2020 Official Member Review: Top Flite Gamer Golf Balls

[Wedgie 5,064]

1 hour ago, Bohnson said:

I finished my initial observations from last week. On the back nine I played a match play event between the Srixon ZStar XV and the Gamer. Results: The Gamer won 3 holes (12, 15, 16) to the ZStar's 1 (18). I played well and no holes were given so this was a fun match. I was consistently longer off of the tee with the Srixon on this day. 

Observations from a 15MPH wind: 

The Srixon flew further on this day leading me to assume the Gamer may be effected by the wind more. The Gamer was shorter when the wind was hitting it compared to the first day I used it without wind and it seemed longer. Greenside spin was negligible as was putting firmness...I have an Odyssey #9 (soft insert). I think the Topflite reminds me of a Callaway chromesoft with the cover. Speaking of cover, it holds up really well as evidence from the attached pictures. The cover did not have any marks that would lead me to believe it would effect performance compared to a couple on the ZStar. 

For what it's worth as a Gamer gamer I have yet to find a ball that is longer off the tee for me than the Srixon XV. The problems I have with that ball is I lose yardage from about the 7 iron down and for whatever reason I cannot putt to save my life with it.

[Tom the Golf Nut 3,721]

4 hours ago, JohnSmalls said:

Great work so far fellas.  I may have missed this, how is the Gamer performing on knock down shots and half wedges?  What about chipping around the green?  Are you seeing any difference in spin in partial shots compared to a urethane ball?

So far the ball is doing well on half wedge shots, chipping around the green and bunkers. Actually very well. I haven't check the spin rates yet. I didn't want that information in my head. I wanted to play and test it just like I would play normally.  As an example if I have 100 yards in and that's a full swing with my gap wedge, will the Gamer be long? The ball is supposed to be longer. So far it is holding up identical to the Pro V1. It is not longer for me, but it's also not shorter. I will post more test results tomorrow. I have the driver test complete, the 160 yard test, and 27 holes of golf with the same two balls so far ( A Pro V1 and a Gamer)  No spoilers.. To be continued tomorrow!  No lost balls so far so you can see durability results. 

[DJ Mico 41]

8 hours ago, JohnSmalls said:

Great work so far fellas.  I may have missed this, how is the Gamer performing on knock down shots and half wedges?  What about chipping around the green?  Are you seeing any difference in spin in partial shots compared to a urethane ball?

For me, the Gamer is performing similar to the other balls in the bag in all those respects. I feel like the Gamer spins less and doesn't grab onto the club like my urethane balls, but it doesn't perform any different in terms of how much it releases or holds on the green for me. If I expect the ball to run, it runs. If I played for the ball to stop, it did. Unfortunately, I don't own a launch monitor to do any statistical comparisons.

The feel of the ball while chipping is a bit different than any other ball in my bag. While balls like the ProV1x, Tour BX, TP5x, Chrome Soft X, etc. feel firm, they usually feel soft on the cover, but then you get a firm feeling from the core. With the Gamer the cover feels firm at first, but then the core has a softer feel.

[DJ Mico 41]

7 hours ago, Wedgie said:

I have witnessed what seems like the ball straightens out in flight.  Mostly see this in wind. Have you or any of the others seen this?

Interesting. I played in the rain and wind and didn't notice this at all. I was very satisfied with the Gamer. My mishits were still really bad hooks and slices, but the ball still faded and drew when I wanted it to, and I was able to let the wind take it left or right.

[Tom the Golf Nut 3,721]

 

Next test was on to the Driver. So the claim is that these are longer than the ProV1’s. I went out on to hole #5 and hit six drives. Three Gamer’s and three ProV1’s. I am pretty consistent with my driver. All six balls were in the fairway just right of center (fairway slopes from left to right on this hole). You have to hit just left of center in order for the ball not to roll off the fairway.  I did not see any increased in distance from the Gamer. But I could have dropped a 10 by 10 tarp and covered five of the six. The sixth one rolled more right due to the slope. The Gamers were not longer but were not shorter either! I was actually impressed with myself on this test. I’m usually in the fairway with the driver but for them all to be that close was just nuts. The golf gods were shining on me for this one. There only were two  discernable differences between the two model balls. One was the  was the sound at impact. The Gamer was more of a twack than a ping. But that is due to the compression difference. The Gamer is about 85 and the Pro V1 around 100. I didn’t mind the difference in sound but I thought it would be worth mentioning. Another thing to note was that the Gamer does launch higher. The dimple pattern on the ball does create more lift as stated by the manufacturer. So between the Pro V1 being more of a penetration flight with 100 compression and the softer compression on the Gamer with a more lifting dimple pattern the distance worked out to being the same for me. The claims are that the dimple in dimple design enhances carry distance. Well maybe it does as this is a softer compression than the ProV1 but they equaled out in my distance test.

During actual course play while using the driver 27 holes so far I did not see any distance gain compared to the Pro V1. My driver is typically straight with a very slight fade. The flight pattern was the same between the two models. I was not even concerned on tight holes. The below picture is from hole #9 a par 5. The drive is critical, a tight fairway that requires a drive to fade about 20 yards after getting through the chute in order to get away from trees on the left to even have a shot at getting to the green in two. The second shot is even worse than the drive. Anything short right is a lost ball. Definitely a risk reward hole. Back to the ball.... The Gamer did what I asked it to do. It went straight and faded back to the center of the fairway.

So I can say this so far. If you already hit a high ball then this ball is probably not for you. Anyone looking for a little more height should give this consideration. I personally like the feel of a slightly softer ball and this ball feels very good to me. 

[russtopherb 6,279]

Great input so far everyone. I'm someone who's height challenged at times, especially on approach shots. I loved the v2 version of this ball, so this is high on my list to check out this spring based on the feedback so far.

[Jackal 149]

I didn't take any pictures, but with just some quick putting comparisons, the gamer seemed to have a 'click' at impact with putting.

With some chipping around the green it had more roll-out than the other balls.

Balls we compared to were : Prov1, Chrome soft, TP5, and Callaway Superhot.

When putting both up & down hill, the Gamer rolled farther with the same\ similar strikes.

Putting, it was similar to the TP5x.

When we get some warmer & dryer days, we will get some pics and distance tests.

My parter for testing is my 17 year old son.

He is a 2 hcp golfer, with a 124mph swing speed with driver.

I hope y'all don't mind a 2 for 1 testing.

Updates coming soon.

 

(NOTE: This particular day was 40° F and was very humid\ wet feeling.)

Edited December 17, 2020 by Jackal

[pazman 8]

Excellent reviews so far guys, got me so excited I splurged before Christmas and bought a box of the Gamers, stupid impulse buying that I'm prone to do! As the golf courses here are buried under a foot of snow I haven't been out to the course with them yet but we'll head south shortly after Christmas to play a few rounds. Until then it looks like just the indoor golf simulator to try them out. I'm excited to see if they do as well as everyone seems to be reporting. Keep up the good work!

[Tom the Golf Nut 3,721]

Mid range test I set up to play four balls on two different par threes at 160 yards requiring a six or seven iron. I used two of each brand ball. The Pro V1 and the Gamer. The only difference between the two par three's was elevation. One uphill requiring the six and one level so I used the seven iron.  No distance difference between any of them. My accuracy isn’t the best at that distance but all four were on the green right about the same distance just left or right of the pin. All balls hit and rolled out about 2 to three feet. So the consistency is still similar in distance and stopping between the models. The only difference was the Gamer had a higher ball flight. I believe this is what helps the ball stop similar to the V1's even though the V1's have a higher spin rate.

On to the putting green. Same six balls. The feel comparing to the two models was similar but not identical. The ProV1 at 100 compression and the Gamer at 85 felt similar off the club face. The sound was different but not by much. The Gamer was a little bit more of a click that you would get from a firmer ball. Distance on putts was very close with the Gamer being maybe a few inches longer. I even mixed the balls up so I just putted what was in front of me. No discernable difference in length.  I set up for 10 and 20 footers. I made two out of three for each location the others were tap in’s. Downhill was the 20 foot putts and side hill was 10 foot. I do put a line on my balls for putting and lining up on the tee box. I wanted to take the human factor out on distance for the putting so I set up a stimpmeter and rolled three Gamers and three Pro V1's for two rounds. All six balls were within 10" of each other both rounds. There was no pattern, meaning all the Gamers weren't longer or shorter than the V1"s. It was an even mix. With this added information I would say that in roll they are the same. Dimple pattern did not effect roll distance. Rebound off the putter face due to the balls cover would be the only difference for feel and sound. But I don't think there is much ball compression in putting. If there is, that means you are putting from to far away and you need to work on your iron game to get closer to the pin.  I did not see much difference at all in putting other than the sound. I use an Odyssey Marksman Fang which is an insert type.

Next up will be sand play with ball durability and course play information with ball durability. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

[Tom the Golf Nut 3,721]

Sand Play,  During my second full round of golf. I dropped a second ball in the sand trap next to the green and one fairway bunker. I got 10 shots on the same ball during the test. Once theball was washed it looked almost new again. There was one spot that was a little rougher than the rest of the ball, but you really had to look for it. See photo

Now for the ball I was using for all tests and two rounds of golf. This ball has about 200 hits on it. Two rounds of golf, gap and PW testing, 160 yard testing, driver and putting testing and a couple of sand shots from course play. Once cleaned up the only thing I could find is this one very slight impression line. No scuffs, paint loss or anything else you would typically see.  I did skull a 56 degree once and I'm sure that's where the line came from. The Pro V1 that I was testing this ball against did not hold up as well.

My course only has cart paths by the tee box's and by the greens on most holes. I havent hit a cart path yet to see how the bal holds up to that.

So for durability the Top Flight Gamer with its ionomer cover holds up much better than the balls that it is trying to compete against using urethane.

On Course Performance,  I only have two full rounds completed so far. The hardest part of testing so far is getting over the fact that I am intentionally teeing up a Top Flight!  Back to the results! So the first round was side by side comparison. I alternated shots so one ball was not benefiting from always getting the experienced guy taking the second shot. I did not find that one ball was better than the other for scoring. I wanted to see more but I didn't. The differences were so slight that I couldn't put my finger on one thing or another. Maybe just the sound between the two. Plus you add in that there is the human factor and I'm not a testing robot.

Once that first round was completed I just played the second round with the Gamer. Its a little cooler these days so there is an extra layer of clothing involved. On the Gamer only round I shot a 71. I didn't have to make any adjustments to my game.  What I mean by this is, I didnt have too compensate for additional roll out or use a different club. I just played golf. I'll see how the weather will be tomorrow but I do have a round scheduled for Wednesday because it will be mid 50's before another cold front comes in. I have another single digit player with me on Wednesday. He agreed to play the Gamer as well. So I will get his opinion. We are pretty competitive with each other so this should be fun.

[Tom D. 388]

On 12/15/2020 at 4:13 PM, Tom the Golf Nut said:

So far the ball is doing well on half wedge shots, chipping around the green and bunkers. Actually very well. I haven't check the spin rates yet. I didn't want that information in my head. I wanted to play and test it just like I would play normally.  As an example if I have 100 yards in and that's a full swing with my gap wedge, will the Gamer be long? The ball is supposed to be longer. So far it is holding up identical to the Pro V1. It is not longer for me, but it's also not shorter. I will post more test results tomorrow. I have the driver test complete, the 160 yard test, and 27 holes of golf with the same two balls so far ( A Pro V1 and a Gamer)  No spoilers.. To be continued tomorrow!  No lost balls so far so you can see durability results. 

No Spoilers, but sounds like it is at least keeping up in most respects.  Love the level of detail you are giving and the various aspects of testing you are putting it through -- well done !

I noted in your signature, that we are the same in having regular flex shafts in everything else, with stiff shafts in our irons.  I was fitted for my irons, and went in thinking I would get the MMT 70 Reg flex, but the fitter said I have a quick transition, and the 80 Stiffs worked better for me.

Edited December 20, 2020 by Tom D.
addition

[Tom D. 388]

On 12/15/2020 at 8:29 PM, DJ Mico said:

For me, the Gamer is performing similar to the other balls in the bag in all those respects. I feel like the Gamer spins less and doesn't grab onto the club like my urethane balls, but it doesn't perform any different in terms of how much it releases or holds on the green for me. If I expect the ball to run, it runs. If I played for the ball to stop, it did. Unfortunately, I don't own a launch monitor to do any statistical comparisons.

The feel of the ball while chipping is a bit different than any other ball in my bag. While balls like the ProV1x, Tour BX, TP5x, Chrome Soft X, etc. feel firm, they usually feel soft on the cover, but then you get a firm feeling from the core. With the Gamer the cover feels firm at first, but then the core has a softer feel.

That is an interesting juxtaposition.

[Tom D. 388]

On 12/17/2020 at 6:57 AM, Jackal said:

I didn't take any pictures, but with just some quick putting comparisons, the gamer seemed to have a 'click' at impact with putting.

With some chipping around the green it had more roll-out than the other balls.

Balls we compared to were : Prov1, Chrome soft, TP5, and Callaway Superhot.

When putting both up & down hill, the Gamer rolled farther with the same\ similar strikes.

Putting, it was similar to the TP5x.

When we get some warmer & dryer days, we will get some pics and distance tests.

My parter for testing is my 17 year old son.

He is a 2 hcp golfer, with a 124mph swing speed with driver.

I hope y'all don't mind a 2 for 1 testing.

Updates coming soon.

 

(NOTE: This particular day was 40° F and was very humid\ wet feeling.)

Just can't beat two-for-the-price-of-one !

[fozcycle 12,747]

A few years ago I tested the new Vice Pro Soft. I played 8 holes with 4 balls(Vice, Titleist, Calloway & Wilson). I measured the drives for distance and in fairway. I measured approaches to the pin. I measured putts made. It took an entire afternoon but the data came away with Vice as best for me. I had a lot of fun that day.


Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

[Tom the Golf Nut 3,721]

13 hours ago, Tom D. said:

No Spoilers, but sounds like it is at least keeping up in most respects.  Love the level of detail you are giving and the various aspects of testing you are putting it through -- well done !

I noted in your signature, that we are the same in having regular flex shafts in everything else, with stiff shafts in our irons.  I was fitted for my irons, and went in thinking I would get the MMT 70 Reg flex, but the fitter said I have a quick transition, and the 80 Stiffs worked better for me.

Thank you, I try to do a good evaluation. 

I don't quite understand how I can be fit differently either. My driver is a soft regular, which is basically a senior flex. Then transition to regular in fairway woods then stiff in irons. But the important thing is it works for me. I hit everything straight. Well except for my three wood. Its either straight or a 10 to 15 yard fade at the end. I'm trying to figure that out.

[fixyurdivot 10,896]

17 hours ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

Sand Play,  During my second full round of golf. I dropped a second ball in the sand trap next to the green and one fairway bunker. I got 10 shots on the same ball during the test. Once theball was washed it looked almost new again. There was one spot that was a little rougher than the rest of the ball, but you really had to look for it. See photo

Now for the ball I was using for all tests and two rounds of golf. This ball has about 200 hits on it. Two rounds of golf, gap and PW testing, 160 yard testing, driver and putting testing and a couple of sand shots from course play. Once cleaned up the only thing I could find is this one very slight impression line. No scuffs, paint loss or anything else you would typically see.  I did skull a 56 degree once and I'm sure that's where the line came from. The Pro V1 that I was testing this ball against did not hold up as well.

My course only has cart paths by the tee box's and by the greens on most holes. I havent hit a cart path yet to see how the bal holds up to that.

So for durability the Top Flight Gamer with its ionomer cover holds up much better than the balls that it is trying to compete against using urethane.

On Course Performance,  I only have two full rounds completed so far. The hardest part of testing so far is getting over the fact that I am intentionally teeing up a Top Flight!  Back to the results! So the first round was side by side comparison. I alternated shots so one ball was not benefiting from always getting the experienced guy taking the second shot. I did not find that one ball was better than the other for scoring. I wanted to see more but I didn't. The differences were so slight that I couldn't put my finger on one thing or another. Maybe just the sound between the two. Plus you add in that there is the human factor and I'm not a testing robot.

Once that first round was completed I just played the second round with the Gamer. Its a little cooler these days so there is an extra layer of clothing involved. On the Gamer only round I shot a 71. I didn't have to make any adjustments to my game.  What I mean by this is, I didnt have too compensate for additional roll out or use a different club. I just played golf. I'll see how the weather will be tomorrow but I do have a round scheduled for Wednesday because it will be mid 50's before another cold front comes in. I have another single digit player with me on Wednesday. He agreed to play the Gamer as well. So I will get his opinion. We are pretty competitive with each other so this should be fun.

Good review Tom! I'm just noticing these have the dimple in the dimple pattern much like the B RX.  Apparently this is not a patented design?  This is from the Bridgestone website.  This is fodder for the Computational Fluid Dynamists amongst us .

[Tom the Golf Nut 3,721]

Played another 18 today with the same ball. Still holding up well for durability. Glad I haven't lost it yet! It was overcast and in the lower forty's when I played this morning. So far out of all the play and testing, today was my negative day. With the cold temperature the Top Flight Gamer felt like the old top rocks!  It felt hard and sounded hard. Distance was shorter with every club today. So in order to qualify this I had fo test it against the Pro V1, Pro V1x and a TaylorMade TP5.  These balls maintained their normal distance for me. So on hole 11 I teed up the four balls. The results were that the V1 and TP5 was about 15 yards longer. The Pro V1x was about 20 yards longer. On hole 18 I tried to rip one with the Gamer.  By putting my all into it I got back to the compression feel and sound of when it was warmer out but still was about 10 yards shorter than where I normaly play my approach shot from.  It was cold air and three layers of clothing. I don't normally play under 45 degrees but it wasnt just me. I also had 145 yards into hole # 13. This is inbetween a 9 iron and an 8 iron for me. I hit the PV1 first and was center of the green with the 8 iron. Then hit the Gamer and was just short of the green by about a foot. Comparing the balls made me feel more comfortable in giving a negative for playing this ball in cold conditions.

It will be in the upper 50's on Wednesday and I'll see if performance goes back to normal.

[Tom D. 388]

11 hours ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

Thank you, I try to do a good evaluation. 

I don't quite understand how I can be fit differently either. My driver is a soft regular, which is basically a senior flex. Then transition to regular in fairway woods then stiff in irons. But the important thing is it works for me. I hit everything straight. Well except for my three wood. Its either straight or a 10 to 15 yard fade at the end. I'm trying to figure that out.

I think most of us would give up some body part to be able to say they hit everything straight with the exception of a 10-15 yard fade on our 3 wood ! 

I can come up with a couple of extraneous organs to go toward that cause

The email sent out this morning from MGS about LPGA WITB matching better for most average male golfers than the PGA tour bags, was quite interesting.  Brooke Henderson has regular flex shafts in her fairway woods and hybrids, and stiff shafts in her irons (just like us - except we're not winning any $ on a golf tour).

[DJ Mico 41]

9 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

Good review Tom! I'm just noticing these have the dimple in the dimple pattern much like the B RX.  Apparently this is not a patented design?  This is from the Bridgestone website.  This is fodder for the Computational Fluid Dynamists amongst us .

I noticed the dual dimples as well. My usual ball is the Tour B X, so I don't mind the double dimples on the Gamer. I have noticed reviews on the Gamer around the web saying the dimples are weird or distracting, but they do not bother me.

Based on my research, it appears that Callaway has a patent to the double dimple design. https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=07250012&PageNum=1&&IDKey=2B661A64BB7F&HomeUrl=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2%26Sect2=HITOFF%26p=1%26u=%252Fnetahtml%252FPTO%252Fsearch-bool.html%26r=2%26f=G%26l=50%26co1=AND%26d=PTXT%26s1=11%252F554,184%26OS=11/554,184%26RS=11/554,184

[Wedgie 5,064]

Played another 18 today with the same ball. Still holding up well for durability. Glad I haven't lost it yet! It was overcast and in the lower forty's when I played this morning. So far out of all the play and testing, today was my negative day. With the cold temperature the Top Flight Gamer felt like the old top rocks!  It felt hard and sounded hard. Distance was shorter with every club today. So in order to qualify this I had fo test it against the Pro V1, Pro V1x and a TaylorMade TP5.  These balls maintained their normal distance for me. So on hole 11 I teed up the four balls. The results were that the V1 and TP5 was about 15 yards longer. The Pro V1x was about 20 yards longer. On hole 18 I tried to rip one with the Gamer.  By putting my all into it I got back to the compression feel and sound of when it was warmer out but still was about 10 yards shorter than where I normaly play my approach shot from.  It was cold air and three layers of clothing. I don't normally play under 45 degrees but it wasnt just me. I also had 145 yards into hole # 13. This is inbetween a 9 iron and an 8 iron for me. I hit the PV1 first and was center of the green with the 8 iron. Then hit the Gamer and was just short of the green by about a foot. Comparing the balls made me feel more comfortable in giving a negative for playing this ball in cold conditions.
It will be in the upper 50's on Wednesday and I'll see if performance goes back to normal.

I noticed a loss in distance in cold weather with the Gamer as well. I switched to the Top Flite Hammer Control and got it all back. Is it bad when your summer and winter balls are both Top Flites?


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