Ernie Els raves about new Callaway Tour i(s) golf ball
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Ernie Els has become one of the first players to put the new Callaway Tour i(s) golf ball into play and has been raving about its performance after scoring a hole-in-one.
The South African chose to play the new ball at the HSBC Champions event in Shanghai last week and it responded by firing him to 22 birdies and two eagles as he clinched second spot behind Phil Mickelson.
One of those eagles was a hole-in-one at the 6th during his second round.
His driving stats also received a boost with a 299 average carry – eight yards longer than his average for the season.
He said: “The new Tour i(s) ball is unbelievable. It’s the ball I’ve been waiting for and to make a hole-in-one on only the second day of playing with it is fantastic. I now can’t wait to get going next year.”
Els added: “My final round in Shanghai was one of the rounds of my life. I shot eight birdies and an eagle and stood on the 18th tee at 10-under for the round. I may have dropped a shot on the last hole, but regardless, it was a fantastic round of golf.”
The soon-to-be-launched Tour i(s) Golf Ball features an ultra-soft thin and durable urethane cover that grabs onto the grooves of a club for massive backspin on short shots while generating low driver spin for amazing distance off the tee. It also features a refined Hex design that helps the ball cut through the air more efficiently to give increased stability in windy conditions.
Steve Ogg, Callaway’s vice president of golf ball R&D, said: “The Tour i(s) is the most highly-engineered golf ball product we have ever come out with. It is the softest ball we’ve ever produced, but it also has what is technically called ‘a high core compression differential’. This is the difference between the compression of the inner core and the outer core. When you have a high-compression outer core, the ball holds its shape better when you’re hitting wedge shots so you can create more spin.
“However, the greater force generated from a driver will penetrate the outer core and compress the soft inner core, reducing spin and creating greater distance. Basically, this ball morphs to the shot that you want.”
The new ball – and its sister ball the Tour i(z) – is launched in January 2010 and we’ll be bringing you full details of both in a future issue of Today’s Golfer magazine.
