Who makes Kirkland golf balls?

Costco doesn't publish its golf ball suppliers. This timeline is built from the USGA's conforming ball list, US customs records and reporting by Golf.com, GolfWRX, The Golf News Net and MyGolfSpy. Each row says what kind of evidence supports it.

Two points from the press are worth keeping. MyGolfSpy reported in 2024 that SM Parker has produced every version of the Kirkland three-piece ball. And in 2019 it reported that the new four-piece had the same 338-dimple count on the USGA list as the three-piece, where the original Nassau ball had 360 dimples. A different dimple count is the clearest sign that a "same name" ball is a different ball.

US Customs bills of lading are public. Sites like ImportYeti and ImportGenius publish them by shipper and consignee. In US records, Kirkland golf balls mostly arrive addressed not to Costco but to SM Global, a company in Los Angeles. On October 22, 2026, its ImportYeti profile listed 299 sea shipments from January 2015 to October 2026. The golf ball suppliers on it:

The same SM Global profile also shows Kirkland Signature golf gloves from Howard Jeon Glove Indonesia (120 shipments), and Kirkland Signature wedges from a club factory, which we cover in who makes Kirkland golf clubs.

Costco's Canadian business shows up as a consignee too. Qingdao SM Parker Golf shipped golf balls to Costco Wholesale Canada eight times, most recently in June 2024, with descriptions such as "golf ball Costco only" and, on some, "manufacturer Qingdao Parker Golf". Eagle Vina shipped golf balls to Costco Wholesale Canada 11 times, with descriptions that name Costco.

What the records don't show:

• Which ball is in which container. Most descriptions just say "golf balls". Only some name Kirkland or "KS 3PC V3.0".
• Who made the Polymeister balls. Polymeister's address is an office tower, and its records don't name a plant. The timing fits the Korean era (its shipments to SM Global stop in early 2018), but the records alone don't prove who made them.
• Who Eagle Vina is. We could not confirm the Vietnam shipper's identity outside the records, or whether it is the plant MyGolfSpy calls SM Global Vietnam.
• Anything about today's exclusivity. A shipment is a fact about a date. It doesn't mean a factory is Costco's only supplier, or still a supplier.

Every ball used in USGA championships has to be on the USGA's List of Conforming Golf Balls, and each listing names the company that submitted it. On October 22, 2026, a search for "Kirkland" returned four balls, all listed under SM Global LLC:

• Kirkland Signature Performance+ in white
• Kirkland Signature Performance+ in yellow
• A second Performance+ white listing with a different side stamp
• Kirkland Signature Tour Performance in white

The USGA "manufacturer" is whoever submits the ball, which can be a brand owner or a distributor rather than the plant. So the list tells you who stands behind the listing (SM Global, not Costco). It doesn't tell you which factory pressed the cores.

Costco has talked about the ball's origin story without naming factories. In August 2020 GolfWRX interviewed Costco vice president Tim Farmer and told the story this way: a manufacturer with its own ball design approached Costco about producing it under the Kirkland name, independent testing and Costco's own testing approved it, and at $29.99 for two dozen it sold out almost at once. "That's when things went a little crazy," Farmer said.

The original ball also led to a patent fight. Acushnet, Titleist's parent, sent Costco a letter alleging patent infringement and false advertising, and in March 2017 Costco asked a court for a declaration that the Kirkland ball didn't infringe (Golf.com). Acushnet sued in return. In May 2018 the two companies asked the federal court in Seattle to pause the case "to allow the parties to explore settlement" (Bloomberg Law). We haven't found the terms of how it ended, so we don't state them.

MyGolfSpy wrote in 2019 that Nassau's smart move had been to cut Costco loose after the original run rather than risk its big-brand business (the writer's reading, not a statement from Nassau), and that SM Parker is "closely aligned" with SM Global. That second point came from an industry source, so treat it as reporting, not a documented ownership link.

The factory matters less than the ball in your hand, and the ball changes when the factory or the design changes. Four checks take a few minutes:

• Read the box. The country of origin is printed on it. MyGolfSpy caught the 2019 change because the box said China, not Korea.
• Check the USGA listing. Search the markings on the ball at the USGA's conforming list. A new listing usually means a new ball.
• Count the cover. Dimple count and pattern are factory fingerprints. The original had 360 dimples; the 2019 Kirkland balls had 338.
• Read a test, not a rumor. Ball Lab style tests cut balls open and measure size, weight, compression and concentricity. MyGolfSpy's 2026 test of the Performance+ v3.0 found no defective balls in 36, with ball-to-ball compression variation wider than its database average.

If you're buying on price, the Kirkland ball is a three-piece urethane ball at a fraction of tour-ball prices. If you're buying because you heard it's a tour ball in a Costco box, nothing in the records or the reporting supports that.

Kirkland is a good case study in how a brand with no factory gets a premium ball: it finds a contract plant that already produces urethane balls, and an operator (here SM Global) that handles sourcing, packaging and logistics. You can follow the same path at a smaller scale.

1. 01Decide the construction first. Two-piece ionomer, three-piece urethane and four-piece urethane narrow the field differently. MyGolfSpy counts very few contract plants that cast urethane covers.
2. 02Use records to build a shortlist. Find a brand whose ball you rate, look up its importer, and see who ships to it. The importer is often not the brand name: check the brand's privacy policy or terms for its legal entity. Then confirm each shipper is a real ball factory before you trust it.
3. 03Ask for stock covers. Most contract factories offer their existing dimple patterns and cores. A custom design is expensive and slow.
4. 04Sample, test, then order. Cut a few balls open and weigh them before you approve production.

Our golf manufacturers list has the golf ball, bag and headcover factories in The Vault, and how to find a manufacturer walks through the import-record method step by step. The Vault itself has more than 40 golf factories with their contact details, inside the Product Sourcing Secrets course.