Shots Fired By Titleist Towards Costco’s Kirkland Balls

The ongoing battle with golf ball King Titleist’s ProV1 and upstart Costco’s Kirkland premium brand is heating up. Golf patent guru David Dawsey posts the latest shots fired by Titleist. The insinuations include the ProV1 traveling farther (no matter the swing speed), and more surprisingly, accuses Kirkland’s rocks of multiple inner core failures during testing.

34. Distance Performance. The results of the distance tests for the Kirkland Signature Golf Ball and the Titleist® Pro V1® and Pro V1x® golf balls during Acushnet Company’s robot testing demonstrated that the Kirkland Signature Golf Ball travelled a shorter distance than both the Titleist® Pro V1® and Pro V1x® golf balls for 130 mph drives; that the Kirkland Signature Golf Ball travelled a shorter distance than both the Titleist® Pro V1® and Pro V1x® golf balls for 140 mph drives; that the Kirkland Signature Golf Ball travelled a shorter distance than both the Titleist® Pro V1® and Pro V1x® golf balls for 150 mph drives; and that the Kirkland Signature Golf Ball travelled a shorter distance than both the Titleist® Pro V1® and Pro V1x® golf balls for 167 mph drives.

38. The testing of the Kirkland Signature Golf Ball samples revealed that 50% of the samples failed before the testing was three-quarters complete.According to Acushnet Company’s standard durability testing protocol, the testing machine stops a durability test if half of the samples fail. Thus, the testing of Kirkland Signature Golf Ball ceased before the testing was three-quarters complete. Inspection of the failed balls revealed that the first part of the ball to fail in the first failed ball was the inner cover. Of the 18 Kirkland Signature Golf Ball failures, 14 failures were due to defective inner covers and four failures were due to defective cores.

Acushnet’s complaint contains a lot of subtle, and some not so subtle, jabs at the Kirkland Signature golf balls. It is hard to comprehend that “over half of the Kirkland Signature Golf Balls tested by Acushnet Company cracked or became structurally unsound before the testing could even be concluded.” Maybe there is some truth to the old adage that sometimes you get what you pay for! Fortunately, most amateurs would probably lose the ball before it becomes “structurally unsound;” in other words, it may not be too smart to play the K-Sig’s that you find in the woods or fish out of the pond.

Stay tuned, and get your popcorn ready.