Polara Golf facts for kids
Polara Golf is brand for a line of golf balls that correct hooks and slices, based on their design. Aero-X Golf is the manufacturer that created the Polara Ultimate Straight and Polara Ultimate Straight XS golf balls featuring "self-correcting technology" that reduces hooks and slices by up to 75%. David L. Felker, the CEO and Head of Technology of Aero-X Golf, co-invented the Polara Ultimate Straight golf balls, along with Douglas C. Winfield. The newer Polara Ultimate Straight golf balls represent a large performance improvement over the original Polara golf ball which was first sold in 1977, was released August 2010. The ball has shallow truncated dimples around its equator and has deep spherical and small spherical dimples on each of the ball's poles.
In January 2012, Polara added two additional products to its line of self-correcting golf balls: Polara XD and Polara XDS. "XD" stands for "Extra Distance" and "XDS" stands for "Extra Distance and Spin". The "Ultimate Straight" Polara golf balls are designed for the golfer whose primary need is slice or hook correction. The "XD" and "XDS" correct only 50% (as opposed to 75% correction for the "Ultimate Straight") and have a slightly higher trajectory, which for many golfers will provide additional distance, but not as much slice & hook correction as the "Ultimate Straight" balls.
Officially sanctioned balls are designed to be as symmetrical as possible. This symmetry is the result of a dispute that stemmed from the original Polara, that had six rows of normal dimples on its equator but very shallow dimples elsewhere. This asymmetrical design helped the ball self-adjust its spin-axis during the flight. Over 300,000 balls were sold. The United States Golf Association refused to sanction it for tournament play and, in 1981, changed the rules to ban aerodynamic asymmetrical balls. Polara's producer sued the USGA and the association paid US$1.375 million in a 1985 out-of-court settlement.
Market research performed by Golf Datatech found that roughly 28% of frequent golfers would be interested in playing a ball with benefits, even if it was nonconforming. According to Gary De Bay, Polara Golf CEO, about 40% of golfers who tried the ball at a demo day said they would buy it.
An article in The New York Times in May 2011 sparked a media blitz, including a segment on CNBC. The great demand "crashed Polara Golf’s computer servers for hours."
There was backlash against the "illegal" ball. Ken Hambleton backtracked after interviewing Felker, writing "The problem with the latest version of Polara ... is that it works."
In January 2012, Polara announced its new XD and XDS balls, which have higher ball flight and extra distance.
