The first thing you need to know about Callaway Golf’s new 4-piece ball technology is this: no other manufacturer offers a golf ball this advanced, innovative and complete. This patented, game-changing design has proven itself with 24 victories on the world's professional tours. From the lightweight, lower compression inner core and the high-density, high-compression outer core to the high inertia mantle and the HEX Aerodynamics cover, this science could only come from Callaway Golf.
The next thing you need to know about Tour i Series Golf Balls is that 4-piece technology changes everything. The “i” stands for inertia and this new science will alter the way you look at golf balls in much the same way the original Big Bertha Driver transformed the most-feared club in the bag into the most-loved.
Technology from the Inside Out
To find out how this technology made its way from concept to reality, we need to go back a few years. In 2000, Callaway Golf launched the first solid-core, 3-piece cast thermoset covered golf ball – the Rule 35 – using state-of-the-art manufacturing processes. The ball was so revolutionary that Arnold Palmer (who once used a circular metal ring to measure the spherical accuracy of his golf balls) started using the Rule 35 and decided to become a Callaway Golf Staff Professional. Next came the HEX Aerodynamics cover pattern, which replaced traditional dimples in the HX Series Golf Balls with a more aerodynamically efficient pattern of hexagons and pentagons unique to Callaway Golf. Featuring that technology, the HX Tour and HX Tour 56 Golf Balls combined to win 13 major championships.
With the HX Tour Golf Ball enjoying such a successful Tour pedigree, developing a superior new ball technology was no small order. The real challenge for the Company was to make the next-generation Tour ball significantly better, not simply tweak the previous line.
To develop such a ball, Callaway Golf’s designers felt they needed to look beyond HEX Aerodynamics and revisit the ball’s construction from the inside out. At the forefront of their thoughts was the idea to add a second core to help deliver relatively low spin levels off the driver while providing enhanced control around the greens.
Callaway Golf engineers had known of the potential performance benefits of a dual core for some time, and the answer to the next revolution in golf balls turned out to be tied to the growing Callaway Golf family of brands. Callaway Golf’s acquisition of Top-Flite included that brand’s patent portfolio. Top-Flite’s technology included the Strata Tour Ultimate Golf Ball, which Jim Furyk used to win the U.S. Open in 2003.
“It was a dual core golf ball, but it didn’t have HEX Aerodynamics, or a RIM (Reaction Injection-Molded) cover, and it didn’t fully leverage dual-core technology,” says Steve Ogg, Callaway Golf Vice President, Golf Ball Research and Development. We took the dual-core idea and optimized it.”
Enter the Tour i Series Golf Balls. This next-generation ball technology takes the evolution of the Company’s impressive 3-piece heritage and existing core technologies – HEX Aerodynamics with the sub-HEX Design and RIM Technology – and supercharges it with dual-core construction and inertia technology to create a new, 4-piece revolution.
If it seems like the new Tour i Series Golf Balls instinctively know what type of shot you’re trying to hit … well, technically speaking, they do. These new golf balls understand the important difference between driver and wedge shots – and they react appropriately to each.
The new “secret ingredient” is a feature called spin separation – a result of the core differential compression created by dual core technology. In layman’s terms, this means that the two separate cores inside the ball react differently to shots of different clubhead speeds. For example, if you hit a Tour i Series Golf Ball with a driver, the high clubhead speed compresses the ball, transferring the force, stress and energy all the way into the soft inner core. This deformation is a good thing with the driver because it reduces the moment arm from the ball’s center of gravity. For golf ball tech junkies, “moment arm” is the new rock star. In simple terms, it is a measure of torque upon the ball from the spin-generating force (club impact) to the ball’s center of gravity. A reduced, or shorter, moment arm causes the ball to spin less. Less spin equals more distance.
But what about when you need more spin? The firmer outer core of a Tour i Series Golf Ball prevents the force created by a slower clubhead speed from reaching the softer, inner core. The ball maintains its shape, resulting in a large moment arm for a high level of backspin.
“It’s very easy to misinterpret information regarding spin,” says Ogg. “You read magazine articles that say, ‘This ball has good spin,’ but they probably tested it by hitting full wedge or 9-iron shots. But a lot of balls spin well under those conditions. A more rigorous challenge is to maintain control and consistency on a chip. The dual core and RIM Technology really pay off when you’re trying to get close to the pin.”
In addition to optimizing spin rates for different clubs, an additional benefit of dual core technology is the opportunity to differentiate the specific gravity, or density, of the inner core from the specific gravity of the outer core. “We move the high-density fillers that we typically use in a single core construction to the outer core, thus increasing the moment of inertia (resistance to twisting or, in this case, spinning) of the golf ball,” Ogg says. “The increased moment of inertia (MOI) reduces the driver spin at launch for reduced drag and also helps maintain spin later in the flight for increased low speed lift and longer carries.”
The mantle layer – the boundary between the cores and the cover – of the Tour i Series is significantly thinner than previous Callaway Golf balls, which makes the balls feel softer. However, the new mantle material is denser, which additionally helps increase the MOI and move weight out and away from the inner core to help improve driver distance.
In a golf ball cover, you want enough thickness that the material can get into the grooves and grip on wedge shots. Callaway Golf’s Reaction Injection Molding (RIM) process creates an ideal and consistent cover thickness all the way around the Tour i Series Golf Balls at 20 thousandths of an inch. That compares to 35 thousandths of an inch in the original Rule 35 Golf Ball, and 30 thousandths of an inch in the HX Tour Series.
The combination of dual core technology, inertia technology, RIM, and HEX Aerodynamics is something you can only get in a Tour i and Tour ix Golf Ball. When you want a drive to spin less and fly farther, it does. When you want an approach shot to spin and stick, it does that, too. And when you want soft feel, durability, precision and consistency from tee to green, it has all that, too. That makes Tour i Series Golf Balls the weapon of choice these days for pros like Phil Mickelson, Annika Sorenstam, Ernie Els and others who thought they had the “holy grail” of golf balls in the HX Tour Series. In fact, it was Callaway Golf’s ball technology that convinced Ernie Els to join the Company as a Staff Professional. “I didn’t think it was possible to create a better ball,” Els said. “Once again, Callaway Golf has raised the bar.”
There is a misconception, stemming from the old balata ball days, that you have to be an accomplished golfer to play a Tour-level ball. The balata ball did spin a lot with the driver, and the pros were among the few who could get good distance out of it. But those days are long gone.
“You don’t have to be a pro to play a Tour i Series Golf Ball,” Ogg says. “Anybody who wants great feel and greenside control will benefit from this ball. Anybody who wants less driver spin and more distance will benefit from this ball, too. It really is the best of all worlds.”
