Earlier this year, Wilson launched a new golf ball called Staff Model, complete with what they called a Baller Box subscription. Within just a few short days, the subscription service was scrapped, but the Staff Model golf ball remained their current premium product in line.
Today, they are launching an extension to that line with the Staff Model R. Conjuring up images of Gordon Ramsay, R stands for RAW! Yes, that’s right, Raw golf balls. You are probably asking yourself “why”, so we will get to that before getting into the nuts and bolts of the product.
“The painting process can frequently result in balls with poor, uneven paint coverage and pooling of paint in these shallow dimples,” said Frank Simonutti, Global Director of Golf Ball Innovation. “This can significantly affect the trajectory and the directional stability of the flight of the ball. By eliminating the paint, we were able to eliminate all of the short comings attributed to the paint process used on all golf balls.“
According to Bob Thurman, VP of Wilson Labs, current tour golf balls on the market can result in offline drift as much as +/- 25 feet from 200 yards, based on their internal testing. Under a black light he says it is very easy to observe the inconsistencies and paint pooling in the dimples. Wilson added the imagery to the front of the box as seen below.
Wait what? Is this true? Now I have to keep black lights away from hotel rooms I am staying in and my golf ball stash? This brings up a lot of questions, but let’s say for the sake of argument that Wilson Labs is absolutely correct. That paint is causing drift upwards of 25 feet. What does this say about their entire ball line, including the Staff Model released earlier this year?
Whether true or not, taking them on face value, it makes a little bit of sense. Dimple designs are created at a depth and configuration for aerodynamics. Introducing another layer on top of the thin urethane layer will could alter consistency. With that said, it is done for a number of reasons, including aesthetics.
Nobody likes playing a scuffed up golf ball. Well, paint is a big part of that. UV stability, resistance to staining and overall looks come from that application. The Staff Model R is not going to have that. In fact, you should expect it to stain, discolor and look pretty “pre-owned” after a short bit of play. Will a level of consistency change that way of thinking for you?
If you have made it this far, you are probably ready to hear about the Staff Model R and what makes it unique in terms of tech. Nothing. Well, not nothing as far as the golf ball performance, Staff Model is a very good golf ball. Nothing as far as it being new or different in terms of construction from that ball. The Staff Model R is the Staff Model, minus paint. Thinking about Gordon Ramsay again…”It’s Effin Raw”!
The new Staff Model R golf ball will hit Wilson.com and select retailers starting today for $50 a dozen. Joining the Staff Model as two of the higher priced golf balls on the market. Have you seen inconsistencies in the current product you choose making you want to give this a shot? Give us your thoughts below.
Update: Wilson has updated the pricing to $45. $50 was an error and that both Staff Model golf balls will be priced the same.
Let’s make a normal premium ball, skip the last step of production, and increase the price. Brilliant!
Wow. That’s incredible Bridgestone. So what ball manufacturers paint their balls? I thought I saw Callaway paint when I visited the factory a few years ago during a THP event.
Wow. Just wow. When I worked in product development, it was SOP to evaluate competitive products to see what they were doing and how, as well as patent and literature searches. If you’re even slightly skilled in the art, you usually know what you’re looking at:
It’s stunning to me that Wilson either didn’t know about Bridgestone’s process or didn’t think there would be pushback.
Bridgestone doesn’t paint, but I believe they do clear coat. Whether that’s considered painting might be one for the courts to decide. Regardless, the potential for uneven finish still exists I suppose.
I think Wilson would have been wise to focus on the increased wedge spin aspect of the raw urethane surface. The image showing how poorly W/S balls are painted puts the focus on their own quality control. I really don’t think that’s the message they want to send. "Look how poorly we paint our most expensive balls" is what I see here.
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Regarding adoption I think Wilson is in a tough spot in the premium ball market. Between Titleist, Srixon, Taylor Made, Bridgestone and Callaway the high end premium ball market is pretty crowded. They definitely need to do something to differentiate themselves. If they can get someone to play it on tour and have success with it that would definitely help. The other option is price and the $45 price doesn’t seem like a substantial enough difference to grab market share.
The photo above leads me to believe that Wilson Staff is admitting that they have quality control issues with the paint on their golf balls and, instead of fixing that, eliminate it on one offering and sell it… while leaving the rest alone.
All of this is being done under the spectre of badly applied paint "MAY" cause issues.
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They’re in such a hurry they didn’t even. Proof it for punctuation
I always wondered what happened to the guys behind New Coke.
Its certainly an interesting idea, although I still believe its mostly marketing BS. If you really think that a paper thin layer of paint can make the difference between splitting the fairway and hitting it into the woods, well…LOL.
The $50 price tag doesnt bother me. Its a tour ball and $50ish is the going price for a name brand tour ball these days.
Nothing says confusion like a 3 piece ball called Duo. ?
Now, I’m in it just to watch the train wreck and back pedaling.
Interesting note I found on google… Wilson Staff made 100 years in business in 2014. They literally could not pay players to use their equipment. There was an article on amateurgolf.com with the head of Wilson golf in 2014…
THP has also had him at multiple events. THP’ers have had full access to ask questions as well.
Yes $44.99 at Maple hill golf.
See the article linked in the first post including the update.
As someone hanging drywall in the next few weeks, I love this post.
Not to hijack this thread, he said as he did so – I don’t know how you sand your joint compound. I’ve never gotten the hang of using a wet sponge, but using something like this with sanding screens really captures the dust, especially if you use a five gallon pail and lid to set up an in-line wet scrubber. It makes the sanding process almost bearable.
That’s cool. I went down a rabbit hole for a bit reading interviews that Clarke did… I’ve got an appreciation for some of what’s going on now… but I’m still scratching my head at how they’re going about it and the conflicting messages about the ball.
You are not alone, its honestly just odd.
You know, I’m not saying that is what is going on here, but I have seen this type of organizational performance in my career, and it almost always was a result of a top-down culture in which there was zero tolerance for disagreement with the view from the top.
interesting concept. Odd execution and price point. I mean if paint is excluded from the mfg process wouldn’t the ball technically be cheaper???
anyways, I’d buy a sleeve for $4 just to see what the heck is going on here. Lol
The outer coatings are so thing anyway, and I play a ball even with scratches on it because… well… I’m not a pro and I shoot 90… and the ball still goes about the same and I haven’t noticed the difference between a new ball and one I’ve played for a couple rounds. So it’s a no buy for me. It kind of looked like one I’d find in the woods that had been lost for a while.
I don’t think too many have even tried Staff Model. Not a bad ball. Bad marketing.
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After trying the Triad, I might go buy a dozen to see how it performs on course. I liked how it felt in the sim
edit – just realized I posted this in the staff model thread and not triad, whoops haha
When I tried the Duo, it felt like I was hitting a rock. I ended up giving them away.