Coming into 2024, Xander Schauffele had 11 Major top 10s but no big wins. Now he has two Majors, the PGA Championship and Open, after a stellar season which saw him even outperform Scottie Scheffler in the ‘big four’.
There were also further tops 10s at Augusta and the US Open at Pinehurst and he now sits in second place in the world and is the closest threat to Scheffler.
At the start of the year the American put the new Chrome Tour ball in his bag at The Sentry and he barely missed a beat all year, not missing a single cut and moving his game to a new level.
His stats place him in the top 10 in Off The Tee, Approach to Green, Putting, Total Driving and Scrambling and the ball which has helped to move through the gears is the Callaway Chrome Tour.
This is Callaway’s star offering and is positioned to go up against Titleist’s Pro V1 and features gold packaging to tally with the promise of the ‘new gold standard Tour ball for better players who want the best in distance and feel.’
Everything is new about the Chrome Tour: a new Hyper Fast Soft Core which delivers exceptionally fast ball speeds, a new uniquely designed aerodynamic package to stabilise the ball flight and a new softer urethane cover to add spin through the bag and give Tour-level feel.
So, in short, exceptional speed, consistent flight, incredible spin and greenside control.
What more would you want from a ball? For Schauffele, not a lot. He began testing with the ball in October 2023 and he was particularly taken by its stability.
Checks all the boxes
“The new golf ball has been amazing,” Schauffele said. “It really checks all the boxes for me. It’s got a very stable flight off the tee. It maintains spin really well on half shots. It’s got great spin and feel around the greens.
“Maybe the most impressive thing about the ball, though, is its stability in the wind. It can be tricky to find a ball that performs so well with every club in the bag, but that’s exactly what Chrome Tour does.”
Akshay Bhatia, who is now inside the world’s top 30, moved to the Chrome Tour to deal with the firm greens at the Tour Championship.
“I’m going to the softer golf ball, so from the Callaway Chrome Tour X to the Tour,” Bhatia said.
“Softer for me, like, you want to win Major championships, you need to hit it higher and softer. And the golf ball I play is a lower-spinning ball, which is good, say, 16 weeks out of the year, but then you’ve got four Majors and then, obviously, some Signature Events play pretty firm.
“I’ve wanted to make this switch for a long time. I mean, it’s kind of a free-for-all and trying to get used to the golf ball, and prep for the Majors and some of the bigger events.”
