How the SD-01 is made

How the SD-01 is made

The question we’re most often asked (after ‘are your balls any good?) is ‘how are they made?’

Here's a brief rundown...

Our SD-01 is a three-piece tour grade ball, that starts life as a rubber ‘plug’ that’s moulded into our high energy BR (polybutadiene) rubber core.

The core helps us control compression, driver spin rates and overall ball speed. The USGA regulates ball velocity and we have designed a core formulation to deliver the maximum speed allowed, while controlling compression to provide the feel required.

Next up, is the mantle.

The mantle layer is a high performance DuPont HPF resin which performs multiple roles within our SD-01. On full speed swings (driver, long irons) the mantle works with the core to increase spin and improve feel. Our mantle layer was developed to maintain faster ball speeds and to meet our compression and feel targets.

After the mantle layer, is the cover.

The cover is a thermoset cast urethane, for professional-grade feel and spin control. Backspin on a golf ball causes a vertical force that counteracts the force of gravity slightly, and enables the ball to remain airborne a little longer. This allows the ball to travel further than a non-spinning ball. The softer urethane cover of the SD-01 helps increase spin rates, providing more backspin (if struck correctly, of course) and a great soft feel.

Finally, the dimple pattern is cast along with the cover.

The dimple pattern controls ball flight, and we use a 336 pattern with varying dimple sizes, depths and edge shapes to control lift and drag coefficients, force angle and spin ratios.

A slice or hook shot shape is due mainly to the ball’s spinning motion (about its vertical axis) and the Magnus effect, causing a horizontal force that moves the ball away from a straight line in its flight. With a 336 dimple pattern, we aimed to reduce the effects of Magnus force to reduce the severity of the slice or hook. This design creates the best combination to optimise lift, carry and roll for all golfers, not just tour players.

So that’s how it’s done.

If you haven’t already tried one, we’d highly recommend you do. These balls are good!


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