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Another home run for Snell! I don't know if I'd actually ever game the X (I will definitely be giving it a try now!) so I am very interested in the MTB Black when Tony's able to get enough balls for testing. Also, I updated the quick reference thread and MTB-X came out .01% BETTER than Titleist Pro V1. While .01% means essentially nothing, the actual value proposition of this ball could wind up being the best of the bunch given it's price point (especially when purchased at the multi-box price of $28.99/doz.). I am truly impressed with the job Dean Snell is doing.

Fun night in league. Nothing terribly noteworthy except the birdie on 12 - my friend had hit a beautiful hybrid that started right-center of the green and started drawing right at the flag. It landed about 2 feet from the hole. With the rain we had last night, it bounced left and back, leaving about 5' for birdie. I hit a 6 iron just a smidge thin and ended up just off the green short and left. I chipped in for birdie and he lipped out his putt, so I ended up with a skin.

Another super twilight round at what I consider the home course (Hansen Dam). Had the 4pm time and the others who booked didn't show, so I was off on my own. Hot afternoon, so the course wasn't too busy and I blazed through the front nine in about an hour-twenty, no waiting until I got to 7. Usually I'll hop off after the 11th as that's the last hole near the parking lot before you cross to the other side of the spillway and get stuck with a looong walk back once it's too dark to play. With the fast front and playing well, I pressed on though, even though things slowed down significantly. Amazingly, I got in all 18, playing the last by the full moon and the false horizon. Hit my approach with no idea of direction outside of it feeling good and I found it about 8 feet under the pin. Missed the birdie, but tapped in the par. Final tally - 10 pars, 5 bogeys, 3 birdies - +2 74. New personal best for the course.

Look what just arrived? But the weather has not complied, rain all day. Sent from my iPad using MyGolfSpy

Hah! ..so speaking of tee shots... Played 18 yesterday, from the front tees with my wife, and (still!!) put myself into varying degrees of trouble on most of the Par 4s and 5s. Had a bad case of the lefts (RH'ed) .. which was kinda interesting .. as up to now my golfing experience has mostly been right misses off the tee. Yet somehow only had one ball go really waaaay left and OB. So had a bunch of punch-outs for my second shots... And then somehow... seemed to get the tee troubles under control the last three holes with solid tee shots, if just a little left of my intended line. Irons - thanks to recent lessons - were mostly pretty good! A few chunks and thins but over the round was able to hit a bunch close to what I wanted .. yea! Short game was mostly pretty good, too - yeah a few, but very few, sloppy mistakes (including the one bunker I dropped myself into) / dropped shots. Have to brag but on #18 Par 5 - good round, bad round I try to "finish in style" - I had a really solid tee shot .. launched straight and flew far .. hit a solid second into a good position .. and nailed the approach dropping the ball right where I was looking on the green! Don't worry, tho, I quickly got my comeuppance - I converted (ha ha) that outside birdie chance 1-putt into a 3-putt bogey ... first putt was maybe 20 feet and I hit it just as intended, line and speed, only to watch it break uphill?!? by the hole ... where I then proceeded to miss the 2 footer... So overall round actually went reasonably well, one of my better 18 hole rounds of 93 (36 putts) - and that was with 5 (count 'em: FIVE) doubles and one triple - so making progress and have plenty of room to improve

I drove around to find the UPS driver today! I just couldn’t wait!!!! Time to get on the Exputt and see how she does. She will get her first full round either Friday or Sunday!!! EAS 2.0, 36”, 70* lie angle, 2* loft, Edel round grip with a 15g weight in the head. I’m not sure how far down in the grip they put the weight, or how heavy it is. I’ll find out tomorrow. The store owner is giving me an additional 10g weight and wrench so I can change the head weight based-on green speed.

https://mygolfspy.com/snell-mtb-x-golf-ball-review/#comment-475243 Share your thoughts below!

... Well as a young at heart "old person" you can count me out of a return to days of yore. Golf has always been a game of progression and equipment changes as well as Tiger igniting a physical condition revolution. Once golf went down that road the strategies of old were forever in the rear view mirror. "Tiger proofing" golf courses was never going to work. There does come a point of athletes getting too advanced for the game and the way it was originally designed to be played. I have made that argument for NFL football and think they need to widen the field as well as lengthen it and I was glad to see the rules change to protect athletes that when the game was originated, nobody could have dreamed of them being this large, athletic and fast. Without the rule changes the NFL would be lucky to have any starting or even back up QB's make it thru the season if they could be hit low by 290-320lb athletes at full speed in 3 steps as well as defenseless WR's, chop blocks and crack backs. Bryson is proof golf might be heading in that direction and if we have an influx of young 350yd bombers as the norm, the game will just not be the same and changes like very deep rough and more penal bunkers might be needed. But if Bryson is an outlier then he deserves to play the courses at a different level than the rest of the field.

I envy you sir...

Grabbed a dozen of these and a dozen Bridgestone Tour B X while I was on my last dozen of Pro V1x. I really don’t feel much different between them and was seeing the same windows, maybe even a touch higher with the Snell. This report only added to my confidence in the ball and I’ll probably go ahead and order more of these on my next ball order. I’ve been very impressed in the early going.

lots to go through here so just going to add names of talking points. @chisag fully agree with bringing back original design of course, the difficult part of this is money, granted these big name courses have it but we are talking some big bucks to adjust even half the holes on a course. I do think this is the most logical approach though. @PMookie nailed it on the head. Bryson studied. No one had him winning last week because he “isn’t accurate” but he took the tournament down. Granted you still have to play well. The game was still a fantastic product to watch. give me the golf we have been getting the past couple years. And while we are at it give me Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire and Barry bonds baseball too

My week has totally blown up on me. Went to the par 3 yesterday with no rain on the radar - it was pouring by the 5th hole. I got soaked not enough data to really tell you anything. Round for today is cancelled because many courses are closed - too much rain the last few weeks. The range at my club may open later. If it does i will at least hit balls. I have no other time to play an actual round of golf on this so called vacation. I will however be able to hit tons of shots on the range. There is no rain in the forecast. Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

After 2 rounds where I really struggled (both about 14 over) for very different reasons (6 x 3 putts, then couldn't hit the planet off the tee) I found a bit of form today, despite some extremely poor shots. Drove it pretty well, a massive improvement from my last round. 10/14 fairways, with only one of my misses hurting. Distance was closer to normal. Fairways were very soft after lots of recent rain. Shot 9 over despite 2 very soft doubles and some awful swings. Bladed it through the back twice from 110, and once from 120. A couple of birdies helped balance up the ledger. My short game is struggling to adjust to soft and slow greens post coring. Hoping that they firm up and roll better over the next few weeks.

Welcome to MyGolfSpy!! One of the most common is underclubbing. "One time 4 years ago I hit my 7-iron 175 yards, so that's that I'm hitting from 175 today."

Hello all, I am new to this forum and look forward to interacting with everyone and learning more about everything golf. This will be a long post, but I hope to get some good insight from my fellow golfers. So for the longest time, I was using my old, cheap, outdated clubs that I have had since Jr High. Until a couple months ago, I decided to really start golfing again more regularly and completely upgrade my entire set. And this is what I have: My driver is a Taylormade M6. Bought this from the used rack at Golf Galaxy for $250, and I do like it, but I tend to slice quite a bit with it, so I need to figure out how to fix that. But at the moment, the club is at golf galaxy because I noticed a small crack on the bottom so it is getting replaced with a brand new club head from Taylor Made. I should have it sometime in October. The guy at Golf Galaxy said that in the case that TM doesnt have the M6 available, they may replace it with a SIM (that would be sweet huh, but I doubt it will happen) Either way, I am getting a new club head, and I will be changing the shaft to a stiff flex as my friend noticed I have a pretty fast swing and the M6 had a regular flex shaft, so maybe that was impacting my drives a bit. I'll also look to get a Golf Pride CP2 Jump grip. The M6 had a Golf Pride Z-Grip midsize with several extra wraps, but I want something softer, and the CP2 feels great. My Fairway is a Titleist 915F 3 Wood. I like this club and tend to hit it pretty well. It also has the Golf Pride Z-Grip. I dont hit this club too often, but it is still used enough to take a spot in my bag. I have 2 Hybrids, my first one is a Taylormade M1 #2 hybrid with Golfpride Z-Grip and my other is a Ping G #4 hybrid also with Golfpride grip. These are solid clubs for me. I don't have a 4 or 5 wood and am not sure if I should replace one of my hybrids with a 5 wood? As for my Irons, they are Taylormade Burner 2.0. My brother bought them back in 2011 brand new and never opened them, so I bought them off of him for $150, still sealed. Can't beat that deal. The set came with #4 - PW. I took the 4 iron out of my bag since I found myself never using it and instead replaced it with a Burner 2.0 Approach Wedge. This wedge is a perfect match with this set. I have a generic 56* Sandwich that I am pretty happy with but will likely upgrade this. I just needed a SW and bought the cheapest one in the shop for $30. I have a 60* Lob Wedge Cleveland RTX4 and I like it. Still need to get use to it as Ive only had it for a few weeks. Sand traps are the biggest weakness in my game and hope this wedge can help that. I am looking to get this same wedge in 56* to replace my generic one. My newest and most favorite club is my beautiful putter! It is a Taylormade Spider X Copper. I was eyeing this putter for about a week after reading up on it and found it on a local facebook listing in great condition for $200. I jumped on that quick. It has the single white line and not the larger white true alignment that I would have preferred but its not a huge deal. I have only used this putter once on the course and I immediately felt how it can help my game. I am very satisfied with this club. It felt a tad light so I ordered and received a pair of 12 gram weights and will be looking forward to using this thing again soon. I am not a great golfer by any means, I can shoot between 95-100 in a round of 18. I would like to break 90 on a regular basis. My current golf ball is Callaway Supersoft in matte green and I also bought an ammo box of Vice Pro which I look forward to using as well. I always make sure to bring my portable bluetooth speaker as I like to listen to music while playing (turn it off around others ofcourse) What do you guys think of my golf set up? Any recommendations to help my game?

I see that if you put guys on the trade block it is like putting up a sign that says “offer me the shittiest one-sided trade you can come up with” yikes

Thankfully Tony and the team do actual data driven testing, not single person anecdotal results. I've played the same Snell for multiple rounds without any cuts from full wedge shots on brand new Vokeys, and Iowa "sand" is less sand and more gravel.

As far as I'm aware, we're talking in this thread about distance, mainly driving distance, and revising equipment rules to decrease it. To me, that would be a poor choice, whether its across the board or through bifurcation. I'm not sure what other kinds of changes are possible, but I'm willing to listen.

I guess it just shows a particular ball and its feel and perceived performance is very subjective and an individual thing. There are a lot better players than me on this board commenting e about how good the ball is. But I just didn't like it, tried 3 dozen last year and ended up giving away two dozen of them. To me the feel is much harsher than the ProVX and it didn't' spin as well on wedge shots. No doubt it performed, based on the MGS test last year and the tons of love here. But I'll be sticking to the VX.

You have got my full attention!!!!

Agreed! Only reason a lot of people (myself included possibly) won't elect to play this ball is because of it's 96 compression rating. I don't like soft golf balls, but I do like to be on the softer side of the tour offerings. I will definitely be ordering a test pack of MTB-X and MTB Black for next season.

After this report? Dean better contract with a second ball plant to keep up with orders. I've still got 4 dz Z Star XVs to go, but I'm giving serious contemplation to picking up 5 dz of these. The value is just so good, even before you get the bulk discount!

Love this ball! % of bad balls right in line with the category leader of the ProV1, but at 2/3 of the cost. Switched to the MTB-X after the 2019 ball test, and don't see myself switching back anytime soon.

Standout for me: Multiple threads talking about these and I will say it again....take the name off your golf ball and put this on the tee with it, you wont be able to tell....I will be swapping once my bulk order of PROV1's have been gone through.

Thanks. That rules out black for me. I believe I have decided to get the set GW anyways. It’s mostly a full swing club. I will be looking at the 53° and the 58° in chrome.... but I might be adding the hybrid first. Really wish I was closer to a fitting center. Can’t decide on a 510 Utility or a Hybrid...

While we're down here in Florida looking for a winter place, our car automatically steered into the PGASS in Sarasota. My wife went direct to the 65% off rack and picked up a couple of items. I got one of these Aussie Chiller bucket hats. Sent from my iPad using MyGolfSpy EDIT: Oh wait I forgot to mention another golf (I guess you can call it that) purchase. We bought a home on a course in Florida. Doing the home inspection on Thursday and then close in about 2 weeks. We're located at Kings Point just off of 75 on the south side of Tampa Bay

Look, here’s the rub. A big deal is being made out of Bryson’s length. Did any of you read the article about how he worked with Bridgestone to figure out SPECIFICALLY what his deviation from the rough was going to be on shots hit with 8 iron-PW? No guessing on fliers, actual statistical analysis! Guess what?! ONE guy finished under par at the US Open. The guy who did the analysis of the affect of rough on approach shots..... He didn’t win because he bombed it by everyone! He won because he STUDIED the course and the defenses. I know, this isn’t about Bryson, but folks, scores by the bombers were STILL over par. We didn’t have the 20 under that people are scared of. By-the-way, look at the winners on Tour over the last three years. They’re not all “bombers”, and it wasn’t too long ago that a guy hitting the ball 290 off the tee was the king of the sport! Yep, Spieth screwed-up his swing and putting, but he was dominant, and NOT a long hitter.

There is nothing consistent in golf.

Nah. Me, I get a little thrill inside trying to guess the direction of every tee shot...

Bryson is just the current face of distance gains based on his win in the US Open. Bryson isn't an outlier, other than the route he chose to get that distance. A fair number of guys are just about as long, and if they're not using the same strategy, they'll give it a try pretty soon.

Thank you for proving my point. We started with half the field eliminated and now only 7 had a chance.

Our Superintendent is an old fashioned guy and has played Titleist balls, since shortly after Helen Robinson first put the Titleist script to paper He still swears by the seam, but has a harder time finding it. I like to tell him it's because he's getting older, not that it's not as noticeable any more...ha

Snell balls work well for me. I just placed an order for 5 dozen because i need some yellow balls.

i see it now. when i hear "seam" i think baseball and was looking for a raised ridge around the ball. obviously to each his own but i'm not sure that would bother me in the least bit. thank you for linking the review

I have been waiting to comment on my thoughts till I saw a Snell ball go up since I feel it might be the standard of DTC balls. I honestly feel the ball lab true cost is missing something very critical when factoring in the true price of a ball. However, this should only apply to balls that reach the level of the Snell or ProV’s. At this point a durability test should be factored in. Just because you can have confidence that you can buy a box and all 12 will be playable does not mean they will hold up the same. From this article it makes it look like the best option for a tour level ball is clearly the MTB-X. That being said I have my own first hand experience testing this ball at great lengths vs my gamer the ProV1x. Of The box of Snell’s I purchased only 6 balls made it through to the end of the round and none were lost. On full wedge shots and bunker shots (Texas sand not so soft could be a factor) the ball simply did not hold up. The ProV1x I can go multiple rounds with the same ball (as long as I don’t sink it). But of course some of this could be my own thoughts from the disappointment I had from Snell. I will say the MTB-X performance is on par 100% when good, but once the true price is established and the ball has the metrics of the Snell or ProV’s a durability Assessment needs to be done and added to the true price. This is something that I would like to see happen hopefully!

Seams on the cover, I am very picky. The ball is great for sure.

While I am not trying to answer for him, I have seen where people have been put off a bit by the seam - in some cases it is very noticeable. I love Snell balls and will eventually get more after my current stock runs out, but one thing that struck me in the article is that 50% of the balls had minor concentricity issues. I don't recall such issues in the other reports that have been issued. I would like Tony to quantify that. What does he consider minor and are we sure it is not potentially performance-effecting?

Well, remember how I've been saying the race for the ball in 2021 was between three and maybe a fourth if the right ball came in good on the Ball Lab? I think the race just got a fourth challenger.

I find this interesting, and I'm not sure that the "right" path for the USGA should have been. They are routinely vilified for acting moderately quickly on other equipment-related issues, particularly the groove rule and long putters. I know anchoring was changed via a RoG chance, but it was still related to equipment. At the same time, the USGA is vilified for taking a longer-term data driven approach, acting too slowly on distance. If they HAD acted as quickly as many suggest (with the gift of hindsight) they should have, NONE of us would have the distance advantages that club and ball improvements have allowed. We don't want that distance rolled back, taken away from us, but if the USGA had acted, we'd never have had it in the first place. I don't think its quite fair. As for advances in the agronomy, certainly the USGA's turfgrass research has had a significant role. But what's also had a role, looking at this from a historical perspective, are the introduction of irrigation systems and better mowing equipment. But I agree, improvements in course preparation have definitely allowed courses to mow grass tighter and use less water, leading to significant increases in roll-out. My conclusion is the same as yours, though. I hope they Ruling Bodies find ways to limit future distance gains from equipment. I can accept that the best players in the world will continue to improve, and will continue to explore strategies to score lower, and that those strategies will have less and less in common with the strategies of the past. I wouldn't encourage any type of bifurcation, I just think that there are too many potential complications for that to work well. And as with almost all changes, I'm certain that there would be complications that none of us would anticipate, in addition to the ones we can see right now.

Compression is big for me, could do without the high spin but I have been enjoying how quickly I have been holding greens so I will be sticking with higher spin. Few weeks back lined up MTBX, PROV1X and Tour BX.... 1X (as always) and MTBX standouts.

More like a grand slam for Dean Snell and his group. To compete with ProV1 at that price point for a box is phenomenal, and definitely worth people taking a look.

Paint markers work well. And Bubba relies on the Milwaukee tools version of the sharpie. Tiger too... must be good.

For those that don't know me, my name is Shane Smith and I'm a 39 year-old lefty in The Woodlands, TX just north of Houston. I'm married with two boys under 3 with another on the way. I know what you're thinking...why? Well, it's all about compromise. The wife wanted more kids, I said let's wait...so we compromised and had more kids. It's a win-win if you ask me! Like the wife told me...we have a minivan, now let's fill it up! Yes, with strollers, booster seats, toys, snacks, etc. Magically there's no room for golf clubs anymore on family vacations. I'm a scratch golfer who plays twice a month but due to Covid and kids, I've had to take most of my practice home. I've got a driving range matt and a net for full swings, my kids pool that acts as a great chipping target, and Odyssey's finest 12' putting matt that comes in black (because most greens are black, right?!) and runs maybe a 7 or 8 on the stimp. I shouldn't complain too much about my overall setup but if there's an upgrade needed, it's the putting matt. It's razor thin, slow and follows every contour of the floor...and it's also a crumb magnet. Sometimes I wonder if I accumulated all the Goldfish, Chex Mix and Cheerio crumbs that my kids drop on it, I could make one amazing Nature Valley granola bar. FYI, if you ever come practice at my house, the living room has a nice left to right break and the entry way has a nice downhill slope to it. My game can definitely use some improvement in the putting realm. My focus over the last year has been delivering my putter face consistently to the ball and getting the ball down my intended target line. That has been achieved with great success, but at the sacrifice of speed since most of my putting has been on the crumb matt. I'm anxious and excited to see how practicing on quality turf that mimics the speed of most greens will translate out on the course. Obviously reading greens requires time out on actual greens, I'll focus more on my speed as we enter the fall and winter seasons. One of the metrics I intend to use during my testing is how this translates to the course. Here's some pics of crumb alley: I added a straight line to assist with stroke and a target line to get the ball rolling... The matt is 12' and I usually practice 6-10' putts. Crumbs...crumbs everywhere! And here's a few pics of the sled I'll be using during testing: It's a Toulon Garage Atlanta with a sight dot that I picked up off a BST site. I'm a putter ho that buys and sells a lot of putters, and for the sake of my bank account and marriage, this putter needs to last a little bit (ok, A LOT) longer than my average 4-8 weeks of use. So far, so good! I've always wanted to try a BirdieBall putting matt and now I have the opportunity thanks to MGS. Thanks y'all and I can't wait to post up the review.

Alright Bucky Division, let's make some trades! I have six RBs on my roster and I'm more than willing to trade a few for a backup QB or higher quality starter at RB or WR. While they aren't all Saquon Barkley level replacements they each have major roles for their teams. Austin Ekeler David Johnson Mark Ingram Myles Gaskin Adrian Peterson Ronald Jones

@cnosil - You piqued my interest in DECADE, and in looking at Fawcett's work, even touring pros aren't that consistent with their shot outcomes. And that's with consistent swings. I don't have any recent data for myself, but here's an old Trackman report for me: My clubhead speed is pretty consistent. My club path varies, but not all that much. It's not like I go from in-to-out to out-to-in. Fairly consistent. Not good, but consistent. Face angle is a different story. Is it any wonder that my dispersion is almost 50 yards with an 8 iron? I'd love to see the data on a higher handicapper; I'd love to know if their path varies much more, or if it's mainly higher variability in the face angle. I think we confuse consistency of face angle (which has a massive influence on where the ball goes and is pretty tough to control) and consistency of outcome with consistency of the swing itself. So if finances are not an issue, why wait to get fit? Are people waiting for something that may never come?

Making a tee time.

Go take a lesson and the instructor watches your swing; you make a couple of swings that you know aren't your best, but the instructor says that's enough. A good instructor can tell what swing issues you have with a bad swing or a good swing. Same issues. From my post in the Summarize you season in five words thread... Consistently inconsistent or just crappy!

Id say trying to play the hero shot. Just because you actually pulled It off once doesn't mean its going to work even most of the time and sometimes you need to just take your medicine and get it back into the fairway instead of trying to hit the 200 yard shot out of the rough and over water.

That's NOT a thrill...it's a little bit of coming out!