Best ball for moderate swing speed single handicap

At my age (turning the big 6---gulp! ) the swing speed is going lower and lower. Problem is I play a draw so I'm also a low spin player.

Been playing Chrome Soft for many years but what I might be gaining control I'm also losing in distance off driver and irons.

Came across a Golf Monthly very detailed robot test of 3 driver swing speeds (85, 100, 115), 7 iron and wedge.

Looks like for my 95 driver swing speed, 7 iron and wedge control they would suggest...

PROV1 X

Tied longest for 100 mph driverMost spin for 7 and wedgeshort distance off 7 iron and wedge

TM TP5X

tied # 1 distance driver swing speed @100 mphtied #2 driver ss at 85 mphexcellent driver dispersion500 more spin that the B RX Bridgestone ball off 7 ironlow spin off wedge relative to others

Bridgestone Tour B RX

Longest for driver 85 mph3rd longest for 100 mph driverLowest spin off wedge

Have zero experience with any off these above balls. Play up in Toronto where fairways/greens are soft to moderate.

Everyone wants longer off the driver. My game is control. Fairways and greens.

Just changed irons to the Srixon Z 785s for more spin and control than my former P790s. 7 iron launch has gone from 17/18 to 20.

Had too many rounds in the low to mid 80s last year and want more back in the mid to upper 70s again.

Hey I can dream right!!! LOL

Would love to hear from others who have a similar game, draw, swing speed, control...who might have experience with those suggested balls.

Stay healthy

FORE!!!

I have a similar game although my handicap has surged over the past few years as I just don't play enough. I played the TP5X on Sunday and loved it. Had my best driving day as far as distance and accuracy in the past few seasons. Spin off irons and wedges was exactly what I was expecting. It will be my ball this year

Great to hear! Congrats!

How would you express the spin for irons and wedges?

I’m in the same boat as you..maybe even a little older!! I spent part of last year testing about 6 ball (all 3 you’re looking at)my gamer for the last few years has been the TP5x.

Im sticking with the TP5x...the only other good option for me was the left dash ProV1x.

Hope this helps..by the way I’m in the Detroit area too

I'm not sure I would be the best for wedge spin analysis as I have some older wedges. Getting some CBX2 delivered soon. I'm still rocking some SM5's with basically no grooves lol. Iron spin was great. A little run out on greens with a mid to long iron. 9i spun back a few inches and I dont normally spin the ball all that much.

I cannot overstate how much I loved the ball off the driver. Tight little draw all day and was seeing 250 with some roll out. First time out with the Sim so maybe that had something to do with it also but the ball just felt great

Fit your ball from the putter backwards. Especially at a single digit handicap, you will likely benefit from a more predictable ball (vs going for max distance).

My personal research = Can't go wrong with

Titleist Prov1 or v1x,

Bridgestone Tour Bx or Bxs

Taylor Made TP5 or TP5x

Srixon Tour xv

Snell MTB-x or black

I have played last year with Snell MTB-x and tried some Bridgestone Tour BX - both are superb. I enjoy the putter feel of the Snell best and it seems to spin a bit more on approaches.

Trying TM TP5x now

Never played Titleist except for found balls - always solid.

I am 52. Hdcp hovers around 4 to 5. Driver swing speed last fall would touch 110 but usually around 105-108. I too play in Canada (east coast) and usually play in wet to soft conditions in the spring season.

I play z785s (bent 1 degree weak from 7i to 9i; standard loft in PW) and z585s (standard 22 degrees in 4i, 25 degrees in 5i and 29 degrees in 6i).

Lots of similarities. In my view, you cannot go wrong with either ProV1x or TP5x. If your SS is 100+ with driver. AVX is another option (lower spinning and compression).

Bridgestone makes a great ball. Never tried (yet).

Another great option is the Srixon Z StarXV. Little cheaper than ProV1s and TP5s. Firm feel but works great.

TP5X

A ball should always be fit from green to tee. It's all about control around the greens and from 100 yards in. Personally have played just about everything out there, except the new BS which I am hoping to try come golf season. With what you have described Forged5, I would go with TP5 vs. the X, XS or RXS of the 2020 BS models, TM Tour Response, ProV1X is a higher launch and spin vs. the ProV1. Another that I am presently playing is Srixon Z-Star. Feel a bit softer vs. TP5 to me and come summer, they usually have buy one get one free, which is hard to beat?! Right now TM have TP5s on sale as will Titleist shortly, both which their buy 3 get one free deal.

I'm pretty similar swing speed and shot shape as you. I have found that balls that spin more have have given me slightly more distance on the driver, but almost half a club off the irons. In addition, inside 100yds is the strength of my game. I had played the Z star for a couple years, then switched to TP5 when it came out and it was a little longer but much better in the short game. Last year I tried the Tour B XS. Flat out, the best ball I have ever played! I hit it about 10yds longer of the driver, almost a full club longer off my irons, and its the best inside 100. I always had problems with my irons downwind because of the low spin the ball would fall out of the air. As crazy as it sounds, MORE spin helped me increase my launch angle, increase my distance, and increase my stopping power on my irons.

That is impressive!

Will add that to the list

fore!

We are very close. My age is 61 and play to a 6.9HC. My driver SS is usually 99-100mph (somehow hit 103 a couple of times on the monitor this week?). I spent a lot of time testing balls about a year or a little more ago. The TP5 was my winner. Then middle of last season I tried the B XS and though close, it became my favorite. Then a month ago I tried the new B RXS and it is in the bag. The difference between TP5 and B XS was really minuscule and the V1X is right in the hunt. Having said that, the B RXS seems to give a little more off the tee than those others and I enjoy them all around the green.

The B RXS makes sense on paper and it seems to be best fit for me on the course. I don't know that there is enough difference between any you mention to affect my scores. All have great feel and performance!

Green to tee, SHMEE! For years, going back to Tour iz, I was a Callaway guy. I played Chrome Soft up until mid Summer this year occasionally flirting with B330 RX. Welp, here goes.... THERE IS NO BETTER BALL ON THE PLANET FOR DISTANCE, SPIN, TOUCH AND FEEL THAN PRO V1. NONE!

I'm 20 years your junior but driver said 97 and get around my home course in 77-80 strokes.

Glad to read all the input folks!

So appreciated.

Have to note...the Bridgestone family of golf balls...SO CONFUSING! BRX BRS, B XS, BRXS.....every time someone mentions their ball I have to go back to the website to check which ball they are referring to.

They do market their balls based on swing speed so for now I'll keep my list to suggestions within those parameters...I guess.

Well the one thing we all have is time on our hands to figure all this out. LOL

The other confusing issue is X balls. In some lines the X is harder but spins more. In others it's the opposite.

No wonder I stuck to the same ball for 10 years.

Please keep educating me with your suggestions.

Be safe and healthy

FORE!

"monkeyboy  832Posted: Mar 19 2020 1:45PMWRX Points: 247Handicap: 8.6

Fit your ball from the putter backwards. Especially at a single digit handicap, you will likely benefit from a more predictable ball (vs going for max distance)."

I like this philosophy, as I don't see that much difference in distance from one ball to the next. I have a 95 mile per hour swing speed with my driver and strangely enough I enjoy a more firm golf ball instead of the mushy soft ones. A lot of that is attributed to how it feels off the putter face.

Putter backwards, Wilson Staff Professional,everything you want,, very underrated.

There is no "best" ball for any player of any swing speed; they are all within a few yards of each other off the tee. What there are, are balls that perform differently, primarily from 150 in and especially around the green, and vary a lot in price. You can play pretty much any of them successfully IF you play the same ball all the time and know what to expect when you hit pitches, chips, and putts.

So your task is to figure out first what you are willing to pay, and second, what you want for a spin rate off wedges. Forget "feel"; it isn't a performance characteristic and is primarily sound anyway.

Here's a link to the best and most thorough testing I've ever seen:https://www.todaysgolfer.co.uk/features/equipment-features/2019/september/robot-tested-which-golf-bal-suits-my-game/

Thanks for the link bluedot, very interesting!

That is the testing I referred to earlier.

Being a single handicap I don't lose many balls. Price isn't an issue as all the top balls are about the same.

As mentioned the Chrome Soft gives me the spin and control but according to the study I lose some yardage off the tee.

Disclaimer: I played the Chrome Soft from the time it came out (replacing the Hex Chrome line, which I also played) until I read this testing.

As soon as I read this testing (and believe me, I read it thoroughly and continue to refer to it), along with the MyGolfSpy piece where they discovered that the Chrome Soft cores were more likely to be off center than other balls and Callaway announced that they were spending something like $50m to fix it, I never played another round with the Chrome Soft.

I think if you look at the testing again, you'll see that the CS is not only shorter than most premium balls, but more importantly (at least to me!) also has worse dispersion and LESS spin off a wedge than other premium balls. That might have been a marginally acceptable trade back when the Chrome Soft was $10-15 less than the ProV's, but not at current prices. The CS basically comes off in the testing as a cheap ball that costs premium prices.

I wish that wasn't the case.

The new Bridgestone Tour B RX is amazing. I have never felt a ball that is better off the irons than this one. Full club longer on each shot. Feels great off the driver too. If I were you, I would definitely game these.

I’m 58, mid 90’s SS ( 225-230 carry with driver) 8-9 index, occasionally trending lower.

I prefer the Bridgestone RXS ( haven’t tried the new version yet), ProV1 and Snell MTB Black.

I did play the original Chrome soft, but noticed inconsistencies from time to time, and then reading the aforementioned study turned me off of them.

I give the TP5 a go from time to time, but it hasn’t impressed me overall. Not bad, but no ahhh factor either

The Snells are the best deal going, for sure. But it’s hard to argue with Titleist QC and performance. Just hate the price......

I'm a bit older (72) and play to a 9.5 index. Obviously, I have lost some distance and avoid hitting balls at our club's new simulator due to 'MPH depression'..! Anyway, 2019 was my best scoring year ever and the index got down to 7.0 over the Summer. My ball of choice was the Pro V1 all year, but in the Fall I started trying the Snell MTB-X and hit it even longer. it's great around the greens and putts beautifully.

I never had any success with low compression balls at all. Check out Dean Snell's YT video on the subject.

Let's hope our courses get back open soon!

Jim

I saw a list somewhere of the top LPGA pros and they "all" played the top balls, but without the X. ProV1, not ProV1x, for example.

If that's valid information, I'd suppose that for slower swing speed players, the ProV1 might be a better ball than the ProV1X. I'm one of those slow swing speed guys and the ProV1X feels like a rock; I hate it. But the ProV1 feels nice and soft.

It's a pretty even split between the V1 and V1x on the LPGA tour. It has little to do with swing speed and more to do with spin. The V1x will have slightly more spin. The numbers seem to show that you gain about .2% ball speed with the V1x over the V1 with the driver. As your ball speed increases, that small increase becomes more noticeable. But there are players even on the PGA tour who will give that up to get the spin they want on iron shots.

I went through this very comparison and settled on the ChromeSoft because I like it best on the greens and it definitely fits me best inside 100 yards. The TP5x may give me a few more yards off the tee but it spins way too much off full and partial wedge shots - where the ChromeSsoft just sort of hits and stays for me.

Agree with a previous comment - fit from the green backwards. Unless the TP5x is....25 yards longer. But if its really just a few?

I like the ProV1x, the Bridgstone and TM X version are also great balls but to me the ProVX is the king. To me the Chrome Soft is the worst of the bunch. you also might check out Snell MTB.

Whatever you're comfortable with. I'm turning sixty soon, I play any of the following: Chrome Soft X (warmer weather), Vice Pro (basically a ProV1 to me), winter time Vice Pro Soft or TM Project (a) cuz they were like $25/doz

I didn't play the CS from the beginning. I didn't like it at first. I did play the 2nd generation though. Found I got about 1/2 club more distance than the Prov1x that I played for a number of years and on and around the greens the performance was very close.

I switched to the AVX about 1.5 years ago, BEFORE I ever saw the off center core of the CS.

That said I would certainly give the CS another try. Your test is from 2019. The new ball, as you yourself said, has had a significant amount of $$$ poured into it and I imagine a good part of the $$$ was spent to ensure quality control including, no doubt, a truly consistently centered core.

So you wouldn't even try the CS again ? You liked it for quite a while, no ? Surely you have no idea of how many, if any, of the CS balls you played were off center.