Back in 2018, I usually bought mine online, using whatever shopping points I had accumulated to get a better deal. At the time, I was mainly playing Srixon balls that cost around ¥2,000 (about US$13) per dozen.
Then, during a trip to Costco with my wife, I spotted something interesting:
Callaway Superhot 55 — two dozen for ¥3,680 (about US$23).
That worked out to only ¥1,840 (about US$12) per dozen.
The price caught my attention. But what really made me stop was something printed on the package:
3-PIECE.
Gear at a Glance
| Product | Callaway Superhot 55 |
|---|---|
| Category | Golf Ball |
| Where We Bought It | Costco Japan |
| When We Bought It | 2018 |
| What We Paid | ¥3,680 (approx. US$23) for 24 balls / two dozen |
| Price Per Dozen | ¥1,840 (approx. US$12) |
| Construction | 3-piece |
| Compression | 55 |
| What Caught My Attention | A 3-piece Callaway ball at a price lower than the 2-piece balls I had normally been buying. |
Until then, the balls I had been using were Srixon 2-piece models costing around ¥2,000 (about US$13) per dozen.
The Callaway Superhot 55 at Costco was ¥3,680 (about US$23) for two dozen.
That alone seemed like a good deal.
Then I noticed the package said it was a 3-piece golf ball.
Really?
A Callaway 3-piece ball for only ¥1,840 per dozen?
That was enough to put the box in our Costco cart.
As soon as we got home from Costco, I opened my computer.
I wanted to know whether I had actually found a bargain.
Part of the confusion came from the name. Callaway already had the well-known Supersoft ball, while the box sitting in front of me said Superhot 55.
Supersoft. Superhot.
Similar names, but they were not the same golf ball.
The packaging was also covered in English, which made me suspect that this was a product intended primarily for an overseas market rather than the regular Japanese lineup.
So I changed my search from Japanese to English.
Eventually I found information from the U.S. golf market confirming what was printed on the box.
The Superhot 55 really was a 3-piece golf ball with 55 compression.
It was designed to retain the soft feel associated with lower-compression Callaway balls while adding an extra mantle layer to provide more shot-making performance and more spin around the greens than the Supersoft.
At the time, the Superhot 55 had a U.S. retail price of around US$28 per dozen.
That made our Costco purchase of two dozen for only ¥3,680 (about US$23 total) look even better.
This was where my original 2018 investigation got especially interesting.
At the time, Callaway’s Japanese E・R・C ball was also a 3-piece design and used what Callaway called a High Velocity Core.
Seeing similar terminology on the Superhot packaging made me wonder whether the Costco ball might essentially be the overseas equivalent of the Japanese E・R・C.
Back then, I became convinced that I had found basically the same kind of ball for about half the price.
Looking back now, however, I would be more careful with that conclusion. I can confirm that both were 3-piece Callaway balls, but I cannot confirm that Superhot 55 and the Japanese E・R・C were actually identical products.
Either way, the Costco price was still impressive.
This article started with a golf-ball purchase back in 2018. Looking at it again in 2026 makes the price seem even more remarkable: ¥3,680 (about US$23) for two dozen Callaway 3-piece golf balls. Superhot 55 is now an older model, so this should be viewed as a look back at a great Costco find rather than a current buying recommendation.
The research was done. The numbers looked good. And I was pretty happy with what we had found at Costco.
There was only one thing left to do:
Take the Superhot 55 to the golf course and see how it actually performed.
That’s always the most important part of any golf-ball review.
