Bridgestone MindSet Golf Ball Testing - (Sampling and Shot Scope Ops)

[Rob Person]

1 hour ago, tdc1 said:

As I have mentioned before, I was among those in the second wave of ball distribution and received a dozen of the RXS.  I have enjoyed playing the ball on my home course but I am so familiar with the course and my playing tendencies that I thought I would take it on a literal road trip to play a course that I see about once a year to give the Mindset (and the ball) a real workout.

The results were a mixed bag mostly due to my poor driver swing.  On the plus side: (1) no lost balls (not sure how much credit Mindset deserves but some of my wilder driver swings were always findable); (2) excellent feel with every club -- soft enough to dampen bad hits but not so soft as to eliminate all feedback; (3) appreciable amount of spin into/near the green -- I have become a low launch/low spin player over the years (not deliberately) and I found this ball to provide a little extra help; (4) on the tee and green, the Mindset logo was an obvious (but not intrusive) reminder to Identify/Visualize/Focus.  The only downside was a minor dropoff in yardages off the tee (which was more than made up for by extra spin into/near greens.

Also, I was the only one in my foursome to carry the water in front of 18 green (the over/under when we started was plus or minus 2; the toher three put 4 in the pond). 

I'm glad you found the ball to work well on checking up in the short shots to the green. I still find the RX to roll a bit further than I like upon landing. I may go to the RXS and see if it's better. The XS was great for stopping with limited roll out. But it was too wiley for me off the tee. 

[mikeandersonut]

Finally got out and played with these this week. I was in the second batch of testers and had the box sitting in my garage for at least a month before I finally could get out and spend some focused time testing these.

Performance-wise, I thought the XS ball was pretty good. I play Maxfli Tour/Tour X most of the time and felt like the ball performed how I expected. However, my results speak for themselves. I shot 80 on back to back days at my normal track and I think part of it was just getting the swing thoughts out of my head and focusing on the dot. I did find there were a few times where I got a little too sucked into the target-shape-dot thinking and was a little lost in my head, but that was the minority of the time. 

Putting was one of the areas that I noticed the biggest improvement. Just letting my body handle the putting stroke while I focused on the green dot freed me up to make a lot more putts than I normally do both of those rounds, even rolling 2 in from the fringe in the second round.

Verdict-wise, I'm not sure I would continue to buy these. I've found my sweet spot for price and performance with the Maxfli, but I wouldn't rule out adding some sharpie dots on my balls to simulate what the MindSet is trying to do, as I did find focusing on something like that every time just allowed me to stay out of my head a bit better. 

As you can see from Arccos, I did see some improvement from my last round prior to testing the Bridgestone balls (June 7), especially in the short/putting facets of my game.

[Big moose]

I used the mindset balls today and played pretty well.  I shot 40 and finally made the eagle putt on 18, I reached the green in two the last 3 times I played that side. The strange thing was all three times I had exactly 197 yards to the green and hit my 3 hybrid. Maybe I should play that number. Hit'm well all. 

[knotthead17]

So I want to be a skeptic and say that the little dot's don't have an impact, however I did match my lowest round ever on my second day of using them. Shot a 71 at Willis Case in denver, 6 birdies, including 3 of the 4 par 3's! I did go birdie, triple bogey, birdie so that was fun! haha 

I feel that this is really a long term test to see if you can implement the process and stick with it. I'm using the XS and I'm excited to share more long term thoughts as I continue to try to practice to implement the system as intended. 

 

Edited June 21 by knotthead17

[Rob Person]

10 hours ago, knotthead17 said:

So I want to be a skeptic and say that the little dot's don't have an impact, however I did match my lowest round ever on my second day of using them. Shot a 71 at Willis Case in denver, 6 birdies, including 3 of the 4 par 3's! I did go birdie, triple bogey, birdie so that was fun! haha 

I feel that this is really a long term test to see if you can implement the process and stick with it. I'm using the XS and I'm excited to share more long term thoughts as I continue to try to practice to implement the system as intended. 

 

Congratulations on the personal best!

[Timberwolfmadcat]

It is killing me not being able to fairly finish this test cuz I keep breaking clubs

God willing replacement head here in the next couple weeks so I can finish this off and give my formal review!

[Rob Person]

8 hours ago, Timberwolfmadcat said:

It is killing me not being able to fairly finish this test cuz I keep breaking clubs

God willing replacement head here in the next couple weeks so I can finish this off and give my formal review!

Another one? Maybe time to.fimd a different club!

[Timberwolfmadcat]

2 hours ago, Rob Person said:

Another one? Maybe time to.fimd a different club!

2i is my keep it in play club. Head went down the range it's all better now....just tipped and reinstalled. But still no driver

[Timberwolfmadcat]

I do wonder if the mindset logo is a visual "focus cue" that improves mental focus and prevents sloppy play. That's the major thing I've noticed, less sloppy shots

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/focus-cue-golf-iq-sloppy-mistakes-golf-digest-improve?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=golfdigest&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2MNuQJk3AC3_QKVwXUNzD157CK0tHCUYmnGsLIVO8O4wOLQcmajSWUMm0_aem_-rcc645U2zUv9tuqbRLRMg

[Rob Person]

38 minutes ago, Timberwolfmadcat said:

I do wonder if the mindset logo is a visual "focus cue" that improves mental focus and prevents sloppy play. That's the major thing I've noticed, less sloppy shots

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/focus-cue-golf-iq-sloppy-mistakes-golf-digest-improve?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=golfdigest&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2MNuQJk3AC3_QKVwXUNzD157CK0tHCUYmnGsLIVO8O4wOLQcmajSWUMm0_aem_-rcc645U2zUv9tuqbRLRMg

I said in the beginning that I definitely used it as a visual reminder of the process, more than a shot assistant .

It's worked so well that I find myself using the process on any ball I play.

Edited June 22 by Rob Person

[PhilM75072]

I really applaud those that have found success with this ball and process and hope it continues for you! Unfortunately, as someone very old and having played golf for well over half a century, I am pretty well set in the way I play the game. I have never lost so many balls or hit so many bad shots as I have trying to use this process. I can have some success by modifying aspects of it, but that is not the purpose. Sadly, I have given up.

[Preeway]

2 hours ago, PhilM75072 said:

I really applaud those that have found success with this ball and process and hope it continues for you! Unfortunately, as someone very old and having played golf for well over half a century, I am pretty well set in the way I play the game. I have never lost so many balls or hit so many bad shots as I have trying to use this process. I can have some success by modifying aspects of it, but that is not the purpose. Sadly, I have given up.

As someone who has played for 40 years, I agree that Mindset process isn’t a quick fix or magic pill. But, having a solid pre-shot routine is a significant aspect to repeat performance during a round of golf. If you don’t have one, follow the Mindset process. If you already have one, use the Mindset to determine if you have room for improvement in yours. 

[PhilM75072]

3 hours ago, Preeway said:

As someone who has played for 40 years, I agree that Mindset process isn’t a quick fix or magic pill. But, having a solid pre-shot routine is a significant aspect to repeat performance during a round of golf. If you don’t have one, follow the Mindset process. If you already have one, use the Mindset to determine if you have room for improvement in yours. 

My personal process, approach to the game and pre-shot routine works just fine for me as I have had, and still have, a mid to low single-digit handicap for many, many years now. This despite what the aging process has robbed me of. I enjoy my rounds and have no aspirations of approaching "scratch" as I know my limitations which include literally no practice other than a couple of chips and stroking a few putts before each round. I can count the number of times I have been to the range this year on one hand with fingers left over.

Signing up as a tester, I was looking to see what, if any, positive impact the process might have on my game. Being chosen as a tester, I committed to and followed the process religiously, with disastrous results for me. No ball, no club, no swing, and no process is going to work for everyone. If it or a modified version works for you, that is terrific! Play well and have fun!

[Gokougs]

For some reason I’m not listed as a tester for the mindset ball but I received a free dozen so I figure I should post a review! 
 

I’ll start off by saying I really like the Tour BSX ball from Bridgestone. I’ve used it in the past. I appreciate the quality and durability of the ball. I also really like the cost of the ball. 
 

As far as the mindset ball specifically the first few times I played with it I just found it distracting. The red, yellow, green icon was fine to look at when I had my ball on the green and could line up a putt so I’m looking down on the whole icon with the ability to remember exactly what I was supposed to be remembering. Any time I was in the fairway or rough and unable to have the icon facing me I was just distracted trying to look for it. In recent rounds however I’ve been able to use the “focus” principle to make sure I’m paying attention to my swing and not where the icon is.

Overall do I think the mindset has drastically changed my game, no. I’ve always had a routine I followed in my putting game the mindset ball has just made me recognize that I should apply that to my whole game. I would highly recommend this ball to anyone who is struggling with remembering their routine, someone who doesn’t have a routine or someone who wants a good reminder to stick to a routine!!

[CK1over]

I finally got a chance to get out and test the Bridgestone Tour B X Mindset golf balls.  I am a high handicapper (20-21), so I feel that the Mindset is directed at my demographic.

I was able to sneak out for a quick afternoon 9 holes last Thursday, with an 11:35am tee time, playing as a single which made it all the better to take my time and test out the mindset routine.

It was definitely a warm yet windy day in the Denver front range, with temperatures in the low 90s and a 8 mph wind gusting to 17 mph.

I made the conscience choice not to try to compare the distance or spin of the Tour B X ball to current gamer (Maxfli Tour).  My game is not consistent enough to hit two shots on a golf course and be able to consider that small of a sample set as comparable.  Instead I’ll save that for another day where I can get in a simulator and hit a number of shots to throw out the outliers.  Instead on this day, I’m going to stick with the Mindset, and just play.

Standing on the first tee, with only the marshall looking on.  Mindset.  Identify the target, visualize the shot path, focus on the dot.  I hit a 5 iron a little fat, so probably lost 25 yards, but straight down the fairway.  Did I mention that I had to rush to get to the first tee as this was a last minute walk on where I got the tee time at the pro shop 7 minutes prior?  TLDR; No warm up.  First shot jitters out of the way, I hit 150 yd PW over water and stuck it middle of the green.  This was a great start for me.  Fairway hit, check.  GIR, check.  And… 3 putt bogey.  Yep, no time to hit the practice green either.  I need to mention that the weekend prior I had gone on a guy’s golf trip in Carbondale where all the greens were exceptionally fast.  Today, not so much.  First putt, the ball went HALF the intended distance.  Ok, but please keep in mind, bogey golf is good for me.

2nd hole, was a par 3, stuck my tee shot middle of the green.  2 for 2 in GIR.  I’m on a roll.  3 putt for bogey again, see previous excuse for terrible putting.  Mental note, hit the practice green, if even for a couple minutes.

3rd hole, par 5, hit a 5W to center of the fairway (2 of 2).  2nd shot hit another 5W over water, to the right rough (is there even a stat for hitting a fairway on 2nd shot on par 5… probably not.  If you don’t track it, then it doesn’t matter).  3rd shot LW, center of the green.  Ok, now I’m on roll for GIR.  Setting up a slightly down hill 36’ putt.  Given the feedback on last two greens, I gave it a little more, and with the downhill help, I try to just hit a lag putt close, but nailed it center of the cup.  Unheard of for me.  I throw my hands up and celebrate.  Not a soul in sight.  I’m loving this solitude.  +1 thru 3 holes.

The round went downhill from there with 3 more 3 putts, 2 sand traps, a couple lost balls, and mishits.  I did hit 1 more fairway which I blasted 300 yards!, hit 2 more GIR, and made one more par thru the 9 holes.  Perhaps the Mindset requires some endurance to get used to applying the mental aspect preshot routine.  I like the idea behind it and the Tour B X ball also felt great to hit.  It was a hot and windy day, and have previously shot better, but was happy with my round.

Thank you to MyGolfSpy and Bridgestone for giving me an opportunity to participate in this test.

Pictured below is the par 5 Silo hole for which this 9 holes are named after.  Yeah… I hit that sand trap on the left side of the fairway.

 

Edited June 26 by CK1over
Add picture from phone

[Michael.Sandoval33]

Still having a couple of the Mindset RX balls, I got a couple sleeves of the previous model ('22) Bridgestone RX to compare. Having never played the previous model, I am curious if there were any changes made to the ball itself or if it was simply adding the "Mindset" aid on the ball. Can't wait to check it out on the course.

[Rob Person]

6 hours ago, Michael.Sandoval33 said:

Still having a couple of the Mindset RX balls, I got a couple sleeves of the previous model ('22) Bridgestone RX to compare. Having never played the previous model, I am curious if there were any changes made to the ball itself or if it was simply adding the "Mindset" aid on the ball. Can't wait to check it out on the course.

The 2024 tour B series,  with or without the mindset. Are new for this year.

[Michael.Sandoval33]

22 minutes ago, Rob Person said:

The 2024 tour B series,  with or without the mindset. Are new for this year.

Yeah but I know for sure the ones I got were the 2022 series, which is what makes me curious to try them out for sure.

[Rob Person]

9 hours ago, Michael.Sandoval33 said:

Yeah but I know for sure the ones I got were the 2022 series, which is what makes me curious to try them out for sure.

Oh, sorry, I misinterpreted your question/post.  

 

[Kgrover59]

This is a fill up up to a prior post.  Overall, I think the mindset technology is pretty cool.  I’ve found that when I actually go through the “3 steps” based on the colors of the “logo” it has actually helped me become more committed to my target.  I’m not sure the arrow part of the logo has done much for me personally, but overall I like the “reminder” to go through the process of going through my routine. The ball itself is very good, but just a little too spinny for me (I was fit into the BXS).  I am curios if the BX wouldn’t be a better overall fit from a performance standpoint.   Anyway, my overall review is very positive for the mindset concept.  
 

cheers!

[Michael.Sandoval33]

1 hour ago, Rob Person said:

Oh, sorry, I misinterpreted your question/post.  

 

You're good Rob, I went back to make sure that I posted correctly as well I don't expect much difference from the previous version but you never know.

Edited June 27 by Michael.Sandoval33

[yungkory]

Played the Mindset BX again today but the results off the tee were less successful than my previous round. I still think there's value in going through the steps, but when your body can't execute, it's just not going to be the result you envision.

I am doubling down on the increased spin I saw from last generation's BX though, I'm getting way more action on the ball, which I am still thoroughly enjoying!

[Timberwolfmadcat]

Replacement head has shipped from TM! Wifey taking the kiddos out in two weeks for a week so I can play to my heart's content.  Need my driver so I can finish the test

Pretty confident the stats don't lie with mindset, played a bunch over the last few weeks but when you can't keep a tee ball on planet earth it's a bit of a problem to score well

[fozcycle]

What do you do when the green dot disappears? 

 

[Rob Person]

4 hours ago, fozcycle said:

What do you do when the green dot disappears? 

 

Get a green sharpie?  

[Timberwolfmadcat]

Game timeeeee!!!

[Timberwolfmadcat]

Ok mindset, back with a vengeance with the new head. I have never seen myself hit drives either as straight or as far as I did today. And honestly, putting was on fire and I missed a 4 footer on a hole and drew a bad lie from a yard off the fairway on a par 5? Otherwise I would have had a career low day at the narrow home course. Only reason I missed fairways was on the dog legs I hit it too far

Played on Tuesday with no mindset and the driver was remarkably better than previous, mindset just seems to give me that little extra "push" on every aspect of my game.

Wife and kids are gone for a week so I'll be able to get the rest of my 10 rounds in (barring any more equipment failures (knock on wood). But sweet bloody mercy, I had two drives well over 3 bills and a majority of the others were 280+ on every hole

Sent from my Pixel 8 using Tapatalk

[Timberwolfmadcat]

Played 2 more rounds this weekend! So the new driver...it...goes far Hit an absolute missile (be it a bit downwind but sweet mercy ) on #13.

So ..with another 5 rounds in there (3 mindset, two gamer) an update on the graphs. I'll do a final update end of this week/early next week with full summary of my findings.
SG Tee - Gamer has the edge by about 1.
SG approach - mindset has almost 2 stroke advantage. So I find it really seems to help with my irons/approaches and staying focused.
SG short game - Mindset by about 0.25 stroke.
SG putting - Close enough they are statistically equivalent.

Driving Distance - Gamer is up to about 258 average, mindset around 248. That said, I've hit bombs with both and the average gets kinda skewed at the narrow home course where if you hit a tree it only goes like 205. Take that into account.

Fairway % - Has levelled off, both gamer and mindset about equal now.
GIR - Mindset by about 7%.
Up and down % - Mindset by about 8%.

#putts - Basically level b/w mindset and gamer at this point. I've had some phenomenal putting rounds and some hot trash putting rounds lately.

SG par 3 - Gamer edge by about 0.3 strokes
SG par 4- Mindset edge by about 0.8 strokes
SG par 5 - Mindset edge by about 0.8 strokes

So...all this meannnnssss?

Mindset approach basically saves me almost a stroke a hole on the par 4 in approach shots typically. Almost a stroke on par 5 holes. And I lose about 1/3 of a stroke on par 3s cuz I'm overthinking it probably

I have 7 rounds with mindset in, I should have the last 3 for the 10 round test done this week (new shaft for 2iron should be here tomorrow as well....though driver is straight now so don't need it )

Sent from my Pixel 8 using Tapatalk

[Freshbrockoli]

Hello friends! I had a bit of a injury that kept me off the links for a bit. Only been able to hit the range here and there, first round is this Saturday and I'm pumped to try these balls out. Will post after with my results! 

Cheers! 

[Freshbrockoli]

On 7/9/2024 at 10:04 PM, Timberwolfmadcat said:

Game timeeeee!!!

This looks awesome, how has it been treating you?