Why are Callaway Reva balls bigger?

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Focused on the needs of average women golfers looking for a way to launch the ball higher more easily, Callaway’s Reva golf ball is made with a slightly larger diameter. That raises the ball’s centre compared to a standard ball, providing greater opportunity for the centre of gravity of the golf club to be lower than the ball’s midline. The ball complements the latest Big Bertha Reva line of clubs, also focused on average women golfers.

PRICE: $39.99 a dozen (in sparkling white and pink, available at retail April 16).

THE DEEP DIVE: With recent data from Foresight Sports suggesting that on the low end, the average female-recreational player drives the ball as short as 125 metres and carries a 7-iron as little as 60 metres, any product that’s directed towards injecting more distance for this segment will have an immediate audience.

But the new Callaway Reva ball isn’t going about the task of getting more distance for women through some sort of flubber-based magic compound that exponentially injects ball speed beyond the possibilities of physics. Rather, the Reva’s design simply wants to make what slower swings do at impact with the ball more effective, good strikes and bad. In short, the Reva is trying to make distance easier with what you’re bringing to the table already.

The Reva uses an oversize design that pushes the ball’s diameter to 1.73 inches. In terms of volume, that makes the ball nine percent larger, but more practically, it raises the ball’s midpoint by three percent. That change facilitates distance in two ways. First, it helps the centre of gravity of the club stay below the centre of the ball for higher launch. That relationship also can help shots launch with lower spin. High launch and low spin are big keys for distance, and not just for the most solid strikes. It also mitigates the negative effects of some high-spinning off-centre strikes, too.

The Reva ball’s design goals were very much in line with Callaway’s recently developed line of women’s clubs, said Alan Hocknell, the company’s senior vice-president of research and development.

“Consistent with the Big Bertha Reva golf clubs, there’s an intent here to give women golfers a lot of help, particularly in launching the ball more consistently, having the ball spend more time in the air, more carry, so it’s great for distance, great for getting over hazards and landing shots on the green,” he said. “One of the main things we wanted to do here is make this ball the easiest to launch of any of the balls in our line. That slight change in the diameter of the ball has a tremendous positive impact in people being able to launch the ball more consistently when they don’t make perfect contact.”

The Reva also is a lower compression offering to provide slower swingers with the feel they prefer, while the ionomer cover lessens spin on tee shots and helps with higher launch, as well.

The Reva comes in sparkling white and pink and will be in Australian stores from April 16.

Callaway Reva Golf Balls Review

The Callaway Reva golf ball complements the latest Big Bertha Reva family of clubs and is designed for beginners or players with slow to moderate swing speeds for increased distance, higher launch and straighter shots.

When we took the Reva golf ball out of the sleeve, and without initially paying too much attention, it looked and felt similar to any other ball, but when we took a closer look and compared it to others in the bag, we immediately noticed the difference in size.

Conforming to the Rules of Golf, the overall construction of the Reva ball, which comes in white or pink with a subtle sparkle finish, is actually 9% larger than a standard ball.

The larger diameter, 1.73 inches as opposed to 1.68 inches, means that the centre of gravity is higher to help launch the ball more easily with greater forgiveness on mishits.

(Image credit: Golf Monthly)

We did find it effortless to get the ball airborne, particularly off the fairway, as despite the damp conditions on test day, the ball still sat slightly higher on the grass so subconsciously this gave us more confidence to make a positive strike.

Carry and distance off the tee was generous and this low compression ball with an ionomer cover, designed to reduce spin, meant that our shots generally flew markedly straight. 

For us the Reva ball really scored around the greens, those short game shots that often create panic and subsequently cause a thin or fat shot, like chipping over a greenside bunker or a chip and run. This ball gave us the self-belief that we could consistently pop it up onto the green.

On the green, we liked the soft feel of the ball rolling off the putter face – if only the holes were made bigger like the ball!

If you're in the market for some new clubs, read our reviews on the Callaway Women's Big Bertha Reva driver and Callaway Women's Big Bertha Reva irons.

Alison Root has over 25 years experience working in media and events, predominantly dedicated to golf, in particular the women’s game. Until 2020, for over a decade Alison edited Women & Golf magazine and website, and in addition to writing, overseeing all content and developing industry relationships, she was the go-to voice for TV and radio to comment on breaking women’s golf stories. Alison is also the Editorial Director of Glorious, the new digital platform devoted to elevating women’s sport and that includes golf! She is a 14-handicap golfer (should be better) and despite having had the fantastic opportunity to play some of the best golf courses around the world, Kingsbarns in Scotland is her favourite.

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