Is the future of golf balls finally here? PGA Tour players spotted testing OnCore “Genius” golf balls at Colonial

Published

on

By

Five years ago, GolfWRX.com published a story about OnCore's Genius golf balls that were in development. As reported, the company raised $110,000 for the development of a golf ball that has a GPS tracking device inside its hollow-core construction. The concept was that the tracking device would pair with a phone app to help find the golf ball, plus provide data such as ball velocity, spin rate, spin direction, carry, and more. OnCore even brought out one of the prototype golf balls to the 2018 PGA Show.

Although the smart golf ball still hasn't made it to the retail market, OnCore may have reached a new plateau with its latest prototypes, and is preparing to hit the market in 2023.

On Wednesday at the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge, multiple PGA Tour players were spotted testing the golf balls on the Colonial Country Club putting green. For now, the new Genius "G50" prototype – meaning "under 50 yards" – is only for putting, and along with the app, it records data points such as spin, skid launch and velocity.

OnCore golf balls are already played on the PGA Tour by staffer Erik Compton, who uses the VERO X2 golf ball. With the Genius ball, though, OnCore has loftier goals than getting in play on the PGA Tour – its looking to bring the golf ball market, instruction, game improvement, and game enjoyment into the future.

Although the company is still making tweaks to the golf ball's construction, one top-50 PGA Tour player told me after testing the ball at Colonial, "This is going to be huge." When I asked him if there's any wobble on the putts, and if the golf ball felt weird, he said, "Not at all, it feels great."

OnCore Chairman/CEO Keith Blakely was personally on-site at the Charles Schwab Challenge conducting testing with players to receive feedback. I caught up with Blakely afterwards to get a better understanding of what the golf ball is, what it does, and what the future plans are for the technology.

Enjoy the Q&A in its entirety below.

I saw a few pros testing out a new OnCore golf ball. What is it?

It is the prototype Genius ball that has been designed for putting instruction, putter fitting, and short play. It will be the first product launched, a little bit later this year.

What does the golf ball do?

It measures all of the motion elements of the ball, from spin rate to spin axis, launch angle, velocity, which allows us to calculate things like the skid distance, the accuracy, the overall distance, green speed actually is measurable as long as it's a long enough putt that the velocity at some point achieves the same velocity as you get that you get at the bottom of a stimp ramp, and measure the distance it goes before it hits zero.

We expect that we’ll be able to show visually the launch angle, the part of the skid, the angle of face impact, and beyond that I’m not sure what else will need to be measured or reported, but we’ll be working with some of the leading putting instructors to make sure we have whatever they think is relevant to people and their short game, and we’re reporting it. Everything is there from the ball's point of view, not necessarily everything from the club.

What PGA Tour players have tested it, and what has been the feedback?

All of the testing has been demonstration trials. I’m not sure who would want us to disclose their names yet, other than Erik Compton, who's obviously been a player who uses our conventional tour golf balls for a couple years now.

When would this product maybe come out to retail? Do you have a timeline? Is there more than just putting coming in the future – is that the plan?

Yeah the plan is to have this ball be – and the app that comes with it – capable of being used for, at a minimum, putting down through mid-iron hits. Whether it will be available for full-course play is a question more of timing and golf ball performance. The brain of the ball occupies a certain amount of volume in the golf ball that you can't use to deliver a Coefficient of Restitution and golf ball velocity, and that sort of thing. So we have to engineer the outer layers to give us the kind of performance – spin, speed, whatever translates to distance – for different use cases. Putting is the easiest, then par-3 play, and then full-course play will be the last thing introduced. So our vision right now is we’ll have three models, and they’ll be designated by the distance they’re intended for: G50 (50 yards and in), G200 (200 yards and in), and G-Infinity (which means you can hit it as far as you can hit it.

As far as you know, are there any other golf balls on the current market that have this type of capability?

Not that are on the market. We know that there are several in development. One of the things that we feel very good about it, is that fact that on-course, we’re producing some of the finest conventional golf balls in the world right now due to the expertise of John Calabria and Mike Jordan, who are two of our ball design engineers. So we feel very confident that this ball in its final formulation will perform right up there with conventional golf balls. There won't be a noticeable drop off in how the ball performs when you’re using it. And that's critical to the data being relevant, as well as the enjoyment from using it and practicing with the ball.

Do you feel that you’re on the cusp of bringing the golf ball market and golf ball manufacturing into the future?

Yeah. But again, not so much for the traditional competitive game like these tournaments. This is not something that's going to appear in professional competitive play. It may be used by professionals for training, analysis, instructional purposes, but it's not going to be used in competitions. However, I think there's a lot of golfers out there that would have lots of fun if, every time they hit their golf ball, they can look at their phone, and have data and analyzation of where it went, just like a TopTracer on your phone, of every shot that you take. As well as, and we get this a lot, helping them locate the ball via the Bluetooth proximity functionality that's in it, so if they are looking in the high rough or the woods, they can get to it and have a better chance of not losing it.

I think about 20 years ago, we all thought that there was going to be Bluetooth in golf balls and we’d never lose a golf ball again. Why has it been so difficult to create a golf ball that you can find and can track things like skid on the green, or speed off the club face?

Spotted on the Colonial Country Club practice green during player testing.

So part of it is that if you want to utilize Bluetooth, you need a power source in the ball, which means you’re automatically going to have to add a battery, which takes up a certain amount of space. That means building the ball around, at a minimum, the Bluetooth chip, antenna, battery and control board. Now it becomes a complicated overall structure that has to be there just for Bluetooth communication. If you want to add things like accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, all the other functionality and data acquisition functionality that we’re looking at, it becomes even more complex, more costly, and more subject to failure modes when you hit the ball with 20,000 g's.

Is there a putting instructor you’ve been working with on this product who's guiding you along on what you want, or is it something you’re doing in-house for now?

We’ve had a number of conversations with some well-known names, but at this point we haven't formalized those arrangements. We will before the ball is available commercially so that people understand that, yes, there has been input and advice given from some of the best instructors in the game.

—

For now, Blakely has the end of summer, or Black Friday, circled on his calendar to have the golf balls ready for retail and production.

The future is on its way, but when exactly is it getting here? We’re still uncertain. However, the Genius "G50" golf ball hitting the PGA Tour is another big step for OnCore's journey to a smarter golf ball.

Coolest thing for sale in the GolfWRX Classifieds (5/25/23): Scotty Cameron Cinco De Mayo headcover

Spotted: Ben Hogan's personal and prototype clubs at the Charles Schwab Challenge

He played on the Hawaii Pacific University Men's Golf team and earned a Masters degree in Communications. He also played college golf at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

Pingback: Is the future of golf balls finally here? PGA Tour players spotted testing OnCore "Genius" golf balls at Colonial – MidHandicap

Ray Cramer

May 26, 2023 at 4:07 pm

This is a gimmick and does not belong on the gol course. Some clowns will probably mess with.

chip75

May 25, 2023 at 4:11 am

Great for finding your ball in the rough, but will they include a snorkel when you rinse one in a lake?

Dan

May 24, 2023 at 11:33 pm

Still sink in ponds I’m assuming

Boo

May 24, 2023 at 10:52 pm

There's no way those balls are balanced uniformly

L

May 24, 2023 at 8:23 pm

lol

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

The 3 most popular driver shafts used by the top-50 golfers in 2023

What is it about that Titleist Vokey T-grind? You won't believe how many top-100 players use it

Adam Scott makes 3 more big changes to his equipment setup at the Memorial

Michael Block gets a HUGE money offer for his "hole-in-one" 7-iron

Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Pro Blue joins Tensei 1K lineup

GolfWRX Deep Dive: Srixon ZX Mk II irons

Published

on

By

Following the Pal and Pal 2, Ping today announced the release of the third of four "Ping Slam" putters, which commemorate the 1988 season in which the brand won all four men's major championships.

The precision-milled PLD Limited Zing 2 putter commemorates Curtis Strange's 1988 U.S. Open win — the first of his two consecutive U.S. Open wins using the putter.

"We’re really enjoying celebrating the ‘Ping Slam’ and reliving some wonderful memories from 1988," said John A. Solheim, Ping's Executive Chairman. "Curtis’ thrilling win at the U.S. Open was soon followed by the U.S. Women's Open champion using a Zing 2, giving us wins at both national championships that summer. The next year Curtis won the U.S. Open again with his Zing 2. That was a remarkable run for the Zing 2 and secured its place in Ping's putter history."

Arriving on tour in 1984, the original Zing 2 was inspired by the Zing was cast from stainless steel. Ping cites the heel-shafted design and heel-toe weighting as key elements of the putter's popularity.

The putters are custom-built by Ping WRX master craftsmen at the company's headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. Each putter is serialized for authenticity and includes a custom headcover. Ping's engineers and company historian scoured the archives to retain the integrity of the four classic designs during the milling process, spending time in the legendary Ping Gold Putter Vault to ensure the integrity of the designs.

Only 88 of the 100-percent milled, 303 stainless steel, natural finish putters are available via pingpld.com at 2 pm ET, Tuesday, June 13 at a price of $990.

Later this year (December 5), 35 complete sets of the PLD Limited ‘Ping Slam’ putters will go on sale for $4,990 (limit one per customer), which will include a custom-designed display unit.

Published

on

By

Driver: TaylorMade SIM2 (9 degrees @7.5 degrees)Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black

4-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus (16.5 degrees @17.25)Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black 80 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P790 (2), Mizuno Pro 221 (4-9)Shafts: Project X HZRDUS Black 105 TX (2), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (4-9)

Wedges: Mizuno T22 (45-05S), Titleist Vokey Design SM9 (52-08F, 56-08M, 60-04L, 60-08M)Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Putter: TaylorMade Spider XGrip: SuperStroke Zenergy Pistol 2.0

Ball: Titleist Pro V1

Grips: Golf Pride ZGrip Cord

More photos of Chris Gotterup's WITB in the forums.

Published

on

By

Dustin Johnson emerged as the champion of the 2018 RBC Canadian Open. He secured a three-stroke victory to claim his third win of the season and 19th PGA Tour title overall. Johnson finished with a score of 23-under-par, setting a tournament record. His exceptional performance included a final round of 6-under-par 66, which propelled him to the top of the leaderboard.

It was DJ's first win in the RBC Canadian Open, and he became the first world number one-ranked player to win the tournament since 1981. Additionally, Johnson's triumph came just a week after a disappointing finish at The Open Championship, where he held the 54-hole lead but ultimately finished tied for second.

Driver: TaylorMade M4 (9.5 degrees)Shaft: Fujikura Speeder 661 Evolution 2.0 Tour Spec X

3-wood: TaylorMade M4 3HL (16.5 degrees)Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black 95 6.5

Irons: TaylorMade P730 DJ Proto (3-PW)Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Wedges: TaylorMade MG (52-09SB, 60 degrees), TaylorMade Hi-Toe (64 degrees)Shaft: KBS Tour Black 120S

Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour BlackGrip: SuperStroke Pistol GT 1.0

Golf Ball: TaylorMade TP5x

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet (standard size built up with 3 wraps of tape in the right hand, 2 wraps in the left and 2 way tape on all)

Chris Gotterup what's in the bag accurate as of the Memorial Tournament. More photos from the event here. Driver: TaylorMade SIM2...

Dustin Johnson emerged as the champion of the 2018 RBC Canadian Open. He secured a three-stroke victory to claim his...

Lanto Griffin what's in the bag as of the Memorial Tournament. More photos from the event here. Driver: Titleist TSR2...

Lee Hodges what's in the bag accurate as of the Memorial Tournament. More photos from the event here. Driver: Titleist...

College golfer suffers gruesome on-course injury during NCAA Championship

Phil Mickelson says he ‘overpaid’ ex-caddie Bones ‘$1m more than any other player’ as he breaks silence on split

Coolest thing for sale in the GolfWRX Classifieds (6/1/23): 1 of 12 Bettinardi Los Angeles Country Club putter

Report: 5-time PGA Tour winner blasted and called a cheat after taking part in scramble listed as 8.8 handicap

Michael Block gets a HUGE money offer for his "hole-in-one" 7-iron

Report: Adult website offers PGA hero Michael Block 6-figure sum for services

Brooks Koepka's winning WITB: 2023 PGA Championship

Why judge rejected attempt by Tiger's ex-girlfriend Erica Herman to throw out NDA