How Bridgestone is tweaking the dimple pattern in its e-Series balls to get you more distance

For nearly a decade, Bridgestone's e-Series balls, the e5, e6 and e7, have been aimed at average golfers looking to correct specific trajectory problems. They've also been the company's most consistently successful product line, accounting for routinely more than 50 percent of its market share. And for their entire history their development has been tied to Bridgestone's grassroots ball-fitting program that has steered golfers to a particular ball based on a launch monitor fitting with a driver. The company reports that it has conducted more than 264,000 ball-fittings as part of its Bridgestone Challenge.

So there would seem to be no reason to change the formula. And for the most part that's exactly the plan with the newest versions of e-Series balls, which continue the theme of a softer compression that gets progressively firmer as you move out from the center.

But there is one noticeable exception in the new lineup. Each of the e-Series balls feature tweaks in dimple pattern aerodynamics geared to more distance. Those changes include what the company is calling "web" dimples, which more closely links its dual-dimple shaped depressions in a tighter pentagonal pattern to expand the surface coverage by 10 percent for more consistent flight. The result is a more penetrating flight with a shallower landing angle for more rollout.

The e5 uses a urethane cover over top of a large, soft compression core that gets gradationally firmer as you move out from the center. It's designed for higher flight with more spin on short shots because of its urethane cover.

The low-spin e6 incorporates a low-spin mantle designed to mitigate off-center hit spin typically found in slices and hooks. The company calls it the softest multilayer ball on the market and it includes a soft compression gradational core, mantle layer and low-spin Surlyn ionomer cover.

The three-piece e7, which features a gradational core, mantle layer and a Surlyn ionomer cover for low spin, is aimed at players seeking maximum distance who need their shots to fly lower.