TESTING: MYSTERY Golf Ball Member Reviews.....

While the GolfWRX staff strives to review the gear that matters most to you, we want your voice to be heard. GolfWRX was founded as a community and we like to give our members the opportunity to test the latest and greatest golf equipment. Read on for the ball test below.

March 22:

Recently, 14 GolfWRX members were given the opportunity to test a premium golf ball, but with one catch. They have no idea what it is. The balls are all blank. There are no distinguishing marks on the box or ball. It's as close to blind testing as you can get. Members have started to receive their shipments and will post in this thread. Let's keep it clear until they begin posting.

Thanks!

I haven't received mine yet, but this is the first time I've been involved in one of these tests/reviews and I'm looking forward to it. I'm actually going on a golf vacation in a week to Panama City Beach, FL. Should have plenty of time on the range, the putting green, the short game area, and the course to put these in play vs a wide range of other balls.

Edit: they were in my mailbox all along. Should check that more. I will provide a full review once I play with them, but just putting with them on my indoor astroturf strip, they feel exactly the same as my gamer, a Pro V1. They look very similar too.

Hello everyone and thanks to golfwrx and whoever made this ball for giving me a chance to contribute to this great site. I hope my review will help those that read it. Biggest thing for me in a ball is 1) predictable around the green. Doesn't have to be super spinny and stop on a dime as that is a huge reason i don't play the prov1 or other similar balls as I like to land and roll it up, but needs to hit and stay near landing site when I lob it and 2) be controllable off the driver (another reason why the higher spinning balls aren't good for me as my driver is the weakest part of my game). If this ball meets those two requirements, then good chance I would play depending on price point.

Opening:

On opening the package I immediatley noticed that this ball was a softer ball. Thinking to myself alright! Based on first feel of the ball, I felt that this had a soft cover probably urethane or one of those new irethane mixtures or whatever that people market with their 3 piece balls. The ball does have a noticeable seam which many have already stated and noticed. I have never been a big alignment guy with the ball. I tried out drawing a line on the ball or using the pre-existing lines on balls before but it made my putting routine too long and annoying to go through the process. So much so that on short putts inside 3 feet that if I didn't take the time to mark and line it up I would be nervous and think too much and miss these little tap ins. I stopped that and putt more with instinct. Knowing that, it's kind of nice to not have any marking on the ball what so ever haha.

Putting and chipping:

Feel of the putter is very soft. Doesn't feel marshmallow soft but does feel a tad softer than my rzn white. I will say though that most balls feel this way though due to me having an iNOVAi putter made of aluminum with their superfly milling. Visually I ahve been used to yellow balls recently so having a white one at my feet seemed weird at first but quickly got over that (grass stains suck haha biggest reason I moved to yellow because like I said I like to just get to my ball and putt after taking a quick look at my line. Only mark and clean if mud is on it).

Chipping was pretty good. I have had some woes recently due to not playing as much this past month so I was also getting back into form. Thankfully my chipping was cooperating with me today and I could easily see predictable results. these chips were being made across the chipping green from no more than a few feet off the green so not a huge swing. I like using the bounce via learned from montes short game video and today was going great. I started off with high lobs which as expected landed soft and rolled maybe a foot or two and occasionally not at all. I wanted to really see how they spun though so I started hitting low bouncers to see how much roll out once it hit. I gotta say it was pretty good. Definitely not prov1 spin or any other 4 layer ball but enough so that I didn't have to land it really short and have it roll out. That makes me believe this is a 3 piece ball with a soft cover (think chrome soft or maybe even the zstar xv). Most of my low chips would bounce and roll out 5 feet or so. When compared to my rzn whites they played very similar and roll out/spin seemed negligible.

Driver:

Finally able to get out and play a round with these balls. Right off the first tee, I was pretty impressed with how this felt off the face of my Bio Cell+. I will say this ball is definitely low spinning off the tee. The wind was really blowing through most of the round and ill agree with some of the other posters who have said that the ball kind of gets pushed around with it. I even had one really bad slice (wish i could say that i was tying to do it haha) that should have been into the pond way off to the right but the wind actually kept it far from it and actually landed about 5-10 yards off the fairway. While that can be good on bad shots, it hurt me a few times with my irons into the greens. I have been never been a high ball hitter so didn't have any drives balloon on me. Distance wise, it seemed pretty close to where I normally hit it. If I would have used my normal ball, Im sure I would have been within feet of this ball, but I also had some big drives today due to my swing finally coming around after a bad start of the season since Feb.

Irons:

Off irons, the ball again felt soft. Even on a few toe shots, it did not feel as bad as some other balls I have played. Spin wise the ball had decent amount. Even though I am a little higher handicap than most here it seems like, I have had some recent success in shaping the ball. I cannot really control the amount it moves, but I can usually make it go the direction I want with my irons. Sometimes huge hooks/slice, sometimes nice draws/fades. This ball was actually pretty hard to do any of that with. I had a few, but those felt like they should have overcooked but turned out only doing a little movement. Some of this was again due to the wind. With this ball ballooned on me a few times with my short irons. A few shots where it came off looking like it was going to draw, the ball went high and then just literally got knocked down short and stayed on line. Going into the green, I had a little more roll out than I expected. Especially with some of the higher shots. Most of the time my high shots with my 7-Aw will either stop right next to its pitch mark or will back up a foot or two. out of the 6 greens I hit today, only one stopped within 5 feet of the pitch mark and that was with my PW.

Pitch/full wedges:

Had a great day inside 100 yards today. I had 9 one putts today (one for birdie from about 30-40 ft :) haha), but the rest were all from inside 100 yards. 3 of which were high flops that landed less than 3 feet. This (inside 100 yds) was the part of the game where the ball did land and basically stayed where I felt it should have. still not a lot of spin on the ball, but enough where I was able to predict how the ball was going to roll out.

So for the most part, I think I would be able to play with this ball, certainly on days that aren't so windy. In Charleston though, those days are few and far between especially when playing courses right on the coastline. Since I mostly bargain shop for balls (not junk balls but when the better 3 and 4 piece balls go on sale), cost would be the biggest factor for me playing this ball, but even if I found a really good price, I might not be able to fully trust the ball in heavy wind conditions.

Pros:

Soft feeling

Low Spin off the driver

Predictable roll out in the short game

Good distance (at least equal to what I am used to with similar balls)

Cons:

Not great in the wind

Rolls too much off irons

Not a lot of movement/workability (expected with a non tour level ball also could be good or bad depending on the level of player you are)

I will continue to play and report with this ball for the next few weeks or until I lose them all haha (which might be a bit. I only lost 2 balls today due to weird shots for me). Also happy to answer any questions anyone might have. Enjoy!

Received mine yesterday and will post the pics ASAP. Haven't had any on course testing yet but hope to have 3-4 rounds in this week. Just from hitting some in my backyard the ball I have feels amazing. Very soft and it hits and stops after about one or two hops. I was hitting shots from inside 50yards and the ball was very consistent.off the face. I will update this post or add to the thread when I can hit full shots with the driver and some irons on course but so far it's a great ball and wanted to get my initial first impressions on here.

Edit: played my first 9 hole,round today. Ball i have is amazing. Very soft off the putter face and the control on the greens is great. Off the face of irons and wedges the ball spun a lot and on 2 occasions backed up a few feet, which is good me because I don't spin the ball a lot with my irons or wedges. Shots around the green seemed to check up a little quicker and not roll out as much,

When hitting the driver and fairway woods I had the same distance as my chrome softs and had a great feel off those faces also, while having a very nice sound of the face. The durability is great too compared to some other top level balls I've played. Rotated 2 out of a sleeve and there are no scuffs or anything on the covers so that is also a plus. No negatives to speak of right now, but if something arises I'll post back.

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Mine arrived Saturday. Grabbed a few other balls that I have and snapped a few pics with the test subject. I like the color of it...not as "dingy" as the ProV covers.
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Did notice that there is a definitive seam for the two halves on these. Rumor, back in the day, was that with the ProV if you teed it up with the seam vertical it would fly a little straighter. And that was better for into the wind. Downwind, place it horizontal, and the ball would carry a little further. Seemed reasonable, and definitely didn't hurt when I was playing ProV's years ago. With the Testers, I hope they decide to put the specific ball name aligned on the seam, for a putting alignment aid. Snapped a pic with an old school V1 to show a similar seam...

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Not real warm here today, but I have some time to kill tonight during lax practice. Might slip over to a putting green to roll these around some to get a feel for them.

[i][b]Edit: March 25 driver testing:[/b][/i]
Got out last night and went thru my driver testing experiment. The Test balls were part of the sorting out, so I ended up hitting quite a few drivers last night. I can say that the Test ball seems to fly a little higher than the Chrome+ is was also hitting. (I've played the Callaway for 2 years and know where it should end up on certain holes. The range was closed last night so I hit probably 30-35 drivers sorting out shafts and settings, but after picking one to go with hit a few Callaways and a few Test ones. They wanted us to test the new ball, not necessarily side-by-side, but I'm getting there. First trying to determine distances, and the engineer in me won't let me just go at it without understanding where it will end up compared to what I'm used to...)

Side by side, the Test ball flies higher. On the surface, I was thinking it would fall out of the sky and not end up in the same neighborhood at the Cally. Wrong. I hit a Cally solid last night, and had one of the Test balls balloon a little on me, but they were within a yard of each other. I hit kind of a high ball anyway, but this was a 2*-3* higher launch and was noticeable. Again, it didn't hurt me in the end, it just my take a few shots to get used to. As for the sound, it sounded really solid. I decided on the Cobra Bio Cell + and the Test ball had a thump to it coming off the face. The Cally sounded a little more tingy, not bad, but a little more muted but still solid.

I didn't get to hit many shots into the greens last night. Had a limited amount of time, the greens were punched and REAL sandy, and wanted to figure out the driver so I can move full steam ahead. The few shots I did get to hit, the ball seemed to hold its line decently and I didn't notice any scuff marks. Should get a round in this weekend. I'll have a full round with the Test ball to report back on.

Still waiting for mine, but will update this post with unboxing pictures!

EDIT:

As others have mentioned, I noticed a definite seam on the ball. I did the old "wedge test" (aka bounce a ball on a wedge) to get an initial feel for the ball. It's definitely not a rock, I can assure you that, but not a total marshmellow either. Can't wait to take these out on the course. Is it the weekend yet???

Put me down for down for testing if someone backs-out

OK so I got mine in the mail Monday.

Here are my thoughts.
Off the tee the ball is really good. Long and straight and about the same ball flight as the chrome soft I play. Feel is great and is not any shorter than other balls that I feel fall in the same category. Didn't get much side spin with it either off the tee I feel.

Irons felt ok. Nothing that really stood out feel wise. Ball flight was about normal for me maybe a tad higher. Shots into the green would not stop immediately either. My 7 iron was rolling out about 6-8 feet after hitting the green leaving me a few putts that I feel would have been made had they not rolled out so far. My gamer ball I normally play sits within a couple feet of where it hits.


Wedges. I personally didn't care for the feel off the wedges. Felt harder to me and I couldn't get it to spin like I normally do on pitch shots over 30 yards or so.
A 50 yard "low spinner" for me would take a big initial hop try to grab and maybe roll out another foot or so. On these types shots I like it to take 2 bounces and stop dead.


Putter. Feel was hard to me. Felt hard coming off the face and dead.

Durability. I played one ball for 18 holes and hit one cart path. ON a scale from 1-10 I would rate durability around a 7. It seemed to stain from the grass if that makes sense? Its seemed to lose the "Bright white " color really fast.

My overall thoughts are that it is a fantastic ball off the tee. I actually probably like it better over the chrome soft off the tee. The main difference is I hit this a few yards further than my normal gamer. I also feel like this balls performance gets worse the closer to the green you get.

Just received mines!

About to put these in play this week!

[attachment=2675799:IMG_7668.jpg][attachment=2675803:IMG_7670.jpg]

I added some alignment lines since there are no lines on the balls.

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I got some guesses on who made these, judging by the seam and the box shape.

But I won't taylor a guess who made them yet.

--kC

Hopefully mine arrive today.

Looking at the boxes and the seam on the ball, have a very good idea on who's making this ball. If it's who I think it is, they're going back to their old box shape ...

Received my dozen test balls earlier in the week. First thought was about the shape of the box as others noted. Makes it easy to tell who we are testing for. That said, I pulled out a sleeve to take a look. I like that these are devoid of any stamps or identifiers. The cover didn't feel too soft when I gave it the old fingernail test, but it still felt good. I'll be doing a comparison test against the ProV1/x and at least the TM TP Black and Tour Preferred X. My comparisons will be done via a hitting bay sim to compare driver and 6 iron. I'll also be getting in at least a couple rounds on the holiday weekend. I'll update/edit this post as I get more I formation.

EDIT: First Play Impressions

Played ten holes after work today at a little track in town. Think I got out in roughly 1:15 on the holes and played 5 over this was my first golf action of the year on course so I was really happy with the results. Hit this test ball against the Chrome +, a ball I actually liked a lot.

Driver:
By far my weakest of swings today. Couldn't get a handle on the club save for a couple good shots. Still I fet this ball seemed a bit spinny for me off the driver. It felt soft, but it seemed to get caught in the wind very easily. I couldn't get much of a read for overall distance because the fairways had been punched recently. Some downwind holes however left me with short irons in, like 9iron or PW which was nice (didn't have "normal" Texas wind today, just 5-10mph). I plan on doing some testing at Golfsmith this weekend if we end up getting more rain.

Hybrids:
Only hit a couple shots with hybrids today. Couple of short hole tee shots playing for position and a lay up on a par 5. Good distance overall but like driver perhaps too much spin for my swing. I was playing a small fade today when I'd ended the last season hitting more of a straight ball or small draw. Still, soft feeling all around.

Irons:
I felt like this was where the ball did better and where my swing was much better. I hit some really solid iron shots with this ball. I was able to fight an 8iron low into the wind from 158 out that hit about 10 yards short of the green and bounced on to a front pin location. Distance for me seemed normal, perhaps a half club longer. Again the ball felt soft off the face. I was playing with my new MP-H5s and the head/ball combo felt really nice. If say this ball played better off irons overall than the Chrome+ and better than my driver swings.

Wedges:
Here's where I was curious as to the balls performance based on earlier shots but I was left without much input. I was able to get the ball to stop short and check on some chips and pitches. But on some shots I had to play for some slope running away from me and this ball showed it could be used effectively in that situation too. I'll report back on more wedge findings later.

Putter:
Played my Scotty Newport 2 today. This ball felt really nice off the putter. It was so soft at times that I overhit some outs through the break and past the hole. Still I don't feel the ball was a marshmallow. It's just soft off any face that comes into contact with it. I'll be testing this theory tonight when I throw the ball off a small trampoline at back at my face. I'll let you guys know how that turns out (kidding).

[quote name='taz757' timestamp='1427114643' post='11195911']
Looking at the boxes and the seam on the ball, have a very good idea on who's making this ball. If it's who I think it is, they're going back to their old box shape ...
[/quote]That's exactly what I thought, a new taylormade ball.

Box shape didnt even register to me until it was pointed out. Good call.

I don't know about the other testers, but I'm trying my best not to speculate and let the ball perform on its own.

That said, my gut tells me this is something else? Like the new Snell ball or something.

[quote name='Imp' timestamp='1427111213' post='11195683']
I got some guesses on who made these, judging by the seam and the box shape.

But I won't taylor a guess who made them yet.

--kC
[/quote]

Yup

Yes I am trying not to think about what ball it is haha. Rain all day today....... so no go. hopefully rain stops tomorrow.

I got these bad boys today at work, finally able to post up some pictures and initial thoughts.

They are soft off the putter face and have a nice sound. It's softer than the latest harder than normal ball I've been playing, the Nike RZN Black. My current gamer ball is the Chrome Soft and this ball is pretty similar from what I can feel off the putter face. I'm going to head to the short game range on Saturday and then play my round with them. I'll have another round in on Monday but it'll be strictly based on a Par 3 course in the evening time. In between now and then I'll hit some in my driving range set up in the backyard and then try to hit the short game area as well at my home course.

I'm going to remain in the mindset of not knowing what ball it is or who made it. Personally, I don't care and it doesn't matter. I'm all about searching for what kind of feel off my putter face it has, how easy it is to judge speed on long putts, how it feels off my wedges, irons and driver, how it sounds, how it spins on pitches, chips, full shots, how susceptible it is to damage from my clubs as well as damage from hitting the rocks and what my distance is relative to what my current distance is now.

What are you guys looking for in this ball?

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Scooted over to the local course this evening. Was hoping to roll a few on The putting green. Nope. They just punched and dressed them today. Gonna try to go play Wednesday night.

Is there any idea when the identity of the balls will be revealed? I'm obviously not expecting something like, say, next week, but it would be nice to have an idea just to keep tabs. I'm excited to hear what people have to say about these.

Based on first pics I have to guess this is a TM ball. The seam gives it away since they are the last to still have a very visible seam

So are all 14 wrx'rs getting the exact same balls as it looks by the pics. I was thinking that maybe winners were getting several different OEM balls. So all winners for this test are testing the exact same balls just don't know who made them? And I guess people who were trying to guess which OEM supplied the balls are figuring the balls may be by certain OEM by the long box they cam ein as opposed the square box other OEM's use to package their balls??

[quote name='rtraudt' timestamp='1427154469' post='11201059']
Is there any idea when the identity of the balls will be revealed? I'm obviously not expecting something like, say, next week, but it would be nice to have an idea just to keep tabs. I'm excited to hear what people have to say about these.
[/quote]

2 weeks or sol

As far as I know we all are receiving the same golf balls. I'm not assuming anything on the OEM. They were shipped from WRX and not drop shipped from a company so they could have put anything in any sort 9th packaging.

is there a possibility this is the aeroburner ball? the "supersoft" level TM offering? Everything's looked to be TM thus far.

[quote name='CCUgolfer23' timestamp='1427160427' post='11201845']
[quote name='rtraudt' timestamp='1427154469' post='11201059']
Is there any idea when the identity of the balls will be revealed? I'm obviously not expecting something like, say, next week, but it would be nice to have an idea just to keep tabs. I'm excited to hear what people have to say about these.
[/quote]

2 weeks or sol
[/quote]

Much sooner than I expected! Hope they aren't giving any of these to people in Wisconsin like myself considering it just snowed again today...

[quote name='rtraudt' timestamp='1427162577' post='11202159']
[quote name='CCUgolfer23' timestamp='1427160427' post='11201845']
[quote name='rtraudt' timestamp='1427154469' post='11201059']
Is there any idea when the identity of the balls will be revealed? I'm obviously not expecting something like, say, next week, but it would be nice to have an idea just to keep tabs. I'm excited to hear what people have to say about these.
[/quote]

2 weeks or sol
[/quote]

Much sooner than I expected! Hope they aren't giving any of these to people in Wisconsin like myself considering it just snowed again today...
[/quote]

Actually I may be wrong. Just have to test them within a 2 week period so it may be longer than 2 weeks, but as far as the reveal I'm unsure.

Is anyone willing to cut one in half to see how many layers it has or would that be detrimental to this blind test?

Did anyone notice in my third picture that there is a huge gap in the ball with regards to circles on the
ball?

[attachment=2677139:IMG_2595.JPG]

I haven't checked yet if it's just the camera angle or what but if that's the case, I'm planning to try my line down it for putting.