Gear: Wilson Triad golf balls
Price: $39.99 per dozen
Specs: Three-piece, urethane-covered golf ball
Available: February 15
Wilson offers the Staff Model and the Staff Model R golf balls for elite golfers who demand distance off the tee and the most control around the greens. They are both four-piece, urethane-covered balls designed for fast-swinging players. The company also offers the two-piece Duo Soft+ ball ideally suited for slower-swinging players who want a soft-feeling ball that provides more distance.
The new Wilson Triad was designed to fit perfectly between those two balls. It is for a player who wants to hit more fairways, hold more greens, and expects reliable performance around the greens.
Initially codenamed “Nemesis” in the Wilson Lab, the Triad is a three-piece ball with a compression of 85, making it softer than the Staff Model balls but firmer than Duo Soft+.
To make the ball fly straighter off the tee and find fairways more often, Wilson removed some of the weight from the core and shifted it into the mantle layer that encases the core. Wilson says that by moving weight to the outside of the ball, the Triad has perimeter weighting, which inherently reduces spin.
The Triad spins about 5 percent less compared to the Staff Model balls. That may not seem like a lot, but for example, lowering a spin rate of 3,000 rpm with a drive to 2,800 or seeing 2,500 rpm decrease to 2,350 could mean hitting one or two more fairways per round because a lower-spinning ball curves less.
Wilson gave the Triad a thin, cast-urethane cover to boost spin on short-iron shots, chips, and pitches. The grooves of higher-lofted clubs easily grab the material, which produces more spin and control on shorter shots.