The Wilson Duo line of golf balls has become synonymous with soft feeling, two-piece distance balls. Still, making a ball that feels soft and flies far is a challenge. For Wilson’s new Duo Soft+ line, a change was made to the core formulation to increase velocity while maintaining a cushy feel.
“There are different forms of polybutadiene,” says Frank Simonutti, Wilson’s global director of golf ball innovaton, of the rubber used to make golf ball cores. “What we’re using shifts the polymer change to be more linear and the more linear, the faster. How it does that is by nullifying the co-crosslinking agent which makes the core firmer.”
The secret sauce, says Simonutti, is Zinc pentachlorothiophenol. “This is our steroids,” he says. “It amplifies the power of a player’s swing. We’ve seen gains of up to 2 miles per hour of ball speed off the driver with a 90 mile-per-hour swing speed, which is significant.”
Although more distance was a priority, the new ball did not forego its soft heritage, with a pillowy 35-compression providing the soft feel the line has come to be known for. The Duo Soft+ will be available at retail on Jan. 27 at $20 a dozen.
Wilson also is introducing a color option with the Duo Optix in four matte colors—red, orange, green and yellow—with a semi-translucent cover. The Duo Optix is also available Jan. 27 at $20 a dozen.