The golf ball brand no one saw coming back just made a statement

When Ben Griffin’s putt from 35 feet dropped in the right side of a cup for an improbable 71st hole birdie at the Zurich Classic, he not only sealed the deal on his and partner Andrew Novak’s first PGA Tour win, but also golf equipment history.

In this sport, brands that fall off the PGA Tour usually don’t come back. Before the turn of the century, there were brands like MacGregor, Spalding, Hogan, Lynx and more. While some of them still make golf clubs today, many avid professional golf fans can’t name them or don’t know they made golf clubs.

You see this happening today with Nike, which exited the golf hardgoods space in 2016, and is slowly being phased out on the PGA Tour.

These companies leave professional golf and typically don’t return.

But Griffin was using a golf ball from one of those blasts from the past, specifically the Maxfli Tour X. And no, I’m not writing to tell you that Griffin was using a golf ball that had been cryogenically frozen for 20+ years, he’s using a new creation from the brand which just won its first PGA Tour title since 2003.

“It’s pretty cool,” Griffin told GOLF earlier this week. “You know, ever since I first got started with Maxfli, this has been a big part of the goal. I always had a lot of trust in the brand. I know, at the time, there weren’t a lot of people who necessarily did have trust, especially at the core level. But after I went through all the testing and everything, I realized that this is a product that deserves to be at the tour level and deserves a spot at the top.”

A win years in the making

Griffin signed a ball endorsement contract with the brand last year after seeing Lexi Thompson endorse the golf ball and talking with her. Those two, along with PGA Tour Champions player Fred Funk, are the first three pros endorsing Maxfli since the brand was bought by Dick’s Sporting Goods in 2008.

But the idea of getting the ball back in the hands of the game’s best didn’t start until well after that.

“Several years ago, we said, ‘You know what? We really think Maxfli has such a great heritage that we have to get this back to being a ball that would be played on tour,” said Dick’s CEO Ed Stack in an interview Friday.

In 2023, when the company released that year’s Tour series, they really felt they had achieved the goal. They shopped it around and eventually got Thompson to play the ball and Griffin followed soon after.

“We’ve got a great team working on this,” Stack said. “We were very committed to finding a way to have a ball that would have the performance characteristics to be able to be played on tour. So it was just a lot of hard work and iteration.”

Stack had just finished playing golf at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday and was watching the conclusion of the Zurich from a sports bar not far from the golf course with the rest of the four couples in his group.

“All of us guys had the phone out sitting right in the middle of the table,” he said. “When he made the putt on 17, we were all pretty jazzed.”

No loophole needed

Golf balls are the “big talk” of the Zurich Classic, said Griffin, because of its unique format. The Zurich is the PGA Tour’s only team event and while pros play best ball on Thursday and Saturday, and alternate shot on Friday and Sunday. The latter format means teams have to pick one partner’s ball or the other’s.

Last year’s winners, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, exploited a rules loophole and switched balls on each hole so whoever was playing the approach shot could hit their own golf ball, but most other teams picked one ball and stick with it.

That can get complicated sometimes, as players usually don’t think about what golf ball they play when they choose partners.

Griffin and Novak both decided to play Griffin’s Maxfli Tour X in the foursomes format.

While there isn’t a lot of differentiation between premium golf balls these days, Tour pros are so exacting and so used to what their preferred ball does, playing another one can be unpredictable.

Griffin said Novak did testing the week of the Masters at Sea Island and realized he would be fine using Griffin’s Maxfli. He was playing “worst ball,” where he would play two balls and pick the worst shot until he got on the green.

“He texted me, and was like, ‘Yeah, I’m three under worst ball at Sea Island using your Maxfli. So I think we’re going to use the Maxfli.’”

A bright future ahead

In many ways, Griffin was the perfect player to be Maxfli’s first winner in 22 years. After graduating from North Carolina, he struggled on lower tours before eventually giving up professional golf to become a mortgage loan officer. He eventually found his drive again and earned his card on the Korn Ferry Tour and got his first PGA Tour win in his third season.

“Never give up on your dreams, you know? We had a dream to get a ball that had those characteristics to be able to be played on tour again,” Stack said. “Ben has never given up on this dream and has come back with a vengeance. And we couldn’t be more excited for Ben and more excited to see what Ben can do in the future.”

Stack has already said in the week since Griffin’s victory that there has been greater interest in Maxfli’s golf balls, both on Tour and at the retail level. Griffin teased that he may not be the only Maxfli golf ball endorser on the PGA Tour for long (the company announced an endorsement deal with Tour swing coach and GOLF Top 100 Teacher, Sean Foley, in March).

The timing for the company couldn’t be better as they just launched two sets of forged irons last month, the first forged clubs under the Maxfli name in almost 30 years.

This summer, Stack said the golf balls, which to this point have been exclusively available at Dick’s and Golf Galaxy, will be available in pro shops of club pros sponsored by the brand. There’s also been interest with other retail partners.

All the more reason, Griffin says, to keep an open mind when it comes to your golf ball.

Maxfli Tour X Golf Balls

Best for golfers seeking more spin and speed with a higher launch, from every club in their bag.

I’ll be the first one to admit to being skeptical of the Maxfli ball when I first tested them, but I quickly realized these balls were as good as any other I was playing. I now regularly rotate in the Maxfli Tour (the slightly lower spin version of Griffin’s Tour X) in my own bag. There is also an even lower spinning Tour S. They retail for just $39.99 a dozen and four dozen can be had for just under $120.

“I think ball testing is one of those things that’s not as it’s not done enough by amateur golfers, and even collegiate golfers,” he said. “Everyone has different swings, and a golf ball can make a huge difference.

“When I was first doing testing, I was definitely pessimistic about it and I became extremely optimistic after seeing the results of testing… It’s been a really fun journey with Maxfli.”

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