So, as we transition into the heart of the buying season, Callaway hopes to provide plenty of reasons for you to try (and ideally convert to) their new balls.

Chrome Tour will feature heavily. It’s the ball Callaway bills as “The New Gold Standard”. A not-quite 1-for-1 replacement for the Chrome Soft X LS, Chrome Tour is the ball that Callaway’s lineup has been missing.

“We had an exercise with our fitting team,” says Finley. “Somebody walks up to one of our performance fitters on a range … and they say, OK, well, what ball are you playing? I play ball X, ball Y, whatever it may be, right? This is the Callaway ball that they need. And, really, it was very easy to do with every single ball in the competitive landscape, except for one. And that was the Pro V1.”

With Chrome Tour, Callaway has its answer.

Something really is different here.

With that, you can expect Callaway to roll out the requisite bold claims. It also plans to host events across the U.S. where golfers will be invited to test their current ball against Chrome Tour.

“You don’t do that if you don’t think you’re going to win,” says Finley.

A Bigger Piece of the Pie

Even if, as Finley predicts, Callaway wins more than it loses, it’s still facing an uphill battle.

Unlike the metalwoods category where consumer loyalty is fleeting and 10-point swings in market share can happen in a month, change in the ball category moves at the pace of JB Holmes.

If Callaway can double its share in the tour ball category from three percent to six, it will be a win. And even that won’t come easily. Titleist is steady, TaylorMade has new balls on the way, and even where there are quantifiable performance differences, golfers struggle to see them. The reality is that many, if not most, are comfortable with what they’re playing.

Can Callaway convert golfers to Chrome Tour?

Selling the first box is easy. Showing enough performance benefit so that golfer will buy another box and another and another after that is exponentially more difficult.

“You’ve heard it, ‘Oh, I tried it for a couple rounds. It’s great. What are you playing now? I kind of went back to the …’ I’ve heard that for 20 years,” says Eric Loper.

“You have to have a product that’s better and a lot better to keep that player motivated and wanting to play it. If they’ve been playing it for 20 years, they have all of those shots. That’s catalogued. ‘I was playing better golf. I stuck it tight. I got my first hole in one.’ It’s hard competing against history. There has to be a reason to switch.”

A faster core, a softer cover, greater consistency. Even if it all proves true, are those reasons enough?

To Be #1 …

When I visited Callaway’s Chicopee plant two years ago, I asked Loper why he left the increasingly successful ball franchise at TaylorMade. His response was to hold up a single finger.

Loper, like Jason Finley, and the rest of the Callaway ball team believes the company can get to No. 1. Not this year. Not next year either but the hope is that with time and the best product it has ever delivered in the ball category, it will happen.

“Hope is not a strategy but we’re very hopeful that we’ll signify to the consumer that something has changed.

“This idea of the new gold standard can be perceived as marketing, a cheeky tagline, but it is really a new standard in performance we’re setting with both the ultimate performance variables of speed and spin all the way down to the consistency that our products are providing.”

Callaway says its golf balls aren’t just “good enough.” They’re better. I suspect that promise is enough for many of you to buy that first box.

Whether there’s enough performance to overcome history, to motivate you to make the switch? Well, strategy or not, Callaway certainly hopes there is.

The 2024 Callaway Chrome Tour, Chrome Tour X and Chrome Soft are available now.

Editor’s Note: This article was written in partnership with Callaway

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