martinvdm

About a year ago I got a dozen of Avanti 55 balls due to great customer service by OnCore resolving a ball recommendation issue.   I thought sure, I'll give them a shot.  At $20 per dozen I had low expectations.  The first time I ever put the Avanti 55 in play I shot 79.  With a course handicap of 11-13, I typically will break 80 three to four times a year.  I just didn't expect to do it that day with that ball, especially when I had never even hit them prior to putting it in play on the first tee!  
It just goes to show you, you never know!  The last four times I've broken 80 have been with different golf balls (Snell MTB Prime, Srixon Q Star Tour, OnCore Avanti 55 and OnCore Elixr).  Before those four, I had ten sub-80 rounds with Srixon Q Star Tours.  

Funny you mentioned the e6. I acquire a lot of golf balls. Every charity tournament I’m in they give away balls from suppliers. Every other round or so I’ll pull a sleeve of something out of the closet. Just to see what they will do. I will always use a sleeve of something I got for free in a scramble. Taking stupid chances with my preferred ball is like throwing away money. I just played an e6 and shot under par 3 rounds in a row. Then I looked up the ball and found it was a soft 2 piece ball. The ball did not roll out on greens they stuck. It was long off the driver. It didn’t feel or sound that soft either. Who knew!! It wasn’t bad at all. 

I play my best with a Velocity. Not the cheapest out there. But, we're told a two piece ball is inferior to a 3-4 piece urethane ball. 

I mean, I guess by price standards the cheapest ball I have bought and used would be the Kirkland and shot 79.
Back when I was a better player (16+ years) I had some old Precepts that I shot a 70.

One of my best 9 hole scores ever came on the round when I also got my HIO, which was with a Maxfli SoftFli. Can't go much more "cheap" than that with the deals DSG always has on those.

Yesterday, in the first hole rough, I found a Bridgestone e6. Never heard of it. I did the old “stick my thumb nail on the cover” test and it felt kinda soft. Decided to play it starting on 2. Hit the cart path on 12 and by the end of the round I was -1 and the ball looked close to new. Huh. Kinda like that. 

The cheaper ball I used this season was the Vice Tour. It is the best value at the proshop and while I now have bulk orders of golf balls so I wont be needing any anytime soon I had a couple solid rounds with the Vice Tour. However it is the Vice Pro Plus that has been the standout performer for me this season. 

As I was reviewing the 2023 ball test results and looking at my bucket of best round balls(I do mark them and keep them) I realized how very few expensive balls(4 piece, tour type) I have in my bucket.
Golf has so many external variables impacting our scores - course difficulty, weather etc. and I do understand my personal sample size is too small to draw any type of conclusion, but I am curious if anyone has tracked their best rounds and balls they used?
Chipping is the worst part of my game (inconsistent contact, double chips on bad days, etc.) so for me it seems to remove greenside spin benefit of the tour type balls if I am scoring well and hitting my 13-15 GIR. Also, the muni’s I play on here in Dallas sometimes does not care how many layers/greenside spin your ball says it will give you, and you are left saying “not even a tour ball will stop while chipping around these greens”.
Last weekend I shot a +1 playing a Taylormade Distance+, which I didn’t plan on using, but given the wind and water at the course I started with it and stuck with it. I have other examples, best round, -3 was with a Taylormade Burner many years ago.
I have a Mevo+ so do most of my practicing on it, not paying too much attention to spin rates as I think trajectory/real ball flight is very important.
Curious to know if anyone has similar stories to tell using “Cheapo’s” and going low.