Gear: Callaway Chrome Tour, Chrome Tour X, Chrome Soft balls (2024)
Price: $54.99 per dozen
Specs: Four-piece, urethane-covered balls (Chrome Tour, Chrome Tour X); three-piece, urethane-covered ball (Chrome Soft)
Available: Feb. 2
Who They’re For: Golfers who want tour-level spin around the greens and maximum distance off the tee.
The Skinny: Callaway has updated the core formulation, mantle layers, cover material and aerodynamics of its premium balls. Combined with a broad range of compressions and softness, they provide several options for golfers who want distance off the tee and spin around the greens.
The Deep Dive: For years Callaway, more than any other brand, has associated itself with premium golf balls that feel soft when you hit them. Names such as Chrome Soft, Chrome Soft X and Chrome Soft X LS set expectations in every player’s mind, but in some cases those names didn’t precisely match how the balls performed. For example, the Chrome Soft X LS had a compression in the low 90s, giving it a firm feeling, and labeling it as a low-spin ball may have confused some players into thinking it did not create ample greenside spin. With a thin urethane cover and firm outer-mantle layer, it created enough spin to be Xander Schauffele’s ball of choice in 2022.
In 2023, Schauffele used a prototype version of the Chrome Tour, one of three updated offerings for 2024. Eric Van Rooyan also won the World Wide Technology Championship in November using the prototype ball.
Here is everything you need to know about the new Chrome Tour, Chrome Tour X and Chrome Soft balls.
Callaway Chrome Tour (David Dusek/Golfweek)
This four-piece ball features a large rubber core encased in two mantles covered by a thin, soft urethane cover.
Callaway updated the HyperFast Soft core at the center of this ball to help golfers generate more speed and distance. At the same time, the thin urethane cover is easily grabbed by the grooves of wedges and short irons to generate spin on approach shots, pitch shots and chips.
Among the premium balls in the Callaway lineup, Chrome Tour likely will have the broadest appeal. Off the tee, it creates speed and spin numbers very similar to Callaway’s Chrome Soft X LS ball, which is being discontinued. However, Chrome Tour has a lower compression (88) than Chrome Soft X LS (93). This gives players the rare instance of softer feel with more speed.
To make the ball more stable in flight and hold its line more effectively in wind, Callaway updated the seamless, hexagonal dimple pattern, bolstering it in some areas with clusters of circular dimples. Callaway also developed a new paint application method that applies the paint more evenly. Those features and technologies also should make the Chrome Tour more consistent and predictable shot after shot, in dry or wet conditions.
Compared to the other 2024 premium balls, the Chrome Tour will feel softer than the Chrome Tour X, fly slightly lower off the tee and produce marginally less greenside spin. However, it will create more greenside spin than the new Chrome Soft and will feel firmer.
Callaway Chrome Tour X (David Dusek/Golfweek)
This four-piece ball has a large rubber core encased in two mantles covered by a thin, soft urethane cover. While the new box says Chrome Tour X, this ball is very similar to the Chrome Soft X.
As with the Chrome Tour, the X has an updated HyperFast Soft core for more ball speed. Callaway said this ball generated about 1.2 mph more ball speed in driver tests than the Chrome Soft X.
The Chrome Tour X will have the firmest feel at impact, generate the most spin off the tee and with irons, and produce the most spin around the greens. Golfers who like to draw and fade the ball with their irons may prefer the Chrome Tour X because it spins more than Callaway’s other premium balls.
From a distance perspective, Chrome Tour X will create slightly more carry distance than the Chrome Tour, but with a higher flight and steeper descent angle, so the overall distances will be similar.
Callaway Chrome Soft (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Golfers who have enjoyed previous generations of Chrome Soft should like this ball as well, because little has changed.
While the Chrome Tour and Chrome Tour X have new boxes and a new name, the Chrome Soft retains its red box and has the same compression level and feel. Once again, this will be the softest ball in Callaway’s premium lineup, having a compression in the low 80s, but thanks to its urethane cover this three-piece ball still generates excellent greenside spin.
Callaway said that for 2024 the updated Chrome Soft generates nearly identical spin off the tee as the 2022 ball, along with the same speed, but updating the hexagonal dimple pattern and altering the ball’s aerodynamics in the 2024 model results in a higher launch so it flies slightly farther.
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