Member Review (unofficial): Bridgestone Tour B X (2024) Mindset Edition

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A few weeks back I completed the questionnaire for the Bridgestone Tour B X / XS Mindset Edition on MGS and went on about my business.  I was surprised to see a box of them (Tour B X (2024) Mindset Edition) arrive in the mail about a week and a half ago, and I've now played parts of 2 rounds with them.  My thoughts below are summaries and are mostly subjective data, as I've been focusing my objective / hard data collection on the Toura Iron Testing I've been doing.

 

Driver:  These balls have WAY too much side spin off the driver for my liking.  I already suffer from too high of spin rates with most drivers anyway, and my current gamer can be VERY spinny if the balls not helping.  In both of the rounds I tested the Tour B X balls, I switched balls on the back 9 and played better off the tee.  In the previous round, I switched to Maxfli Tour balls, and this weekend, I switched to a ProV1x (2023) yellow ball.

Irons:  While side spin is my issue for the driver, with irons, ballooning and flying too high / short due to too much backspin is my primary issue with irons.  The Tour B X VERY spinny...I probably got in the range of 7-8,000 RPMs with an 8 iron at 165 yards, because it landed a foot onto the green and spun all the way back down into a collection area 15 feet away.  With the ProV1x on the back 9, I hit the same 8 iron pin high (though just left of the green on the fringe due to cross winds), where it sat basically in its divot.  These were all tested with a very soft forged iron (see my current test irons).

Wedges:  I would recommend against using the Tour B X almost entirely based on its performance with a wedge.  I mean, did anyone watch Tiger this weekend?  If one of the greatest wedge players in history couldn't get these things to sit and spin, who can?   No, seriously though.  I have relatively new MG4 wedges and can put almost Jordan Spieth like RPMs on a ball.  If I can't spin a wedge shot, it's not happening, and these just would not sit down.  Anything bumped onto the green rolled out 4-5 yards farther than a Maxfli Tour, Maxfli Tour X, 2023 ProV1, 2023 V1x (white and yellow), or a 2022 TP5.  I didn't have any others to test the Tour B X against, but it lost to everything I had in the bag, most of which had been played at least a few holes previously, whereas the Tour B X were all brand new.

Putting:  Front 9 - 17 putts...back 9 - 12 putts - do the math...guess which was the Tour B X?  Part of that was the better wedge game with the ProV1x, but also part of that was I was able to feel the ball better off the putter and trust it was going where I sent it.  The Tour B X almost felt like it was sticking to the putter head briefly and would bounce slightly off the head.  Very odd....

 

If I had to rate the Tour B X out of 10, where 10 was the highest, and 1 was the lowest, I'd rate it at best a 4, but probably a 3.  The 2023 ProV1x is more like a 9, and I'd give both of the Maxfli Tour balls an 8 rating at least (maybe a 9 when cost-to-performance ratios are included).  While I appreciate Bridgestone sending me the balls to test, I cannot personally consider playing these long-term.  My dad loves the B R XS, and they work great for him.  He's a 3 handicap and trending lower as his back continues to heal from surgery that he'd put off for too long.  My son feels much the same as I do, but his swing speed is even a little higher than mine, so maybe that has a lot to do with it.  Lower swing speed players like Bridgestone because they get more pop out of their ball speeds, but we're getting too much spin from ours?  Might be something to that.  I've not had them on a Trackman or anything to test that though...

[ctg44]

I spent about 30 minutes on the chipping green Tuesday night. I had 5 of the Bridgestone Tour B X Mindset balls, 4 ProV1, 5 ProV1x, 6 Maxfli Tour X, and a few each of Chrome Tour, Chrome Soft, TP5, and regular Maxfli Tour balls.

I cleared the chipping green and was using my 60.06LBV MG4 wedge that's less than 2 months old. I have added some tungsten tape to the top perimeter to try and bring the weighting up somewhat, as I have found the MG4 wedges to feel significantly lighter in head weight than my previous set of Vokey SM9 wedges (both wedges on exact same length X100 Tour Issue Onyx shafts).

Over and over, I was closer to the pin with the ProV1x and Maxfli Tour X than any other of the balls. The Bridgestone was 3rd on average, followed by the ProV1 / regular Maxfli Tour. The Callaway balls have never agreed with me, so unsurprisingly, they were at the bottom. The TP5s I had were 2022 balls and not new, so I didn't put much stock in them basically running neck and neck with the Callaways.

I then went and spent 30ish minutes on the putting green with a yellow ProV1x, Maxfli Tour X, and one of the Bridgestones. After many putts, I decided that I will likely end up sticking with the Maxfli Tour X long term. They are cheaper, perform just as well as a $5 ProV1x, and cost $2ish apiece.

[ctg44]

So, at the end of the round yesterday, I wasn't hitting the ball well with the driver and hit a decent shot with the Maxfli Tour into the par 3 #8 green that was playing a effective 210+ with the wind after a nice P790UDI 2 iron shot. The next hole is a tight par 4 at over 430 yards with a hard start line due to a couple of trees making the launch window hard for anyone looking to play a fade against the strong prevailing south winds. I also wanted to test my theory that the Bridgestone balls are far too "spinny" off my driver for me. Well, theory became reality and both drive 1 and drive 2 were horrific by my standards. Drive 1 barely stayed in play, but I'd hit a provisional because I wasn't sure. The south winds saved me by about a foot and I had a crappy lie in the rough up against the OB fence. Ball 2 was across 4 lanes of traffic, the median, and might have been well out into the 18th fairway across the street...it was bad...an out and out slice, and I just simply don't hit one of those.

With that, I think I have maybe 1 of the original dozen of the Bridgestone Tour B X Mindset balls left. I can conclude 3 things at this point very definitively:

1. These would be a horrible choice in golf ball for me personally, even if I had a free ball contract with Bridgestone. I simply couldn't play them if I wanted to score under 85 regularly.

2. There's no way this ball is competitive with the ProV1 in any way. It's not even competitive with the Maxfli Tour or Tour X that's half the cost but that doesn't have many pro endorsements.

3. It's no surprise whatsoever that with this ball in his bag, a certain GOAT can't hit the broad side of a barn anymore with a wedge. It's possibly the worst "premium" ball I have ever tried for greenside control and putter feel. I would absolutely pay for the Maxfli balls rather than use these if I needed to make money on golf because my strokes gained putting alone would be brutal with this thing. I. Can. Not. Putt with it...I can hide the ugly mindset logo and come back to a few balls I put down not knowing which are which and will know as soon the putter touches this ball it's the 2024 Tour B X.

The only (and I do mean ONLY) positive I can see with this ball is durability, but I haven't really kept one in play that long to be really sure. However, in testing, I hit a lot of wedges with my very new MG4 56 and 60 degree wedges, which are very abrasive, and the Tour B X held up better at that even than the ProV1. Both still lost to the 2023 Maxfli Tour X though...

Now, all the above said, there's an easy fix...go back to the 2019-2020ish version of this ball. I loved that one, and so did a certain star client of Bridgestone's...this version isn't winning at anything anytime soon.

[ctg44]

My final comment on this would be that simply that I appreciate the opportunity to try these balls.  I know that picking a golf ball is as individual of a decision as it gets in golf.  It's hard to quantify this in data-based terms given the weather we've had lately and the lack of consistent on-course playing time we've gotten, especially since I don't have access to a shot-tracking function like Shot Scope or Arccos.  However, just on the subjectives / observables alone, I can't recommend this for someone in my skill level / swing speed range, which is the 3-7 handicap with 107-115 driver clubhead speeds.  The one area I'd like to have had more time to spend with this would be in the simulator to get head to head spin rate #s, but I'm not sure I have any left to even test.  I do have sim time booked for this weekend if my rounds get rained out since I'm playing in a tournament Monday and want to make sure I'm at least working on something to get ready, so maybe I'll throw in a few shots with the Tour B X against the ProV1 and Maxfli Tour (the direct competitors currently in my bag) and see how it really fairs.

[ctg44]

I did have a couple of these left, and did the sim testing over a couple of weeks head to head against each of the following:

1. ProV1 (2023)
2. ProV1x (2023)
3. Maxfli Tour (2023)
4. Maxfli Tour X (2023)

On every metric listed below, the Bridgestone was in 5th place after 10 shots with each ball and each club from each measured distance.  The first 15 metrics were done inside on a Foresight simulator at the PGA Superstore in Arlington, TX, over several sessions with the clubs listed below in my signature. The 4 iron, 7 iron, and PW used were the @Toura Golf CB irons, and the LW was a TaylorMade MG4 60.07LBV. 

1. Driver - total distance
2. Driver - carry distance
3. Driver - "fairway hit"
4. 4 iron total distance
5. 4 iron carry distance
6. 4 iron side to side / distance dispersion
7. 7 iron total distance
8. 7 iron carry distance
9. 7 iron side to side / distance dispersion
10. PW iron total distance
11. PW iron carry distance
12. PW iron side to side / distance dispersion
13. LW closest to pin front to back
14. LW closest to pin side to side
15. Putter "subjective feel" (putter stats done outside on TiffEagle 419 greens)
16. Putter 3'
17. Putter 5'
18. Putter 10'
19. Putter 20'
20. Putter 30'
21. Putter 60'

Incidentally, the winner was the Maxfli Tour X, by 1 metric over the ProV1x (8 to 7).  The 2023 ProV1 came in a tie for 3rd with the Maxfli Tour with 3 "wins" each), but frankly, all 4 of those (ProV1s and Maxflis) could be in my bag at any one time and I'd play them almost interchangeably.  I get better distance and greenside spin from the "X" versions, but I get less volatility side to side from the non "X" versions, so sometimes it's worth it to play the Pro V1 / Maxfli Tour over the ProV1x / Tour X, especially when the wind is up or I am really struggling to keep my ball flights down.  However, when the greens are REALLY hard, having the extra height on my inbound iron shots from the "X" balls helps immensely, and has led to an increase in birdies lately.  I just need to find a way to tone down the corresponding increase in bad driver shots from the side-to-side dispersion issues I'm seeing when the ball gets caught up in the wind.

 

I don't have all the data available here at work, but suffice it to say, coming in last in all of these categories, especially to balls that can be purchased for under $2 / apiece regularly from Dick's Sports or Golf Galaxy using their app in the 48 packs, is not a win for Bridgestone.  Further, having tried using the Mindset routine for a week plus has probably messed up my putting more overall than anything, as I'm still trying to reacquire my ability to walk up, find a line, set myself, and hit a putt.  I am normally a very good "feel" putter who doesn't need a lot of time to read a putt and can usually do that in a few seconds with good results (rarely 3 putting even from 60'+ away and lots of 10'+ made putts), but that's been a weakness lately since I tried using the Mindset routine.

[ctg44]

I had 2 of these left, and with the way I was playing Sunday (note:  irons / wedge only...driver was rocking), I didn't feel like wasting any more ProV1x balls.  I grabbed the 2 of these, and on back-to-back tee shots on the same hole, I lost both of them on out-of-control slices, which is NOT how my ball flight was going all day.  In fact, I put a Maxfli Tour X down as a 3rd  tee shot and hit a 275-yard drive into a 15 MPH headwind with what really and truly felt like the same swing as shots 1 and 2.  I seriously don't get why the Tour B X is so bad for me, but it's easily the worst-performing ball I've hit off the tee in the last 3 years, and that includes the much-maligned Kirkland balls that got pilloried by MGS reviewers, and the Ball Lab Testing.  Yes, I do swing hard, at an average of about 105-110 with an upward AoA (usually +2° at least) with the driver.  My smash factor on limited-distance range balls is an average of 1.43, with a ball speed averaging 155 with a launch angle of 14.2°.  I am seeing spin rates in the low 2,000 RPMs on average since I added a bunch of tungsten tape, with average apexes around 100'. 

 

I can't explain why a supposed premium ball acts worse than a balata ball off my driver, but that's the best example I can give you for what I'm seeing with the Tour B X.  Compare that to the low (well under 100'...maybe 75-80') apex of the Maxfli Tour X that's showing a tight draw (or at worst a tight fade spin) that works off of the middle of the fairway...and well, there's no comparison.  I'm not spending $54.99 on 12 of the Tour B X balls when I can get 48 Maxfli Tour X balls for around $92 with tax on a regular basis when Dicks / Golf Galaxy offer their $20 off $100 purchase sales.