The best ball?

[B-rad]

In the winter the Titleist AVX is the bomb.  Lower compression feels great and it flies far, but still spins.   Flies true in the wind.   When it gets warmer I go right the ProVI.  Consistent, flies true and feels great putting.  
 

other lower cost balls, have never flown as far or curve too much in the wind.   

[PMookie]

7 hours ago, chisag said:

... I get it. Marketing and personal preference play a pretty big role in ball choice. That said, I would be willing to bet 99% of members here could not tell the difference between similar balls if they were completely blank and they had no idea what ball they were playing. Similar in any given category like a ProV1, Maxfli Tour, Vice Pro, Snell Black, Z Star, TP5, Wilson Staff or Kirkland V3. Granted ProV1 ranks best in quality and consistency year after year so understandable that some will only play them. But if you play often, there are just so many great balls out there for 1/2 the price and you can buy 4 dozen of the new Kirklands V3's for the price of 1 dozen ProV1's. 

Ping’s Ballnamic opened my eyes to the performance differences among similar balls, so even though a TP5X, a Pro V1X and a Srixon Z Star XV fall into similar categories, there are differences between them performance-wise for each specific golfer. Spin out of the rough, off driver, into and around greens, flier probability, length off irons and wedges, etc. Lots of differences.

[RickyBobby_PR]

7 hours ago, chisag said:

... I get it. Marketing and personal preference play a pretty big role in ball choice. That said, I would be willing to bet 99% of members here could not tell the difference between similar balls if they were completely blank and they had no idea what ball they were playing. Similar in any given category like a ProV1, Maxfli Tour, Vice Pro, Snell Black, Z Star, TP5, Wilson Staff or Kirkland V3. Granted ProV1 ranks best in quality and consistency year after year so understandable that some will only play them. But if you play often, there are just so many great balls out there for 1/2 the price and you can buy 4 dozen of the new Kirklands V3's for the price of 1 dozen ProV1's. 

People may not know the brand when they hit it but many will see the performance differences.

The TP5 series performs closes to the prov series for me but tee to green the prov series wins out. None of the tour b series work for me nor do the Srixon.

That’s all thru on course testing in same conditions I’ve e multiple rounds

I’ve done testing on a launch monitor as well and there’s spin, launch and speed differences

[chisag]

9 minutes ago, PMookie said:

Ping’s Ballnamic opened my eyes to the performance differences among similar balls, so even though a TP5X, a Pro V1X and a Srixon Z Star XV fall into similar categories, there are differences between them performance-wise for each specific golfer. Spin out of the rough, off driver, into and around greens, flier probability, length off irons and wedges, etc. Lots of differences.

 

... To be fair you are in a different category than 99% of forum members. I think the faster you swing the more difference you can identify. Speaking from personal on course experience with a pedestrian 95mph swing, I just don't find much difference between the balls I play. Rough? Not in Phoenix . But I have done quite a few ball to ball testings like hitting 10 shots with a 4 iron from 200yds and 20 or so pitches, then the same amount of chips and I just didn't find much difference between similar premium balls at all. Obviously every player is different but I would also add most do not have a consistent enough swing or short game to reap the subtle differences between balls. I hope to do some testing with the Maxfli Tour and new Kirkland V3 because they "seem" to perform very similar, but I have not compared them during a round. Just a similar flight, distance and spin during different rounds. 

... All that said, I am always open to new information or technology and if a fitting found one ball performed better than others I would gladly take the recommendation. 

[PMookie]

14 hours ago, chisag said:

 

... To be fair you are in a different category than 99% of forum members. I think the faster you swing the more difference you can identify. Speaking from personal on course experience with a pedestrian 95mph swing, I just don't find much difference between the balls I play. Rough? Not in Phoenix . But I have done quite a few ball to ball testings like hitting 10 shots with a 4 iron from 200yds and 20 or so pitches, then the same amount of chips and I just didn't find much difference between similar premium balls at all. Obviously every player is different but I would also add most do not have a consistent enough swing or short game to reap the subtle differences between balls. I hope to do some testing with the Maxfli Tour and new Kirkland V3 because they "seem" to perform very similar, but I have not compared them during a round. Just a similar flight, distance and spin during different rounds. 

... All that said, I am always open to new information or technology and if a fitting found one ball performed better than others I would gladly take the recommendation. 

Here are categories of info that Ballnamic provides that probably aren’t noticeable even to a pro. Anyway, might be worth the investment for some to see how balls differ based-on fitting  numbers, results.

[chisag]

18 minutes ago, PMookie said:

Here are categories of info that Ballnamic provides that probably aren’t noticeable even to a pro. Anyway, might be worth the investment for some to see how balls differ based-on fitting  numbers, results.

 

... To be clear, these are numbers gathered and averaged from multiple fittings but not an actual individual fitting where you hit balls with a LM? 

[Roy5349]

I’ve played most every ball from original Top Fite to ProV 1 in my 40 plus years. Most recently I’ve gamed the Pro V1, Pro V 1 x, Srixon Z Star and Z Star x. My opinion is that they are all very similar, regular vs X , but overall the edge in performance for me is the Z Star. To me they feel slightly better overall, perform just as well and are a lot cheaper than Pro V 1. $14-15 per dozen cheaper is huge difference for me for virtually the exact same performance with my game. 

[PMookie]

2 hours ago, chisag said:

 

... To be clear, these are numbers gathered and averaged from multiple fittings but not an actual individual fitting where you hit balls with a LM? 

They take the numbers from my actual fitting with a LM and from there compare to fitting data from other balls in the category they’ve collected from people with similar swing speeds, launch numbers, etc. The balls themselves, their composition of characteristics, are the differentiator.

[chisag]

10 minutes ago, PMookie said:

They take the numbers from my actual fitting with a LM and from there compare to fitting data from other balls in the category they’ve collected from people with similar swing speeds, launch numbers, etc. The balls themselves, their composition of characteristics, are the differentiator.

 

... Nice! 

[Tsecor]

On 5/12/2023 at 7:10 AM, drb1956 said:

And that's fine. Does not mean it is "BEST" for me......

thats not the title of the post.....if that were, nobody could answer that question except for you

[Tincuptim]

Some people drive Buicks and assume drive Mercedes. I volunteered at the NCAA tournament at Grayhawk and when I was in the landing area on #11, the long par 5, I checked and only 7 balls were not Titlest out of the 84 players that came through. Different strokes for different folks but that was pretty telling to me. Not everyone needs to hit them but for quality, Titlest is tough to beat. 

[D.Murphy]

On 5/3/2023 at 2:14 PM, Rhinosparky said:

I think you have to look at your game and cost compared to the quality .

For me my game is not good enough (15 handicap) to pay for a premium ball and my home course is an absolute ball eating machine.

I want a premium ball but cannot justify the $55 per dozen that the OEM brands demand. That why I currently play the Maxfli Tour Soft.  At $30 a dozen I can play a premium ball and it works great for me.

Agreed!! I play Callaway mostly as of late due to getting 15 for about $20-ish the last year or so. The warbirds have treated me fairly well and I really can't complain, mainly due to not being that great at the whole golf thing away. The one thing I don't like about cheaper/harder balls is the feel when putting. I really like the way a ProV1 feels when I am putting.
I recently bought a dozen just for putting because I like the way it feels. 
So tee to green I play the Callaway's I have stuffed in the bag, regardless of type. Then when comes time to finishing out on the green, just do a quick ball switch and call it a day. 
I don't feel bad about losing a handful of Callaway's throughout the day, I would feel REAL bad losing $55 worth of balls.

[skraeling]

5 minutes ago, D.Murphy said:

Agreed!! I play Callaway mostly as of late due to getting 15 for about $20-ish the last year or so. The warbirds have treated me fairly well and I really can't complain, mainly due to not being that great at the whole golf thing away. The one thing I don't like about cheaper/harder balls is the feel when putting. I really like the way a ProV1 feels when I am putting.
I recently bought a dozen just for putting because I like the way it feels. 
So tee to green I play the Callaway's I have stuffed in the bag, regardless of type. Then when comes time to finishing out on the green, just do a quick ball switch and call it a day. 
I don't feel bad about losing a handful of Callaway's throughout the day, I would feel REAL bad losing $55 worth of balls.

I feel like getting the cheapest urethane ball you can is a decent place to start regardless of brand.  That cover type just plays so so much better.

[D.Murphy]

2 minutes ago, skraeling said:

I feel like getting the cheapest urethane ball you can is a decent place to start regardless of brand.  That cover type just plays so so much better.

Are you saying the Callaway is a cheaper urethane ball? and the ProV's play better due to the cover type? 
I have a real bad habit of getting WAY to invested into sports and hobbies, I have several already(BJJ, MMA, Cycling) that I try to keep myself from going full bore into golf. At one time about a decade + ago I would be able to keep up with this convo but now I'm outta the loop of what is what, so just trying to clarify what you were meaning

[skraeling]

3 minutes ago, D.Murphy said:

Are you saying the Callaway is a cheaper urethane ball? and the ProV's play better due to the cover type? 
I have a real bad habit of getting WAY to invested into sports and hobbies, I have several already(BJJ, MMA, Cycling) that I try to keep myself from going full bore into golf. At one time about a decade + ago I would be able to keep up with this convo but now I'm outta the loop of what is what, so just trying to clarify what you were meaning

I dont know specifically what the callaway has for its various tiers of balls, Im only saying a urethane cover is really really nice to have.

[GregGarner]

On 8/10/2023 at 10:22 AM, D.Murphy said:

Are you saying the Callaway is a cheaper urethane ball? and the ProV's play better due to the cover type? 
I have a real bad habit of getting WAY to invested into sports and hobbies, I have several already(BJJ, MMA, Cycling) that I try to keep myself from going full bore into golf. At one time about a decade + ago I would be able to keep up with this convo but now I'm outta the loop of what is what, so just trying to clarify what you were meaning

The Warbird is an ionomer covered ball. In the Callaway lineup, the urethane balls are Chrome Soft, Chrome Soft X, and Chrome Soft X LS. The ERC Soft is an ionomer cover with a urethane coating, and all other Callaway balls (at least in the US), are ionomer.