The last bit of improvement comes by way of enhancements to Callaway’s TPU hex dimple cover. The updated version is 10% thinner with a new dimple pattern designed to prioritize high trajectory with reduced drag for a longer, more consistent flight. CSX’s newfound speed comes from a significantly larger core. It’s not just bigger; it’s 117% bigger. As you can probably guess, there’s a bit of voodoo in that number. Callaway can more than double its core size because the construction of the 2020 Chrome Soft X has fundamentally changed. What I can say is that manufacturers are working to quantify this in absolute terms along the lines of “If a core is x mm off-center, it can be expected to fly x-yards offline at 150 MPH speed”…something like that anyway. While the overall diameter consistency of the 2020 Callaway Chrome Soft falls within the average range, there was a single ball that did not meet our standard of roundness. 2020 Callaway Chrome Soft – Weight The Callaway Chrome Softis a 332-dimple ball with a urethane cover. It’s a 3-piece design which is notable if only for that fact that the prior Chrome Soft was a 4-piece design, which is unusual, though not entirely unheard of, in the low compression space.

In this section, we detail the consistency of the 2022 Callaway Chrome Soft. Our consistency metrics provide a measure of how similar the balls in our sample were to one another relative to all of the models we’ve tested to date. Soft feel + performance. That was the goal. Even if they weren’t aware of the theory driving Chrome Soft design, golfers bought into it to the tune of 20%, positioning Callaway as clear #2 with plenty of distance between it and #3.With higher compression baked into the design, there’s significantly less of a chance that the ball will over-compress at tour speeds. Don’t take that as a suggestion that Callaway has gone full Pinnacle here. As with Chrome Soft, it’s about tweaking materials and the relationship between the core and CSX’s two mantle layers to create a ball that, compression point for compression point, is faster than competitor offerings, but still feels soft- ish. Due to their multi-layer construction, an important factor within the performance of every ball is something known as Concentricity Offset – basically, how ‘centred’ the core is within the ball. It is notable that we found cores in two distinct colors (dark and light gray). Typically, we would expect cores of the same model to be the same color. That said, we found no quantifiable differences between the two colors in our measurements. Cover Extremely durable, resilient, and thinner cover material increases ball speed and creates lower spin on full shots, while maintaining high spin and control around the green. The overall compression consistency of the 2020 Chrome Soft is squarely in the average range. None of the balls in our sample varied significantly from the median compression measurement.

Modern day, tour-quality golf balls are multi-layered constructions that go through numerous manufacturing stages and processes before they end up in our golf bags. The MyGolfSpy staff has tentative plans to visit the ball plant in March. We’ll have more to say then, just as we’ll certainly have more to say after we’ve had a chance to test (and cut) Callaway’s new and improved offerings. The List An entirely new mantle system for increased ball speed. The Soft Inner Mantle and a highly resilient Firm Outer Mantle work together to generate increased ball speed off the club face. This innovative system is specifically created to increase total distance.For Callaway, and the Chrome Soft line in particular, concentricity is where the (synthetic) rubber meets the road. It has been the primary point of emphasis for the current generation of Chrome Soft, and I’m happy to report that we found no notable issues within the sample. Core Consistency Callaway describes their “struggle” as owning the process, or, to put it in other words, their house, their rules, their quality control. It's important to mention that Callaway already invested over 50 million dollars in new equipment that makes ball manufacturing better and more advanced compared to some of their direct competitors, and speaking of high-end machinery, the company invested heavily in cutting edge rubber mixers, which allow Callaway to mix with absolute precision the rubber compound used in their golf balls, as well as in new core molding tools, because after all's said and done, a golf ball is built from the inside-out, i.e. the core is the most important component in a high-end ball. By the way, the manufacturing process of state of the art golf balls is nowadays almost completely automated, yet Callaway still invests heavily in people, as their facilities had almost doubled the number of employees, which means the company is not trying to replace their specialists with machines. Likewise, consistency across the three points measured on each ball showed only minimal variation with 100 percent of the sample set falling within the acceptable range. The massive (and firmer) core is paired with a soft inner mantle that acts as a dampening layer. It’s how Chrome Soft X retains softer feel despite the higher compression. The firmer outer mantle provides the speed while helping to increase spin around the green.

Callaway told us that their latest duo is designed to be as premium as humanly possible, i.e. these babies are built for performance, just like a Ferrari, and, on top of that, they come loaded with the company's latest technologies and innovations. All these features make the new Chrome Soft the flagship ball offering in Callaway's 2020 portfolio, as they're crafted to be more consistent and longer than ever before. Callaway announced their latest golf-ball-duo as per 2020, and yes, today we'll be talking about the Chrome Soft and Chrome Soft X. Amazingly enough, the initial Chrome Soft was marketed as the ball that changed the ball, and regardless of how corny this sounds, the new 2020 Chrome Soft really comes with a bang, and we're not mincing words here either. Core coloring was generally consistent with no swirls or abnormal color patterns that would suggest poorly mixed materials. The new Chrome Soft X is the modern Tour Ball, and we’ve reengineered every aspect of the design to deliver maximum distance for the elite player.As is the case with everyone else in the ball biz, Callaway understood that a softer ball was inherently a slower ball, but by applying a more holistic strokes-gained approach to ball design, they believed that whatever distance it sacrificed off the tee could be made up for with longer iron shots. Its thinner cover would give more spin in the short game and ultimately you’d shoot lower scores. In general, the consistency of the Callaway Chrome Soft is AVERAGE for the metrics we measure with our gauges.

In less concrete terms, we know that off-center cores lead to greater spin axis tilt. Depending on how the ball is oriented at impact, that can produce more curvature and impact spin numbers. Your affections aside, objectively, Chrome Soft has never been a good golf ball. Nobody making a soft ball has been transparent enough about the performance implications for mid- to high-swing golfers and Callaway’s quality control issues were such that, even if you didn’t notice, it may have cost you some strokes.This will likely be news to some of you, and some of you won’t believe it, but whichever side of the Chrome Soft core you happen to be on, here’s your takeaway: Callaway is committed to remaking Chrome Soft into the great golf ball that many already think it is. It’s an approach that isn’t without risk as it doesn’t leave much room for error. In the case of our sample, a single ball failed our diameter test (frankly, it wasn’t close). Consequently, it was flagged as bad. The final piece is a urethane DuraSpin cover, designed to provide the feel and greenside spin better players demand. This latest iteration of Callaway’s flagship ball is a three-piece construction as opposed to the four-piece of previous models. This may sound like a regression but, owing to the new materials and improved construction methodology, Callaway assures us that it’s anything but. A new Hyper Elastic SoftFast Core has been engineered to deliver more distance and forgiveness without sacrificing on the soft feel that has made the Chrome Soft a ‘go to’ for so many golfers. While Chrome Soft X shared many of the same issues as Chrome Soft, perhaps its biggest liability in the market was that it wasn’t different enough from Chrome Soft. In a world of Pro V1x and TP5x and ZStar XV, Chrome Soft X didn’t compete. It has never been what golfers expect an X ball to be. It’s why Toulon says Callaway has under-indexed in sales of Chrome Soft X. That’s industry-speak for we don’t sell as many as we’d like.