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Callaway Chrome Soft Golf Ball Review Thread

SuperStroke
OK, I went into golftec today for some practice, and brought along my skytrak to get some numbers on the Chrome Soft with my lob wedge. Someone asked a while back about spin with the wedges of the Soft versus other balls.

Unfortunately I only had Chrome + to compare it to today, but hopefully this comparison helps.

In summary, the Soft spins MORE with my Lob wedge than the Chrome + does, and I get more distance as well, possibly due to the softer compression.

I dont' think I had my Skytrak aligned straight at the target as I was pulling almost everything a little left. But here are the numbers, first the Chrome + with 60* Scor Lob Wedge.



And with the Chrome Soft:




As you can see, flight was all slightly left of target, but pretty consistent shape.




The Chrome Soft also feels better, probably due to the low compression core.

The third shot with the Soft I definitely chunked a little and the results showed it. But overall I was surprised to see a significant increase in distance. Don't worry about the club head speed numbers. They are "calculated" based on launch data. I don't think I was swinging harder with the Soft.

I also did some Driver head to head between the balls. On well struck shots, there wasn't a whole lot difference in spin, probably about 200 rpm less with the Chrome Soft. On my miss (Push fades) I was getting about 500 RPM less with the Chrome Soft than the Chrome +! This is significant for me and was creating extra distance.

Its hard not to imagine the Chrome Soft being in my bag this season, it is really, really good.
 
Great stuff, Brett. I found the chrome + a bit spinny off of the driver, so it's great to hear the chrome soft rectifies that
 
Got to play nine holes with these today. I alternated between two balls. Every club felt smooth on contact but not so soft that I felt like I was hitting a marshmallow. From driver to putter I was impressed with control and ball flight. I did hit 2 trees, one cart path, and multiple wedge shots with my MD2 and the cover on one showed it by the ninth hole.
 
I've been testing this ball from inside 140 and it performs beautifully, especially with my wedges. Its worthy of the hype.
 
Michigan Slice said:
Freddie, I know Matt Wood at the Hideaway was commenting how good these balls felt, and how much longer they were.
I know he was flying greens, and commenting how his drives were also longer.
He genuinely seemed impressed by this ball!

I can't wait to play it today in my sim round!!
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I haven't flown any greens but I do feel it's a bit longer then other Callaway offerings. Im really enjoying it on half shots and around the green
 
Tadashi70 said:
I haven't flown any greens but I do feel it's a bit longer then other Callaway offerings. Im really enjoying it on half shots and around the green
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Around the greens is where this ball shined for me as well.
 
I just picked up a box of these. Excited to put them into play, hopefully this next week!
 
Just picked some up on Friday. Looking to put this ball in play tomorrow!
 
Reading through this thread makes me want to grab some of these before Spring.
 
Would you say this ball is made for a certain swing speed like over our 100 mph?
 
crazygolfnut said:
Would you say this ball is made for a certain swing speed like over our 100 mph?
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Absolutely not, the low compression lends itself to a wide variety of SS's, I know we have some in the 80's/90's playing it here as well as well over 100.
 
Jman said:
Absolutely not, the low compression lends itself to a wide variety of SS's, I know we have some in the 80's/90's playing it here as well as well over 100.
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That's good. I gave my wife a dozen roses for our wedding anniversary and she gave me a dozen golf balls. Looking forward to trying them out.
 
I picked up a dozen of these and got out today on our 81* weather. This ball is the real deal. It felt nice off the driver and was plenty long. I also noticed that the ball seemed to really check for me on the greens. I am a believer.
 
Used this ball today for about 10 holes out of 18. The course was wet in spots and I lost one of these golf balls not far off the fairway in the rough, probably plugged. That was aggravating. Over all am very satisfied with this golf ball from the driver through the putter. Had a chip in from around 30 feet and made a 15 foot birdie putt with it. Seemed to be a little longer off the driver than the B330RXS (2010 version), almost positively 6 or 8 yards longer off the irons. Like one person has already said, this ball seems manageable for chipping and pitching. I don't think it spins as much on chips and pitches as do the Srixon Zstar, B330S and etc but has enough spin to be pretty manageable. Have to get used to the slightly higher trajectory on some pitches and chips with this ball. For some reason this ball seems to check better on firmer greens so far, or maybe it is my imagination, but that would be a really good thing I think. I am very satisfied so far with the Chrome Soft and it might replace the B330RXS for most golf this year, but will need to start comparing the latest version of the B330RXS to it to be fair.
 
I'm struggling with this ball over my expectations. Without hesitation I can say I've seen no gains whatsoever in any aspect of my game. The biggest frustration has been in the short game. I can pinch wedges get the ball to check up pretty easily, not with this ball however, which completely stumps me. Admittedly our greens are firmer and faster right now that I can every remember them being but I just can't get this ball to check up, even when I know I've hit a perfect wedge. Yesterday I eventually put a ProV1 in play because I needed some action around the greens.

I have to imagine this is the indian so I'm going to put away the 10 balls I have left until I know I'm playing well and conditions are strong so that I can fairly evaluate whether it's for me or not.
 
Had more than one wedge shot this weekend back up off a green. Had a 3/4 SW shot spin back a few inches last night. Distance off the tee is really good, cutting corners is an option and bringing long hazards into play. Had a 7i from 165 over a bunker that came out way low, still stopped within 15 feet.
 
I plan on picking up a dozen of these very, very soon. Looking forward to finally being able to use them.
 
Played this bad boy for the first time yesterday.

I honestly think this is the perfect ball minus the $38 price tag. Durability is exceptional, feel is great, spin is really good. I am a just a cheap-o when it comes to a golf ball.

I feel like it is a touch firmer than the SuperSoft, but spins alot more around the green. I absolutely love it, I just do not know if it is "that" much better than the SuperSoft, for my game, to swallow the additional money.
 
NoLine said:
I'm struggling with this ball over my expectations. Without hesitation I can say I've seen no gains whatsoever in any aspect of my game. The biggest frustration has been in the short game. I can pinch wedges get the ball to check up pretty easily, not with this ball however, which completely stumps me. Admittedly our greens are firmer and faster right now that I can every remember them being but I just can't get this ball to check up, even when I know I've hit a perfect wedge. Yesterday I eventually put a ProV1 in play because I needed some action around the greens.

I have to imagine this is the indian so I'm going to put away the 10 balls I have left until I know I'm playing well and conditions are strong so that I can fairly evaluate whether it's for me or not.
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I think the conditions are playing a factor for sure. When my course is firm I can't stop any ball reasonably well, but soft and I can't keep them on the green. I'd say be patient at the moment
 
After getting 3 rounds in total with this ball I have a few more thoughts. I really really really like this ball, but I don't think it will be my gamer. Nothing about it is better than my current gamer which is the Taylormade Lethal.

I look at this ball as a very good and slightly cheaper alternative to the PROV1x. This ball reminds me a lot of the Project A. I do love the durability, but I never play a ball more than 1 round. At the end of the round they go into my practice stash.

This ball reminds me so much of the Callaway HX Bite balls with a more durable cover. I love the HX Bite, it is my go to "cheap" ball. I can't rationalize spending 38 on a slightly better version of a "cheap" ball.

Once I run out of my huge stash of Lethals I may consider this ball, but will probably just roll over to my Bridgestone B330 RX stash.
 
Just got 4 more of these balls (free from BudgetGolf.com with an order) - looking forward to putting these into play this week!!
 
Ive finally found these balls in New Zealand but the $60 price tag is making me wait till I have some spare cash.
 
I wonder how this ball compares to the Taylormade Project (a) as far as spin or distance? Anyone done a comparison?
 
bobgeorge said:
I wonder how this ball compares to the Taylormade Project (a) as far as spin or distance? Anyone done a comparison?
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Personally, I got less tee spin and more greenside out of the soft, but that's just me
 
I played 9 holes with this ball yesterday. My gamers the last few months have been either an NXT Tour Soft or a Hex Chrome Plus. I met up with THPer Daddio yesterday for 18 holes in the worst weather conditions I have ever played. He had just picked up a dozen Chrome Softs to try out, so I talked him into trading a couple for a couple of my Hex Chrome Plus balls.

First off let me say that the weather was in no way what anybody could consider golf weather....quite miserable actually. Course was very wet but the greens were really firm (maybe frozen), temps went from mid 40s at the start of our round down to mid-high 30s by the time we made the turn. We were dealing with 20-30MPH wind and a constant drizzle-light rain the entire back 9. Combine this with the sporadic chances to get out and play I've had the last 2 months and I don't feel like I can give a very good apples to apples comparison of this ball, but I did notice a few things that I feel I can honestly comment on.

I played the front 9 with the hex chrome plus and the back 9 with the soft. Even though the air was full of water on the back 9 my drives were considerably longer with the soft versus the chrome plus yesterday. My driver SS has dropped from 102-105ish down to 90-95ish this year. This has got me finding the sweet spot with much more regularity, and I am seeing 1.45-1.5 smash factor consistently. I feel like the chrome soft is a great fit for my swing speed because not only was I seeing 10-20 more yards compared to the chrome plus, but the ball just had that awesome, well compressed feel to me coming off the driver nearly every time. On one drive I tried to step on it a bit too much, hit it off the toe a bit, and what probably would have been a fade caught a major crosswind and ended up curving quite a bit right. Other than that shot I was getting really straight to baby draw flight off the driver every time.

With my woods and hybrid shots again I was seeing more distance than I did with the chrome plus, other than the few really fat chunky shots I goofed up. Again, this ball was giving me nice straight flight like the chrome plus gives me, but I enjoyed the extra 5-8 yards.

I missed lots of greens with mid iron full shots, but this wasn't the balls fault. Small greens, strong wind, unfamiliar course and the occasional chunk were the main problem. The one time I did pure an 8 iron the ball stayed pretty close to it's pitchmark. BTW, the greens were hard enough that I was having a difficult time finding my pitchmarks to fix. Normally I tear the crap out of the greens when my iron shots hit them but that wasn't happening in yesterdays conditions.

With half, 3/4 and full wedge shots the ball got up nicely, landed nice and soft, and rolled out little if any. I had one full gap wedge shot that backed up a few inches, and I think it would have come back at me a good foot and a half under normal conditions. At no point did I feel like I needed to worry about this ball running away from where it landed. Seemed to react pretty similarly to the chrome plus spin wise on wedges, chips and pitches.

Off the putter I liked this ball as much as any. Not clicky, true roll, etc.


To summarize.... I can not find the words to describe how anxious I am to try this ball out under decent conditions. I really think it is going to play very similar to my chrome plus with the exception of giving me some more yards off the long sticks.
 
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