Welcome to The Golf Shop Online, where our passion for golf drives us to provide you with an exceptional shopping experience! For those of you unfamiliar with the golf ball manufacturing process, understand that Wilson’s new approach is unusual, to say the least. Using the Wilson Staff R over the course of a round, I was able to get some sense of both performance and durability. For what it’s worth, our John Barba, who also played the Staff Model R, found no cause for concern. As its name might suggest, the Wilson Duo Soft+ is the softest golf ball in the current Wilson range. In fact, its compression rating of 35 is among the lowest of any golf ball that’s been manufactured in recent years. The Duo Soft+ features a two-piece construction and a surlyn cover. That said, while surlyn is significantly less responsive than urethane, which is also far more expensive, the Duo Soft+ provides better greenside control than what players might normally expect from a two-piece ball.

The biggest difference between the two balls is that the R model’s urethane cover is completely unpainted, which is a golf industry first. Wilson maintains that the unpainted ball produces a stronger ball flight on full shots, more friction and spin on short shots, and increased accuracy. In our testing, the first two claims were realized, with the ball flying as far as some of the best distance golf balls on the market. Improved accuracy, however, was difficult to discern. During robotic testing and play tests with our Advisory Staff, unpainted Staff Model prototypes were evaluated next to our painted Staff Model balls. These ‘raw’ versions of the ball performed so well, delivered such exceptional precision and overall performance that our advisory staff demanded that we develop an unpainted version for production, and Staff Model R was born. Seamless Urethane Cover - seamless 362-dimple design smooths airflow around the ball, resulting in a lower ball trajectory and increased distance. For its part, Wilson has employees working inside Foremost to, in part, oversee the quality of the product. That’s also a relatively common story among brands who do a high volume through Foremost (and other factories). We’ll have a better sense of to what degree those efforts are successful after we’ve run the Staff Model R through our Ball Lab. Spin & Control With 4 Layers More Layers -Increased spin. Better command. Off the tee, unrivalled distance and shot shaping. On the fairways, it's possible to work like a pro. Stability on approach approaches is predictable, and control around the green is superb.Staff Model R is unpainted as the dimple cross-section geometry, and the pattern of dimples on a golf ball are critical aerodynamic elements that affect the flight performance of the ball in terms of trajectory, distance, and directional stability. These dimples are a mere 0.004-0.007 inches deep and super sensitive to the level of paint on the ball,” said Bob Thurman, Vice President, Wilson Labs.

I don't know if I should talk about putting because the feel is so subjective. I felt on putts the Staff was a bit more lively off the putterface than other balls... not quite to the extent of a Chrome Soft but just a little different. This early in the year my putting is too awful to really draw conclusions. When a ball gets a minor scuff or scrape, it’s typically in the paint layers. Urethane is more durable than paint so Wilson contends the Staff Model R will prove more resilient to the minor damage that most golfers associate with durability. Between off-center cores, concentricity issues and inconsistencies with diameter, weight and compression, MyGolfSpy’s Ball Lab has given you plenty to worry about with your golf balls. With the release of the new Wilson Staff Model R, the company is giving you one more.

Not only that, but because it spins much less it will also allow average golfers to find more fairways as it won't deviate as much with side spin from hooks or slices. So basically, it’s straighter and longer, but only if you aren’t a highly accomplished player. Durability is certainly an issue though. It turns out that there’s actually a very good reason why golf balls are painted! It has nothing to do with performance and everything to do with protecting the cover and keeping the ball looking as good as new for as long as possible. There is a world of difference when it comes to performance of a low compression, two-piece ball like the DUO when compared to a higher compression, premium ball such as the ProV1 for example. I have to say that when I moved away from the putting green to hit some pitches that I found the Wilson very agreeable. As you can see apart from one obvious mishit my ball speeds and carry numbers were really consistent. I am not convinced in a blind pitching test that I would have been able to tell the difference between the Wilson and more premium models on test. Generally, lower handicappers are looking for a ball that spins more so they can get more control around the greens. In this case, getting a ball with a urethane cover is really important as it will give you the most spin and control.