Help me pick a new ball

I have been playing the MTB-X for a couple of months now. It is a good ball and long. It just spins too much for me. I play my best when I can keep the driver in the fairway, and I would like to limit my misses as much as possible. I also don't need the ball sucking back on the green. I took a look at the Q-star because that had some pretty low spin readings in testing, but I got confused when they said for moderate swing speeds. I also took a look at the BX and BRX, but Bridgestone's ball lineup confuses me. Basically, I am just confused. I wouldn't rule out playing a Surlyn ball.

My Driver Swing Speed - 110 -115 MPH

Ball trajectory - Very High

My miss - Block or fade slice right that comes from not releasing the club or not keeping my lower body quiet.

Normal ball flight - Draw

You sure it’s the ball and not your swing? That’s a low spinning ball off the driver and the longest, allegedly, through the MGS tests.

TP5x is long. Tour BX. Volviks go yard, too. Do some research and some testing yourself. Get sleeves of balls and just play play play. We all have our favorites and those are normally the ones that we get our best scores with.

If you did not like the Q-Star, try the Srixon Z-Star and Z-Star XV. Go on golfdiscount.com and you can buy 6-packs of each for $9.99.

You swing a touch faster than me but here are some suggestions:

I personally play the Srixon Z Star XV and I like it a lot. Lower spinning, long off the tee, and pretty good short game spin. Srixon also has a couple really good sales every now and then so it definitely helps the wallet. Used to play Bridgestone Tour BX and that is also another great ball. TaylorMade TP5X also had some good reviews. For me, TP5X is longer with the irons. Good ball but not what I was looking for. Hope that helps. Good luck on your search.

> @jpbova said:

> I have been playing the MTB-X for a couple of months now. It is a good ball and long. It just spins too much for me. I play my best when I can keep the driver in the fairway, and I would like to limit my misses as much as possible. I also don't need the ball sucking back on the green. I took a look at the Q-star because that had some pretty low spin readings in testing, but I got confused when they said for moderate swing speeds. I also took a look at the BX and BRX, but Bridgestone's ball lineup confuses me. Basically, I am just confused. I wouldn't rule out playing a Surlyn ball.

>

> My Driver Swing Speed - 110 -115 MPH

> Ball trajectory - Very High

> My miss - Block or fade slice right that comes from not releasing the club or not keeping my lower body quiet.

> Normal ball flight - Draw

>

>

Duo Pro? Less spin with some greenside grab.

> @jpbova said:

> I have been playing the MTB-X for a couple of months now. It is a good ball and long. It just spins too much for me. I play my best when I can keep the driver in the fairway, and I would like to limit my misses as much as possible. I also don't need the ball sucking back on the green. I took a look at the Q-star because that had some pretty low spin readings in testing, but I got confused when they said for moderate swing speeds. I also took a look at the BX and BRX, but Bridgestone's ball lineup confuses me. Basically, I am just confused. I wouldn't rule out playing a Surlyn ball.

>

> My Driver Swing Speed - 110 -115 MPH

> Ball trajectory - Very High

> My miss - Block or fade slice right that comes from not releasing the club or not keeping my lower body quiet.

> Normal ball flight - Draw

>

>

Did you try the Q Star or the Q Star Tour? Because they are pretty different. The Q Star Tour is one of the straightest balls off the driver I have played(100-105ss), that still maintains a decent amount of spin around the green and with approach shots.

I switched from Pro V1 to TP5X this season. Pro V was spinning way too much for me, sometimes the ball would suck back a good 15 feet on the green. No one needs that much, especially if you can’t control it and I can not. I tested the V1X, TP5X, BStone BX, and Srixon Z Star XV. BStone I liked a lot but did not care too much for the feel off the putter, almost too firm if that is possible. Otherwise great product. V1X just spun way too much for me, my iron shots were ballooning like crazy and dying way short of my number. For me it was a toss up between TM and Srixon and after probably a dozen or so rounds of testing it was basically a coin flip. TM gives me nice trajectory and plenty of stopping power on the greens with all of my clubs. It is always a one hop and stop landing which I much prefer.

> @NJgolfer11 said:

> If you did not like the Q-Star, try the Srixon Z-Star and Z-Star XV. Go on golfdiscount.com and you can buy 6-packs of each for $9.99.

> @Makuakane_Bear said:

> You swing a touch faster than me but here are some suggestions:

> I personally play the Srixon Z Star XV and I like it a lot. Lower spinning, long off the tee, and pretty good short game spin. Srixon also has a couple really good sales every now and then so it definitely helps the wallet. Used to play Bridgestone Tour BX and that is also another great ball. TaylorMade TP5X also had some good reviews. For me, TP5X is longer with the irons. Good ball but not what I was looking for. Hope that helps. Good luck on your search.

I played Zstar in MN this year for 5 rounds. I liked it. Super soft feel, especially when compared to the MTB-X. I prefer the firmer feel of the MTB-X, but I feel overall the Z-Star is a better ball. I picked up a test pack of Q-Star tours from GolfDiscount.com. Thanks for the suggestion.

> @Tanner25 said:

> Duo Pro? Less spin with some greenside grab.

Had not even considered these. I looked up the data on it, and the spin off the driver was very high. Exactly what I am looking to get rid of.

> @1Mordrid1 said:

> Did you try the Q Star or the Q Star Tour? Because they are pretty different. The Q Star Tour is one of the straightest balls off the driver I have played(100-105ss), that still maintains a decent amount of spin around the green and with approach shots.

The Q-star tour is the ball i was referring to in my post. I should have specified.

> @iceman1118 said:

> I switched from Pro V1 to TP5X this season. Pro V was spinning way too much for me, sometimes the ball would suck back a good 15 feet on the green. No one needs that much, especially if you can’t control it and I can not. I tested the V1X, TP5X, BStone BX, and Srixon Z Star XV. BStone I liked a lot but did not care too much for the feel off the putter, almost too firm if that is possible. Otherwise great product. V1X just spun way too much for me, my iron shots were ballooning like crazy and dying way short of my number. For me it was a toss up between TM and Srixon and after probably a dozen or so rounds of testing it was basically a coin flip. TM gives me nice trajectory and plenty of stopping power on the greens with all of my clubs. It is always a one hop and stop landing which I much prefer.

yeah I am seeing 10 feet of spin with the MTB-X on hard and fast greens. When the greens get soft over the winter and spring the spin is going to be too much. Also, I am seeing the same thing as you with my irons. The MTB-X balloons, then as it comes down it looks like it is coming backward. I hit the ball high anyways. I would love to try the TP5, but I want to exhaust less expensive options first. The top end price tag for balls has gotten a little crazy in my opinion

If you are just going off the data, the Q-Star Tour is an attractive ball. Low spin, low average off axis, and low average offline

Q Star Tour is a good ball. Don't worry about the marketing saying it's for lower swing speeds. The Z Star is a viable candidate too for you it seems. For me the XV is more spinny than the MTB-X. All due to our own swing characteristics. I do think the TM TP5 and TP5x are good balls and maybe worth trying for you.

> @jpbova said:

> I have been playing the MTB-X for a couple of months now. It is a good ball and long. It just spins too much for me. I play my best when I can keep the driver in the fairway, and I would like to limit my misses as much as possible. I also don't need the ball sucking back on the green. I took a look at the Q-star because that had some pretty low spin readings in testing, but I got confused when they said for moderate swing speeds. I also took a look at the BX and BRX, but Bridgestone's ball lineup confuses me. Basically, I am just confused. I wouldn't rule out playing a Surlyn ball.

>

> My Driver Swing Speed - 110 -115 MPH

> Ball trajectory - Very High

> My miss - Block or fade slice right that comes from not releasing the club or not keeping my lower body quiet.

> Normal ball flight - Draw

>

>

Bridgestone B X for sure!! Better ball speeds than MTB-X and lower spin. Lower launching than ProV1x and TP5x

B X = swings over 105mph

B R X = below 105mph

BRX...super cheap...end of story

i dont get the average off axis for BRX being so high? its a low spin ball off driver?

The average off axis doesn't have to do with the spin RPM. There is only back spin on a ball when you hit it, What give the shot it's shape is it's spin off axis. In perfect world every ball would spin on axis and we would have a straight club head path to the ball. I have to think some of the off axis has to do with imperfections with the robot swinging the club or the ball itself. One outlier can throw off an average

Try the AVX if you want to lower trajectory a bit. Good distance and feel.

If the MTB-x spins too much, why not try the Snell ball designed to spin less with shorter irons, the MTB Black?

> @jpbova said:

> I have been playing the MTB-X for a couple of months now. It is a good ball and long. It just spins too much for me. I play my best when I can keep the driver in the fairway, and I would like to limit my misses as much as possible. I also don't need the ball sucking back on the green. I took a look at the Q-star because that had some pretty low spin readings in testing, but I got confused when they said for moderate swing speeds. I also took a look at the BX and BRX, but Bridgestone's ball lineup confuses me. Basically, I am just confused. I wouldn't rule out playing a Surlyn ball.

>

> My Driver Swing Speed - 110 -115 MPH

> Ball trajectory - Very High

> My miss - Block or fade slice right that comes from not releasing the club or not keeping my lower body quiet.

> Normal ball flight - Draw

>

>

Did you really keep track or do you just "feel" you've missed a significant amount more fairways? If you're sucking the MTB back a crazy amount then a ball like TP5X or Tour B X would probably be good. Still has a good level of spin but I've found it's on the lower end of the Tour urethane group. I'm no fitter and I'm not a pro but I'd almost never recommend anybody play a 2 piece surlyn ball. You can buy used urethane balls online that have probably been hit 1 time for 60% the new price.

Realistically, you chose the ball you want from the green back... Driver is almost always the last thing to consider when picking your ball. If you're seeing slices and a lot of spin (like, excessive spin) then you need to check contact on the face, and your face to path. No ball in the world is going to stay straight if you hit it low heel with a face 10* open.

Do you have any GCQ or Trackman numbers? What clubs do you play? Some of your issues that you see with flight might be explainable by your equipment choices and/or swing.

> @monks66 said:

> i dont get the average off axis for BRX being so high? its a low spin ball off driver?

The off axis is actually pretty meaningless. Even being on average 12 yards offline is fine. But keep in mind if you hit one ball 30 yards right and one ball 30 yards left, your average would be 0 yards offline. The more important thing to look at would be shot area. Having a ball with a slight defect could influence that a lot. Also, the lower the spin, the more likely you're probably going to go offline or be moved left or right due to the wind.

> @NikedOut said:

> Try the AVX if you want to lower trajectory a bit. Good distance and feel.

at the AVX price point, the BX has a lot of the same characteristics. I just picked up some BX balls to test along with some prov1X. I'd rather play the proV1x vs the AVX given the price points are the same.

> @davep043 said:

> If the MTB-x spins too much, why not try the Snell ball designed to spin less with shorter irons, the MTB Black?

It's not that the MTB-X only spins to much, but I feel like I make a good swing with it and the ball doesn't go where I expect. I played a QST and a BRX this weekend and found that the ball went more where I expected it to go. The MTB has the same dispersion issue as the X although not as bad

So far it is is BRX > ZStar > MTB-X > QST with BX and Prov1X still left to test

> @jpbova said:

> It's not that the MTB-X only spins to much, but I feel like I make a good swing with it and the ball doesn't go where I expect. I played a QST and a BRX this weekend and found that the ball went more where I expected it to go. The MTB has the same dispersion issue as the X although not as bad

>

> So far it is is BRX > ZStar > MTB-X > QST with BX and Prov1X still left to test

>

>

Balls aren't more offline or online. Unless there is a manufacturing flaw in the ball, the spin axis is going to be created by your swing and will be the same no matter what ball you use. The more spin you put on the ball, the more spin axis and/or environmental effects you need to push the ball offline. And if a manufacturing defect is causing the problem, you have no idea and no way of knowing how prevalent that is within the brand.

> @Z1ggy16 said:

> Did you really keep track or do you just "feel" you've missed a significant amount more fairways? If you're sucking the MTB back a crazy amount then a ball like TP5X or Tour B X would probably be good. Still has a good level of spin but I've found it's on the lower end of the Tour urethane group. I'm no fitter and I'm not a pro but I'd almost never recommend anybody play a 2 piece surlyn ball. You can buy used urethane balls online that have probably been hit 1 time for 60% the new price.

>

> Realistically, you chose the ball you want from the green back... Driver is almost always the last thing to consider when picking your ball. If you're seeing slices and a lot of spin (like, excessive spin) then you need to check contact on the face, and your face to path. No ball in the world is going to stay straight if you hit it low heel with a face 10* open.

>

>

> Do you have any GCQ or Trackman numbers? What clubs do you play? Some of your issues that you see with flight might be explainable by your equipment choices and/or swing.

I keep track of fairways and greens hit. I hit more of them when playing a ZStar in MN on a golf trip with my buddies. Now could that be a result of my swing being better and more consistent, YES. My misses FEEL less severe with the ZStar too, especially with irons. I do Have Trackman data. Albeit, it was with crappy Maxfli balls. I will post below. I play i210s and a G410 plus with a mitsu orange shaft. I have a box of BX's coming.

Swing speed - 112

ball speed- 158

launch - 13.5

spin -2350

Side spin - 250

distance - 290

> @arbeck said:

> > @monks66 said:

> > i dont get the average off axis for BRX being so high? its a low spin ball off driver?

>

> The off axis is actually pretty meaningless. Even being on average 12 yards offline is fine. But keep in mind if you hit one ball 30 yards right and one ball 30 yards left, your average would be 0 yards offline. The more important thing to look at would be shot area. Having a ball with a slight defect could influence that a lot. Also, the lower the spin, the more likely you're probably going to go offline or be moved left or right due to the wind.

correct. You have to look at the standard deviations and shot area. I didn't clip the standard deviation data

> @jpbova said:

> > @Z1ggy16 said:

> > Did you really keep track or do you just "feel" you've missed a significant amount more fairways? If you're sucking the MTB back a crazy amount then a ball like TP5X or Tour B X would probably be good. Still has a good level of spin but I've found it's on the lower end of the Tour urethane group. I'm no fitter and I'm not a pro but I'd almost never recommend anybody play a 2 piece surlyn ball. You can buy used urethane balls online that have probably been hit 1 time for 60% the new price.

> >

> > Realistically, you chose the ball you want from the green back... Driver is almost always the last thing to consider when picking your ball. If you're seeing slices and a lot of spin (like, excessive spin) then you need to check contact on the face, and your face to path. No ball in the world is going to stay straight if you hit it low heel with a face 10* open.

> >

> >

> > Do you have any GCQ or Trackman numbers? What clubs do you play? Some of your issues that you see with flight might be explainable by your equipment choices and/or swing.

>

> I keep track of fairways and greens hit. I hit more of them when playing a ZStar in MN on a golf trip with my buddies. My misses FEEL less severe with the ZStar too, especially with irons. I do Have Trackman data. Albeit, it was with crappy Maxfli balls. I will post below. I play i210s and a G410 plus with a mitsu orange shaft

>

> Swing speed - 112

> ball speed- 158

> launch - 13.5

> spin -2350

> Side spin - 250

> distance - 290

>

> > @arbeck said:

> > > @monks66 said:

> > > i dont get the average off axis for BRX being so high? its a low spin ball off driver?

> >

> > The off axis is actually pretty meaningless. Even being on average 12 yards offline is fine. But keep in mind if you hit one ball 30 yards right and one ball 30 yards left, your average would be 0 yards offline. The more important thing to look at would be shot area. Having a ball with a slight defect could influence that a lot. Also, the lower the spin, the more likely you're probably going to go offline or be moved left or right due to the wind.

>

> correct. You have to look at the standard deviations and shot area. I didn't clip the standard deviation data

Why do you want less than 2350 spin? For 112mph swing that's fine. What's your AoA like and what loft do you have on driver? Looks to me like you probably swing slightly up on the ball so it's not like you're launching the ball at 7* with tons of spin. According to to trackman, for somebody with 0 to +5 AoA at 115 mph, you'd want to be between 2358 and 2900 spin.

If you hit a draw as your normal shot and you suddenly moved to a driver set up that saw you spinning the ball at say 1800 RPM, you'd most likely lose distance and also your flight would become less stable. You'd probably end up missing more fairways with less spin. For every 1 bomb ball you hit 300, you'd have 9 more stinkers.

A quick google search for "Rory Mcilroy Trackman Driver" shows me this:

> @Z1ggy16 said:

> > @jpbova said:

> > > @Z1ggy16 said:

> > > Did you really keep track or do you just "feel" you've missed a significant amount more fairways? If you're sucking the MTB back a crazy amount then a ball like TP5X or Tour B X would probably be good. Still has a good level of spin but I've found it's on the lower end of the Tour urethane group. I'm no fitter and I'm not a pro but I'd almost never recommend anybody play a 2 piece surlyn ball. You can buy used urethane balls online that have probably been hit 1 time for 60% the new price.

> > >

> > > Realistically, you chose the ball you want from the green back... Driver is almost always the last thing to consider when picking your ball. If you're seeing slices and a lot of spin (like, excessive spin) then you need to check contact on the face, and your face to path. No ball in the world is going to stay straight if you hit it low heel with a face 10* open.

> > >

> > >

> > > Do you have any GCQ or Trackman numbers? What clubs do you play? Some of your issues that you see with flight might be explainable by your equipment choices and/or swing.

> >

> > I keep track of fairways and greens hit. I hit more of them when playing a ZStar in MN on a golf trip with my buddies. My misses FEEL less severe with the ZStar too, especially with irons. I do Have Trackman data. Albeit, it was with crappy Maxfli balls. I will post below. I play i210s and a G410 plus with a mitsu orange shaft

> >

> > Swing speed - 112

> > ball speed- 158

> > launch - 13.5

> > spin -2350

> > Side spin - 250

> > distance - 290

> >

> > > @arbeck said:

> > > > @monks66 said:

> > > > i dont get the average off axis for BRX being so high? its a low spin ball off driver?

> > >

> > > The off axis is actually pretty meaningless. Even being on average 12 yards offline is fine. But keep in mind if you hit one ball 30 yards right and one ball 30 yards left, your average would be 0 yards offline. The more important thing to look at would be shot area. Having a ball with a slight defect could influence that a lot. Also, the lower the spin, the more likely you're probably going to go offline or be moved left or right due to the wind.

> >

> > correct. You have to look at the standard deviations and shot area. I didn't clip the standard deviation data

>

> Why do you want less than 2350 spin? For 112mph swing that's fine. What's your AoA like and what loft do you have on driver? Looks to me like you probably swing slightly up on the ball so it's not like you're launching the ball at 7* with tons of spin. According to to trackman, for somebody with 0 to +5 AoA at 115 mph, you'd want to be between 2358 and 2900 spin.

>

> If you hit a draw as your normal shot and you suddenly moved to a driver set up that saw you spinning the ball at say 1800 RPM, you'd most likely lose distance and also your flight would become less stable. You'd probably end up missing more fairways with less spin. For every 1 bomb ball you hit 300, you'd have 9 more stinkers.

>

> A quick google search for "Rory Mcilroy Trackman Driver" shows me this:

>

>

>

>

>

I think people really under estimate what a "high" ball flight looks like. Ever seen Rory drive the ball in person? He literally hits it to what seems like 200 feet high... it's insane how high he hits the ball usually. For that data you gave me there, 13.5* at 2300 rpm is a completely normal flight, I don't think I'd classify it as "Very high".

> @Z1ggy16 said:

> >

> > Why do you want less than 2350 spin? For 112mph swing that's fine. What's your AoA like and what loft do you have on driver? Looks to me like you probably swing slightly up on the ball so it's not like you're launching the ball at 7* with tons of spin. According to to trackman, for somebody with 0 to +5 AoA at 115 mph, you'd want to be between 2358 and 2900 spin.

> >

> > If you hit a draw as your normal shot and you suddenly moved to a driver set up that saw you spinning the ball at say 1800 RPM, you'd most likely lose distance and also your flight would become less stable. You'd probably end up missing more fairways with less spin. For every 1 bomb ball you hit 300, you'd have 9 more stinkers.

> >

> > A quick google search for "Rory Mcilroy Trackman Driver" shows me this:

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

>

>

> I think people really under estimate what a "high" ball flight looks like. Ever seen Rory drive the ball in person? He literally hits it to what seems like 200 feet high... it's insane how high he hits the ball usually. For that data you gave me there, 13.5* at 2300 rpm is a completely normal flight, I don't think I'd classify it as "Very high".

9* driver. Do not know what my AoA is, and this is where my ignorance is going to show. I do not know how spin correlates to height or distance. I know too little spin equals too little distance, but also too much spin equals too little distance? Is it that less spin equals more height? I do hit up on the ball and when that happens I hit the ball high. That being said, I can catch it even and hit more of a normal ball flight. As far as spin, I figured the track man showed 2350 with crappy Maxfli rocks it must be 2500+ with a tour ball. I am not blaming a ball for my failure to close the face of the club. I just was searching for a ball that was more consistent and limited my failures

2500 is a perfectly reasonable spin number for a slightly upward angle of attack at 112mph. Your strike is going to dictate your spin rate so much more than ball will anyway, I'd focus more on hitting the center or slightly high and toe side of center as much as possible as opposed to searching for a ball that's going to help your driver flight (which... doesn't seem to even need much change). Besides, even a difference of like 300 or 400pm is going to change your driver distance by... maybe 5-6 yards most of the time?

> @Z1ggy16 said:

> 2500 is a perfectly reasonable spin number for a slightly upward angle of attack at 112mph. Your strike is going to dictate your spin rate so much more than ball will anyway, I'd focus more on hitting the center or slightly high and toe side of center as much as possible as opposed to searching for a ball that's going to help your driver flight (which... doesn't seem to even need much change). Besides, even a difference of like 300 or 400pm is going to change your driver distance by... maybe 5-6 yards most of the time?

>

>

>

>

I'm going to get on a better trackman tomorrow, wednesday. or Thursday. I want more solid data than what I have, Appreciate the help you gave me

Big fan here of the Vice golf balls

I got on a trackman today, and I was little surprised by the data. I had no idea that my AoA on my driver was negative. I thought I hit up on the ball. I think more spin is not something I want. Data is posted below. I would post the report, but I am not sure it has uploaded yet. I hit a Bridgestone xFIXx for the trackman today

Driver

SS - 110 - 112

BS - 158 - 160

Spin - 2500 - 4500 (best shots were delivered at 2500RPM most others were 3000+)

AA - -1.3

Launch - 11.5* (at the end I was finishing more on my front foot to deliver less dynamic loft, otherwise the launch was 16*. I have a tendency to finish back and when I do that it delivers a big dynamic loft and more spin)

7 iron

SS - 91

BS - 116

Spin - 7000+ (and I was more on the plus side of 7K. I will hitting wedge spin type numbers up into the 10 and 12K range)

AA - -4.3

Wedge

Spin - 10000 (I think I hit 14K as a high and 9K as a low)

You need a 2 piece surlyn promotional ball