GolfWRX: Tiger is still an “old school” player in regards to his equipment. Where does that come into play when he’s developing a golf ball?
ANDREW TROUTNER: When we were testing, Tiger made the comment about the modern player loving wedges and short irons to go straight up in the air. Having grown up in the balata era, Tiger only wants to see those shots come out of a lower window with a ton of spin. That equals control for him, and as you can see it’s becoming a preference for most of the best players in the world. Where Tiger goes, so goes everyone else.
GolfWRX: Besides spin, sound, and feel, what else was he looking for?
ADAM REHBERG: The cool thing with Tiger is his priorities start with around the green and he works back from there. If you can’t get past 100 yards, you can’t go forward. He did want to get a few extra yards if he could. He is already a low spin player off the driver (2,100-2,300 RPM), so we had to be conscious of not disrupting that. So, you can see the challenge here: We have to build the highest spinning golf ball on the TOUR and try and find Tiger one that gets him a few yards extra — without eliminating spin.
Gaining distance looks a little different for Tiger, it’s not all ball speed and carry distance off the driver. When he says it’s a bit longer, it’s being able to hit certain shots to specific pins in certain conditions and have the ball carry further into a green complex. We are talking an 8-footer instead of a 12-footer. It’s that specific. Keep in mind that his iron game is so dialed and has been for years that he knows exactly where shots land on certain greens year to year.