- Callaway has announced its second-generation ERC Soft golf ball with Triple Track.
- Callaway bills it as the company’s “longest ball with soft feel.”
- Retail price is $34.99 a dozen.
With the second generation of the Callaway ERC Soft golf ball, it’s reasonable to expect some changes. Just don’t expect a dialing back of Triple Track to be among them. If you hate Triple Track, Callaway has a ball for you but it’s not the ERC Soft.
Callaway ERC Soft – High Energy Core
Callaway bills the ERC Soft as “our longest ball with soft feel.” I’m not sure what that says about Chrome Soft but let’s not dwell on it.
As is typical for golf ball stories, the Callaway ERC Soft golf ball features a high-energy core. “High energy” is always going to be relative based on the point of comparison so the simple takeaway is that golfers like soft so creating faster (high-energy) soft materials is something everyone across the golf ball industry is trying to do.
This is especially true for Callaway who, with the exception of Chrome Soft X and Warbird, lives in the low-compression space.
High-Speed Mantle
To some extent, a core is only as fast as the material that surrounds it so it makes sense that the ERC Soft would feature a high-speed mantle layer. Tradenames vary but you’ll hear a version of this story with nearly every ball release.
The mantle layer (high-speed or otherwise) is especially important in three-piece low-compression balls. Wrapping a softer core material in a firmer mantle helps generate speed on longer shots and give the cover a firmer underlayer to play against for more spin around the green.
PARALOID™ Hybrid 2.0 Cover
The ERC Soft is an ionomer-cover ball – technically it’s an ionomer blend but we’ll get there. There are two basic comparisons to be drawn between ionomer/Surlyn and urethane (the cover material used on multi-layer Tour balls).
The first, everyone understands. Ionomer is cheaper.
The other is that ionomer is typically firmer and thicker so it’s less durable and spins less than urethane. It also doesn’t feel quite as soft as. With the emergence of the premium ionomer segment of the market, brands are looking to more sophisticated ionomer blends to keep costs low while engineering a bit more spin and better feel into the cover.
Callaway’s answer is a new cover that features what it calls a PARALOID™ Impact Modifier. Callaway says the material produced by DOW Chemical provides more spin and softer feel around the green. Ultimately, it boils down to trying to make something that isn’t urethane behave more like urethane.
Callaway ERC Soft Versus the Competition
Callaway’s marketing material says the ERC Soft golf ball compares favorably to the Titleist AVX and TaylorMade Tour Response. Compared to those balls (and the original ERC Soft), says Callaway, the ERC Soft golf ball launched higher, spun less and was 3.9 yards longer than AVX and just a bit more than three yards longer than Tour Response.
To be sure, the point of comparison is questionable. Both of those competitor balls have urethane covers. They’re going to spin more and AVX in particular is an outlier in the soft(ish) space. It’s low-launch by design.
It can be argued that Callaway did a bit of cherry-picking here. This, too, is typical when you’re playing by the home team’s rules. That said, I’m old enough to remember when Callaway objected when Titleist took a similar approach in drawing favorable comparisons between its ionomer-covered Tour Soft and the Callaway Chrome Soft.
Whether you want to frame it as a goose/gander situation or put in the “pot meets kettle” category likely doesn’t matter much. Though I will add that I believe the most reasonable comparison is with the Titleist Tour Soft but I didn’t get a vote.
Ball Wars
As a footnote in recent golf ball history, this is all part of an ongoing tit-for-tat between Callaway and Titleist. Chrome Soft took a nibble out of Titleist’s market share. AVX was launched as the answer to Chrome Soft. ERC Soft was the answer to AVX followed by Tour Soft, the answer to ERC Soft. And so here we are.
With all the back-and-forth glove-slapping it’s fair to wonder if just maybe both companies became a bit too concerned about the other. That’s perhaps part of the story behind the new ERC Soft as Callaway says that, this time around, it has put more effort into thinking about golfers and ultimately delivering what they want.
That sounds like the sort of thing that should be obvious enough but when you start trying to one-up the competition or get lost in your own minutiae, it’s not hard to lose track of the consumer. I doubt any manufacturer would quibble with the notion that sometimes what the golfer wants isn’t the best-performing product they can make.
It’s a simpler proposition in the driver category where everybody wants distance (even if they say they don’t). With golf balls, however, the conversation is a bit more nuanced. The list of what golfers want includes soft feel, bright colors (or no colors), more spin (or less spin), distance, cool patterns, fancy logos, dirt-cheap prices and, every so often, some real performance.
Callaway ERC Soft – Is Perception Reality?
The larger point is that perception and preference often matter every bit as much, if not more, than performance.
With that in mind, there’s a not-so-insignificant detail that was gleaned from testing the new Callaway ERC golf ball against the competition using everyday golfers.
With the standard disclaimer about home-field advantage, Callaway’s test group liked ERC Soft better than AVX, specifically noting the higher launch.
I could provide an explanation of why I think that is (ERC is appreciably softer and AVX launches exceptionally low for a soft-ish ball) but ultimately those reasons—whether they be driven by perception or reality, performance or preference—don’t matter a bit.
They liked ERC Soft better. It’s that simple.
Callaway is hoping you will, too.
Callaway ERC Soft Golf Ball – Pricing and Availability
The new Callaway ERC Soft will retail for $34.99. It’s available in Triple Track White and Triple Track Yellow only.
For more information, visit CallawayGolf.com.
AL
1 month agoIf Callaway measured the compression of each ball in their lineup using the same method of measurement….would that not give us information to be able to compare their own balls within their own lineup?
Lou
1 month agoThe ERC fits a nice niche for older guys like me who once were good and now are stuck in the mid-80’s but still enjoy going out and playing.. I started playing the ERC because my experience with Chrome Soft was lousy and I thought Triple Track was a good idea. To me, it turned out it was. I make a couple or more putts each round that I probably would have missed using something else. Golf Spy isn’t written for older golfers or less than proficient younger golfers. It’s written for talented golfers with plenty of money to buy the latest and greatest $500 or $600 driver every year. I read MGS because I am interested in how today’s talented young guys think and how they feel $500 or $600 for a new driver each year will make for lower scores. Not one of those fellows would ever be caught playing an ERC Soft! But, I would because it’s a good ball.
Mike
1 month agoThe article states, “Callaway bills the ERC Soft as “our longest ball with soft feel.” I’m not sure what that says about Chrome Soft”. Pretty simple explanation here to me, this ball spins less so it’s probably a hair straighter and thus a bit longer. What’s the mystery there?
The article comes off as disappointing that the ERC soft was preferred by “everyday” golfers vs the AVX. Almost seems like a continuation of the MGS Callaway vendetta.
Dennis Beach
1 month agoIf you are not a 15 handicap or less, you really do not need a 3 piece ball, in my opinion. That mantle layer is meant to help with spin around the green, and that spin can rear its ugly head on the tee, and for most of us that still send one into the trees at times, that can be trouble. Play a 2 piece, like the Supersoft, and you will probably be in the fairway a lot more, and it has nice manners around the green. And, you can get the brite colors to boot, at a lot cheaper price! Try it, you might really like it!
Richard
1 month agoWhat’s the latest on ball balancing? I use a Check Go Pro on all my balls. Why aren’t most manufactures balancing before they label? Seem that would be a very important part of performance, Maxfli was the only brand doing this.
D
1 month agoTotally agree. I find the ball is more accurate when balanced. But the lines mismatching the logos definitely a slight distraction. If they did invest in that process, imagine if they passed the cost to the consumer!
Al luthi
1 month agoDo you know the compression of the new ERC soft?
Thanks,
Al
DegenerateGolf
1 month agoCompression is a meaningless metric because everyone measures it differently. There’s no apples to apples normalization.