Understanding Spin

I've been playing all the versions of the e5 since they came out and was on my last ball of the dozen and decided to put a 330RX I found into play. I drove the ball very well and was immediately wondering "should I be playing this ball instead?".

The next round I played 9 holes of each ball. I noticed something that I had never noticed before. Whenever I have played tour level golf balls [that I typically cannot compress enough with the driver] I have notice a looser collection of tee shots. The floating fade or draw from a imperfectly struck e5 would turn into a more of a slice or a hook due to what I presumed was more spin with a tour ball - this is the reason I play the e5.

What I never noticed before [in this instance] was that all of my approach shots with the 330RX [08 version] had a noticeable bend to them. Any well struck approach with the e5 would maintain its line and fly straight. Whereas the well struck RX would float ever so slightly and in some cases miss the green.

I had never really noticed this type of "loose" flight from 160yds inward with other tour balls that I put into play.

Is this typical? I thought the spin generated from a 7iron on up in loft was more backspin as opposed to the side spin that would cause the shots to float [please note that the e5 was also played in the same conditions - read wind - so I already thought of the winds impact on those shots].

They started on line and had perfect trajectory and then they would float away 10 to 15 yards off line.

I was hoping I had found a new ball to play since I assumed the idea of the RX was to have 105 >90 mph swingers be able to compress the ball [for straight drives with minimal spin] but also allow for more check on chips. But if loose approach shots is the rub, I don't hit it exact enough to put it in play then.

Please chime in if you have had similar or different experiences. I didn't put the new 2010 RX's into play and thought the new RX is the old RX and the RXS is a new ball altogether - so this may not be a problem with their new line. Any comments would be appreciated. [sorry for the long read]

From the ball testing that I did with Bridgestone types, I think your results were 'random' and not because of the ball types themselves. For full shots, there's not enough of a spin difference between the e5 and the standard RX to produce a noticeable side spin difference with an iron.

I havent tried the new RX or RXS yet. The 08 RX was longer off every club, straighter, but spun less around greens than the e5. The e5 is a great ball aside from the fact that it is noticably shorter off the tee for me.

I can appreciate why you would think it was random. My experience told me it shouldn't be happening. Especially with how many posts indicate the 08 RX isn't that spinny.

But there it was. Regardless of the wind direction, the e5 held the line and the rx drifted off course. Which made me wonder, is there typically a loft [7 iron?] where no matter how much spin a ball CAN deliver they will [when struck properly] fly relatively straight?

Is it absolute? A prov1 or a nike platinum will stay on line no matter how much spin is created by let's say a 9 iron?

Or is it a factor when "graduating" from a spinnish ball to a spinny ball [I realize I'm creating my own terms here] that you have to deal with?