Yellow golf balls have continued to rise in popularity in recent years — to the point that manufacturers have started to add the yellow cover to premium offerings. Even pros have embraced the technology, including Bubba Watson and Fred Couples.
Indeed, the stigma around the yellow cover seems to be dissipating. Even Tiger Woods is warming up to the idea of them showing up on Tour.
During a recent interview on Bridgestone Golf’s Another Golf Podcast, Woods made it clear how he viewed yellow golf balls growing up.
“I always thought yellow balls were for hacks,” Woods said.
For the most part, Woods is right. The yellow cover could typically be found on the cheaper two-piece models that beginners and higher-handicap golfers tended to play. But when it came to the higher priced options, it was almost always a premium white cover construction.
So what changed? Many golfers started to embrace the high visibility cover and how easy it made tracking the ball in flight. Even recent testing confirmed there’s no performance benefit (or dropoff) to using the yellow version of a premium ball.
Fred Couples can attest. The former Masters champion has relied solely on the yellow version of Bridgestone’s Tour B RXS for the last few years, even with Tiger needling him about using the brightly-colored ball.
“We give [Fred] grief all the time about using the yellow ball,” Woods said. “But he absolutely loves it because he can’t see anymore. You should see the front on his phone; it’s like one letter per screen.”
Woods isn’t to the point of needing to up the text size on his phone, but he did admit to needing glasses on occasion. That being said, even Woods admits he’d switch balls in a heartbeat — if it helped him go low.
“My eyes are getting bad that I need my readers and cheaters, but I can still see [on the course],” he said. “I don’t need a yellow ball. But if it’s guaranteeing me a 60, I’m using it every day.”
After watching Couples shoot an astounding 60 in the final round to win this year on the Champions Tour, maybe Tiger should give it a shot.
For now, though, he’ll continue to needle his pal about the ball in his bag. It’s what good friends do.
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