Blake Hopkins

Unboxing I received my Callaway White Box testing balls yesterday, and was so excited to open up the package! This is my first ball test, so it was definitely strange to see a box of balls with no markings on it, just plain white, but that hardly matters. I was very happy to find that we were given 2 sleeves of the new Chrome Tour ball, and 2 sleeves of the Chrome Tour X. These are exactly what I was hoping for, as I have a high swing speed and love to see balls with a lot of greenside spin that don't spin like crazy off the tee, which is what these have been marketed as by Callaway. As for looks of the individual balls, I am very excited to test out the new triple track design. I love to practice putting with triple track balls but I've never really put them into play on the course because I often don't love the feel or spin results of the ball itself. I'm hoping that I like these ones better, as I'm a huge fan of the small change that I see. The change I'm talking about is pictured below, with the two new balls in the middle with a 2023 chrome soft on the left and an ERC Soft on the right (I was given a dozen of these so that might be one of the balls I test these against). In the new balls, the lines on the triple track taper off into points rather than ending harshly. I've never thought about this but I love the new look, as comparatively the old ones look more severe as opposed to the flow of the new markings. It's a small point, but one I'm a huge fan of. Looking at the new balls, the other main difference that I see is that they seem to be a purer white than the older models. The Chrome soft has been hit a few times, but doesn't have any real scuffs on it, but the ERC Soft has never been hit, and both of those balls look like more of an eggshell color than the pure white of the Chrome Tour and Chrome Tour X. Overall first impressions are great, I'm looking forward to watching how these new golf balls look rolling end over end with the tapered triple track lines!

Intro: About me: Hello everyone, I'm 18 and in my last year of High School here in Northern Ohio! I finished my last High School golf season this past fall with a trip to state, and ended up placing t-36th, so I was very happy with the close to my HS career. My current plans are to play golf at The Master's University to major in data science, a small school just north of Los Angeles, and I'm super excited for collegiate competition! I'm a major golf nerd and love researching gear and equipment, as well as watching the pros play this crazy game. I love to go through data, and keep a massive excel spreadsheet to try and earn an edge with my game in any way possible. I'm currently a 2.3 handicap index, and my goal is to get down to scratch by August. My game: I'm a long hitter off the tee compared to most other people I play against. My driver swing speed tends to hover around 120mph and my ball speed gets into the low 160s. My strengths are my distance and creative short game. I'm also usually pretty good with my irons, hitting 55% of greens last season. My weakness tends to be my putting, and hitting iron shots from the rough. Stock Yardages (Total): Driver: 288 yards, 3 wood: 255 yards, 3 hybrid: 239 yards, 4 iron:221 yards, 5 iron: 205 yards, 6 iron: 192 yards, 7 iron: 180 yards, 8 iron: 174 yards, 9 iron: 161 yards, PW (43*): 148 yards, GW (48*): 124 yards, SW (54*): 103 yards, LW (60*): 76 yards Equipment: I currently game a Ping G430 LS driver at 9*, I'm getting fit for a TaylorMade Qi10 3 wood, and I game a Titleist 915H 3 hybrid, and then Titleist t300 4i-GW, a Vokey SM9 SW, and a Cleveland RTX Zipcore LW. Current Ball: My preferred golf ball is either a Titleist ProV1 or a TaylorMade TP5x. I like to switch between them depending on the length of the hole and conditions, especially wind. What I Want From This Test: I'm hoping that the Callaway ball in this test is a low spinning golf ball that I can put into use. I generally don't like the feel of Callaway golf balls and haven't gamed one in the last 3 years, before that I played the Hex Tour Soft. I tend to like softer feeling golf balls that I feel I can compress, but don't give me a ton of spin, as I tend to get pretty spinny especially off of the tee. How I'm Going To Test This: Since I love to look at and organize data, I'm going to bring that passion to this test. I am the proud owner, and frequent user, of the Flightscope Mevo Plus (no pro package sadly), and that is primarily how I'm going to test this ball, as well as hitting short game shots on carpet. Unfortunately, in Northern Ohio right now it tends to be very cold, windy, and snowy, so I don't know if I'm going to be able to test this outside. My main plan is to play several rounds on the simulator against a TP5x and possibly a ProV1 to compare results. I've found through my own investigation that a Srixon Q-Tour is the most durable ball that I can find to hit with, so I'm also going to test the Callaway golf ball against that for durability. Overall, I'm super excited for this, my first test. Looking forward to hopefully drawing great and helpful conclusions for everyone!

Date 09/19/2023 Course Name Bunker Hill Golf Course Gross Score 76 Course Handicap 4 Gross Strokes over/under par 4 Net Score to Par 0 Net Score 72 Net Birdies or better 6 Longest Drive 298 VCT Match Play Designate as Week 3 Match Score Solid round, kind of disappointed as I was -3 through the first four holes after driving the green on a 290 yard par 4 and chipping in for eagle on a short par five.

OH YEAH! Let’s go guys!

Here’s a pic of my score card from my even par round of 72 yesterday from the Blue tees at Bunker Hill GC! Played super well, some boring golf which as we all know is good golf, and putted fantastic, picking up a full 2.7 strokes gained putting! My drives were also fantastic at a course with an absurd amount of twists, turns, and steep elevation changes. If you saw on the VCT chat, this was at the course I will be playing my senior year High School sectional tournament in a little less than three weeks. Hoping to make a run to states this year!

Date 09/09/2023 Course Name Bunker Hill GC Gross Score 72 Course Handicap 6 Gross Strokes over/under par 0 Net Score to Par -6 Net Score 66 Net Birdies or better 8 Longest Drive 317 VCT Match Play Score Click Here for Week 1 Match Play Score New PR, and it was in a round at the course I will be playing sectionals (1st level of state tournaments) at in 2.5 weeks! Couldn’t miss a putt

Definitely be able to designate a shot as a chip, I chipped in with my hybrid from just off the green in a round yesterday and didn’t think anything of it, and when I checked out strokes gained it was all out of wack between approach and chipping because of it. Also, being able to designate a shot as a punch out, so you can see your recovery shot “success rate”

I’m pretty sure I didn’t do this when I joined the forum, so I’m going to do it now lol. I’m a 2.8 Handicap currently, HS Senior, and hopeful for collegiate golf. I’ve been playing for pretty much my entire life, I figure it about 15 years, so basically when I got taller than the kiddie clubs lol. WITB: Driver- Ping G430 LST with 9 degrees of loft, and a Mitsubishi Kai’Li White 60x shaft, tour flex 3 Wood: Titleist TSI2 with 14.5 degreees of loft, Tensei Black shaft 3 Hybrid: Titleist H1 with 19 degrees of loft, Tensei Black Shaft 4-5 Iron: Titleist T300s with AMT Red Shafts 6-GW: Titleist T300s with Nippon NS Pro shafts Sand Wedge: 54 degree Vokey SM9 Lob Wedge: 60 degree Cleveland RTX Zipcore with True Temper golf shaft Putter: Taylormade Spider Tour Golf Balls: Titleist Prov1 OR Taylormade TP5 depending on conditions

Hey you have me as unavailable, but don’t have my captain listed lol. J7Hawkins is my captain

I love to shape the ball, it really makes the game so much more fun! Besides, that's what most of us are playing this game for, it's all in the name of fun in the end! If you get really good at it, its like having several extra clubs in the bag because you can use that to adjust some distances, eg. a high fade will take off some distance, while a bullet draw will add some

If the invite is still open, I'd love to join! 2.6 Handicap Junior Golfer, my average drive is 285, but I can hit it 320 if it's not wet out and I try to get after one

Do I need to get in contact with a Captain, or will I just be put onto a team?

Hey I think you’ve got a typo in here, you said 1 strokes over under instead of likely 15 or 16 depending on the course par according to your gross score , placing you in first place

Hi everyone, this is my first post on here, so I apologize in advance if I’m doing this wrong. I wanted to make this post here to say that I 10/10 recommend the Ping G430 LST model to golfers, especially those who spin it a bit much off the tee. Background: I’m a high school golfer, aspiring to play in college, and a 2.8 handicap index currently. Tee shots and approach shots have always been my forte, while putting has usually been my bane. However, over the last year, as my swing speed improved dramatically, I started losing distance and consistency off the tee with my 3 year old TS2 Driver that I was fit for in 2020. I was getting very little roll, and at first thought that it might be the ball, I play a ProV1. So, I went to get a ball fitting at Golf Galaxy, and was told that the problem was my driver, and I was getting ~4300 rpm’s of spin off the tee. This blew my mind, but I didn’t want to do anything about it as that driver felt great and was simply what I was used to. However, at one point in April I was hitting on the range, and smoked one, and the crown cracked. Yes, the crown, the top of the club. I’ve never seen that before. Anyhow, that forced me to go in to get fit for a new driver. The fitting: I started hitting some of the newer drivers, like the Stealth, Paradym, TSR2, and of course the Ping G430. I got fit into a tour flex shaft, a kai’li x stiff 60 gram std LNG. Instantly loved the look and the feel of the G430. From the first shot I knew it was a game changer for me. By the end of the fitting, I lost ~2000 rpms of spin, gained 15 yards of carry, and a whopping 38 yards of distance!!! According to the trackman, and subsequent on course testing, I went from hitting it 253 off the tee to an average of 291, with some shots going as far as 340! Now: Since then I’ve lost some distance, but that is because I’ve taken a leaf out of Tommy Fleetwood’s book and sacrificed a bit of distance for accuracy. Now I average 284 off the tee according to Arccos data, which is still an improvement of 31 yards. Not only did I gain distance, but I also got a tighter dispersion. Out of a driver that isn’t really known to be forgiving, I’ve begun to hit over 50% of fairways, while before I was averaging around 43%. I attribute this to lower spin rates making huge slices or hooks a bit less prominent as there isn’t as much spin to take the ball off line, but I could be incorrect. I also love the look of the club, the workability is still amazing, and the “idiot-proof” adjustability is great. I only have two negatives, and both are pretty small. The first is that the sole of the club scratches really easily, even just from tees, and as I hit an absurd amount of golf balls per week this just doesn’t look the best, though it doesn’t impact performance at all, only aesthetics. The only other downside I have is the head cover. It just does not seem to be made out of very quality material, and is a little tight without being flexible whatsoever, so it can be a little frustrating to put on. tldr: love the ping g430 LST, it took off a crazy amount of spin for me and added 38 yards of distance, great feel, sound, and looks. Only real downsides are a seeming lack of durability on the sole, and a head cover that isn’t nearly as premium as the club itself