Tomorrow Golf focuses on sustainable golf balls.

With the start-up Tomorrow Golf, the two Austrians Raphael Blasi and Lukas Peherstorfer have ventured into a difficult market. They offer golf balls, which are by far more sustainable than the balls otherwise currently available on the market. “People are placing more and more value on sustainable products,” explained Lukas Peherstorfer when the company was founded in 2022, “we saw that there was still a slot there.”

Production in Europe

The two amateur golfers, who are otherwise professionally active in banking and online marketing, are working with a Spanish golf ball producer to recycle balls. For balls collected from the water by divers, the skin and core are separated, the masses pulverized and then processed into new cores. A new outer layer is then added. “This way, we save around 39 grams of new synthetic rubber per ball. That is almost 90% of the weight of a golf ball,” the founders sum up. This also distinguishes the Tomorrow balls from the usually dipped balls on the market, which are known in the golf scene under the term lake ball. Here, the ball is usually only prepared and repainted, for example.

Plastic-free packaging and carbon offsetting in shipping

The Austrians are also breaking new ground regarding packaging: 65% of it is made from grass paper and 35% from cardboard. “The packaging is completely plastic-free, and that’s extremely important to us,” sums up Lukas Pehersdorfer. The packaging tape is also made of paper. Shipping is CO2-neutral via Austrian Post. “We calculate the CO2 emissions for every shipment in Europe and then offset them via a certified project in Colombia.”

Playing characteristics of the classic 2-piece ball

Does the recycled balls’ playability remain a question? “The certification process that you can go through at the USGA or the R&A is costly,” explains Peherstorfer. “Because we are a very young company and have only been selling the balls for a few months, we decided not to do it for the time being. Of course, our balls comply with the rules laid down by the USGA and R&A and can, therefore, be used by all amateurs without any problems.” According to the two owners, the Tomorrow ball is a classic 2-piece ball that most golfers can use. The idea for sustainably produced golf balls came about during the Corona crisis. “We simply had more time for such ideas,” sums up Lukas Peherstorfer.