The golf ball that saved my season might surprise you

As a gear nerd, it’s rare for me to find a piece of equipment that I feel like I can’t live without.

I love my Callaway Elyte Triple Diamond Tour Draw driver (if not the length of its name!), but I’ve got backups I also noodle with. I love my custom Toulon Chicago putter, but I have other flatsticks that make their way into my starting rotation. Same goes for every other club in my bag — this year I’ve swapped out all of my gamers multiple times. There’s only one piece of gear that I haven’t changed this year, and that’s my golf ball: Wilson Golf’s Staff Model X.

The Wilson Staff Model X came at me by surprise, but not be coincidence. I am a big believer in the Ballnamic Golf Ball Fitting Tool, which Ping developed as an unbiased ball-testing and fitting platform. The process is simple: You input your launch monitor data, the more precise the better, and answer a couple other questions about your preferences and game, and the program spits out ball recommendations for you. My advice from there: grab a sleeve of each model and test them on the course with as many different clubs and shots as you can. 

Confidence through control

When I went through the Ballnamic Fitting, I was surprised to see it suggest the Wilson Staff Model X as one of my matches, along with Titleist’s Pro V1x and Callaway’s Chrome Tour X. I tested all three on course compared to my previous gamer (the TaylorMade TP5x), and while all three balls live in a higher spin category than the TP5x, the Wilson differed from the others in surprising ways.

The first — and arguably most important — benefit for me was the control and feel this ball gave me on short-game shots. It’s not overly soft, but it sounds great and provides confidence-inspiring feedback at impact. From the first couple of shots that I hit with the Staff Model X, I felt 100 percent in control of my ball. High and spinny, low runners, low checkers, tumblers out of thick rough — the ball seemed to always do exactly what I thought it was going to do. No surprises. 

What impressed me the most, however, was the stability of the ball flight off the tee and into the longer irons. As somebody who lives in the suburbs of Chicago and plays tree lined narrow courses with 20 mph winds on a good day, I can confirm this ball could care less about the environment you’re playing in. Into the wind its about a half-club longer than other options that I tested; downwind it doesn’t take off away from you unexpectedly; and crosswinds are almost non-existent to this golf ball. On wet days or dewy mornings, it also doesn’t jump of the short irons. All of this has unlocked in me an ability to stand up on a tee or over a longer shot into a green and feel like I am in complete control. 

Extreme durability

Another thing I love about this ball: it’s uber-durable for the feel that it offers. I have no problem switching between only two balls over a round, and when there is a mark or small scuff on a ball, I haven’t seen any degradation in performance or flight, which is a new paranoia I developed after testing some other options. I’m usually picky about balls during the course of play, and I’ll go through a half-dozen or so a round on account of nicks and scrapes, but since switching to Staff Model X, I’ve been rotating fewer balls.

Why it works (for me)

The Wilson Staff Model X features a core composition that allows for a firmer compression rate while maintaining the ability for the ball to properly and effectively transfer the maximum amount of energy off of the club face. The X also is one of few balls that aims to be high spin and high launch. Typically you’d see balls in the higher spin category launch a little bit lower, as the marriage of characteristics between spin in launch generally is stabilized with lower flighted, high spin balls and higher flighted low spin balls. Particularly off the tee, you can see the difference in the launch of the Staff Model X over others in its category.

The ball is finished Wilson’s 3SIX2 Seamless Urethane Cover, which pairs impressive durability with tons of spin with wedge and short-game shots while also increasing spin on irons (which I love). The casing has a 362-dimple pattern. That may not seem like a lot to you, but think about how small a ball is (the Titleist Pro V1x has 348 dimples). I have a hunch that’s where my feeling of control comes from as well as the stability of the ball in the air and through the wind.

Wilson Staff Model X Balls are now available from Fairway Jockey:

You may also buy Wilson balls direct from Wilson on its website.

Did you know you can work with a True Spec fitter to help find the right golf ball for your game? Book a fitting here.