Callaway are introducing their new Chrome Tour and Chrome Tour X balls for 2026 with one clear aim: to give golfers more ball speed.
The Chrome Tour range was first introduced in 2024, designed for better golfers and higher speed players as a direct rival to the ever-present, number one ball in golf, the Titleist Pro V1. It’s a firmer and faster version of their popular Chrome Soft, and both the Chrome Tour and Chrome Tour X essentially replaced the Chrome Soft as the tour-level golf ball, although Chrome Soft is still available.
This year, Callaway seem pretty pleased with themselves when it comes to Chrome Tour as it features an all-new mantle design, aimed at giving golfers more ball speed as well as improving aero consistency.
Who Are They Aimed At?
This is Callaway’s tour-level ball which essentially means it is packed with their very best technologies to improve your game. It’s not just for elite golfers though, it can easily provide performance benefits for golfers of different abilities, if you’re willing to pay a bit of extra money compared to a 2 or 3-piece ball.
As with most premium golf balls you get the option of a standard and an ‘x’ model.
To explain the difference between the two: the Chrome Tour is low spinning in the long game, with a slightly lower ball flight. Whereas the Chrome Tour X is designed to spin more, and launch a bit higher, with a bit of a firmer feel.
Callaway also offer a Chrome Tour Triple Diamond. This follows the same identity as the TD metalwoods as it’s even lower launching and spinning, for high speed golfers who strike the ball consistently.
The Tech
Surprise surprise, Callaway say that the main aim with the 2026 balls was to make them faster, without adjusting compression as they didn’t want golfers to sacrifice on feel.
One of their attempts at doing this is the new Tour Fast Mantle. It features a material which is new to the industry, and has taken more than four years to develop.
As a result, the material is 16% more rigid than in the previous Chrome Tour ball, which creates more ball speed by acting like a stiffer spring when compressed at impact. The mantle has been optimised for each golf ball in the range, including the Chrome Soft.
The balls also benefit from Callaways ‘advanced’ Seamless Tour Aero. This centres around the manufacturing process, ensuring that there are no deformities around the seam/parting line when the ball is put together.
Depending on which direction the seam is pointing, this can cause inconsistent ball flights with other golf balls. Callaway claim that this can cause up to 10ft of inconsistency with the Pro V1 and up to 15ft with the TP5, compared to just 3ft with Chrome Tour.
There are three different balls available, in a number of different finishes – White, Triple Track, Triple Track Yellow (Chrome Tour only), and TruTrack.
Callaway Chrome Tour 2026 Golf Balls Review
Looks and Feel
For me, looks aren’t quite as important with a golf ball compared to a golf club, but it does still make some difference if you’ve got something you’re comfortable looking down at.
There are a couple of things that do stand out with the Chrome Tour balls. Firstly, I can see what Callaway are trying to do with their new packaging, with a bigger focus on the ball itself on the box this time.
This might make it stand out a little more on the Pro Shop, however I’m not sure it quite works for me – I think it cheapens the Chrome Tour brand a little bit, rather than giving it that premium edge. That’s something with the gold too that again just doesn’t look quite as premium to me as I think Callaway hoped it would.
The cover of the ball itself is quite glossy and shiny. As a Pro V1 user I’m more accustomed to that matte finish, and I think I do prefer that. A matte finish on a golf ball just gives the elusion that it’s going to be softer to and there will therefore be more control, this is definitely just something I’m used to but does make a difference.
The balls are offered with Triple Track technology, which I tried in the standard Chrome Tour ball. Whilst I prefer the plain white finish, I do think the design of this technology has improved. The shorter lines are less intrusive and not as long as we’ve seen in pervious years, which looks smarter in my opinion.
Performance
I headed down to Clubhouse Golf to test the Chrome Tour and Chrome Tour X using the Foresight GCQuad. I also compared it to the Pro V1x, to see if Callaway’s ball speed claims really stack up.
Testing both Callaway balls first, I found that my performance across the two was actually very similar. With the driver especially, my average ball speed and carry distance was almost identical, with a carry distance of nearly 257 yards being really solid.
As Callaway suggest, the Chrome Tour X provided me with a little more spin when hitting full 50 degree wedge shots. The Chrome Tour had a slightly lower peak height, and it did also carry a couple of yards further. The Chrome Tour X didn’t feel quite as hot off the face with these shots.
The biggest difference I saw was with the 6 iron, as the Chrome Tour was spinning at around 4500 rpm and carrying 189 yards. The Chrome Tour X was up over 5000rpm, with a carry distance of just under 186 and a slightly higher peak height.
For this reason I actually preferred the performance of the Chrome Tour X. Even though I was sacrificing a couple of yards, it felt more consistent and controllable, and the extra spin with the irons and wedges is better for me trying to stop the ball on the green.
I then tested the Chrome Tour X against the equivalent Titleist ball – the Pro V1x.
The performance with both the 6 iron and the wedge was almost identical between the two balls, although I did notice that the wedges had a bit more of a flatter flight with the Chrome Tour X.
The big difference though was with the driver. The Pro V1x produced a really strong ball flight, slightly lower than the Chrome Tour X. I also saw a jump in ball speed of around 2mph, which equated to nearly 5 yards of extra carry.
Having said that, I did find that the Chrome Tour X was a little more accurate, and I really enjoyed how consistent the ball flight felt too.
Callaway Chrome Tour 2026 Golf Balls Verdict
Callaway, like other manufacturers, are trying to close the gap on Titleist at the top of the golf ball market, and their new Chrome Tour is another step in the right direction in my opinion.
There is no doubting the performance, and the differences between the two models can benefit different golfers who want different characteristics when it comes to spin, ball flight and feel.
They did make some big claims about large increases in ball speed and distance this time around. From my testing, I couldn’t say that it was really any faster than the likes of the Pro V1 for me. In fact with driver the difference in numbers was pretty stark – 2 mph more ball speed and 5-6 yards more carry is a big difference.
To conclude however, that’s just my testing – it’s up to you to do your own testing and decide whether the new Chrome Tour balls can really help your game.
Would I Use Them?
I was impressed by the Chrome Tour ball overall – it’s a strong offering but I’ll probably be sticking to the ProV1 for now. Also if I were to put a Chrome Tour in the bag, I’d be doing so without the Triple Track technology!
