Back in February, we listed the top-selling “cheap” golf balls. Cheap is my word. What we’re really talking about are preference-driven golf ball models with Surlyn/ionomer covers.
In terms of unit sales, they make up a sizeable portion of the market but, as you might expect, in terms of actual dollars spent, they lag a bit behind more expensive urethane models.
That’s the background.
More recently, we published a survey with the primary purpose of gaining additional insights into the golf balls you (our readers) play most often. We received more than 5,400 responses.
We’ll be covering the results from a variety of angles in the coming weeks but for the sake of consistency with what we did back in February, we’re starting with the list of the most popular Surlyn (i.e., cheap) golf balls among our readers.
Before we get to the list, I wanted to add just a bit of context. Across the market as a whole, Surlyn (ionomer) models account for roughly fifty-five percent of units sold.
Not surprisingly, the average MyGolfSpy reader is more performance-focused and willing to spend more on golf balls. With that, Surlyn models were listed as the ball played most often by only 13.3 percent of respondents.
That out of the way, here are the top 10 models (among our readers) for the category.
#1 Callaway Supersoft
No surprise. The best-selling Surlyn ball across the market as a whole was the top choice among MyGolfSpy readers. Among respondents, it accounts for 21.2 percent of ionomer selections and 2.61 percent of all selections. Speculating only just a bit, a good bit of the popularity can be traced to the soft feel (Supersoft is perennial among the softest offerings on the market) and the consumer-friendly price.
#2 Srixon Soft Feel
Also No. 2 on the previous list, like Supersoft, the Srixon Soft Feel offers soft feel (that’s a little on-the-nose) at an affordable price. It accounts for 11.9 percent of ionomer responses and 1.5 percent of total responses.
#3 Titleist TruFeel
Still aligned with the market as a whole, TruFeel accounted for 10 percent of Surlyn responses and 1.2 percent of total responses. The early theme for the category is soft and cheap.
#4 Titleist Tour Soft
The first departure from the market as a whole, Titleist’s Tour Soft accounted for 7.1 percent of Surlyn selections and just a bit less than 0.9 percent of all selections. With a target compression of around 85, it’s among the firmest on this list and the one our recent ball tests suggest plays most like a “tour ball” among those on this list. Of course, the added performance comes at a cost.
#5 Callaway ERC Soft
The other “premium ionomer” offering on this list, ERC isn’t wildly different from Tour Soft insomuch as it costs significantly more than most Surlyn offerings while offering performance that’s a bit closer to urethane than most. It accounted for 5.2 percent of all ionomer responses and 0.64 percent of all responses.
#6 Titleist Velocity
Returning to our regularly scheduled programming, I suppose, Velocity is another popular choice among sub-$30 golf balls. With its firmer feel comes greater distance, which helps explain why it was selected 4.8 percent of the time among ionomer choices and 0.6 percent in total.
#7 TaylorMade SpeedSoft
TaylorMade’s most expensive cheap ball, SpeedSoft was selected 4.5 percent of the time by golfers who chose a Surlyn offering while accounting for 0.55 percent of all survey responses. While not as soft as Supersoft or as fast as Tour Soft, it could be argued that it finds the sweet spot in between.
#8 TaylorMade Distance+
TaylorMade’s answer to the distance-focused Velocity, Distance+ accounted for 4.2 percent of Surlyn-covered selections and 0.5 percent of all selections.
#8 Srixon Q-Star UltiSpeed
Falling just under $30, UltiSpeed is another option that favors distance but isn’t totally unplayable through the rest of the bag. As a new model (it replaced the standard Q-Star), its popularity is likely to grow. For now, it equaled TaylorMade at 4.15 percent and 0.5 percent respectively.
#10 Bridgestone E6 SOFT
The only Bridgestone ball cracking the top 10 among Surlyn-covered choices, the E6 SOFT was selected by 3.5 percent of respondents who chose a Surlyn ball and 0.43 percent of all survey respondents.
Other notables
Given the price point of most Surlyn/ionomer offerings, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that direct-to-consumer brands that produce popular urethane offerings don’t fare as well with their less expensive offerings.
Among DTC offerings, the Vice Tour was the most popular choice (1.7/0.21), followed by the Maxfli SoftFli (0.92/0.19) and Cut Red (0.46/0.06).
Among larger, or at least more established ball brands, Mizuno’s most popular Surlyn offering (RB66) was selected 0.77 percent of the time (ionomer-only) and just 0.09 percent across all responses.
Wilson’s DUO Soft was selected 1.69 percent of the time among golfers who chose a Surlyn offering and 0.21 percent of the time in total.
Volvik Vivid accounted for 0.62 percent and 0.15 percent of responses respectively.
And just because someone will ask, the Noodle Long and Soft was chosen 0.31 percent (0.04 percent) of the time while the legendary Top-Flite XL Distance was chosen 0.15 and 0.02 percent respectively.
Lastly, the Nitro Ultimate Distance was selected twice.
Have your say
Thoughts, surprises, etc.? Did anything in the results stand out?
Love2Golf
8 months ago
Which ball is number 9? Looks like there were two number 8’s and no number 9. Is number 9 a secret ball to be announced later on?