The Callaway Chrome Soft has been called “the ball that changed the ball,” and for 2020, Callaway is bringing more innovations to its premium line, making its flagship ball offering longer and more consistent than ever before with the new Chrome Soft and Chrome Soft X.

2020 Callaway Chrome Soft and Chrome Soft X golf balls

Golf balls are an expensive thing to manufacture, and to do it properly requires a lot of capital investment into specialized machines. When it comes to golf balls, there is a big difference between those who own their process start to finish, and those who simply call up a manufacturing facility overseas and order up tens of thousands of “white label premium” balls with their logos on them. Callaway firmly sits in the “own the process” camp!

As documented in a piece released around this time last year, Callaway has invested millions, and continues to invest a planned $50 million, in new equipment that improves the ball-making process. From start to finish, the engineers at Callaway are leaving no stone unturned to produce the best performing golf balls possible.

These investments in machinery include

• State-of-the-art rubber mixer: This giant mixer is a four-story tall machine built for absolute precision mixing batch after batch. It precisely measures chemical compounds and polymers needed to build each layer and also regulates temperature during the process to make sure the final product meets strict quality control measures.
• New core-molding tools: Balls are built from the core out, and without consistency, the rest of the pieces don’t quite matter as much. Even with automation already a huge part of the process, Callaway is adding more to not only help boost ever-growing demand but and quality core to core. Don’t think for a second that this means Callaway is replacing people with machines though, in fact, quite the contrary. Over the last four years, the number of employees at the Chicopee, Massachusetts, plant has almost doubled.
• New 3D X-Ray system: If for some reason a bad golf ball gets past the first steps of the quality control process without fault, the 3D X-Ray system will prevent it from going any further. As Callaway has stated “these machines can’t make the ball pieces more centered, but it prevents ones that aren’t from ever leaving the plant.

The new 2020 Callaway Chrome Soft

As we talked about off the top, golf balls are constructed from the core out, and with the new Chrome Soft, the inner core is 34 percent bigger than the previous model. This larger inner core helps create higher launch and lower spin and it also allows the secondary Graphene reinforced layer to be thinner and firmer, resulting in faster initial speeds and longer distance.

The issue with making a golf ball faster and longer is that, in general, it results in a golf ball that feels and sounds much more firm. This is a broad statement, but one that applies to a lot of balls available in the market today. But this is not just any golfball, it’s a Callaway Chrome Soft—”soft” is in the name. So, how do you make a faster golf ball feel softer? You totally redesign the mantle layer under the cover.

The high-speed mantle layer was built with a new proprietary ionomer blend to better transfer energy from the dual core to the mantle layer and help retain energy. This stiff layer around the core helps the ball with both distance off the tee and with irons, while also better improving spin consistency and RPM around the greens.

So, about that cover. The cover on the new 2020 Callaway Chrome Soft is 10 percent thinner than the previous model. This new more resilient cover and the material it’s made of does a number of things for golfers from a performance standpoint. The first is help the rest of the ball maintain energy and produce higher ball speeds. Second, it maintains the soft feel and short game spin performance people love and expect from a Chrome Soft Ball.

The Chrome Soft’s new dimple design utilizes the Callaway proprietary HEX dimple, optimizes flight with higher flatter trajectory for target player. This higher flight results in increased descent angle for golfers with slower swing speeds while not sacrificing performance for faster players. The end result is a ball that flies up to five yards farther.

Options, availability, and Price

Beyond the traditional markings, the Chrome Soft will be available with Truvis, Truvis Yellow, Triple Track alignment and Triple Track yellow. It will be available starting February 28th with a retail price of $47.99 a dozen.

 The new 2020 Callaway Chrome Soft X

“Go big or go home” seems to be the theme of the new cores built into each Chrome Soft ball from Callaway. With the new Chrome Soft X, the large single core is now 117-percent larger (by volume) than the previous design. It’s comprised of higher MW (molecular weight) Neodymium rubber, which is also stronger and faster, resulting in (you guessed it) faster ball speeds.

Compared to the standard Chrome Soft Model, that is a dual core single mantle, the Chrome Soft X is single core dual mantle, which provides the ball with what Callaway has dubbed a “Jail Break” effect to help maintain more energy and faster ball speeds throughout the bag, not just with the driver. The dual mantle layer is built like this: a soft inner mantle provides a dampening effect to maintain the soft feel Chrome is known for, paired with a firm outer mantle to create ball speed while not having to sacrifice total short game performance.

If you thought 10 percent thinner on the Chrome Soft was good, the Chrome Soft X’s cover is 22 percent thinner than the previous generation.

The aerodynamics have been given an overhaul with the Chrome Soft X to reduce total drag at all speeds to increase potential carry distance and increase trajectory. This makes the new Chrome Soft X up to seven yards longer.

Options, availability, and price

The Chrome Soft X will be available in a standard graphics package along with Triple Track Alignment and Truvis Yellow. Like its Chrome Soft counterpart, the X will also be available starting March 12 with a retail price of $47.99 a dozen.