The new Mizuno RB MAX and RB566 golf balls are for three types of golfers.
The first is easy. That’s the golfer who thinks anyone dumb enough to pay anything over $30 a dozen for golf balls is a flipping idiot. And, besides, most golfers can’t tell the difference anyway.
The second is the thoughtful golfer on a budget. That’s the golfer who understands that softer balls come with a speed penalty and wants a ball that minimizes the hurt.
Third is the golfer who doesn’t have a Costco membership, can’t or won’t buy Kirklands and is either on a budget or thinks anyone dumb enough to pay more than $30 a dozen for golf balls is a flipping idiot.
And who thinks most golfers can’t tell the difference, anyway.
Based on what we’ve learned over the years, that’s a pretty wide target audience.
The new Mizuno RB MAX and RB566 golf balls are budget-priced with ionomer covers and a soft feel. Based on the specs, we’d also say both are going to be low-spinning.
But are either of these balls for you? Let’s dive in and you can answer that for yourself.
Mizuno: A Ball Player?
I think we can agree the new Mizuno RB Tour and RB Tour X golf balls were pleasant surprises in this year’s MyGolfSpy golf ball test. And at $42.99 per dozen, both balls are a relative bargain compared to the $50 per dozen gang.
With the Mizuno RB MAX ($29.99) and Mizuno RB566 ($21.99), you will see performance tradeoffs. It’s up to you to decide whether those tradeoffs matter vis a vis price.
The Mizuno RB MAX and RB566 are lower-compression, ionomer-covered balls. At around 60 compression, the RB566 qualifies as soft. The 80-compression RB MAX is soft-ish. Higher compression tour balls feature a progressively soft-to-firm core, a firm ionomer mantle and a soft urethane cover. The firm outer core and firm mantle make tour balls, well, firm. And a firm ball is a fast ball.
Ionomer balls are the opposite, with a soft core and firm ionomer cover. They’re lower compression and, at high swing speeds, come with a speed penalty. That penalty declines as swing speeds go down to the point where an ionomer ball can actually be longer with a glancing strike from an iron.
The reason? Low spin and dimple aerodynamics. Tour balls spin thanks to the soft urethane cover backing up to the hard ionomer mantle. Ionomer balls don’t have that soft cover to back up the mantle, therefore they don’t spin as much. To counteract that lower spin, lower compression ionomer balls will generally have deeper dimple patterns. Deeper dimples create more turbulence which creates less drag which makes the ball fly higher and stay in the air longer.
The Mizuno RB MAX: AXIALFLOW Dimples
The RB MAX is a completely new ball. Mizuno says it combines a tour ball’s speed and launch with a more durable cover. If you’re looking for comps, think the Bridgestone e12 Contact or the Callaway ERC Soft. Like those two, the RB MAX is a three-piece ball but it’s a little different. Both the Bridgestone and the Callaway balls have a core-mantle-ionomer cover construction. The RB MAX, however, has a dual butadiene rubber core and an ionomer cover.
The dual-core is like a Tootsie Pop: a soft and chewy inner core and a firm and crunchy outer core. The combo is designed to provide a soft feel with fast ball speeds. Again, the ball speeds won’t be as fast as a firm tour-level ball but that’s not what Mizuno is after.
The lack of a mantle on paper mitigates spin and that’s where Mizuno’s 336 AXIALFLOW dimples come in. Typically, you’d think of a golf ball dimple as a round, symmetrical imprint in the cover with the deepest part of the dimple in the center. The AXIALFLOW dimple is different in that the deepest part is offset from the center. According to Mizuno, this generates small turbulent flow regions around the dimples during flight. This produces less drag which creates more lift. And more lift means more time in the air.
Mizuno RB566: Dual Dimples and Micro Dimples
While the RB Max is an entirely new ball for Mizuno, the RB566 is an upgrade to its low-end ionomer ball. From a tech standpoint, it’s a two-piece, soft (60 compression) ionomer ball in three colors priced to move at $21.99. However, as with the RB MAX, there’s an interesting dimple story to tell.
Actually, there are two.
“With a softer ball, feel is a priority and aerodynamics become key to maintaining distance,” says Mizuno USA R&D Director David Llewellyn. To that end, the new RB566 (for 566 dimples) features an interesting Dual Dimple design surrounded by what Mizuno calls Micro Dimples.
The Dual Dimple is simply a dimple within a dimple. It’s a little dip at the bottom of the dimple that slows air velocity to create more lift. The Micro Dimple, on the other hand, is a series of tiny dimples surrounding the Dual Dimples. Its job is to maintain lift as the ball slows. The Micro Dimple doesn’t do much at first but, for lack of a better word, it activates as spin decays and the ball slows down. That additional lift keeps the ball in the air longer and potentially makes it go a little farther than a similar soft, two-piece ball with a different dimple pattern.
That’s assuming, of course, that the manufacturer of that similar soft, two-piece ball doesn’t have its own aerodynamic dimple pattern.
Mizuno RB MAX and RB566: Price and Availability
The new Mizuno RB MAX and RB 566 golf balls are available starting today. The RB MAX retails for $29.99 per dozen and is available in white and yellow.
The RB566 is $21.99 per dozen and comes in white, yellow and orange.
Mizuno is doing something interesting with its ball numbering. Instead of the boring old 1-2-3-4 numbering, Mizuno is going 1-3-5-7. Why? Well, they’re all prime numbers, so why the hell not? If nothing else, it gives Mizuno a cosmetic point of differentiation.
For more information, visit the Mizuno website.
