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Amazon’s golf ball appeared and was gone within a few days. Was it any good, and will we be seeing it again?

By: Tony Dear

Since this page was last updated, something that was both eye-opening and, at the same time, rather predictable happened in the golf equipment world whose boundaries continue to evolve. As many readers may have seen, Amazon launched its own golf ball, taking plenty by surprise (guilty). A few seconds later, however, those same people were thinking ‘Well, of course they did.”

You’ll know the golf ball industry has changed a great deal in recent years, with numerous companies, both large and small, taking on the big guns. Prominent OEMs like PXG and Tour Edge (not Acushnet or Callaway-huge admittedly, but still well-known) have entered the ball market while less conspicuous brands like Snell, Vice, OnCore, Cut, Seed, Sugar, and Saintnine have also attracted many with direct-to-consumer business models and better-than-decent (in some cases, top-quality) products. The resurgent Maxfli brand (currently owned by Dick’s Sporting Goods) has made a welcome return to the winner’s circle on the PGA Tour and then, of course, there’s the Kirkland ball, which deserves a special mention and which seems to have made almost as much noise in recent years as the Titleist Pro-V1, Callaway Chrome Soft, and TaylorMade TP5.

The economics obviously make sense for these companies to offer their products, most of which come out of the same factories and usually differ from their competitors’ models only very slightly.

It has been rumored Amazon took advantage of a million or so ‘spare’ golf balls at the SM Global factory (SM Global is a California-based distribution/logistics company with golf ball factories in China and Vietnam, and produces the Kirkland, PXG, and Malbon balls), stamped its curved arrow on it and put it up on its website…from where it seems to have already sold out.

That’s right, the Amazon Basics Core Soft appeared on the Amazon website after last week’s equipment story posted and disappeared at some point over the weekend. It’s possible another manufacturer claimed some patent infringement but it seems more likely Amazon just ran out of product very quickly.
That’s all speculation, though. And, right now, we can only speculate on whether we’ll see the ball for sale again or whether Amazon made a quick bundle and is already done with the golf ball business.

The Core Soft was/is part of Amazon’s Basics range which consists of products that do the job inexpensively without changing the world. The first Basics products (batteries, cables, bed sheets, luggage, pet supplies, office furniture, etc.) came out in 2009 and did $0.5 million of business (by 2022 they were doing $11 Billion!). A two-dozen pack of the Core Soft sold for an incredible $24.16 ($14.49 for a dozen) and was/is a two-piece ball with an ionomer cover – an interesting choice as the SM Global factory’s other golf balls have urethane covers.

To sell a golf ball for a dollar (or thereabouts), it probably had to have an ionomer cover but, considering the molds/tools for making ionomer covers differ slightly from those you need to make urethane covers, one wonders what had to happen at the factory. Was new equipment installed, or was the Amazon ball made using equipment used for urethane balls? And, if so, did that have much of an effect on how the ball performed?

Online reviews from those who had been quick enough to nab a pack said the soft core/low compression/low-spin ball flew relatively straight thanks to the reduction in sidespin, but wasn’t especially long and didn’t generate much greenside spin. The feeling from reading the reviews was that you wouldn’t necessarily become a more accomplished golfer by using it, but that it might be ideal for golfers who tended to lose two or three balls a round or those who wanted to upgrade their practice-ball bag.
We will be looking for the Basics Core Soft’s possible return to the Amazon website.

We didn’t want you to leave this page without getting some equipment news you could use, so we can bring you word of PXG’s latest putter release. The Mustang ZT, follows on from the company’s previous Zero-Torque putters (Allan, Hellcat, Bat Attack) where the center of gravity is positioned directly beneath the shaft axis almost eradicating torque entirely. That makes the putter feel far more stable and enables you to keep the face square to the path of your stroke. The head is hollow and filled with PXG’s S-COR polymer which allows engineers to position more weight around the putterhead’s edges increasing MOI and dampening vibrations. The thin face (just 0.055” thick) features the company’s Pyramid face pattern which is designed to create a smoother roll.
The body of this blade-style putter is milled from 303 stainless steel while the face has four degrees of loft with a 1-degree forward press.

$450
pxg.com