Opinion & Analysis
How much of Bubba Watson’s success in 2018 can be attributed to his golf ball change?

Every serious golfer understands the importance equipment has in allowing a player to play his or her best. Conversely, playing with equipment that isn’t exactly right can seriously hinder a golfer’s ability to play his or her best golf. Tour pros are no exception to this. Rory McIlroy’s poor 2013 season, the first year of his switch to a full bag of Nike clubs, is often cited as evidence of a player’s game suffering from being uncomfortable with equipment. And he’s far from the only player whose game suffered following a drastic equipment change.
Last year, Bubba Watson shocked fans, fellow tour pros and GolfWRX Members when he switched to a Volvik S4 golf ball from his previous ball, the Titleist Pro V1x. Watson was the only player on the PGA Tour with a contract to play Volvik balls. At the U.S. Open, 102 players teed up a Titleist. One player used a Volvik: Bubba. Much of his interest, to the surprise of many, was in the flashy colors of the balls.
Here’s what Bubba said to Golf Digest about his switch last year: “I took five balls out and hit all kinds of shots. Teddy [caddie Ted Scott] bought some [Volvik S4 golf balls] and tested them as well. And we couldn’t come up with anything wrong with them. Then it comes down to the fun factor — how could you not want a colored ball when you have a colored driver?”
It appeared to be a shockingly cursory testing process, as Bubba didn’t even mention testing the balls on Trackman before agreeing to play Volvik. For many, what ensued was predictable. His game plummeted.
Bubba had one of the worst years of his career. He underwent an unprecedented drop in the Official World Golf Rankings, going from 10th at the beginning of the year all the way to 89th. He ranked 145th in Strokes Gained Approach-the-Green, 156th in Strokes Gained Around-the-Green and 145th in Strokes Gained Putting. Watson hit less than 60 percent of fairways, landing him in the 112th spot on Tour. He ranked 161st in Greens in Regulation, and he finished 91st on the Money List. For a two-time major champion and a then nine-time winner on the PGA Tour, those numbers are… well, they’re not good. Unsurprisingly, Bubba arrived at his first tournament of the year with a year’s worth of frustration and a few sleeves of Titleists.
“My deal was up, and so I’m… ball-free,” said Watson after questions were asked of his ball situation. After an uneventful fall season, Bubba stormed into the new year, winning the Genesis Open at Riviera for the third time in his career. A month later, he won the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, emphatically beating Kevin Kisner 7&6. These wins were the 10th and 11th wins on the PGA Tour for Bubba, an extremely impressive career to say the least.
In addition to winning two of the biggest tournaments of the year thus far, a feat that would have seemed impossible just six months ago, Bubba’s stats are exponentially better for 2018. He ranks second in Money Earned, 11th in Greens in Regulation and 52nd in Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green. He is back to 19th in the Official World Golf Rankings, currently sits at third in the FedEx Cup rankings and finished T5 at the Masters.
So. how much of this is the ball?
First, we have to determine which facets of the game are most affected by the ball. Tour pros can notice appreciable differences, even across varied top-tier balls from different manufacturers, in driving distance and accuracy, iron play distance and trajectory control as well as accuracy and shot variance for wedges and green-side shots. A ball change can drastically change spin numbers throughout the bag. Consistency and control are paramount aspects of golf balls that often set brands apart from each other. The only area that would almost certainly not be affected would be putting.
With this in mind, Bubba has improved in the following stats: SG Off-the-Tee, SG Approach-the-Green, SG Around-the-Green, SG Tee-to-Green, Greens in Regulation and Birdie Average, among others. All of these stats can be directly influenced by the golf ball. And while it’s obvious that these improvements are due to better play, it’s not clear if this better play is due to a different ball. Obviously, there’s more factors affecting play in professional golf than the golf ball.
At the end of the day, we can’t know for sure how much of Bubba’s refurbished game can be attributed to the ball saga. There’s plenty of other variables in play. Bubba is almost certainly more comfortable with his swing, and he is understandably a lot more confident. For someone who is infamous for being an emotional player, good play almost always breeds confidence, which lends itself to even more good play. It’s entirely possible that Bubba is simply in a better place with his game, and maybe his ball doesn’t have much to do with it. However, the evidence could suggest otherwise.
Opinion & Analysis
The 2 primary challenges golf equipment companies face

As the editor-in-chief of this website and an observer of the GolfWRX forums and other online golf equipment discourse for over a decade, I’m pretty well attuned to the grunts and grumbles of a significant portion of the golf equipment purchasing spectrum. And before you accuse me of lording above all in some digital ivory tower, I’d like to offer that I worked at golf courses (public and private) for years prior to picking up my pen, so I’m well-versed in the non-degenerate golf equipment consumers out there. I touched (green)grass (retail)!
Complaints about the ills of and related to the OEMs usually follow some version of: Product cycles are too short for real innovation, tour equipment isn’t the same as retail (which is largely not true, by the way), too much is invested in marketing and not enough in R&D, top staffer X hasn’t even put the new driver in play, so it’s obviously not superior to the previous generation, prices are too high, and on and on.
Without digging into the merits of any of these claims, which I believe are mostly red herrings, I’d like to bring into view of our rangefinder what I believe to be the two primary difficulties golf equipment companies face.
One: As Terry Koehler, back when he was the CEO of Ben Hogan, told me at the time of the Ft Worth irons launch, if you can’t regularly hit the golf ball in a coin-sized area in the middle of the face, there’s not a ton that iron technology can do for you. Now, this is less true now with respect to irons than when he said it, and is less and less true by degrees as the clubs get larger (utilities, fairways, hybrids, drivers), but there remains a great deal of golf equipment truth in that statement. Think about it — which is to say, in TL;DR fashion, get lessons from a qualified instructor who will teach you about the fundamentals of repeatable impact and how the golf swing works, not just offer band-aid fixes. If you can’t repeatably deliver the golf club to the golf ball in something resembling the manner it was designed for, how can you expect to be getting the most out of the club — put another way, the maximum value from your investment?
Similarly, game improvement equipment can only improve your game if you game it. In other words, get fit for the clubs you ought to be playing rather than filling the bag with the ones you wish you could hit or used to be able to hit. Of course, don’t do this if you don’t care about performance and just want to hit a forged blade while playing off an 18 handicap. That’s absolutely fine. There were plenty of members in clubs back in the day playing Hogan Apex or Mizuno MP-32 irons who had no business doing so from a ballstriking standpoint, but they enjoyed their look, feel, and complementary qualities to their Gatsby hats and cashmere sweaters. Do what brings you a measure of joy in this maddening game.
Now, the second issue. This is not a plea for non-conforming equipment; rather, it is a statement of fact. USGA/R&A limits on every facet of golf equipment are detrimental to golf equipment manufacturers. Sure, you know this, but do you think about it as it applies to almost every element of equipment? A 500cc driver would be inherently more forgiving than a 460cc, as one with a COR measurement in excess of 0.83. 50-inch shafts. Box grooves. And on and on.
Would fewer regulations be objectively bad for the game? Would this erode its soul? Fortunately, that’s beside the point of this exercise, which is merely to point out the facts. The fact, in this case, is that equipment restrictions and regulations are the slaughterbench of an abundance of innovation in the golf equipment space. Is this for the best? Well, now I’ve asked the question twice and might as well give a partial response, I guess my answer to that would be, “It depends on what type of golf you’re playing and who you’re playing it with.”
For my part, I don’t mind embarrassing myself with vintage blades and persimmons chasing after the quasi-spiritual elevation of a well-struck shot, but that’s just me. Plenty of folks don’t give a damn if their grooves are conforming. Plenty of folks think the folks in Liberty Corner ought to add a prison to the museum for such offences. And those are just a few of the considerations for the amateur game — which doesn’t get inside the gallery ropes of the pro game…
Different strokes in the game of golf, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I believe equipment company engineers are genuinely trying to build better equipment year over year. The marketing departments are trying to find ways to make this equipment appeal to the broadest segment of the golf market possible. All of this against (1) the backdrop of — at least for now — firm product cycles. And golfers who, with their ~15 average handicap (men), for the most part, are not striping the golf ball like Tiger in his prime and seem to have less and less time year over year to practice and improve. (2) Regulations that massively restrict what they’re able to do…
That’s the landscape as I see it and the real headwinds for golf equipment companies. No doubt, there’s more I haven’t considered, but I think the previous is a better — and better faith — point of departure when formulating any serious commentary on the golf equipment world than some of the more cynical and conspiratorial takes I hear.
Agree? Disagree? Think I’m worthy of an Adam Hadwin-esque security guard tackle? Let me know in the comments.
@golfoncbs The infamous Adam Hadwin tackle ? #golf #fyp #canada #pgatour #adamhadwin ? Ghibli-style nostalgic waltz – MaSssuguMusic
Podcasts
Fore Love of Golf: Introducing a new club concept

Episode #16 brings us Cliff McKinney. Cliff is the founder of Old Charlie Golf Club, a new club, and concept, to be built in the Florida panhandle. The model is quite interesting and aims to make great, private golf more affordable. We hope you enjoy the show!
Opinion & Analysis
On Scottie Scheffler wondering ‘What’s the point of winning?’

Last week, I came across a reel from BBC Sport on Instagram featuring Scottie Scheffler speaking to the media ahead of The Open at Royal Portrush. In it, he shared that he often wonders what the point is of wanting to win tournaments so badly — especially when he knows, deep down, that it doesn’t lead to a truly fulfilling life.
View this post on Instagram
“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it because I’ve literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport,” Scheffler said. “To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I’m not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I’m not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world, because what’s the point?”
Ironically — or perhaps perfectly — he went on to win the claret jug.
That question — what’s the point of winning? — cuts straight to the heart of the human journey.
As someone who’s spent over two decades in the trenches of professional golf, and in deep study of the mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of the game, I see Scottie’s inner conflict as a sign of soul evolution in motion.
I came to golf late. I wasn’t a junior standout or college All-American. At 27, I left a steady corporate job to see if I could be on the PGA Tour starting as a 14-handicap, average-length hitter. Over the years, my journey has been defined less by trophies and more by the relentless effort to navigate the deeply inequitable and gated system of professional golf — an effort that ultimately turned inward and helped me evolve as both a golfer and a person.
One perspective that helped me make sense of this inner dissonance around competition and our culture’s tendency to overvalue winning is the idea of soul evolution.
The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies has done extensive research on reincarnation, and Netflix’s Surviving Death (Episode 6) explores the topic, too. Whether you take it literally or metaphorically, the idea that we’re on a long arc of growth — from beginner to sage elder — offers a profound perspective.
If you accept the premise literally, then terms like “young soul” and “old soul” start to hold meaning. However, even if we set the word “soul” aside, it’s easy to see that different levels of life experience produce different worldviews.
Newer souls — or people in earlier stages of their development — may be curious and kind but still lack discernment or depth. There is a naivety, and they don’t yet question as deeply, tending to see things in black and white, partly because certainty feels safer than confronting the unknown.
As we gain more experience, we begin to experiment. We test limits. We chase extreme external goals — sometimes at the expense of health, relationships, or inner peace — still operating from hunger, ambition, and the fragility of the ego.
It’s a necessary stage, but often a turbulent and unfulfilling one.
David Duval fell off the map after reaching World No. 1. Bubba Watson had his own “Is this it?” moment with his caddie, Ted Scott, after winning the Masters.
In Aaron Rodgers: Enigma, reflecting on his 2011 Super Bowl win, Rodgers said:
“Now I’ve accomplished the only thing that I really, really wanted to do in my life. Now what? I was like, ‘Did I aim at the wrong thing? Did I spend too much time thinking about stuff that ultimately doesn’t give you true happiness?’”
Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
Eventually, though, something shifts.
We begin to see in shades of gray. Winning, dominating, accumulating—these pursuits lose their shine. The rewards feel more fleeting. Living in a constant state of fight-or-flight makes us feel alive, yes, but not happy and joyful.
Compassion begins to replace ambition. Love, presence, and gratitude become more fulfilling than status, profits, or trophies. We crave balance over burnout. Collaboration over competition. Meaning over metrics.
Interestingly, if we zoom out, we can apply this same model to nations and cultures. Countries, like people, have a collective “soul stage” made up of the individuals within them.
Take the United States, for example. I’d place it as a mid-level soul: highly competitive and deeply driven, but still learning emotional maturity. Still uncomfortable with nuance. Still believing that more is always better. Despite its global wins, the U.S. currently ranks just 23rd in happiness (as of 2025). You might liken it to a gifted teenager—bold, eager, and ambitious, but angsty and still figuring out how to live well and in balance. As much as a parent wants to protect their child, sometimes the child has to make their own mistakes to truly grow.
So when Scottie Scheffler wonders what the point of winning is, I don’t see someone losing strength.
I see someone evolving.
He’s beginning to look beyond the leaderboard. Beyond metrics of success that carry a lower vibration. And yet, in a poetic twist, Scheffler did go on to win The Open. But that only reinforces the point: even at the pinnacle, the question remains. And if more of us in the golf and sports world — and in U.S. culture at large — started asking similar questions, we might discover that the more meaningful trophy isn’t about accumulating or beating others at all costs.
It’s about awakening and evolving to something more than winning could ever promise.
The Champ
Apr 11, 2018 at 9:41 pm
Yep, Vodka golf balls will do that to you, we all know that playing drunk doesn’t help. Oh, wait I read this whole article thinking vodka instead of volvik. That’s a shame.
All joking aside, the author deserves props for a well-written article, especially only being a senior in high school. I’ve seen many way worse articles from professional writers. Cheers! ????
peter collins
Apr 11, 2018 at 3:30 pm
I WAS GIVEN THREE SLEEVES, AFTER THE FIRST SLEEVE, I GAVE THE OTHER TWO SLEEVES BACK. Oooooppps caps
David Keen
Apr 11, 2018 at 11:44 am
My question is: if he’s switched back and his deal is up, why does he still have Volvik advertised on his shirt?
Del
Apr 11, 2018 at 6:51 am
You would think that the article would at least mention his undisclosed health issues that caused him to lose 20 pounds as one of the “other variables in play”. Didn’t he even mention after one of his wins that his medical issues caused him to contemplate retirement?
I’m not arguing that they ball had nothing to do with it, but that’s quite an important point to completely ignore for an article discussing “how much” the ball change impacted how success.
Jack
Apr 10, 2018 at 11:18 pm
Just cuz they sell for a premium price doesn’t mean they are premium! No idea. I’ve only found their cheap balls (in bushes) which are just normal balls I guess. Easy to find when it gets dark.
ogo
Apr 10, 2018 at 10:22 pm
Forget the clubs…. it’s all about the baaaaaall …. 😮
farmer
Apr 10, 2018 at 9:09 pm
The ball was undoubtedly an issue, but there appeared to be health problems as well. He looks much better this year.
Man
Apr 10, 2018 at 5:32 pm
100% it’s the ball. Don’t play junk balls, kids. And Volvik is junk.
It’s ruining even the Long Drive and they don’t want to admit to it – yet.
Who cares about colors when it doesn’t perform
Rev G
Apr 10, 2018 at 1:33 pm
I’m sure it mattered a lot. Not so much because Volvik doesn’t make decent balls. But because a player switched from a tour level ball that he’d been playing for years and that he had tremendous feel for – to a ball that was very different and as noted by many who’ve tried it, has less feel.
The Law Professor
Apr 10, 2018 at 1:03 pm
From someone who grades college-level writing regularly, this is a nicely-written article and I expect the young man who wrote it will continue to hone his writing skills and put them to great use in his future career.
James T
Apr 10, 2018 at 12:38 pm
Where can I buy some Volvik golf balls?!
Tyler
Apr 10, 2018 at 12:07 pm
I completely agree and have been saying this since he changed. I think Volvik was one of the worst feeling premium priced golf balls, especially when putting, that I have tried.
Jared D
Apr 10, 2018 at 12:26 pm
Thanks for stopping by, Tyler!
Jared D
Apr 10, 2018 at 11:54 am
What a fantastic article Malcolm!