On the 20th anniversary of the creation of the brand name, Korean ball company Volvik created a splash by signing former Masters champion Bubba Watson to play their S4 golf ball.
The S4 is a four piece premium ball that offers high spin for more control and one of the many things that attracted Bubba to the ball was that it comes in several colours.
As well as white, or pearl as they call it, you can also get the S4 in green and Watson's favourite, pink. The pearl does not quite as 'bright' as a normal white ball, possibly why it has 'white color' stamped on it. The pink is a bit muted as these things go, so the green would be my choice.
Taking them out on and around the green and the S4 had a reasonably firm sound and feel from a putter with a higher pitched click than a Pro V1x, which is it up against price wise.
It is aimed at being a higher spinning ball and therefore should give you a lot of control with chips and the grip was pretty good, but again the feel let it down.
It claims a compression of 105 which is high by today's standards, but as regular readers will know there are different ways of measuring compression. It should therefore feel firmer than it does so this could by why it is not scoring highly here.
Taking the ball on our GC2 launch monitor with a driver revealed the higher spinning nature, with it averaging 600 rpm more than a Pro V1x and the Volvik Vivid. This had the resulting effect of reducing the carry by 5-8 yards, so it will be interesting to see how Bubba copes with such a high spinning ball with his club head speed, but it should make it easier for him to shape it than a lower spinning ball.
With a 7-iron the numbers produced a similar pattern, with the S4 being the highest spinning of the Vivid and Pro V1x, which again cost it a couple of yards.
Unless you are someone who struggles with generating spin on their full shots or seeing a white ball, then I am struggling to see why the Volvik S4 would be worth considering as there is not much of a price advantage either.
The durability and feel is nothing exceptional and therefore when it is up against the leading premium balls from Titleist and TaylorMade then I am not sure where it has the edge, unless you like pink.