Once we obtain a press launch asserting that the brand new Pinnacle Distance golf ball is now the official ball of the World Lengthy Drive Tour, we have a tendency to boost an eyebrow.
Once we be taught that Pinnacle is now the official golf ball companion of, and a presenting sponsor for, the World Lengthy Drive Tour, we have a tendency to boost the opposite one.
Lots of you most likely aren’t sufficiently old to recollect however there was a time when Pinnacle was one of many top-selling balls in golf. As just lately as 1994, the Pinnacle Gold held a roughly 17-percent market share. Quick-forward a number of a long time and the Pinnacle model has turn into a budget-price afterthought within the Acushnet ecosystem.
Right this moment’s information is a sign that Acushnet desires to pump some new life into the outdated model by teaming up with the World Lengthy Drive Tour. In any case, if you wish to promote a ball known as Pinnacle Distance, teaming up with guys whose job is to hit the ball a freaking mile is a marketer’s dream.
Why is Pinnacle/Acushnet doing this?
The plain reply appears to be to make the Pinnacle model related once more. Acushnet spent a number of months looking for out what golfers within the target market wished.
“What came back is golfers were looking for a high quality, consistent, low-cost golf ball,” Acushnet Golf Ball Product Supervisor Courtney Walsh tells MyGolfSpy. “From a performance perspective, they were really focused on distance above all other attributes.”
The excellent news is that Pinnacle already had a ball that match that individual invoice. The unhealthy information is that it was generally known as the Pinnacle Rush which doesn’t scream distance. The plain transfer, particularly on the sub-$20 value level, is to rebrand the Rush because the Pinnacle Distance.
That’s when serendipity joined the social gathering when the World Lengthy Drive Tour approached Acushnet a few partnership.
“Going into 2025, we wanted to establish a true partnership with a golf ball company,” says World Lengthy Drive Chief Business Officer David Livington. “The ball is the only consistent part of our sport. We wanted to work with a partner that could provide a ball that allows us to showcase our athletes and their performance.”
World Lengthy Drive + Pinnacle = Distance
The deal between Pinnacle/Acushnet and the World Lengthy Drive Tour is easy. As of this weekend’s season-opening occasion, the Conflict within the Canyon in Mesquite, Nev., the Pinnacle Distance would be the Tour’s official competitors ball.
Moreover, Pinnacle would be the presenting sponsor for 3 World Lengthy Drive occasions this season. That features the Bluff Metropolis Shootout in Memphis, the Rocky Mountain Rumble in Colorado in addition to this weekend’s occasion in Mesquite. Pinnacle may also be the official sponsor of a fourth occasion, the Struggle on the Fort in South Carolina.
In whole, the World Lengthy Drive Tour can have 9 occasions within the U.S. this yr together with others worldwide.
Pinnacle can also be signing reigning World Lengthy Drive Champion Sean Johnson and World No. 4-ranked Jack Smith as model ambassadors.
“The biggest thing I look for in a ball is one that holds up to our power,” Smith tells MyGolfSpy. “For us, it’s purely about distance so I’m looking for a ball that can translate the speed I put into it.”
In case you’re questioning, Smith’s highest recorded swing velocity is 160 mph and his private greatest ball velocity is 238.7 mph.
“When you’re hitting it this hard, consistency is important,” he says. “You could have the fastest golf ball in the world but if it’s inconsistent, it’s like a sniper with inconsistent powder in his shells.”
The oldsters at Acushnet made positive to inform us that every one Pinnacle balls are made at Ball Plant 2 in New Bedford, Mass., and are held to the identical high quality requirements as Titleist golf balls.
Don’t assume, Rip it
The Pinnacle model was established by Acushnet again in 1980 as a Surlyn-covered different to balata-covered Titleist. Initially a high-compression competitor to Spalding’s Prime-Flite, Pinnacle proved to be a very talked-about alternative for leisure golfers for the subsequent 20 years. Nonetheless, as golf ball producers developed higher solid-core expertise, the model pale into the pack of low-cost, low-compression, low-technology golf balls.
“This partnership presents us with an opportunity to reintroduce Pinnacle to golfers who remember it,” explains Walsh. “It also presents an opportunity to engage with golfers who are new to the game. Partnering with World Long Drive opens up a completely different segment of golfers to interact with.”
Pinnacle even has a brand new Lengthy Drive (and perhaps Crash Davis) impressed tagline: Don’t assume, Rip it.
As talked about, the Pinnacle Distance golf ball is a rebrand of the older Pinnacle Rush. It’s about as fundamental a golf ball as you may get: a strong artificial rubber core with a Surlyn cowl and a 332 icosahedral dimple sample to stick with it within the air. Acushnet isn’t publishing any compression info however we do know that the Bridgestone e9, the World Lengthy Drive Tour’s earlier official ball, was listed at 75.
For what it’s value, MyGolfSpy measured Pinnacle’s vary ball at 95.
Pinnacle Distance golf balls: Value and availability
The Pinnacle Distance goes on sale this weekend at retail and on-line. They’ll be out there in white and yellow and can retail at $19.99 for a 15-ball pack.
For extra info, you may go to the Pinnacle web site.
The publish Why Pinnacle Is Teaming Up With The World Lengthy Drive Tour appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
