The World’s Softest Urethane Ball

With appropriate apologies to Jim Morrison and friends, Wilson Staff’s “Soft Parade” marches on.

Wilson stakes a legitimate claim to being the leader in low compression golf balls, dating back to 1997 and the Staff Titanium; an 80 compression ball in a land where 90 to 110 compression ruled.

The FG Tour, last year’s DUO Spin and the 3 year old DUO are, in order, soft, softer and softest. The 29 compression DUO feels like a marshmallow and is plenty long, but lacks much in the way of greenside spin. The 35 compression DUO Spin provides more spin for players who want it, while the 70 compression, 4-layer FG Tour is Wilson’s premium Tour ball.

Players who want a soft ball with tour-level spin without the tour-level price found a friend with Callaway’s Chrome Soft last year. This year Wilson’s firing back with it’s own soft spinmeister, the DUO Urethane.

Wilson says at 55 compression, the DUO Urethane is the world’s softest ball with a Urethane cover.

Soft Serve

“We’ve been working on a low compression solution for urethane since we released the first DUO,” says Frank Simonutti, Wilson’s Global Director of Golf Ball Innovation. “Our testing shows that the majority of golfers, regardless of handicap, prefer a softer feeling golf ball.”

Simonutti detailed the benefits of low compression balls in great detail for MyGolfSpy this past October (click here to give it a read), and it’s pretty obvious the rest of the golfing world is going soft.  Wilson, however, can legitimately lay claim to leading the way.

Inside The Duo

As the name suggests, the DUO Urethane has a cast urethane cover for maximum spin on approach shots. Simonutti says cast urethane is preferred because it’s more scuff-resistant than the alternative thermoplastic urethane. As the name would not suggest, this DUO is a 3-piece ball, with a DuPont HPF inner mantle designed specifically for use in golf balls.

“The inner layer (mantle) of a 3-piece ball is designed to contribute to both the velocity and the spin of the golf ball,” Simonutti told MyGolfSpy last fall. “This layer needs to provide as much velocity as possible while contributing (along with the soft core) to the low compression.”

The relative softness of the core is what drives the soft feel, while also minimizing spin on tee shots.

Pricing and Availability

The new DUO Urethane is available now on Wilson’s website and in stores, and retails for $37.99/dozen.  That puts it right in the same neighborhood as Callaway’s Chrome Soft and others in that category.

Wilson is offering an online deal. It’s sending out a trial 2-pack with every DUO Urethane dozen. They want you to try to 2-pack first and if you don’t like them, you can send the unused dozen back for a refund.