NIKE Karma

The Nike Karma Women’s golf ball is a two piece ionomer ball with a soft core specifically designed for swings in the 70mph to 80mph range—mostly women, but quite a few men also. With Nike’s lowest compression core, it should add distance, while offering improved feel for its target audience.

A federal jury in Delaware has ruled against Callaway in its lawsuit alleging that Titleist infringed upon several of its golf ball patents.

The jury sided with Titleist’s arguments that even though its Pro V1 golf balls infringed the patents, the patents themselves weren’t enforceable because the design and construction did not represent a new concept or innovation when the patents were issued in 2001 and 2003. Titleist also argued that its design was developed independently.

Callaway had patented the use of multiple layers of different materials inside its golf balls, which Titleist contended was an obvious approach to construction.

I hope this is a trend in patents. In recent years, I have read of far too many being awarded for ideas that are head-slappingly obvious—such as Amazon’s (rumored?) patent on “one click to buy.” I suppose they’ve got a legal argument, but common sense would dictate that this is no more patentable than “take item off shelf and put it into shopping cart before taking it to the cashier.”

A recent economics podcast I listed to bemoaned the increasing trend of patent balkanization and gridlock—where so many patents have been issued for so many minute bits and pieces that it becomes almost impossible to create new products. Often these patents are held by companies whose only purpose is to generate patents on speculation, hoping someone infringes on them so that they can cash out in court.

The podcast discussed the case of a scientist who developed a new kind of “golden rice” that produces vitamin A, thus alleviating an eye disease that plagues the third world. Unfortunately, although the scientist did the work from scratch, the end result infringed on dozens of patents held by dozens of different companies. As a result, he couldn’t bring the life-saving product to market. In the end, he was able to shame the patent owners into relenting, but only after great delay and difficulty.

After listening to that podcast, I’ve wondered what other innovations are being kept from us.

Can you imagine the chaos in the golf world if someone was able to patent the idea of golf balls with multiple layers?

BRIDGESTONE Tour B330-RXS

Bridgestone had a terrific idea last year with its Bridgestone RX Tour, a “tour level” ball designed for players with slower swing speeds. Although it was too expensive for my tastes, I did try it and found that it worked very well.

Now, Bridgestone has released the RXS, a version that’s supposed to offer more spin control and a softer feel. I’ll give it a try, but I’m still waiting for them to get that price point down to the low 30s at least.

TITLEIST NXT Tour

The Titleist NXT Tour is a new three layer ball that fits somewhere between the now-venerable Pro V1 and the somewhat less respected two layer NXT.

Aside from the usual large, fast core, and responsive mantle that every three piece boasts, the main difference seems to be in the cover. The NXT Tour has a low-count, high coverage dimple pattern that’s supposed to help golfers with distance. And although I have never thought Titleist balls had a durability problem, the thin cover is said to be designed to be more durable than previous, similar designs.

I wonder about the price point, however. For a three piece Titleist, it’s not a bad price, either. Golfsmith has them for just under $30 a dozen.

TAYLORMADE Noodle + Easy Distance

I saw these at Target the other day, and it turns out they’re a bit of a stealth product—as are all of TaylorMade’s Noodle lineup. There’s no mention of them on the TaylorMade website, and they’ve got no site of their own. All I can really tell is that they’re cheap—$14.99—and designed for people with swing speeds of less than $85 mph. That’d make them good for both Seniors and most ladies.

It’s a shame what’s happened to TaylorMade’s site in the last couple of years. Once upon a time it was useful and interesting. Then they built some sort of strange “virtual locker room,” and apparently spend more time on eye candy than actual content. Their “press room” hasn’t been updated since April of 2009 (from the date of the last press release). And their outreach to bloggers and the like also has suffered. There was a time when I got regular products from TaylorMade for review. In the last couple of years, nothing.

CALLAWAY Tour iz

It was not so long ago that the three piece ball represented the pinnacle of golf ball evolution. But if three are good, then four—or even five!—are better. And if one core is good, it follows that two are better. The 2010 Callaway Tour iz ball is the second generation of Callaway’s Dual Core construction. Each of the two has different spin properties that are supposed to deliver less spin off the driver and more from the irons. It’s also got the terrific HEX pattern in lieu of dimples. Callaway says that the “improved” design results in more stability through windy conditions, minimizing wind effects on trajectory.

These just might be the thing to play here on those windy Michigan spring days.

CALLAWAY Solaire White

Callaway has a new line of women’s golf equipment out, with clubs and balls marketed under the Solaire name. The Solaire ball is designed for slower swing speeds, and thus might also be great for senior men golfers. But they’ve done them up in a luminous finish that might very well cut them out of that market.

I’ve always thought that—were I a woman—I’d find the marketing of women’s clubs vaguely insulting. While men are enticed with technological developments, they try to attract women by making the clubs pink, adding Swarovski crystals, and color to the balls. Mrs. GoflBlogger was recently given a sleeve of women’s balls in pink and lavender with leopard spots.

Actually, with the boomers all retiring, a company might do very well marketing lines of senior equipment.

Just don’t make them in grey.