The Maxfli SpeedMAX golf ball is a three-piece ball that incorporates four critical elements that work together to fuel its performance, and they are the cover, the mantle – known as SpeedMantle – the core, and the 442-dimple pattern. The Maxfli SpeedMAX has above-average ball speed thanks chiefly to the development of the SpeedMantle, a thin layer sandwiched between the cover and the core. The SpeedMantle is comprised of HPF 1000, a material created by DuPont that is soft yet extraordinarily resilient and faster than a conventional polybutadiene core. So much so that it significantly increases the speed at which the ball leaves the clubface. SpeedMantle also helps to minimize spin off the driver, which further optimizes distance, and contributes to soft feel and increased backspin off the short irons. Because the SpeedMantle is softer yet faster than the core, it allows the SpeedMantle and core to work together to deliver faster ball speed than traditional cores.

Speed off the clubface isn’t the only benefit SpeedMantle promotes. It also plays a major part in managing the Maxfli SpeedMAX’s spin-rate off the driver and the short-irons, in order to promote an optimum combination of distance off the tee and control around the green. When contact is made with a driver at a high swing speed, the ball is compressed about ½ of an inch, which means that the properties of the mantle and core come directly into play. The contradiction posed by golf-ball cores is that a hard core increases the ball’s velocity off the driver, but also increases spin and makes the ball feel hard. Conversely, a softer core feels softer and delivers a lower spin-rate off the driver, but also results in lower velocity off the clubface. However, SpeedMantle’s HPF 1000 soft properties help to minimize spin-rate off the driver, contributing launch conditions that promote maximum driver distance. When a club with an angled clubface strikes a ball, like a wedge, rotational energy is created. In the case of SpeedMAX, the downward-moving clubface initially grabs and moves the cover, which pulls the SpeedMantle with it, and then the mantle pulls the core. In that way, added rotational energy is created, resulting in increased spin.

The Maxfli SpeedMAX golf ball has a thin, copolymer-blended Surlyn cover measuring around 63 shore-D, a degree of hardness that offers an excellent overall range of performance. It feels and sounds reasonably soft, spins well off the short irons and offers good shear-resistance. Maxfli SpeedMAX’s feel at impact is further enhanced by the way that the cover works with the soft-feeling SpeedMantle. Maxfli SpeedMAX was designed from the outside-in, from the cover to the core, meaning that the outer elements – the cover and SpeedMantle – are what key SpeedMAX’s exceptional speed and distance. That’s a key advantage, because it allows players with average and below-average swing speeds to activate the SpeedMantle, so that they can reap both outstanding gains in yardage off the driver and increased spin off the irons. That’s in contrast to other performance balls, in which the player has to compress the ball all the way to the core to receive the speed and distance benefits. Also crucial to SpeedMAX’s performance is its wind-resistant 442-dimple pattern, which is engineered to make it carry a long way for added distance. While the Maxfli SpeedMAX’s core and SpeedMantle are key to its initial launch characteristics, it’s the dimple pattern that allows SpeedMAX to stay in the air without ballooning and to resist the effects of wind.