OnCore Elixr 2022 ball: What you need to know

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: OnCore, the direct-to-consumer golf ball brand, updates its three-piece, urethane cover Elixr model with a firmer compression and new dimple pattern for more speed and higher flight.

PRICE: $30 per dozen.

THE DEEP DIVE: The OnCore Elixr was the direct-to-consumer ball manufacturer’s first foray into a traditional construction “tour-level” three-piece urethane design. Introduced in March 2017 and updated in 2020, it incorporated the ideas its first hollow metal-core balls like the MA-1 espoused back in 2013. The thinking is that by pushing heavier materials or compounds away from the center of the ball, the ball will have a higher moment of inertia. While in clubs MOI is touted as stability on off-center hits, in golf balls, increasing the MOI is believed to create balls that spin more consistently. That means both on low spin shots off the tee and higher spin shots into the green.

That stability idea was part of the previous Elixr, which used high-density elements in its ionomer mantle layer between the cover and core. Those high-density additives, the company says, increases the specific gravity, or essentially the density, of the mantle layer to create more mass away from the center for a higher MOI.

The new Elixr features a slightly firmer cover than the past model, and that cover uses 350 dimples rather than the 318-dimple pattern from before. That change is designed for a more aerodynamically efficient higher flight, which is coupled with a new, faster rubber core.

Its compression is in the 80s, or softer than many tour balls, but firmer than many of the low-compression two-piece ionomer-covered balls. The Elixr’s cover is cast urethane for better short game spin.

The Elixr retails for $30 per dozen.