MGS Golf Ball Test

[MaxEntropy]

Although ball speed is king when it comes to distance, dimple pattern also matters. Drag forces are related to the square of the speed, so a higher speed ball will have more drag than a lower speed ball (easiest example is twice the speed results in 4 times the drag). It's conceivable that a slower ball could go farther if the dimple pattern allowed the ball to move more efficiently through the air.

Just for kicks, I would like to see a test where the robot were adjusted to give a soft and hard ball the same launch conditions (angle, speed, and spin, if possible) and see what happens. Any differences in total distance should be related to dimple pattern. Maybe the easiest way would be launch them out of an air cannon, but then the spin may be harder to control.

[yungkory]

6 hours ago, perseveringgolfer said:

I'm hoping the sound and feel is featured as well as tech stats, particularly the Driver sound and putter sound for each ball.

I don't think there was anything involved other than the robot, but I'm sure there aren't many of us who know what is going down, and those who do, aren't gonna say anything 

Like @chisag said, I can't imagine Titleist not making a very strong showing, but I don't think it's going to win Most Wanted. For me, the TP5x has performed wonderfully, and I'm going to continue to play it for the rest of the year. It seems counter-intuitive in my mind for me to play an X ball when dudes with so much more power than I have are playing the regular TP5 on tour, but my eyes love how much higher these seem to go for me. The best part is that it doesn't FEEL hard. Off of the iron face it's as soft feeling as a Chromesoft IMO, but it doesn't feel like a marshmallow at the same time. I hope they bring back MyNumber for the TP5 line so I can order all #33 next go around.

I'm still going to try the Most Wanted ball, unless it's something I already gave a thorough testing to.

[CarlH]

I think the findings are going to have to present a VERY compelling case to cause me to change balls.  I really like the way the TP5X performs, as well as how the Snell Black performs.  Both seem to suit my game well.  Snell fits my wallet better. 

[newballcoach]

I don't necessarily think I will go out and buy the Most Wanted ball. We know from all the other tests that the winner isn't the best ball for all, just for most. MGS will always encourage you to test and get fit rather then follow their advice blindly. I'm really more interested in who does poorly then who does well (maybe it means I'm an *******). If I'm not playing the "best" ball but I like it, I'm good with that. If I'm playing a ball proven to be poor, well that would push me more.

[PMookie]

I also imagine any ball going to tour players is not treated the same as ones headed for packaging. I would imagine they are testing them and only sending the best of the best to their pros. Unless they have really tight QC tolerances, but I can't imagine Phil Mickelson getting a lemon and me getting the best single chrome soft ball ever produced. Whether or not that's ethical or even whether we should be okay with that is another matter.

Sam Burns on Tour is from N Louisiana, and in speaking with his buddies, there isn’t anything those guys play that is the same as what we play. The balls they play are specifically fitted to them, not just clubs, and one of my former players went through that process at Titleist. The companies can say all they want that we play what pros play, but when one has connections on the Tour, it’s obvious it’s not always true...


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[PMookie]

Seems to me the better test would have been to pit the Z-Star XV vs the Pro V1X?

They weren’t testing balls vs each other, they just happened to notice a loss of distance one day. A five yard difference across any selection of “top-tier” balls is too significant of a difference.


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[tony@CIC]

14 hours ago, newballcoach said:

I don't necessarily think I will go out and buy the Most Wanted ball. We know from all the other tests that the winner isn't the best ball for all, just for most. MGS will always encourage you to test and get fit rather then follow their advice blindly. I'm really more interested in who does poorly then who does well (maybe it means I'm an *******). If I'm not playing the "best" ball but I like it, I'm good with that. If I'm playing a ball proven to be poor, well that would push me more.

I don't plan on buying the most wanted ball. However, the company or the ball that is most consistent - say compression will influence my decision. 

[TSauer]

Like others have mentioned, I don't see myself stocking up on the so-called winner, but I'll most likely take the top three into consideration. I hope they're balls that I've already been playing 

[chisag]

2 hours ago, PMookie said:

They weren’t testing balls vs each other, they just happened to notice a loss of distance one day. A five yard difference across any selection of “top-tier” balls is too significant of a difference.
 

 

... I am not surprised. Compression makes a big difference at different clubbed speeds. Matt has a 120+ clubbed speed and I can see where a Z Star travels shorter than a Z Star XV. At around 100mph swing speed I found the exact opposite and the lower compression Z Star was longer than the XV. I imagine someone swinging 85 mph may find an even lower compression ball might travel farther than a Z Star. So again the mantra of "get fitted" definitely applies to golf balls. 

[arbeck]

2 hours ago, chisag said:

 

... I am not surprised. Compression makes a big difference at different clubbed speeds. Matt has a 120+ clubbed speed and I can see where a Z Star travels shorter than a Z Star XV. At around 100mph swing speed I found the exact opposite and the lower compression Z Star was longer than the XV. I imagine someone swinging 85 mph may find an even lower compression ball might travel farther than a Z Star. So again the mantra of "get fitted" definitely applies to golf balls. 

Dean Snell has said that compression really doesn't make a difference at the low end of the spectrum. I haven't seen any data that refutes him.

 

That being said a low compression ball will spin less than a high compression ball, all things being equal. And knocking off spin will also usually add to distance. Of course things aren't always equal with golf balls. You can make a firmer ball that spins less.

[mr.hicksta]

I'm fairly committed to the MTB Black, but I'm very interested to see which ball is Most Wanted along with all the data behind the testing. 

[TSauer]

11 minutes ago, mr.hicksta said:

I'm fairly committed to the MTB Black, but I'm very interested to see which ball is Most Wanted along with all the data behind the testing. 

Man, I keep hearing everything about the Snell Black and how great they are. I cannot wait for my tee time in the morning to finally get to try them out.

[perseveringgolfer]

I've not even sniffed these balls, maybe I should. MGS will point me to the holy grail of balls for me 

[Kor.A.Door]

I don’t want to say I can’t wait for the results, but these results seem like they will be eye opening for a lot of people, including some management folks at some of these ball companies. All of the major ball companies seem to claim “something” about their specific golf ball. If this test shows some negative results for one or more of the companies, it could affect the bottom line. What happens when all of a sudden the Over the counter ProV1 does not perform consistently? I’m not saying that is what will happen, but that is a very well used golf ball by millions of golfers, what happens if all of them find out the ball is being outperformed by the K-sig in all categories. I used the ProV as an example You could easily insert any of the Major OEM Golf balls.  We all think that  because they are the Major OEM’s they have access to better facilities for quality management, but, do they really? The results will be interesting. 

[CarlH]

I was just at a demo days chatting with the Bridgestone rep, who was well award of this pending report and anxiously awaiting to hear the results.  

[tony@CIC]

I was just at a demo days chatting with the Bridgestone rep, who was well award of this pending report and anxiously awaiting to hear the results.  

I'll bet the QC and marketing guys at all the OEM's are anxiously awaiting results.


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[JohnSmalls]

1 hour ago, tony@CIC said:

I'll bet the QC and marketing guys at all the OEM's are anxiously awaiting results.


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I think some of the QC guys are anxiously “evacuating” Top Flites right now. 

[Thin2win]

So not Monday is it? I think it is getting closer

[tony@CIC]

Hopefully MGS headquarters has enough bandwidth otherwise the servers are going to crash when the report comes out! 

[Shankster]

Hopefully MGS headquarters has enough bandwidth otherwise the servers are going to crash when the report comes out! 

I’m guessing that’s what the site upgrades were yesterday.

The world is about to go insane.

[cnosil]

2 minutes ago, Shankster said:

I’m guessing that’s what the site upgrades were yesterday.

The world is about to go insane.

 

I think I am more excited to read the comments......why didn't you test X;  I play this ball and it is the best ever, your test is wrong;  why didn't you test the ball at Y swing speed,  I am sure that the weather impacted the performance of the ball on the GC Quad;  etc.....

[Wedgie]

I think I am more excited to read the comments......why didn't you test X;  I play this ball and it is the best ever, your test is wrong;  why didn't you test the ball at Y swing speed,  I am sure that the weather impacted the performance of the ball on the GC Quad;  etc.....

Now that they used a robot everyone will complain they used a robot.

You just can’t win!


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[palvord]

Now that they used a robot everyone will complain they used a robot.

You just can’t win!


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Tomorrow is going to be so much fun reading the comments.

And, I’ll end up having to do real work tomorrow and have to wait to get home to enjoy.


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[Kanoito]

Please tell me it's VICE. I just bought a mix of 35 dozen Vice Pro and Pro+ 

[tony@CIC]

1 minute ago, Kanoito said:

Please tell me it's VICE. I just bought a mix of 35 dozen Vice Pro and Pro+ 

[MaxEntropy]

I just saw on Facebook.... 

Longest is DTC, shortest is one of the leaders in sales... 

 

[tony@CIC]

3 minutes ago, MaxEntropy said:

I just saw on Facebook.... 

Longest is DTC, shortest is one of the leaders in sales... 

 

Oh boy - somethings going to hit the fan tomorrow 

[MaxEntropy]

23 minutes ago, tony@CIC said:

Oh boy - somethings going to hit the fan tomorrow 

Yup. I'm assuming there will be criticisms of the methodology, analysis, etc. All the hallmarks of an important study. 

I can already envivion people saying things like "if you had used x or y club instead of z, the results would be different." 

[chisag]

2 hours ago, Wedgie said:

Now that they used a robot everyone will complain they used a robot.

You just can’t win!

 

 

... While I enjoy reading results of actual golfers in any test, having a small number of players at different swing speeds do not tell me much or anything really about how X-Product relates to me. 100mph driver swing speed from someone with a short hard hitting motion can be quite different than someone with a long smooth swinging motion. Maybe completely different AOA's, different ball flight, different spin as well as different shot shapes. And of course personal preference. As we all know looking down at a club that does not suit your eye can cause a less than ideal swing, just like a club that is beautiful at address can inspire confidence and a better swing. 

... A robot does none of the above so I am looking forward to the MGS final unbiased and purely analytical test results. 

[bens197]

24 minutes ago, MaxEntropy said:

Yup. I'm assuming there will be criticisms of the methodology, analysis, etc. All the hallmarks of an important study. 

I can already envivion people saying things like "if you had used x or y club instead of z, the results would be different." 

177 comments and counting on the same Instagram post. 

All the dissenters would be wise to remember these words by Daniel Patrick Moynihan...

“You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”