Polara Golf is brand for a line of golf balls that correct hooks and slices, based on the physics of their design. Aero-X Golf, Inc 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%.[1][2] David L. Felker, PhD, Chairman of the Board, Head of Technology of Aero-X Golf, Inc. and former Callaway Golf Company founding member and Vice President of Research and Development, coinvented the Polara Ultimate Straight golf balls, along with Doug Winfield, formerly of Maxfli, Titleist and Wilson Staff. The new Polara Ultimate Straight golf balls represent a large performance improvement over the original Polara golf ball which was first sold in 1977. The new design, released August 2010, utilizes state-of-the-art aerodynamics and a principle axis of inertia. The ball has shallow truncated dimples around its equator and has deep spherical and small spherical dimples on each of the ball's poles.
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.[3] 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.[4]
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.[2] According to Polara Golf CEO Gary De Bay, about 40% of golfers who tried the ball at a demo day said they would buy it.[5]
An article in The New York Times in May 2011 sparked a media blitz, including a segment on CNBC.[6][5] The great demand "crashed Polara Golf’s computer servers for hours."[3] Bill Pennington, the article's author, found that open boxes of Polara balls would be emptied by the end of the day.[7]
There was backlash against the "illegal" ball.[8][9] Ken Hambleton backtracked after interviewing Felker, writing "The problem with the latest version of Polara ... is that it works."[10]