There’s a distinction, pricey buddies, between hardcore golf weblog readers and regular individuals.
Regular individuals who play golf don’t geek out over golf ball trivialities like golf weblog readers (and writers) do. Most of them wouldn’t know the distinction between solid urethane and Polythene Pam. A core is what’s left after you eat an apple, a mantle is both Mickey or that factor over the fireside, and dimples are what occurs when infants smile.
Bless their hearts, a few of these so-called “regular individuals play golf only for enjoyable.
But they take a look at us like we’re the unusual ones.
All joking apart, there’s one thing to be stated for maintaining a golf ball message easy. That’s the method Bridgestone is taking with its new e12 golf balls. The 2025 e12 line options three ionomer-covered golf balls, every with a particular objective for a particular “normal person” who occurs to play golf.
That’s not terribly distinctive. The fascinating half is twofold. First, three choices give Bridgestone a becoming story to inform which is uncommon for an ionomer ball. Second is the extension of Mindset.
Bridgestone e12 golf balls: Evolution of a line
Bridgestone lays a reliable declare to inventing golf ball becoming. Since 2006, it has collected information from greater than 4 million golfers hitting not solely Bridgestones however opponents’ balls as properly.
“One thing we’ve learned is that 85 percent of golfers who play ionomer-covered distance balls are losing distance because their launch conditions aren’t optimized,” Bridgestone Advertising and marketing Supervisor Elliott Mellow tells MyGolfSpy.
“It could be a trajectory problem, it could be a horizontal (hook/slice) problem or it could be a spin problem. Either way, for that 85 percent, it’s not a ball speed problem. It’s a trajectory-related problem.”
Based on Bridgestone, almost half of that 85 % are horizontally challenged. They’re the hookers and slicers who lose distance as a result of they’re hitting the ball crooked. Slightly greater than half of these remaining wrestle with getting the ball up within the air. The remaining are inclined to have the other drawback: they hit it too excessive and lose distance by ballooning the ball.
After sorting golfers into these three buckets, Bridgestone set about engineering an answer: Optimum Flight System.
Now earlier than you begin …
I do know, I do know, “GET LESSONS!!” “Golf balls won’t fix a crappy swing,” yada yada yada. Nobody, least of all Bridgestone, is claiming the brand new e12 HiLaunch, e12 Pace or e12 Straight will magically flip a hooker/slicer into an extended and straight bomber. The Optimum Flight System is designed for a nobler and easier objective: to assist these golfers have extra enjoyable on the course.
In the event you are inclined to hit the ball too low, it’s most likely a swing velocity concern. That’s why you’re seeing OEMs providing game-improvement irons with an HL spec that function weaker lofts and decrease facilities of gravity to assist get the ball up within the air. The brand new Bridgestone e12 HiLaunch is constructed to assist, too. It’s a two-piece ball with shallow dimples and the bottom compression within the new e12 line.
“Because it’s low compression, it stays on the driver face longer as you’re swinging upward,” says Mellow. “That gives you high launch. The dimple package then helps keep the ball up in the air longer.”
For the hooker/slicer, there’s the e12 Straight. It’s the one three-piece ball within the lineup. It’s additionally a low-compression ball, simply not as little as the e12 HiLaunch. The agency cowl and mantle layer assist scale back spin and Bridgestone’s Contact Pressure Dimples create extra floor space contact between the ball and membership. That additionally helps management spin off the tee.
The e12 Pace has the very best compression of the brand new Bridgestone e12 golf balls. The mix of upper compression and a deeper dimple sample promotes a extra penetrating ball flight for golfers who have to get the ball down.
“We think 44 percent of the distance ball players will fit into the e12 Straight,” says Mellow. “That’ll be our horse but we think the HiLaunch has a chance to be the sleeper of the group.”
“I got my mind set on you …”
Additionally of be aware with the brand new Bridgestone e12 golf balls is the addition of MindSet.
Launched final 12 months on Bridgestone’s Tour B line, MindSet is a singular marking system designed by Jason Day and his psychological coach Jason Goldsmith to assist golfers develop a constant pre-shot routine. MindSet is a three-step, tri-colored course of. First, the crimson circle and arrow ask you to determine your goal. Second, the yellow internal circle prompts you to visualise the shot. Lastly, the inexperienced dot says give attention to the shot and let ‘er rip.
It’s not only a marking on the ball for enjoyable. There’s precise science behind the design.
“By going through the process, you start by activating the analytical side of your brain,” says Mellow. “By the point you get to the inexperienced dot, the analytical facet shuts down and the athletic facet takes over to make the swing.”
The concept is to quiet the thoughts and hold it from getting in the way in which. To paraphrase Crash Davis, “Don’t think, Meat. Just hit it.”
Does it work or is it only a gimmick?
A good query. And as with something designed to help the psychological facet of the sport, it is dependent upon who’s utilizing it. It most likely received’t shock you to be taught Bridgestone’s personal testing reveals MindSet will be fairly helpful, particularly for greater handicaps.
“We found the higher your handicap, the more upside there is for you to use a technology like MindSet,” says Mellow. “You probably don’t have a pre-shot routine or the one you do use could use a little refinement. That’s where MindSet helps.”
Bridgestone studied dozens of gamers with a variety of handicaps and located 80 % of them noticed scores drop by a median of three strokes after utilizing MindSet for 5 rounds. Particularly, the check confirmed MindSet helped higher-handicap golfers exponentially greater than lower-handicap golfers. The conclusion was that higher-handicap golfers usually don’t have a pre-shot routine or a psychological visualization means of any form.
After all, this can be a Bridgestone examine of how efficient an already launched and marketed Bridgestone function is so a grain or two of salt is perhaps so as. Final spring, MyGolfSpy performed its personal MindSet examine with 30 of its Discussion board members. The examine was much less targeted on scoring because it was on ball efficiency in addition to MindSet’s affect on distance, accuracy and placing effectivity.
Distance information was spotty, given it was early spring and a few gamers switched from ill-fitting balls. Accuracy (fairways hit) was additionally spotty however, once more, it was an early-spring check. Testers did discover MindSet helped as a placing alignment and focus support. As a gaggle, all testers noticed a lower in putts per spherical and an general discount in three putts.
You’ll be able to try the testing thread right here.
Ultimate ideas
An terrible lot of individuals on the market play golf only for enjoyable. The brand new e12 golf balls seem like Bridgestone’s method of claiming these individuals can have good issues, too.
“These balls are fun for us to design because it’s truly a blank slate,” says Mellow. “Going from one e12 ball in 2023 to three e12 balls now, consumer data drove that. It fits into our ethos of being a fitting company.”
Given the goal golfer, Bridgestone can be simplifying its e12 becoming messaging. As we talked about on the prime, these are golfers who don’t learn blogs and don’t get all nerdy over golf ball know-how. They simply need one thing spherical and dimpled to hit. Bridgestone’s visible messaging is designed to assist that golfer choose the proper e12 for his or her sport.
“We won’t get into the nuances of dimple depth or core composition,” Mellow explains. “We want to avoid some of the traditional jargon that can get lost on this golfer and we want to simplify it in terms of what that golfer can expect on the course.”
Bridgestone e12 golf balls: Worth and availability
The brand new Bridgestone e12 golf balls will retail for $34.99. That may appear excessive for an ionomer ball however Bridgestone is packing a little bit extra know-how into these golf balls than you’d discover in a $22.99 per dozen two-piece softy. It’s pulling just a few totally different levers to offer particular efficiency for every goal golfer who is mostly not seeking to pay the freight for a “Tour-level” urethane ball, most likely received’t purchase a DTC model on-line and needs the consolation of a identified identify. That may not be you however Bridgestone believes there are sufficient golfers on the market who really feel that method.
Not surprisingly, that $34.99 retail worth is similar because the 2023 version.
The brand new Bridgestone e12 HiLauch and e12 Pace might be obtainable in commonplace white. The e12 Straight might be obtainable in white, matte inexperienced and matte yellow.
They hit retail Feb. 14.
For extra data, go to the Bridgestone web site.
The publish Why Are There Three New Bridgestone e12 Golf Balls? appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
