ORLANDO, Fla. -- Like it or not, it looks like the colored golf ball may be making a comeback.At the PGA Merchandise Show, Srixon is unveiling its line of Tour Yellow Z-Star golf balls. Hardly a novelty, the Z-Star is the company's flagship premium ball. So what gives? Why make a tour-level golf ball in a color normally reserved for range balls?
For starters, the ball isn't actually yellow, but rather a green/yellow combination. According to Chris Beck, brand manager for Srixon, studies have shown yellow to be the most visible color in the spectrum. Additionally, studies have correlated that green/yellow colors have a calming, stress-relieving effect on people.
For those who think that is hogwash, Beck is quick to point out the reason many talk shows have a "Green Room," that is, indeed, green, is to give guests a place to relax before going out in front of a camera on live television.
Visibility, however, was the driving force. According to Beck, the company did several tests that showed the yellow ball was easier to spot atvirtually every distance. "It was twice as easy to see at 210 yards and three times as easy to spot at 250 yards," he said.
Although intriguing, colored balls for better visibility are not exactly new. In fact, colored balls have a long, if inconsistent, history. Living in Vermont in the 1890's, writer Rudyard Kipling "invented" what many believe to be the first colored golf ball when he slapped a coat of red paint on a white sphere in order to make it easier to see while playing snow golf. In
1928, Wilson ran full-page ads in Golf Illustrated touting its "Oriole-Orange and Canary-Yellow" Hol-Hi ball -- at a whopping $10.75 per dozen (about $109 in today's dollars) but they never caught on.
Fifty years later, Ping began producing golf balls, including its Ping Punch ball, where one hemisphere was one color and the other side another. That effort failed, but the use of colored balls exploded when Wayne Levi (at the 1982 Hawaiian Open), and then Jerry Pate (at the 1982 Players Championship), won using orange-colored Wilson ProStaff balls. Pate also made noise earlier in the year when he used the carrot-colored sphere to card the first ace ever by a professional during the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am on Cypress Point's famed 16th hole. More recently, Nike brought on its Nike One Black in a limited black color -- even getting some of its tour players to use the ball in competition.
Will that happen with the Srixon Tour Yellow Z-Star? Too early to tell, but Jim Furyk was seen eyeballing the spheres during an appearance at the Srixon booth. If Furyk were to put the ball in play that would be high visibility, indeed.
-- E. Michael Johnson
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