Beyond the color, is there really a performance difference between yellow and white golf balls?
I saw a story on Tommy Fleetwood changing to a ball with a different cover design, and it got me wondering if there’s a performance difference between yellow golf balls and the standard white version.
Welcome to another edition of the Fully Equipped Mailbag, sponsored by Cleveland/Srixon Golf, an interactive series in which our resident dimple head fields your hard-hitting gear questions.
We’ve seen a color explosion in the golf ball market over the last two years. Yellow remains the most popular alternative option, but it’s now common to see golfers playing balls with alignment patterns and two-tone covers, like the one found on Srixon’s Q-Star Tour Divide.
Pros have even warmed to the idea of playing with different colors and patterns as well, which is a significant shift from where we were about a decade ago. It’s safe to say the stigma that was once attached to yellow golf balls—most assumed they were designed for the range or high-handicap golfers—is no longer a thing.
Of course, it’s still natural to pick up, say, a standard Q-Star Tour and a two-tone Q-Star Tour Divide and wonder if they’ll perform the same. The covers look markedly different, but I can assure you that the ball’s performance is identical. The bright pigments you see are infused into the cover to keep things consistent across the board. Altering the ball recipe, even slightly, would be an R&D nightmare.
Having conducted plenty of ball testing on Foresight’s GCQuad with the same model in different color options, I can confirm the numbers check out from tee to green. Spin, launch, ball speed—it’s all the same.
The myriad of color options in the golf ball marketplace are primarily designed to enhance visibility, but a few serve a dual purpose, improving your alignment in the process. Some even come in matte finishes designed to reduce glare, similar to the matte crown look that’s become so popular on many drivers.
So the next time you pick up a yellow golf ball, don’t question whether it’ll check up like the identical version with the white cover resting in your golf bag. It’s not about changing the performance recipe but rather giving golfers different visual and alignment options to improve their play on the course.
