Interesting long term on course findings

[VA golfer]

ProV1 vs. Hx Hot

For one year I have been keeping track of my stats in a log book as far as Greens in regulation, fairways hit, Penalties and number of putts. The Hx Hot was my colder months ball and the ProV! was always my summer ball. This year I have decided to play every other round with each and keep track of the stats. Here is what I have found after a year of comparing. The Callaway Hx Hot and Pro V1.

Greens in regulation- Hands down Callaway Hx Hot. For obvious reasons of less side spin. I spin the ball pretty well on full shots so holding greens is not really an issue.
I find that the adavantage of having more spin on full shots to stop the ball on the green if I over club or hit it a little to hard is washed out by the shots you hit a little short and back it off the front. For example with a full shot with an 8 iron or less with the Prov1 hits and spins back 3-5 feet. The Hx Hot hits and bounces forward 3-5 feet and stops. Depending on the shot you hit sometimes that forward hop is good other times its a disadvantage.
After every round I go hole by hole and score which ball would have been better.
for that particular hole specific shots which ball had the adavntage. The scoring always comes out pretty close. It has to be a significant advantage for me to give the point to one or the other. If I was playing the Pro V that day and I spun the ball away from the hole then the point would go to the HX hot and Vise versa if I had a difficult chip or the ball hit and went thru the green the point went to the ProV. (This is all speculation because who's to say that I would have hit the exact same shot with the other ball.But for comparison sake I wanted to do this. Because there is no way of hitting 2 identical shots on course. Plus I found that if I try and compare balls at the same time on course subconsiously in your mind you maybe rooting for one ball over the other. So I figured if I focused on that ball for the day and played it to it's fullest then for me It would be a better comparison.) Usually the Hx was 1-2 points better.

Fairways Hit- Again hands down HX Hot. Distance wise both are the same for me but the HX was straighter.

Penalties- I averaged about 1-2 penalties per round less with the HX.

Putts- Advantage went to the ProV1. This I found in part to being able to chip it a little closer and the fact that because I did hit less greens in regulation with it I was doing a little more scrambling.

After a year of trial and much testing I Found the Hx Hot to have a 2 stroke advantage over the ProV1. More greens in regulation meant: more birdie tries, and less scrambling which puts more pressure on you. It was straighter off the tee so again less pressure less penalties. There were so few times in any given round that I was so short sided to the point that short game spin became an issue. Sure I misses greens and had to chip but rarely to the point where you really needed that spin the ProV1 provided. Maybe one or 2 times a round but the other advantages out weigh those instances. Full shot spin washed out sometimes that forward hop got me closer to the pin other times further. For now the HX Hot is my ball. It is in my opinion a great ball that would help alot of recreational golfers score better.

My stats
Swing speed with driver 104
hdcp index 8
38 years old been playing since I was 15.

[NFD]

Thank you for this well articulated post. This information is very useful to me as I have been debating on switching to Pro-v1 balls.

 

NFD

[Baconator]

Great post, VA golfer!

 

I've been wondering whether I've been wasting time, money and strokes on tour balls when I should be using something that spins less, especially since I recently hit my best 9 hole score with a Srixon AD333. However, I've come to find that if my driving is off I don't do any better with an AD333 than with a tour ball. Ironically, I found myself doing better with tour balls on mishits since my typical misses on approaches are thin shots. With a spin ball I can usually still get enough spin to keep the ball on the green whereas with a distance ball it'll skip right off the back. I would imagine there are plenty of golfers out there that would do better by 'dowgrading' from a ProV1 or similar tour ball to something that spins less, but in my case I'm not so sure. In reality I don't think I'd score much different with any ball so I should stick to something like the AD333 and save myself some cash :) .

[mchepp]

GREAT POST!

 

I think I will try the same thing. Your approach of studying over the course of 1 year is very good. In my mind that limits the streaks (playing good versus playing bad) from making you think one ball is better than another. Sometimes I play a ball for a while when I am playing good and think that it is the best ball ever only to stop playing well and try and switch thinking the ball is the problem.

 

Thanks again.

[craz-e]

As everyone has already said, excellent post. I love reading posts like this, I have recently started using the Taylormade black against the standard Pro V1 and I am too finding better results with hitting it straighter etc. I just wish these "other" balls felt as good.

[Babydaddy]

Terrific post

I have wondered the same thing about the HX Hot. I tried that ball ( a couple of dozen) and I must say I hit it straight and long. If you hit solid iron shots it won't totally kill you on the green either. Also, I have secretly believed that you could allow for the ball's lower spin characteristics around the green by learning how to chip with lower irons and not trying to be fancy around the greens.

This is a GREAT POST. I am going to really think about trying it myself as I have three sleeves of HX hots left. Also, it is a lot of fun to blow the ball by everyone in your foursome off the tee,

 

Cheers

Noelsy

[buztech]

Great post, thank you.

 

I did very well with Taylormade Burner balls... compared to TP Red. Same stats, and same pattern (Putting is much better with TP Red). But distance and straightness, Burner balls are amazing.

[Simp]

Yep. I believe as well that for the "average joe", a premium ball is an entire waste of money these days. We're simply not good enough to maximize the benefits of a premium ball. Many may say that they are, but they're not.

[Baconator]

Yep. I believe as well that for the "average joe", a premium ball is an entire waste of money these days. We're simply not good enough to maximize the benefits of a premium ball. Many may say that they are, but they're not.

 

True that - at least for me. That said, I don't play for money and even though I don't do it consistently I get my jollies from spinning back wedge shots. Aside from that and what I've said earlier, I do find that I putt better with good balls. If I was losing more than ball a round on average I'd stick to the cheaper balls, but as long as I can find good balls for no more than $30/dz I'll keep playing them. Heck, I just bought a dozen HX Tour 56s in 2-ball packs for $2/ball which is cheaper than the HX Hot, HX Hot Bite, E5+, etc. and unlike a number of folks I find they last far longer than any other ball I've tried. I'm sure I'm probably hurting my score on some level by playing high spin balls, but I do have fun and that's all that matters to me.