The 2016 version of the highly successful Callaway Chrome Soft golf ball features a new 4th layer. When I first saw that I honestly thought, NO, don’t mess with my favorite golf ball! But Callaway added a 4th layer and managed to keep the soft feel that I love.
Now, I am not saying that to me the ball feels the same in all situations. For me it is a little crisper on chips and short range shots. It checks up nicely, and you can indeed back it up with wedges if you want. Where I really loved the older version of the ball was with the driver and long irons, and the new version does not disappoint. This new ball reminds me of the older Chrome+ with a softer core, and better cover. What I mean by that is, that the new ball has another gear with a driver. I hit a couple of drives that were longer than I was expecting with the new ball. If you really compress the ball, fast swingers, you get a feeling of the ball recoiling fast off the face. It is something for me, that I have felt with some of my favorite Callaway balls like the Hex Black, and Chrome+ in the past.
My favorite thing about this ball is it helped me with my very first hole-in-one during a practice round in May. I hit a Chrome Soft Truvis ball, 179 yards with an Adams 5 dhy hybrid, three hops and a role, and in the hole it went.
I will be playing this ball more over the summer and will do my usual head to head comparisons as well, so stay tuned. Up next, I will review two new offerings from the Titleist NXT family for 2016.