Callaway's Chrome ball range just got a major update: Here's what's new

Despite Titleist's long-established dominance in the tour level ball space, Callaway are poised quite comfortably as the most serious contender to the Pro V1's crown.

The Chrome range of golf balls, which began almost a decade ago with the introduction of the Chrome Soft and has since grown to include the Chrome Tour range, is an enduringly popular choice at the very highest levels of the game, with Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele just two players in the game's uppermost echelons to play a Callaway ball. 

Indeed, Callaway have reported this year that their share in the ball market is their highest ever, helped not only by the growing uptake of their balls at the pro level, but the enduring popularity of entry-level balls like the SuperSoft as well.

As such, 2026 is ripe for Callaway to solidify its foothold in the market, and they've done just that with a complete refresh of the tour level Chrome range to kick off the 2026 season. Players familiar with the range won't find much amiss visually with the range: the Chrome Tour still comes packed in a sleek gold box, the Chrome Tour X in black and the Chrome Soft in its traditional red. 

Nor are the key characteristics of the ball that much different. The Chrome Tour remains a medium-feel package with low driver spin, a more penetrating launch and high workability. The Chrome Tour X is firmer and spinnier, and players who want the fastest, most aggressive tour-level ball can opt for the Chrome Tour Triple Diamond.

The 3-piece Chrome Soft is altogether more balanced, removing a layer and using a lower compression core to help more average golfers unlock easy distance and higher launch without sacrificing control around the greens.

So what's new? Callaway have focused on the little details to maximise the characteristics of a ball range that already included some of the fastest, spinniest models on the market, with the main goal of making all the balls in the range faster without changing their spin or feel. "We challenged ourselves to make a golf ball that’s already fast, even faster. What we didn’t want to do is use compression jacking to get to that ball speed, says Eric Loper, Senior Director of Golf Ball R&D at Callaway. "We feel like we’re in a really good spot with the Chrome Tour, Chrome Tour X and Chrome Soft from a feel perspective – it’s not something we want to change."

The key innovation is what Callaway calls the Tour Fast Mantle, made from a more rigid material that has spent four years in development and has allowed the company to unlock its fastest ball speeds yet. The shaping on the cover has also been reworked, adopting Seamless Tour Aero to produce more consistent flight behaviour in windy conditions.

As with previous models, all three will also come available with a choice of Callaway's proprietary alignment technology, be it the TruTrack, which uses hexagonal shapes to give instant feedback on roll, or the more simple Triple Track Line system.

All three models are available on pre-sale now at a retail price of £49.99, with the full range set to debut in stores on January 30. You can find out more about the range at Callaway's website.