This is why testing the ball on the course is so important

ACTIvE this week’s podI went deep into mine in the course Testing the ball with Callaway Golf’s Daniel Bladen. I learned a lot, shared a lot, and somehow left with more questions than I came in with. But first, let’s recap my conversation with Johnny Wunder.

First, let’s start with a little backstory, as I mentioned in the podcast. I’ve been a big fan of the Wilson Staff Model X (2024) golf ball. I played it from late 2024 to early 2026, when I started testing the 2026 version. With the new model, I was told they would have slightly reduced the spin on the long end of the bag while maintaining the 8-iron-down performance I liked – especially around the greens. On paper and in in-house simulator testing, it looked perfect. It would drop my driver rpm from about 2600rpm to 2300rpm and flatten the 5 iron a bit – great in theory. Until it wasn’t.

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This is where my testing session with Daniel really changed things for me – and my golf bag.

It started late last year when we visited Callaway Golf to test their new equipment, including the 2026 Chrome Tour Family. of golf balls. It was a stop Omni La Costawhere we did some on-course testing with the Callaway team, including Daniel. I was surprised by what we saw. At that point, I didn’t know Wilson was going to release one Ball of 2026so I was still benchmarking everything against my Model X 2024. Ball speeds were similar, flight windows looked similar, and overall performance was strong. We didn’t spend enough time side-by-side to warrant a switch, but it definitely caught my eye.

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Fast forward a few weeks. After a rough showing at Battle at the Beach, I was frustrated and looking for answers. A few shots really stuck with me – in a bad way. Fortunately, just a few days later, I had the opportunity to work on the course with Daniel at courts during the Callaway Golf Ambassador shoot. This time, I brought Wilson Staff Model X (2026) for a true head-to-head comparison.

What we found actually came down to three key moments.

1.) Movement

We started by hitting hybrids and 5-woods – two of the most reliable clubs in my bag. If I’m testing variables, I want to eliminate as much doubt as possible. At first, everything seemed fine. Carry distances were similar between the Chrome Tour X (2026) (CTX) and the Wilson Staff Model X (2026) (WSX), but clearly the Wilson was spreading more, with a noticeable drop in spin on the Foresight GC Quad.

Nothing alarming yet.

Then we went over to the last hole at The Yards to hit the driver. It’s very open (hard to miss a ball) which was perfect given my lack of confidence off the tee. The first swings didn’t show much change. Ball speed and release were nearly identical, with Wilson again spinning slightly less.

Then, around the third hit of the WSX, we saw it.

A small “wobble” at the peak height.

Daniel noticed it first and once you saw it, you couldn’t tell. We hit about five more balls with each one, and as the launch monitor numbers stayed close, the ball flights started to look very different. We hit the driver on a few more holes and saw the same thing. This small movement made the back half of the flight – especially the descent – unpredictable.

Which brought us to the next moment.

2.) 8-iron predictability

There is a par-3 at The Yards with a bunker in the middle of the green. He was playing 167 yards that day. A perfect stock 8-iron for me. We had a wind of about 10 mph in our face, but both balls are designed to handle it well. A little discount too, which helped.

We wanted to see two things: would the swing show up with an 8-iron, and where would the balls land against the finish?

Sure enough, there it was again. Wilson climbed to the height of the pinnacle, gave it a little shimmy and fell. All of the shots landed around, confirming the strong wind performance, but all three of Wilson’s shots ended up in the bunker, about six feet long. Not ideal.

The Chrome Tour X shots landed about 3 yards shorter, but ended up roughly a yard short of the flag. No wobble, just a clean, steady flight that held his line. That’s when the conversation shifted to in-flight spin degradation, but first, another hit sealed it.

3.) 5-wood shows all

My 5-wood is one of my favorite clubs right now. It’s reliable off the tee and into long par 5s, basically my security blanket. It was also one of the few clubs that didn’t let me down at Battle at the Beach.

From the tee, nothing seemed off. But we ended up testing it by hitting it off the deck – 245 meters in a strong port to starboard wind.

I hit three shots with each ball, alternating. The first two looked almost identical early in the flight, both slightly pushed to the right, with the wind neutralizing my usual draw. But at maximum height, Wilson drifted and then fell hard to the right. Callaway reached his peak, interacted with the wind, and then went straight down.

I adjusted the target to the left and hit both again. Same story. Similar launch, similar speed, but Wilson moved to the right and flashed more. Callaway kept her structure and fell straight again.

When we got to the green, the difference was obvious. Wilson had actually passed the flag, but ended up on the back of the green, about 40 yards away. Approximately a stretch of 10-12 meters. Callaway drove it just over the bunker and stopped about two yards behind the pin, with maybe six yards of clearance.

That’s when Daniel destroyed it.

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Roll degradation during the course of golf ball flight

The main concept Daniel explained was that a golf ball loses spin and speed throughout its flight, especially in the first half as it climbs to maximum height. There is roughly an eight-yard window at the top of the flight that determines how the ball ends up.

For me, the issue was the lower end spin of the new Wilson. I wasn’t releasing it with enough spin, so by the time it reached max height, it was basically out of spin. This is what caused the apparent “wobble”. This is also the reason why the ball was not stopping on the green.

Rolling a 5-wood from 245 yards is one thing, but an 8-iron from 167 into the wind? This is a problem.

It also explained two frustrating shots from Battle on the Beach.

Twice, I had 115 yards in the wind, a comfortable, stress-free 56 degree pitch. A shot I’ve hit a thousand times. Both times, downwind, both shots came up short. I was furious and so was my partner.

Turns out the ball wasn’t spinning enough. The wind was going over the top of it and pushing it down, instead of the ball having enough spin for the wind to work under it. Same reason why those 8 irons ended up in the bunker.

So is the Wilson ball bad? No. Not at all. It’s not fair to me.

Since this test, I’ve gone back and retested everything – Wilson, Callaway and others. I even revisited the Model X Wilson Staff (2024). That ball did not exhibit the same problems. In fact, it performed almost identically to the Chrome Tour X (2026), which explains why I wasn’t initially sold on the switch to La Costa.

Unfortunately, the 2026 Model X’s updated roll and aerodynamics took away what worked for me. I’m already sitting on the low spin end so I need as much spin and height as I can get. I’m comfortable there. The moment I lose my spin, things unravel quickly. I’m basically Tiger Woods in that sense.

I would still absolutely recommend testing the Wilson Staff and Model X. For mid-spin players looking to add some short game spin while maintaining speed and flight off the top tip, it’s a great, consistent golf ball.

For me? The search is ongoing. Right now, Chrome Tour X (2026) is leading the club, but he has a real fight on his hands.

To hear the whole story and to hear Johnny and I talk about AI gear, listen to the full podcast on Spotifyor see below.

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