Sphera is Latin for "Ball" and is the impetus behind, yet another, direct to consumer golf ball company. By cutting out distributors, not paying for retail shelf space or sponsoring tour players, these upstart ball companies have been able to bring the consumer a pro tour ball at a fraction of the cost of the big boys.
Sphera is a company shrouded in a bit of a mystery as their website offers very little information on the company or its products. Their offerings are a 4 piece ball called the Pro Fours and a 3 piece called, you guessed it, the Pro Threes.
Their promotional literature states:
"The Pro Three is a three layer golf ball that took our partners 25 years to master. It has a soft urethane cover which gives great spin and feel around the greens. The Pro Three uses a unique technology for the core that gives great distance on drives. These balls are recommended for players with swing speeds up to 95 miles per hour."
Those statements create even more questions about who their partners are and what is inside the core. We were able to find an image of the core, thanks to the guys at Golf Ball Guts, but that's where we hit the wall. So we contacted Sphera via their Facebook page and to their credit they got right back to us. Turns out the balls are manufactured for Sphera by Fantom Golf and if that name sounds familiar its because they've made balls for Nike and other large brands in the past.
Photo Credit: Golf Ball Guts
Putting:
The Pro Threes have a thick black line over the name which aids in aligning the ball to the hole and your putter. The Pro Threes has a soft feel to it when putting with a dull thud rather than a hard click upon contact. Compared to our current reference the Taylor Made Tp5, its a little bit harder, but much softer than the ProV1.
Chipping:
When chipping onto the green we didn't seem to get as much roll as we've seen with the Tp5s, but the difference was minimal.
Sand:
Out of the send the ball checked up quickly not rolling out as far as the Tp5, but again not a huge difference.
Specs:
Manufacturer: Fantom Golf
Ball: Sphera Pro Threes
Core: Proprietary Composite
Compression: 81
Dimples: 336
Cover: Urethane
Price/Dozen: $24.95
Summary:
We liked the look and feel of the Spherea Threes and putting with it was a joy. We liked the feel and the sound we got on well struck putts. We were indifferent on its performance when chipping and hitting out of the sand as it did not carry as far as current favorite Tp5 ball. That being said, at almost half the price of the Tp5s there becomes a serious cost/performance trade off one must make. Try the Threes or the Fours out for a few rounds and let us know your results. While we do not do long game testing we did find some head to head data provided by Sphera comparing their ball to some of the big names.(See Below) If the data is accurate it makes an even stronger case for saving some money on every case of balls!
The balls for this review were purchased by Golf Gear Box.