Product Spotlight: Bridgestone’s new e12 Soft and e12 Speed golf balls, designed for feel and distance

After 12 years of golf ball fittings and tracking over 2.5 million swings, Bridgestone Golf has developed two soft-feeling distance golf balls – the e12 Speed and the e12 Soft – designed for two different types of players: those who swing their driver more than 105 mph, and those who swing it less than 105 mph.

Typically, as Bridgestone’s golf ball marketing manager Elliot Mellow explains, a soft-feeling golf ball comes at the expense of distance. With a new mantle layer, however, Mellow says Bridgestone’s new e12 golf balls are able to produce both a soft feel and more velocity.

The new Active Acceleration Mantle layer, which is located between the Surlyn covers and soft cores of the three-piece golf balls, uses a more cohesive polymer than the company’s e6 Soft and e6 Speed golf balls. With a “truer chemical compound” and a “tighter blend,” according to Mellow, the new mantle layer is less porous and has fewer air bubbles. With this tighter blend of polymer, the Active Acceleration Mantle is able to produce more energy transfer, higher ball velocity, and more “thrust,” according to Bridgestone.

“If we were reliant solely on the core, there would be that dance of do we want to make it soft or do we want to make it fast?” Mellow told PGATOUR.COM. “But since we’re getting help from the mantle, we’re able to still have the soft core because we’re getting speed from the second region of the ball.”

As Mellow explains, this Active Acceleration Mantle is a technology that would typically be introduced first into a TOUR-level golf ball. This time, however, this air-bubble-less technology is going first into the golf balls made for average golfers.

For additional speed, the mantle layer is coupled with a cover that has what Bridgestone calls a Delta Wing Dimple pattern, which are dimples designed to produce less drag and a smoother airflow during flight. This allows the golf balls to fly straighter and farther, according to the company.

Due to the company’s long history in ball fitting, it was able to produce two different golf balls in this line that are targeted at specific golfers. The e12 Soft golf balls are made for moderate swing speeds, or those who swing less than 105 mph. The e12 Speed golf balls, made with a firmer feel, are made for faster swingers, or those who swing it faster than 105 mph.

Additionally, the e12 Soft golf balls are offered in three different matte colorways: Matte Green, Matte Red and Matte Yellow.

“We wanted to put performance into the matte category,” Mellow told PGATOUR.COM. “Matte has typically been an optic story, there hasn’t necessarily been a performance benefit, so that’s what we wanted to do here.”

Each of the e12 Soft and e12 Speed offerings is currently available at retail for $29.99 per dozen.

For more information on Bridgestone's new golf balls, click here.