The color revolution that has already spread from shirts to drivers has moved on to golf balls. Sure, there have been a few yellow balls out there, but now Pinnacle has released the Bling, which will be sold with one sleeve of orange, yellow, pink and violet in each dozen-ball box.

The Bling is a two-piece ball that features a high-energy core designed to maximize distance, an ionomer cover, and a 332-dimple pattern that in comprised of seven different-sized dimples.

According to Pinnacle, the colors were chosen because they stand out especially well against green grass and blue skies.

Mr. Austin Powers, the tee is yours.

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MIAMI — After a pro hits a ball, it sounds like a bottle rocket whizzing through the air. It hisses, spinning between 1,500 and 2,500 times a minute. Big hitters can smash drives at speeds of more than 175 miles per hour, with some golfers exceeding even that number.

But around the greens those same pros need the ball to feel as soft as a marshmallow off the face of a sand wedge. Too much spin can steal precious yards off the tee, but players need that spin and feel when confronting firm, fast greens.

Zach Johnson, who has a locker with his name on it at Augusta National, talked with Titleist representatives before the start of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship about changing from the 2009 version of the Titleist Pro V1x to the just-released 2011 model.

According to Titleist, the dimples on the new Pro V1x are shallower and arranged in a new pattern that helps it fly higher and reach its highest point farther down range. On paper that would be good for Zach because it would make his approach shots come down more vertically and stop faster on the famous greens at Augusta.

"It's not easy to make a ball change, but I don’t think it's difficult either," Johnson said that day in Marana, Ariz. "I think it's just a matter of practicing with it."

But with the Ryder Cup concluding in October, post-season commitments and a much-needed vacation scheduled before Johnson took off for Hawaii and the winners-only Hyundai Championship in early January, finding practice time was tough.

"When it comes to ball testing, to me, it's all about the spin I'm getting on full shots," Johnson said. "I'd say more so with irons. After that, it's your driver. I mean, you can always manipulate the loft of your driver or the shaft, but with irons it's a little more difficult. After that pitching and chipping around the greens becomes the next more important thing."

Johnson famously laid-up on all the par 5s at Augusta in 2007 en route to winning the Masters, yet made plenty of birdies because his distance control with his irons and wedges was impeccable.

Anthony Kim, the player who holds the Masters record for the most birdies made in one round—11 in 2009's second round—has a different approach.

Kim, who missed a good portion of the 2010 season due to injury, switched to Nike's 20XI-s ball at the 2010 HSBC Champions in Shanghai last October.

"I wanted a golf ball that spins around the greens," Kim said recently. "That's the most important thing to me, really, because the [new] grooves are affecting how the ball is coming out of the rough around the greens and how the ball is checking up—or not checking up. So for me, it was just if I could putt with it and the feel I had with the longer putts and how I could spin it around the greens."

"I got the ball Wednesday afternoon and put it into play on Thursday," he said.

Kim's switch was fast; Johnson's was  methodical. He had Titleist reps send several boxes of the new Pro V1x balls to his home and practiced with them before coming to this week's WGC-Cadillac Championship.

"The new ball is in the bag, as of yesterday," Johnson said Wednesday morning on the driving range at Doral.

According to Fordie Pitts, a Titleist rep, Johnson tailors all of his equipment for major championship conditions. It may have taken a little longer than other players, but with just four weeks before the start of the Masters, maybe Zach thinks he's found a ball that can help him win a second green jacket.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Nike and Titleist clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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 (Photos: Johnson by Kohjiro Kinno/SI; Robert Beck/SI)

The March issue of Golf Magazine contains a very informative article about new golf balls and fitting systems that you really should see. (You can read it online here)

Losing a golf ball is a scorecard killer, but it really hurts me because I'm cheap. The thought of a bad shot actually costing me money turns my stomach.

While I may be thrifty, don't assume I play with balls sold at the sporting goods store in mesh bags. Just the opposite—I play a premium, multi-layer ball that costs more than $40 per dozen.

If all you can afford are golf balls that cost $10-$15 per dozen, consider yourself off the hook and stop reading here.

Everyone else owes it to himself to make a $40-$50 investment. In addition to the high-tech fitting systems out there, here's a way to do a little low-tech research. But fear not: This isn't ninth grade science class, and you're not going be dissecting a frog. You're going to hit golf balls for about 30 minutes.

Drive to the least-played golf course you know early in the morning, or if you have access to a private club, go at sunrise. Warm up, and then head to a hole where you can hit balls from a fairway and around a green for about 30 minutes.

Once you're there, drop five different three-packs of golf balls next to the 100-yard marker, or wherever you'd make a full-swing approach shot using your pitching wedge. One of the sleeves should be the balls you normally use. The others should balls you're considering.

After you hit all 15, walk to the green and see where each ball went. (Don't forget to fix those ball marks!) Make notes about spin, trajectory, distance from the pin, etc.

Then walk to the next hole and repeat the exercise from about 50 yards out using your sand wedge or a lob wedge. Then hit some chip shots and putts and see how each ball reacts and sounds.

Finish the exercise by walking to the next hole and hitting your driver. Take note of your distance and accuracy with each ball.

When you're done, you should have a good idea which balls played best for you on approach shots, around the green and off the tee. Yes, you'll mis-hit some shots during this exercise, and you shouldn't take those into account. But armed with this new information, you can now make an informed decision about which ball you should use.

With a little help from Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Mike Malaska, I quietly performed this test myself one evening on Superstition Mountain's Prospector Course in Apache Junction, Ariz. Based on what I saw and felt, I switched to a different ball that night.

For the happiness I get on the golf course, it's been worth every penny.

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Mark Alan, Nike Golf's product line manager for golf balls, will tell you the biggest recent advancement in balls was the switch from wound balls to solid-core models.

But Alan and Nike think the next major advance is about to be made with the 20XI-s and the 20XI-x, both slated to be available May 1.

The most unique aspect of the new 20XI (Get it? 20+XI=2011) is its core, which is made by injection-molding a new resin that Nike developed with DuPont. The material took four years to perfect, and Nike claims that the new core makes the 20XI 2-3 mph faster than the company's previous offerings with compression-molded rubber cores.

Because the core material is so light, Nike engineers were able to use heavier materials in the layers that surround the core, which should add durability and increase the ball's moment of inertia (MOI).

"You can think of it as a perimeter-weighted golf ball," Alan said.

A high MOI helps a club resist twisting on off-center impacts. In golf balls, Nike says the increased MOI affects the 20XI's spin.

"It resists spinning at impact with the driver," Alan says. "But once you get the ball spinning, it stays." It also means the ball is less affected by cross winds.

That should come in handy this week in Hawaii, where both Anthony Kim and Francesco Molinari are expected to play the ball during the PGA Tour's Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

Alan says the balls should leave the clubface with 100-200 rpm less spin than Nike's previous premium offerings (the ONE Tour), but will have 100-200 rpm more spin after the ball reaches the apex of its trajectory. That should mean more green-grabbing spin on approach shots.

While both models are made using four pieces—including the same core and compression layer—the 20XI-s has a softer urethane cover that should produce more spin around the greens. The 20XI-x also features a urethane cover, but its firmer, so the ball should produce slightly more distance.

Expect to see the new Nike 20XI-s and 20XI-x in pro shops for about $45.99 per dozen.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Nike  clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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Sunday, 10-10-10, marks the 10th anniversary of the PGA Tour introduction of the Titleist Pro V1 golf ball. The Invensys Classic at Las Vegas was the place, and the Pro V1, a three-piece urathane-covered ball, proceeded to take the golf world by storm.

Today there are many excellent multi-layer golf balls on the market in several different price categories, but here are some impressive figures (provided by Titleist) that show just how dominant the Pro V1 and Pro V1x balls have become:

* Nearly 2 out of every 3 golfers on the PGA Tour play the Pro V1 or Pro V1x, which is more than five times the nearest competitor.

* The Titleist Pro V1 franchise has accounted for 275 wins on the PGA TOUR.

* According to Golf Datatech, through September 2010 the Pro V1 has been the best-selling golf ball in the marketplace for 115 consecutive months.

At the McGladrey Classic, Titleist began showing the fifth generation of the Pro V1 and Pro V1x balls to professionals. Look for these balls to make their way into pro shops in early 2011.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Titleist equipment, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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(Photos by Team Titleist blog)

According to a release sent by Acushnet, the parent company of Titleist, the company has won the latest jury verdict in a long-running legal dispute with Callaway regarding golf ball patents and the technologies used in previous versions of the popular Pro V1 family of balls. Here is the complete release:

Acushnet Company, the golf business of Fortune Brands, Inc. (NYSE: FO), and manufacturer of Titleist, the #1 ball in golf, announced that it won a jury verdict in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware in its golf ball patent dispute with Callaway Golf Co.. Callaway asserted that previous generation Titleist Pro V1 golf balls had infringed on four patents originally owned by Spalding and subsequently purchased by Callaway Golf. The jury agreed with Acushnet's position that the patents in question are invalid.

"We are extremely pleased with the court's decision, and we hope that this finally brings this long standing dispute to a close," said Joe Nauman, Executive Vice President, Corporate and Legal, Acushnet Company. "We have explained throughout this process that Acushnet independently developed the technology in question. The Titleist Pro V1 family utilizes technology from 74 Acushnet patents and was first introduced to our PGA TOUR players in October 2000, well before any of the Spalding patents were issued in 2001 and 2003. We appreciate the jury's careful consideration of the facts and the time they devoted to these proceedings. This verdict affirms our view that all claims in these patents are invalid - just as the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) has repeatedly found."

In January 2006, before Callaway filed this litigation, Acushnet petitioned the PTO to reexamine the four patents in the suit. Since then, the PTO has repeatedly found that all claims of all four patents are invalid. During this process, seven separate PTO examiners were involved in evaluating the validity of these patents and all seven concluded that they are invalid.

Acushnet Company has a comprehensive product and process Research and Development staff and the Pro V1 golf ball franchise represents the accumulation of technology developed by Acushnet over a 20-year period. As the worldwide golf ball performance and technology leader, Acushnet currently holds over 715 of the nearly 2,000 active patents related to golf balls - more than any other manufacturer.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Callaway and Titleist clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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Titleist
Michael Sim (right), who in 2009 won the Nationwide Tour money title and Player of the Year award, as well as a battlefield promotion to the PGA Tour, spent some time at the Acushnet Test Facility before the start of last week's Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

According to Titleist's Blog, Sim felt that the distance gap between his AP2 9-iron and his pitching wedge was too large, so he sought the help of some Titleist fitters. By switching from a 47° Vokey Design Spin Milled C-C to a club with 48°, the gap shrank from 18 yards to 12 yards.

Sim also told fitters that while his 695CB 2-iron worked well on the sandy, dry courses in his homeland of Australia, PGA Tour courses demanded shots that fly higher and stop quickly. After trying various hybrids, he put a prototype 503i with a Project X 6.5 shaft into his bag and took out the 2-iron.

Sim also asked Titleist reps to look at his putting stroke using the company's high speed cameras at the Scotty Cameron putting studio. "It wasn’t as good as what it was last year when I went in there," he told Titleist. "But we managed to correct that in probably 20 minutes."

Sim finished tied for second at Torrey Pines. Here is a complete list of his clubs:
DRIVER: Titleist 905R (8.5°) with a Mitsubishi Diamana White 83 shaft

FAIRWAY WOOD: Titleist 909F2 (13.5°) with a Mitsubishi Diamana Blue 93 shaft

HYBRID: Titleist 503i with True Temper Project X shafts

IRONS: Titleist AP2 (3-9) with True Temper Project X shafts

WEDGES: Titleist Vokey Design Spin Milled C-C (48°, 54°, 60°) with True Temper Project X shafts

PUTTER: Scotty Cameron for Titleist Newport Squareback
BALL: Titleist Pro V1x

TaylorMade
You've had a chance to read all about TaylorMade's newest drivers, the R9 SuperTri and the Burner SuperFast. Last week at Torrey Pines, PGA Tour pros had their first chance to hit the clubs on the range. The video below, provided by TaylorMade, shows some of their reactions:

Ping
There has been a lot of talk about Ping Eye2 wedges recently, especially after John Daly and Phil Mickelson used the venerable clubs in PGA Tour events. The grooves on the Eye2 wedges would be non-conforming with the USGA's new rules, except they were grandfathered to be legal in perpetuity thanks to a lawsuit Ping won 20 years ago. However, Ping cannot make more Eye2 irons and wedges with the old grooves, but on eBay the clubs are selling like hotcakes.

What was interesting to see at the Farmers Insurance Open was that there were 24 sets of Ping irons in play. Twelve sets were used by Ping staff players, and 12 were used by players NOT on Ping's staff, including K.J. Choi (right) who used a set of the company's new G15 irons. Choi, who is no longer a Nike staff player, also played with a TaylorMade r7 Limited driver.

Callaway
According to the company, Spain’s Alvaro Quiros switched to Callaway's new Tour i(z) ball at last week's European Tour event in Qatar, where he finished second behind Robert Karrlson. Callaway officials pointed out that the switch may have helped the longest hitter in Europe get a touch longer off the tee. Quiros averaged  317 yards per drive at this year's Qatar Masters; at the same event last season, he averaged 314 yards on his way to victory.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Callaway, Ping, TaylorMade and Titleist clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTec.

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(Photos: Sim/Lenny Ignelzi/AP Photos; Choi/Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

Titleist
Cameron Morfit, a senior writer for Golf Magazine, spoke with a few golfers at the Sony Open and heard about new Titleist Pro V1 golf balls some players were using.

Since last August, Titleist has made two tour-only versions of the Pro V1 ball available to PGA Tour players. The Pro V1 Plus Spin is marked with a <s----PRO V1---s> on the seam while the Pro V1x Plus Trajectory has a <+---PRO V1x---> on its seam.

According to a Titleist tour rep, "These products are customized versions of 2009 Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls that have been designed to optimize performance for a small handful of PGA Tour players."  

According to Titleist, of the 96 players in the field at Sony last week who played a Titleist ball, just six used the Pro V1x Plus Trajectory and only two played the Pro V1 Plus Spin.

The tour rep also wrote in bold, "These products are not in response to nor designed to address new groove rules and they are not planned to be sold commercially."

Titleist is not planning on making any changes to the current Pro V1 or Pro V1x ball in response to the USGA's new groove rule changes. The ball was most recently updated for the 2009 season.

Callaway
Ernie Els is continuing to use Callaway's yet-to-be-released FT-iZ driver (right). The triangular-shape club, which was reviewed in the 2010 Golf Magazine ClubTest, is being touted by the company as being the longest and straightest driver its ever made.

It certainly seems to be working for Els, as he averaged 306 yards per drive at the Sony Open, 15 yards more than his 2009 season average. Els also continued to use Callaway's Tour i(s) ball.

TaylorMade
According to TaylorMade, Retief Goosen became the first player to request a new face plate be installed in a TP wedge with xFT.

Using a torque wrench, the face plate (which contains the wedge's grooves) can be removed and replaced with a new one that contains fresh, sharp grooves. Goosen, the 2001 and 2004 U.S. Open champion, had the face plate in both his 54° and 60° wedges replaced.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about TaylorMade, Titleist and Callaway clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTec.

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GOLF.com first told you about the five-piece TaylorMade Penta TP golf ball in August. In this video from TaylorMade, Dean Snell, senior director of ball research, explains how he got the company's staff pros—including Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose and Retief Goosen—to try it.

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With bold, blue packaging and a name like Crush, it's not hard to guess which group of golfers Nike is trying to attract with its newest ball: players who want to outdrive everyone.

Designed specifically for golfers with a swing speed between 80 and 95 miles per hour (the average for most weekend players), the Crush has a soft, low-compression core and an ionomer cover designed to reduce sidespin for increased accuracy.


Rock Ishii, Nike Golf's director of product development for balls, said in a release, "I believe we've done a great job designing a longer and straighter golf ball for a wide range of swing speeds at a mid-tier price."
 


The Nike Crush is available now for about $30 per dozen.

Ernie Els got a little help from Callaway Golf in Shanghai at the HSBC Champions, where he finished second after shooting 63 on Sunday.

"I started playing a new golf ball that Callaway made," Els said. "This is what I've been looking forward to, is this golf ball. It would have been unbelievable if I could have won with this ball. It would have been great for Callaway and myself. I'm looking forward to the future now, and I think my equipment is now spot on."

Els was referring to the new Callaway Tour i(s). Ryan Moore, who finished third, also used it.

The Callaway Tour i(s) is a four-piece ball that Steve Ogg, Callaway's vice president of ball R&D, called "the most highly-engineered golf ball product we have ever come out with."

According to Ogg, the Tour i(s) is the softest ball Callaway has produced, but what makes it special is a large degree of spin separation, which makes it possible to put a lot of spin on iron shots and very little spin on drives.

"The ball has a high core compression differential," he said. "That is the difference between the compression of the inner core and the outer core. When you have a high-compression outer core, the ball holds it shape better when you're hitting wedge shots so you can give it more spin."

The greater force of a driver, he said, will penetrate the outer core and compress the soft inner core. That reduces spin and creates greater distance.

"It morphs to the shot that you want," Ogg said, "yet retains all the distance of the previous Tour i golf balls." The Callaway Tour i(s) will be available in mid-January for about $43 per dozen. In the video below, Ogg talks more about the ball.

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(Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO – During a press conference after the pairings were announced for Thursday's Presidents Cup foursomes matches, Anthony Kim was asked if equipment would be an issue in the alternate-shot format.

"We are going to use Phil's ball [Callaway Tour ix]," he said. "I have got no problem with it. When I was little, I used all different kinds of golf balls because those were the used golf balls you had to buy in a bag. I'm used to playing with whatever. We'll go out there and have a good time."

Kim's normal ball is a Nike ONE Tour.

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SAN FRANCISCO — In the foursomes (alternate-shot) matches this week, the players who are paired together will often play different brands of balls. The prevailing wisdom is that the teams should tee off with the ball preferred by the player who will hit the approach shot. Performance of most low-spinning, multilayer balls is fairly similar off the tee, the thinking goes, but the players would notice a different feel when hitting irons and wedges. Since distance control from the fairway is critical to setting up birdies, you want the player who is going to hit the approach shot to use his preferred ball. The rules allow the teams to switch balls after completing a hole.

On Wednesday morning, as the American team practiced on the back nine at Harding Park, I snuck a peek at the balls the players used off the tee, and I used that information to make a guess as to Thursday's pairings, which will be announced later this afternoon.

1. Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard: Furyk was teeing off on the even-numbered holes using a Nike ONE Tour ball. He typically plays a Srixon Z-Star X.

2.  Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson: Kim, who plays a Nike ONE Tour, used a Callaway Tour ix ball off the tee on the even-numbered holes (photo).

3. Zach Johnson and Kenny Perry: They both use a Titleist Pro V1x, but Perry asked Zach if he could use one of his balls on the tee at 13. "His is a little bit different than mine," Perry told a bystander. It's very possible that they use a Pro V1x ball from different model years.

4. Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker: Woods teed off on the odd-numbered holes using a Titleist Pro V1  instead of his Nike One Tour.

5. Hunter Mahan and Sean O'Hair: After hitting O'Hair's TaylorMade Penta TP off the tee on 13, Mahan said, "Wow! It spins a lot." Mahan uses a Titleist Pro V1x.

6. Stewart Cink and Lucas Glover: Both players use a Nike ONE Tour D ball.

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- At the 2009 PGA Championship, Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen tried out the yet-to-be-released, five-piece TaylorMade Penta golf ball. Last week at the Wyndham Championship in Charlotte, Matt Bettencourt, James Driscoll, Justin Rose, Jay Williamson and Casey Wittenberg also started using the ball.

Now, according to TaylorMade representatives, Y.E. Yang, the man who walked away with the Wanamaker Trophy at Hazeltine, has put the Penta into play at the Barclays Championship. Yang had previously been using the TaylorMade TP Red LDP.

As we reported in early August, the Penta has been designed to optimize its performance in five key areas: with the driver, long-irons, middle irons, short irons and partial wedge shots. The ball will be available to the public starting December 1.

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(Photo by David Dusek)