{"id":419,"date":"2012-05-16T23:55:22","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T23:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daviddesmith.com\/?p=419"},"modified":"2012-05-16T23:55:22","modified_gmt":"2012-05-16T23:55:22","slug":"found-my-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/golf\/equipment\/419\/found-my-ball","title":{"rendered":"Found My Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In days of yore, as some of you over the age of 50 may recall, Britons played a golf ball that was slightly smaller than the American ball. The smaller ball helped them cope better with the wind that is so omnipresent in the British Isles. Today, both countries\u2019 governing bodies specify the use of the same sized ball.\u00a0 So even though I find myself on a British Isle now, there\u2019s not a smaller-than-regulation ball to be had anywhere.<\/p>\n

Luckily for me, I have the next best thing. The Callaway HEX Black Tour<\/a>. This ball, new for 2012, packs a lot of desirable features into its regulation size \u2013 among them an aerodynamic design that really does seem to help the ball hold its line better in the wind.\u00a0 I played 18 holes at Machrihanish Golf Club, 18 holes at Machrihanish Dunes, and nine holes on the Ailsa course at Turnberry before I finally lost one when I yanked a tee shot onto the rocky beach and couldn\u2019t find it.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve played in some incredibly strong winds all during our Golf Road Warriors Scotland sojourn, and the HEX Black Tour did seem to be less affected by those winds than other balls I\u2019ve played with over here. Their hexagonal dimples (which cover 100% of the ball\u2019s outer surface) are designed to reduce drag and promote a stable, penetrating ball flight.\u00a0 What I have found is that slippery aerodynamics like these are highly useful on links golf courses.<\/p>\n

But that the HEX Black Tour has more going for it than just aerodynamics.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the new-concept balls that promise low spin off the tee (where you don\u2019t want much, especially in a Scottish gale), and more spin where you do want it (such as on approach shots and around the greens).\u00a0 Here in Scotland, you have a play a much wider variety of shots than we do in the U.S., especially around the greens.\u00a0 You need a ball with good feel, and this one has it.\u00a0 Distance and<\/em> control are what it\u2019s designed to give, and it actually does.<\/p>\n

A number of things are responsible for this. The ball\u2019s dual-core design is one.\u00a0 The inner core has soft compression characteristics, while the outer core has extremely high ones.\u00a0 According to Callaway, this dichotomy allows them to achieve the highest spin separation they\u2019ve ever been able to engineer into a golf ball.\u00a0 The result: lower spin on tee shots, more spin on iron shots.<\/p>\n

Surrounding the dual core is a dual mantle.\u00a0 The soft inner mantle and harder outer mantle combine to provide protection for the dual core and to produce the highest possible ball speeds.\u00a0 Wrap it all up in Callaway\u2019s proprietary urethane cover and you get great durability, feel, and spin around the greens.<\/p>\n

Of course, you still have to hit the ball right.\u00a0 The HEX Black Tour can do a lot of things, but it can\u2019t make you a pro golfer.\u00a0 Even the HEX couldn\u2019t stop me from launching one deep into the rough at Machrihanish Dunes on Saturday, for example.\u00a0 But unlike with other balls, I actually went to look for that one \u2013 and found it.\u00a0 This ball is a keeper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In days of yore, as some of you over the age of 50 may recall, Britons played a golf ball… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[420362,420369,9,152652,420357,3],"tags":[1005774,449894,477964,478576,1288,4282],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visitscotland","category-grw-scotland","category-golf","category-callaway-golf","category-machrihanish-dunes","category-equipment","tag-machrihanish-dunes","tag-golf-road-warriors-scotland","tag-david-desmith","tag-callaway-hex-black-tour-golf-balls","tag-the-a-position","tag-scotland-golf"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/05\/hex-black-tour-2-product-overview.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":423,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/daviddesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}