The New(est) Gold Standard in golf balls now comes in a medium-gray box.
Undoubtedly of greater interest than the color of the box is that Callaway has launched a third model in the Chrome Tour franchise: the Chrome Tour Triple Diamond.
If you’re the least bit familiar with Callaway’s metalwoods lineup, you’ve likely already pieced together that Chrome Tour Triple Diamond is a lower-spinning version of Callaway’s Chrome Tour and, with that, it’s reasonable to assume it represents the company’s answer to the Pro V1x Left Dash.
Why Chrome Tour Triple Diamond?
Some of you might recall that as part of the Chrome Tour launch, Callaway ran a series of challenges where golfers hit Chrome Tour side by side with their golf ball of choice. Using easy-to-understand metrics like ball speed and greenside spin, Callaway’s aim was to show golfers that its new Tour offering outperformed competitors.
To be sure, neither speed nor spin (or even both in combination) represent the totality of golf ball performance but if you can show any sort of advantage, you’ve got a pretty good shot at convincing golfers to at least try the balls.
Perhaps that’s why Callaway’s golf ball market share is consistently above 20 percent.
Callaway says a couple of thousand golfers took the challenge and its golf balls won roughly 80 percent of the time.
Where Callaway lost more than it won was when it had to go dimple-to-dimple with the Titleist Pro V1x Left Dash.
As most of you know, Left Dash is Titleist’s lower-spinning version of the Pro V1x. It tends to be a little faster than the stock Pro V1x as well and while, like everything else, golf ball distance is golfer-dependent, more often than not it’s one of, if not the absolute longest, balls on the market.
About Chrome Tour Triple Diamond
The story here is simple. Chrome Tour Triple Diamond is a faster and lower-spinning take on Chrome Tour. It offers the same four-piece (dual-mantle) construction as the other Chrome Tour balls along with a new dimple pattern designed to optimize flight.
That last bit is always a little fuzzy as sometimes optimization is code for constrain to USGA distance limits.
Regardless, with compression targets a few points firmer than Chrome Tour X, there’s zero reason to think Chrome Tour Triple Diamond won’t be the fastest ball in the Chrome Tour lineup off the tee and among the very fastest on the market.
“It’s fast. It’s really fast,” says Eric Loper, Senior Director, Research and Development-Golf Ball at Callaway Golf.
Triple Diamond versus LS
Callaway has offered low-spin variants before. Before the launch of Chrome Tour, Chrome Soft X LS filled the low-spin niche in Callaway’s lineup. While CX LS was lower-spinning than Chrome Soft X, it wasn’t particularly low-spinning across the competitive set.
According to Callaway, Chrome Tour Triple Diamond isn’t a new LS. It’s a true low-spin alternative to Left Dash.
Reality check
While Left Dash has become exceptionally popular among golfers in the know, Titleist insiders will tell you it remains a niche option.
For the target audience, there really hasn’t been anything else like it on the market but if there’s a liability with Left Dash it’s that greenside spin can be lacking.
For the most part, we should expect the same to hold true for Chrome Tour Triple Diamond. Callaway says it’s fast but it’s not making any claims around greenside spin. I expect greenside spin rates will be competitive with Left Dash but I’m not expecting we’ll see any significant separation.
Summarizing: The Callaway Chrome Tour Triple Diamond is for golfers looking for low spin throughout the bag, those looking for distance at the expense of feel or the player who needs to bring spin down to hit his preferred flight window.
If that’s you, Callaway thinks it has your new golf ball.
Callaway’s advantage
As part of its Precision Technology pledge, Callaway billed its golf balls as more consistent than comparable Titleist offerings. The specifics of the claim revolve around what Callaway calls “seamless tour aero”, which is a bit of marketing spin on the technology it uses to polish the covers of its golf balls.
The important piece to understand is that no matter what anyone claims, every golf ball has a seam. It’s the unavoidable consequence of two cover molds coming together. The process results in a bit of extra urethane left over where the models come together. The typical process is to buff or sand the seam to remove the flash.
While some manufacturers inarguably polish more accurately and consistently than others, over- or under-sanding the seam can lead to inconsistencies in flight.
Remember when seaming the golf ball off the tee was a thing?
Callaway’s process leverages a more holistic approach to removing the flash. Instead of polishing the seam and only the seam, it polishes more of the ball which it says yields a more uniform result.
Pricing and availability
The Callaway Chrome Tour Triple Diamond will be available in white and Triple Track versions. Retail price is $54.99 a dozen.
Retail availability begins Jan. 31.
For more information, visit CallawayGolf.com.
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