2021 MGS Ball Test

[Popeye64]

I've played Pro V1s for a long time, as they just work for me in every way possible. But it always hurt paying the premium price tag. 

Because of the Ball Test I realized how well the Maxfli Tour would fit me. So I bought a dozen. Now, not in a million years would I have ventured to a Maxfli on my own. 

I've been playing this ball in the Simulator all week and I am just blown away. Feel. Distance. Spin. Control. All at a great discount. Plus I'm smitten with the feel off of the putter face. 

Thank you for your work on the Ball Test. It opened my eyes to possibilities. 

[Dennis K]

Just reading all the comments on the Maxfli Tour X and how it scored in the MGS ball test plus the price I don’t know how you can’t at least try the ball. $60 for two dozen is just too hard to pass up. 

Edited December 27, 2021 by Dennis K

[fixyurdivot]

Now having poured over the Ball Lab results for the third time, what really stands out to me is that, well, no one ball really stands out as the best performing ball.  No surprise there right? The high swing speed tests seem to yield the best correlation between driver and iron distances, but less so on the mid and slow swing speed categories.  Given the relatively small spread in distance, ball speed, and spin results between most balls that made it onto the charts, one could argue we're picking the proverbial fly dung out of the pepper... 2 yards here, 200 rpm's there... could just be test condition variance.

Most of you know I'm not a ball snob (no negative connotation intended) and have had difficulty, during my many ball vs. ball tests using on course play, finding a ball that really stands out.

Having been a tester in 2019 for the Maxfli Tour and Tour X, I knew the Tour competed well against those I was most often playing; PV1 and CS primarily.  At its price point and particularly during specials (like 40% off), they most definitely are on my short list. I've also found the Z-Star, Vice Pro, and Snell MTB Black competitive in H2H matches.  All of these against one another and most frequently against the much heralded and heavily played ProV1.

My 93 mph driver swing speed has me sitting between the tests low and mid datasets and arguably smack dab in the middle of the total population player profile bellcurve.  So this charts suggests these are the "middle of the pack balls" for us "middle of the pack players"  ... agree or disagree?  

How did your preferred balls stack up to your swing speed data group?

 

 

 

 

 

[Thin2win]

Having now hit/tested many of the balls listed above, my biggest surprise was how little actual performance difference there is between them. Sure, on the far edges of the bell curve a couple do things different. But overall, a middle of the bell curve player can choose just about any ball and not see much change. 

[fixyurdivot]

I kept looking for it in the charts but it wasn't labeled with "all balls" selected.  While it earned the "most spiniest" award, look where it landed on all three swing speed charts. Clearly Team Kirkland is attempting to capture dead center of the bell-curve. The staff also mentioned it was one of the most consistent balls tested.

I picked up a box of these this past summer and they seem to fit right in with the mix.  Then I read the Ball Lab results and felt like I had made a mistake and should give them away on KP bets... maybe not .  Have your thoughts about the Kirkland +2.0 changed as a result of the test data?

[Thin2win]

2 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

I kept looking for it in the charts but it wasn't labeled with "all balls" selected.  While it earned the "most spiniest" award, look where it landed on all three swing speed charts. Clearly Team Kirkland is attempting to capture dead center of the bell-curve. The staff also mentioned it was one of the most consistent balls tested.

I picked up a box of these this past summer and they seem to fit right in with the mix.  Then I read the Ball Lab results and felt like I had made a mistake and should give them away on KP bets... maybe not .  Have your thoughts about the Kirkland +2.0 changed as a result of the test data?

Kirkland 2.0 is a good ball, it just doesn't fit very many people. It did well in ball lab, and in my testing it was right there with all the other balls on wedge and iron performance. I didn't see any crazy spin numbers. I think I'm robot testing MGS found the Kirkland to spin about 600 rpm more then average, for me it was spinning almost 1000rpm more then average. Which caused it to be almost 15 yards shorter on drives. 

2 years ago when I was hitting a high low spin draw for a drive it probably would have been great for me, I couldn't get a drive with more then 1700 rpm of backspin that time. It probably would have straightened out my shots and added a little carry. So if you are in that camp, it might be the best ball made. 

[cnosil]

4 hours ago, Thin2win said:

2 years ago when I was hitting a high low spin draw for a drive it probably would have been great for me, I couldn't get a drive with more then 1700 rpm of backspin that time. It probably would have straightened out my shots and added a little carry. So if you are in that camp, it might be the best ball made. 

Based on how I hit drivers during most wanted testing,  I need more spin so the Kirkland works pretty well for me.  

[cycleguy55]

Thanks for doing this - it's very interesting and insightful.

What I'd like to see now is a comparison of how the off-the-shelf balls compare to the 'same' balls played by tour players. What extra effort do Titleist, Bridgestone, Srixon, etc. go through to ensure the variances and inconsistencies are weeded out from the balls supplied to sponsored players?

[Thin2win]

22 minutes ago, cycleguy55 said:

Thanks for doing this - it's very interesting and insightful.

What I'd like to see now is a comparison of how the off-the-shelf balls compare to the 'same' balls played by tour players. What extra effort do Titleist, Bridgestone, Srixon, etc. go through to ensure the variances and inconsistencies are weeded out from the balls supplied to sponsored players?

I think this has been discussed a couple times, but I believe currently almost every tour player is using an off the shelf ball. A few years ago, there were more special blends. But I'm fairly confident that they are playing the same as you and me. 

[fixyurdivot]

9 hours ago, Thin2win said:

2 years ago when I was hitting a high low spin draw for a drive

What did you do with that ball flight?  Loved watching those turn back towards center.  A couple from Canada I played with this past Monday just ordered 4 boxes... not realizing they were 24 balls/pack .  They lost one between them and now are down to 95.  We joked that they'll have to keep a running tally and tell me how many remain before heading home.

When I get back home, I'm going to have to pay more attention to whether I see any loss in distance off the tee. The few rounds I played one, they seemed to be holding serve.

[Thin2win]

9 minutes ago, fixyurdivot said:

What did you do with that ball flight?  Loved watching those turn back towards center. .

Traded it in for a cut that I could hit more than 30% of fairways with

[Kenny B]

1 hour ago, Thin2win said:

Traded it in for a cut that I could hit more than 30% of fairways with

Awesome!!

[chisag]

On 9/17/2021 at 7:34 AM, KurtActual said:

I see the Maxfli Tour got glowing reviews. Is it not a GIANT redflag to anyone else that the Maxfli Tour X was the absolute worst ball on the list? Should they be treated so individually?

 

... One of the things I find interesting is I think most players do not fit in any 2021 MGS Golf Ball Test category. Pretty huge difference between drivers at SLOW and MEDIUM swing speeds. 

Maxfli Tour X:
Carry: 246 vs 199
Total:  284 vs 230

Maxfli Tour:
Carry: 252 vs 198
Total:  269 vs 229

... I think most probably fall in-between these two. You can extrapolate yardage by combining them and then dividing by 2 but as we see with different swing speeds the ball can react quite differently so this is not as accurate as a test with what I consider normal swing speeds for the majority. Since there is a 15 yd difference at high swing speeds between the Tour and Tour X and slow swing speeds are basically identical, I have to wonder what the difference would be at around 95mph swing speeds. 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

1 hour ago, chisag said:

 

... One of the things I find interesting is I think most players do not fit in any 2021 MGS Golf Ball Test category. Pretty huge difference between drivers at SLOW and MEDIUM swing speeds. 

Maxfli Tour X:
Carry: 246 vs 199
Total:  284 vs 230

Maxfli Tour:
Carry: 252 vs 198
Total:  269 vs 229

... I think most probably fall in-between these two. You can extrapolate yardage by combining them and then dividing by 2 but as we see with different swing speeds the ball can react quite differently so this is not as accurate as a test with what I consider normal swing speeds for the majority. Since there is a 15 yd difference at high swing speeds between the Tour and Tour X and slow swing speeds are basically identical, I have to wonder what the difference would be at around 95mph swing speeds. 

I noticed the same thing. The medium swing speed was at 100 mph and the slow was well below the average swing speed.  The average swing speed for men is 93.4 mph. Why wasn't the test done to represent the mid 90's driver swing speed as the medium? So there is a bunch of data, but what will the ball do for a mid 90's swing speed? I do appreciate all the work involved but the average speed should have been used to assist the majority in making a decision. 

[GolfSpy TCB]

On 1/1/2022 at 4:41 PM, Tom the Golf Nut said:

I noticed the same thing. The medium swing speed was at 100 mph and the slow was well below the average swing speed.  The average swing speed for men is 93.4 mph. Why wasn't the test done to represent the mid 90's driver swing speed as the medium? So there is a bunch of data, but what will the ball do for a mid 90's swing speed? I do appreciate all the work involved but the average speed should have been used to assist the majority in making a decision. 

Yup!  *Raises Hand*  I swing in between slow and medium according to the ball test.  I extracted the data, and created several "blends" of the results by averaging the two categories then combining in different ways (iron carry plus driver carry, iron carry plus driver total, iron total plus driver total, etc.)  A lot of work went into the testing... which is awesome and appreciated!  I just don't happen to fall into the categories tested... so it gives me some data, that I can use to go out and test the balls myself.   

[PMookie]

I’m so torn on what to try for 2022. Been pretty set on the idea of Z-Star, then I talked to the Srixon rep and he said XV would be better for me. I’ve been playing Pro V1X, but I need less spin off wedges since my spin went-up significantly when I changed to Edel SMS wedges. The 2021 Ball Test shows the XV as having great ball speed, but higher spin off driver (odd), Z-Star was longer (odd), and spin wasn’t THAT much different off the other clubs. Ugh. Oddly enough, TXG showed more spin off XV as well, which shouldn’t happen based on the ball’s design. May even look at Chrome Soft X LS. Sad thing is that Trackman can’t capture spin indoors accurately, so doing a “ball fitting” likely won’t help. Doing on-course takes SO long to really separate everything out since I have such an inconsistent swing. 
Anyway, after looking at the results for high swing speed, it’s a tough choice. 

[RickyBobby_PR]

Left dash gives you what you want from the prov1x and reduces spin around the green.

 

[GregGarner]

7 hours ago, PMookie said:

Oddly enough, TXG showed more spin off XV as well, which shouldn’t happen based on the ball’s design. May even look at Chrome Soft X LS.

XV should be higher-spinning than standard Z-Star on full swings, using a soft cover on top of a firmer mantle. Also of note, the X LS is not a low-spin ball. It's a low-spin version of the Chromesoft X, which is higher-spinning than standard Chromesoft. (X LS will spin more than standard Chromesoft.)

For some reason, Callaway has decided to muddy the waters across all product lines with their use of 'LS' -- see also: the Epic Max LS is generally higher-spinning than Epic Speed, but it is lower-spinning than the standard Epic Max. Thanks, Callaway...

[SlowNLow]

8 hours ago, PMookie said:

I’m so torn on what to try for 2022. Been pretty set on the idea of Z-Star, then I talked to the Srixon rep and he said XV would be better for me. I’ve been playing Pro V1X, but I need less spin off wedges since my spin went-up significantly when I changed to Edel SMS wedges. The 2021 Ball Test shows the XV as having great ball speed, but higher spin off driver (odd), Z-Star was longer (odd), and spin wasn’t THAT much different off the other clubs. Ugh. Oddly enough, TXG showed more spin off XV as well, which shouldn’t happen based on the ball’s design. May even look at Chrome Soft X LS. Sad thing is that Trackman can’t capture spin indoors accurately, so doing a “ball fitting” likely won’t help. Doing on-course takes SO long to really separate everything out since I have such an inconsistent swing. 
Anyway, after looking at the results for high swing speed, it’s a tough choice. 

Don't know if this will help.

[cycleguy55]

On 12/29/2021 at 5:10 PM, Thin2win said:

I think this has been discussed a couple times, but I believe currently almost every tour player is using an off the shelf ball. A few years ago, there were more special blends. But I'm fairly confident that they are playing the same as you and me. 

Off the shelf, maybe, but I suspect the shelves in the tour vans (or wherever they're pulled to supply tour players) don't have the same production variations found on the shelves of golf stores and pro shops at the local golf courses. 

[PMookie]

Doing another Titleist virtual ball fitting next week. Hoping they can send me a couple Left Dot!

[PMookie]

Texted the Titleist rep that did my last virtual fitting and he said it’s a no-go for Left Dot samples. Well, I’ll try some more Left Dash then. 

[RickyBobby_PR]

10 hours ago, PMookie said:

Texted the Titleist rep that did my last virtual fitting and he said it’s a no-go for Left Dot samples. Well, I’ll try some more Left Dash then. 

The new avx might be a good test if you are interested in the left dot. Based on the design it’s added some spin and the left dot was in between the Prov1 and the avx original version and they’ve now added some green side spin in the last two releases.  

[mikeanthony]

Spent some time this morning thinking back on the golf balls I have played over the past 2-3 years … and after some thought & review of the ball lab results and the golf balls put into play, I’ve realized that my sweet spot is a golf ball at/around the 90 compression range. Additionally, for me, my short game is my strongest suit and my preference is a ball with strong greenside performance with a soft feel. 

There was a Father’s Day deal on Srixons that I purchased 2-3 years ago and it was their Z-Star and XV line, and I absolutely did not like either of them at all. They simply did not agree with my swing and style of play … quickly regretted the purchase. The ball’s compression, 81 and 96 respectively. 

Bridgestone has had box sales in the past and same thing, purchased their Tour B RXS … again, wasn’t all too pleased with them, compression 71. 

Callaway’s Chrome Soft (I’ll find them on the course and play them) … wayyy too soft and mushy. 

Snell’s Blacks and ProV1s have always been the most consistent for my swing, style of play and greenside performance. My two best rounds over the past 4 years have been a pair of 79s and both rounds were with Snells. 

With the amount of golf I play, I’m always trying to find ways to save money on golf balls. And only now am I finding myself being slightly idiotic in complaining that I’m only able to buy 2 dozen Snells at a time at $35, which is still $10-$15 cheaper than premium golf balls from other OEMs!  

Additionally, I love my new G425 irons and realized that I haven’t yet played a single round with the Snells … going to buy 2 boxes this week. Been gaming the Vice Pro Plus, and they’ve performed well … but as we all know and can attest to, golf is a game of confidence and comfort with our clubs and ball in play. 

Yet I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t mention that I may just stop being a cheap arse for once and may buy a dozen of the TP5s. Have read that they have a bit of lower ball flight, as I am a high ball fade hitter. 

All this rambling is to say, if you find a ball that suits you, stick with it. 

Edited April 17, 2022 by mikeanthony

[chisag]

9 minutes ago, mikeanthony said:

Yet I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t mention that I may just stop being a cheap arse for once and may buy a dozen of the TP5s. Have read that they have a bit of lower ball flight, as I am a high ball fade hitter.

 

... Well, before you jump off the frugal bandwagon I would highly recommend you try a couple dozen Maxfli Tour balls at $34.99 and on sale at $60 for 2 dozen or the killer bargain of 4 dozen for $104.98. I find them very similar to my TP5's in most every way, just near 1/2 the price. Like you, I play 5 times a week starting every round with a new ball and the cost of balls can add up quickly. The said, I will not sacrifice performance for price and the '22 Maxfli Tours are as good as any ball I have played. 

[mikeanthony]

2 hours ago, chisag said:

 

... Well, before you jump off the frugal bandwagon I would highly recommend you try a couple dozen Maxfli Tour balls at $34.99 and on sale at $60 for 2 dozen or the killer bargain of 4 dozen for $104.98. I find them very similar to my TP5's in most every way, just near 1/2 the price. Like you, I play 5 times a week starting every round with a new ball and the cost of balls can add up quickly. The said, I will not sacrifice performance for price and the '22 Maxfli Tours are as good as any ball I have played. 

Yessir. Bought those last summer as well and came away very impressed with them. Commented and contributed to the official review thread from last year.

They’re def a nice fallback option as well, especially when you can pick them up at a nearby DSG store. 

[GregGarner]

7 hours ago, mikeanthony said:

Yet I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t mention that I may just stop being a cheap arse for once and may buy a dozen of the TP5s. Have read that they have a bit of lower ball flight, as I am a high ball fade hitter.

I've got some current-version TP5s I'd like to sell if you're interested

I feel you on finding a ball that you like and just sticking with it. I've got 3 doz ProV1s and 4 doz Maxfli Tour CGs that should last me thru the season. (ProV1 for comps and Maxfli for practice. I legit cannot tell them apart except for in windy conditions)

[mikeanthony]

On 4/17/2022 at 7:11 PM, greggarner said:

I've got some current-version TP5s I'd like to sell if you're interested

I feel you on finding a ball that you like and just sticking with it. I've got 3 doz ProV1s and 4 doz Maxfli Tour CGs that should last me thru the season. (ProV1 for comps and Maxfli for practice. I legit cannot tell them apart except for in windy conditions)

I'd def be interested, but shipping would be a bit pricey on a dozen or two just on weight alone ... would it still be cheaper than buying a dozen at DGS?

[Harpua728]

Any ball tests for putting? Putting and feel is so subjective, but I was just curious. 

[cnosil]

47 minutes ago, Harpua728 said:

Any ball tests for putting? Putting and feel is so subjective, but I was just curious. 

What aspect of the ball do you want to test, spin really isn't relevant and ball speed differences would be very slight.  Since feel is subjective, how do you measure it in a way that means the same thing to everyone?  In my opinion, with putting the club is more significant than the ball.