MyGolfSpy 2023 Golf Ball Test!!!

[chisag]

10 minutes ago, cnosil said:

In my opinion and also what Tony indicated on today's No Putts Given.    Use your ball as a baseline and try to determine what you need to change.  If you need more spin around the green, look at balls that spin more with the short irons than your baseline.  If you want more distance,  look at the balls with more distance.  it is really a trial and error type of approach;  there isn't a single answer for anyone.  

 

... I play with plenty of high index golfers that especially here in the desert, just bump and run everything around the green. Not a bad play as there is less margin for error but chipping with a 7 iron just off the front of the green to a back pin where the ball will be rolling for 90% of the distance it doesn't really matter if you are playing a ProV1 or a Duo Soft. 

[tdc1]

16 minutes ago, cnosil said:

In my opinion and also what Tony indicated on today's No Putts Given.    Use your ball as a baseline and try to determine what you need to change.  If you need more spin around the green, look at balls that spin more with the short irons than your baseline.  If you want more distance,  look at the balls with more distance.  it is really a trial and error type of approach;  there isn't a single answer for anyone.  

I agree.  Listened to the podcast a little while ago.  But it would be sooooooo much easier if some wizard could just look at me and give me the answer!

[chisag]

2 minutes ago, tdc1 said:

I agree.  Listened to the podcast a little while ago.  But it would be sooooooo much easier if some wizard could just look at me and give me the answer!

 

... And your wish has been granted!

 

 

[Stanrock22]

SEED balls

[JohnnyO3478]

4 hours ago, mbrodeur86 said:

Oh really? I'll have to check. What swing speed are you playing at? I'm in between high and mid (closer to mid)

I'm between slow and mid. Closer to slow.

[JohnnyO3478]

4 hours ago, mbrodeur86 said:

 

Wilson Staff Buy 2 get 1 Free

 

https://www.wilson.com/en-us/product/staff-model-golf-balls-wg20001?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=sm|stat|prosp&utm_campaign=asc&cmpid=sm|stat|prosp|fb|asc||||wil|golf|brand|sm-b2g1-balls-img-a&fbclid=IwAR3Wwatg7cMeP0R6LmbDsgdcSLiwHy4NmzsAsJEinPjQiBWHMVLyXVde_hQ_aem_AU2t5sy3T4jelkJEeb-wLHv648TdjMSBXIYFrI5ENrNVoPO1hwV9sKlW258yQW_Ckcdp234GOUIgMbg6YiQdZdo1#colorsteamname=55928

Edited August 31, 2023 by JohnnyO3478

[cnosil]

56 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... I play with plenty of high index golfers that especially here in the desert, just bump and run everything around the green. Not a bad play as there is less margin for error but chipping with a 7 iron just off the front of the green to a back pin where the ball will be rolling for 90% of the distance it doesn't really matter if you are playing a ProV1 or a Duo Soft. 

A wise man once said the above. 

[GolfSpy_BEN]

The ball test has confirmed that the Maxfli Tour X and the Callaway Chromesoft X LS still work for my combination of swing speeds, which I already knew. But it also has me intrigued by the Bridgestone B XS. The last Bridgestone ball I gamed was a B330, so I’m probably due to give them another go

[RITZ]

8 hours ago, StrokerAce said:

just for fun I'd like to see them test balls marketed as "straight" - Polara, Maxfli StraightFli, etc. (I realize the Polara is illegal, but just for fun)

Along with the above suggested golf balls ,..I have pitched this here before (pun intended) please do some kind of a test of the MG Senior golf ball. Longer off the tee with driver or their phony advertising hype?  Thank you

[mbrodeur86]

8 hours ago, Ben Joest said:

The ball test has confirmed that the Maxfli Tour X and the Callaway Chromesoft X LS still work for my combination of swing speeds, which I already knew. But it also has me intrigued by the Bridgestone B XS. The last Bridgestone ball I gamed was a B330, so I’m probably due to give them another go

Curious what your ss is. I didn't see the post Johnny put up until this morning and last night I bought the Chrome soft X LS triple track. I wanted a little less spin than the Pro V1 and a little more distance. My ball speed sits around 155 avg. I'm a +2 AOA too

[GolfSpy_BEN]

30 minutes ago, mbrodeur86 said:

Curious what your ss is. I didn't see the post Johnny put up until this morning and last night I bought the Chrome soft X LS triple track. I wanted a little less spin than the Pro V1 and a little more distance. My ball speed sits around 155 avg. I'm a +2 AOA too

Mid iron ave 86-88

Driver ave 106-108

[mbrodeur86]

Just now, Ben Joest said:

Mid iron ave 86-88

Driver ave 106-108

Yeah that's pretty much my numbers give or take. How does the LS react when you hit it into a green? I'm usually short to the flag so I like a hit and roll of about 10-15 feet. 

[drb1956]

11 hours ago, cnosil said:

In my opinion and also what Tony indicated on today's No Putts Given.    Use your ball as a baseline and try to determine what you need to change.  If you need more spin around the green, look at balls that spin more with the short irons than your baseline.  If you want more distance,  look at the balls with more distance.  it is really a trial and error type of approach;  there isn't a single answer for anyone.  

Exactly! That is what I do. I am a high capper, and change the golf ball in my bag from time to time. I play a ball for a certain time,say 4-6 rounds, and determine if this ball is helping me. If not, on to the next choice. I take my time choosing. I read the mfg's. take on the ball, and then read reviews. Right now playing a ball that I have played before, and feel comfortable with this ball, as I am not playing a lot at this time. Been at least a month since I last played. Will be playing a round in a couple of weeks, and this ball will help me stay in the fairway, for the most part. No expectations for my round, just to have some fun on the course...

[Middler]

What a great resource, though it hasn’t changed what I play for this year. Maxfli Tour mostly, Titleist ProV1 on special occasions - about 3:1. I just tried Snell MTB and MTBX again, used to be my go to ball, but Maxfli Tour is as good or better IME.

As a strictly anecdotal aside of the 20 plus guys I play with regularly, Titleist is most popular among better players, Callaway among mid-high handicappers. Then Bridgestone. A few of us play Maxfli (me), Vice, Srixon. For whatever reason no one plays TaylorMade or Kirkland consistently. A fair number of the guys play found balls, some selectively, some whatever they find…

[russtopherb]

On the topic of dispersion, I think there's just too many variables to accurately test that in a situation like this. Is the dispersion because you're always coming in with an open/closed face? Are you OTT or way to in/out? Do you always miss heel or toe? All of those are factors I would think, and trying all of that in a testing environment would be more difficult than just using the Iron Byron to measure distance, spin, peak height, etc so everything is consistent across the board.

[Tsecor]

While i wish i had seen the Left Dot in this test, i was shocked to see how well the V1X did across the board....longer than left dash at mid swing and fast speeds.......if you are a titleist player and swing in the mid range, only two balls in thier lineup exceed 400 yards on a driver and mid iron.....Left dash and V1x...

I was disappointed in the V1 in comparison as Titleist has claimed to incorporate some left dot technology but I feel they missed the mark.....Finau left the V1 to go back to the left dot....

 

i have to test the V1x on the course.....

[Just_the_Chip]

14 hours ago, tdc1 said:

I agree.  Listened to the podcast a little while ago.  But it would be sooooooo much easier if some wizard could just look at me and give me the answer!

I honestly wish the same. This is really the first year of golf for me in many different respects, especially around game improvement. When I went in for a club fitting, I was sort of shocked that they asked a bunch of, what am I looking for questions. I just wanted to say, I have no idea what even to look for. I was hoping someone would watch me hack a way a little bit, and just hand me a club and say these are yours, go and get better. Same concept with a Golf Ball.  

On the podcast, I really took to the idea of just finding one ball, and using that one ball to establish a baseline. Is this ball too hard, too soft, does it sound funny? Do I hate the way it clicks off the putter or squish into the driver? and then go from there.  I've been using a Vice Pro, and I switched to a Callaway Chromesoft recently and so far have enjoyed it. So I'm going to stick with Chromesoft for a while, and hopefully work it in from there. But I agree that it would be nice to have someone look and say, "you know you'd get more distance and control, with similar feel if you switch to XXXXX"

[Tsecor]

1 minute ago, Shakeyfly said:

I honestly wish the same. This is really the first year of golf for me in many different respects, especially around game improvement. When I went in for a club fitting, I was sort of shocked that they asked a bunch of, what am I looking for questions. I just wanted to say, I have no idea what even to look for. I was hoping someone would watch me hack a way a little bit, and just hand me a club and say these are yours, go and get better. Same concept with a Golf Ball.  

On the podcast, I really took to the idea of just finding one ball, and using that one ball to establish a baseline. Is this ball too hard, too soft, does it sound funny? Do I hate the way it clicks off the putter or squish into the driver? and then go from there.  I've been using a Vice Pro, and I switched to a Callaway Chromesoft recently and so far have enjoyed it. So I'm going to stick with Chromesoft for a while, and hopefully work it in from there. But I agree that it would be nice to have someone look and say, "you know you'd get more distance and control, with similar feel if you switch to XXXXX"

chromesoft is a very under rated ball.....it does everything well.....switching balls to something "better" may not result in better scoring.....its rare a switch results in you actually SCORING Better.....thats the ultimate goal is to score better....not gain 2 yards of distance off the driver....

[PMookie]

For those that have their own data from Trackman, Ballnamic is a good resource to use for comparisons between balls. I’ve enjoyed my move to the recommended AVX from V1X and Z Star. Been exactly what I was looking for. 

[Preeway]

I’ve been golfing for over 30 years and played a wide variety balls over that time. In my opinion the best way to choose a ball comes down to

1. How does it feel off the club face/putter

2. Do I get the spin I want on approach shots/around the greens. 

3. Carry distance

4. Cost relative to other balls with similar performance 

I don’t put distance at the top because it’s really hard to judge distance comparisons in a real golf setting versus a testing setting with so many uncontrolled variables on each hole. But I can play three different balls over 18 holes and get a good comparison 6 holes at a time with spin and overall feel. 

[JohnnyO3478]

5 minutes ago, Shakeyfly said:

I honestly wish the same. This is really the first year of golf for me in many different respects, especially around game improvement. When I went in for a club fitting, I was sort of shocked that they asked a bunch of, what am I looking for questions. I just wanted to say, I have no idea what even to look for. I was hoping someone would watch me hack a way a little bit, and just hand me a club and say these are yours, go and get better. Same concept with a Golf Ball.  

On the podcast, I really took to the idea of just finding one ball, and using that one ball to establish a baseline. Is this ball too hard, too soft, does it sound funny? Do I hate the way it clicks off the putter or squish into the driver? and then go from there.  I've been using a Vice Pro, and I switched to a Callaway Chromesoft recently and so far have enjoyed it. So I'm going to stick with Chromesoft for a while, and hopefully work it in from there. But I agree that it would be nice to have someone look and say, "you know you'd get more distance and control, with similar feel if you switch to XXXXX"

I'm probably roughly in the same boat as you are.  Been playing around a year.  Fitted for clubs.  Taking lessons. H.I. hovering around 19. 

 

To date - nearly every ball I've tried that I liked the feel of had a compression rating in the mid 80s.  So that's where I set my starting point.  Next - i much prefer to play a yellow ball - so that narrowed the field down to 7 options. Out of those 7, i axed any that didn't score well in the ball lab.  That knocked off 2 of them. Then I put the remaining 5 in the cross tab table and started interpolating performance of the more affordable options against the Pro V1 yellow ball - going back and forth between the slow and mid speed data sets.  That got me down to 2 choices - one of which happened to be the ball I've been playing the most over the past year.  I ordered a dozen of the other option so I can do my own head to head testing on my launch monitor and out on the course.  There's about a $7/dz difference in the cost of the two models so that's not likely to sway me much - but will be the tie breaker if I can't discern anything between the two on the course.

 

Seems a little daunting - but it's giving me something to do .....

I like the process. 

[tdc1]

@PMookie Do you know offhand the minimum data Ballnamic needs?  Thanks.

[tdc1]

@JohnnyO3478 Just being nosy here (and understand if you don’t want to say yet) but which balls are down to in your process?  I admit to not having the discipline to be too methodical in my choice — I just keep defaulting to good condition Pro Vs that I find.

[BallsLeon]

I am a low swing speed player with lower spin, I’d love to try one of the recommended higher spin balls but Maxfli Tour X is more in my wheelhouse price wise. Already seen a few promising things on wedge shots, need to see if they’ve made a change on Trackman.

[PMookie]

21 minutes ago, tdc1 said:

@PMookie Do you know offhand the minimum data Ballnamic needs?  Thanks.

It’s been a year since I did it, but I think they are ball speed, launch, spin, basic numbers. If I remember correctly I entered those for both driver and irons. 

[JohnnyO3478]

20 minutes ago, tdc1 said:

@JohnnyO3478 Just being nosy here (and understand if you don’t want to say yet) but which balls are down to in your process?  I admit to not having the discipline to be too methodical in my choice — I just keep defaulting to good condition Pro Vs that I find.

I don't mind.  I should have included in the original post.  Here's how it went down for me:

 

Yellow balls in the mid 80s:

Titelist Pro V1

Maxfli Tour  (my current ball)

Bridgestone Tour B XS

Titleist Tour Speed

Srixon Z Star

Maxfli Tour S

Wilson Triad

 

Eliminated based on Ball Lab performance:

Tour B XS

Z Star

Tour Speed

 

Final 2:

Wilson Triad ($38/dz by subscription) and Maxfli Tour ($30/dz in bulk)

 

Both made in the Foremost factory - same dimple pattern - both solid performers in the ball lab.  Triad seems to out perform Tour in the slow speed category - but i think they essentially cross over and meet up as the swing speed increases.  I swing an 8 iron around 73 mph and my driver around 88 on average.  I plan on spending a lot of time hitting 30, 40, 50 yd shots and chipping around the greens in the upcomming weeks. 

[SRI1982]

So, can someone please explain this  to me? What happened with ProV1's. Mid swing speed player and haven't dug into the data too deep. 

Playing 2023 ProV1's currently. 

Have played Prov1X in the past, is it enough of a concern to go back to them? 

I got away from the ProV1X's because I thought they were way to spinny around the greens. 

 

Thanks for the help. 

 

 

[tdc1]

5 hours ago, JohnnyO3478 said:

I don't mind.  I should have included in the original post.  Here's how it went down for me:

 

Yellow balls in the mid 80s:

Titelist Pro V1

Maxfli Tour  (my current ball)

Bridgestone Tour B XS

Titleist Tour Speed

Srixon Z Star

Maxfli Tour S

Wilson Triad

 

Eliminated based on Ball Lab performance:

Tour B XS

Z Star

Tour Speed

 

Final 2:

Wilson Triad ($38/dz by subscription) and Maxfli Tour ($30/dz in bulk)

 

Both made in the Foremost factory - same dimple pattern - both solid performers in the ball lab.  Triad seems to out perform Tour in the slow speed category - but i think they essentially cross over and meet up as the swing speed increases.  I swing an 8 iron around 73 mph and my driver around 88 on average.  I plan on spending a lot of time hitting 30, 40, 50 yd shots and chipping around the greens in the upcomming weeks. 

Thanks for the detail!  I’m about the same driver SS and also prefer yellow balls.  I’ve played MaxFli Tour and Tour X — both prior model — with some success. Have been wondering about the Triad myself.

[JohnnyO3478]

4 hours ago, tdc1 said:

Thanks for the detail!  I’m about the same driver SS and also prefer yellow balls.  I’ve played MaxFli Tour and Tour X — both prior model — with some success. Have been wondering about the Triad myself.

Last phase of in house testing (I hope).  They feel just like the Maxfli Tour and are the exact same shade of yellow.  No surprise there.  I am sure the cover material and the paint are the same materials.  The ball lab reported that the Triad is on the lighter side of weight spectrum - and I confirmed this, myself.  2/3 of the balls in my box weighed 45.4 grams while the other third weighed in at 45.5 g.  Worthy of note that the ping against the 2023 Maxfli was an inconsistency in the weights amount the samples tested - with one box being noticably heavier than the other two. If there had not been that variation, Tony said he would have scored the ball in the 90s.  I can control for that inconsistency. I weighed my last dz and they were all 45.7g with the exception of one that weighed 45.6 g - that can't possibly be perceptible.  I also weighed a box of yellow pro V1 at the same time - and there was a little more variance with the Titleist box - but still most at 45.7g.

 

I had a lesson this afternoon - and hit the Triad a bit when I got home.  It felt fine and performed on the launch monitor in about the same manner as the Maxfli and Pro V.  I have 3 rounds scheduled this weekend.  Let's see how many I can lose .....

[skraeling]

Ordered a dozen of the chrome soft x ls they seem to compare pretty favorably to my current gamer the Tour B RXS.  Will it knock it off for distance off the tee?  Ill find out monday.  Figured I would go as far away from my softer RXS to really try and suss out any actual difference on course with a human hitting it.  Will be playing my regular league course so I know where I typically tend to end up with hits.  Should make for a good head to head comparison.

TLDR: had 10.00 of scorerewards sitting in my account so decided to yolo on some new balls to whack.

Edited September 1, 2023 by skraeling