really? i am better off not playing tour balls?

[skaarsgard]

took another bite of humble pie and its not tasting all that bad

kinda embarrassed to admit it but, i may be better off playing non-Tour balls.

for the past year or so, i have played quite a few different balls but ended up sticking to three balls in constant rotation:

Callaway Tour iZ, Srixon Z Star XV and Nike Tour One D (and their spin versions with the wind at my back)

I thought i was playing the right ball for the following reasons: i could drive them straight and far, able to control on the greens rather well, great feel on all clubs and appreciated the putter. since i was consistently getting pretty decent results, i figured i was adequately compressing the balls.

however, this year i have tried all of the latest balls in side-by-side comparisons:
Cally Hex Black, Cally Hex Chrome, TM TP5 and TP3, ProV1x and ProV1, Nike 20x1s and 20x1x, Bridgestone B330 and B330rx (2012 versions), Srixon Z Star, Z Star XV and Q Star.

I obviously liked all the balls to some extent sans the Nike 20x1 and Q Stars, but after this weekend's stroll with the 2012 B330rx ball, i gotta admit that the lesser balls are fitting me better.

Chrome, TP3, Z Star and B330rx have yielded the best results for me around the whole course - especially off the driver.

it's kind of troubling that i actually thought i was compressing the balls well enough, but some more time with the lesser compression balls i have realized that i should play them more.

SS is right on the cusp of Bridgestone's Demarc - 104-105, high spin player. what i have found is that the supposed lesser compression balls fit my game better even though they may not necessarily feel better and definitely aren't as cool as their tour counterparts.

I have a Z Star ZL sleeve at home that's up for the next round of testing- i hope its not that good... i don't wanna play a $44 2 piecer regularly!

[rgk5]

[quote name='skaarsgard' timestamp='1334619914' post='4734074']
kinda embarrassed to admit it but, i may be better off playing non-Tour balls.

for the past year or so, i have played quite a few different balls but ended up sticking to three balls in constant rotation:

Callaway Tour iZ, Srixon Z Star XV and Nike Tour One D (and their spin versions with the wind at my back)

I thought i was playing the right ball for the following reasons: i could drive them straight and far, able to control on the greens rather well, great feel on all clubs and appreciated the putter. since i was consistently getting pretty decent results, i figured i was adequately compressing the balls.

however, this year i have tried all of the latest balls in side-by-side comparisons:
Cally Hex Black, Cally Hex Chrome, TM TP5 and TP3, ProV1x and ProV1, Nike 20x1s and 20x1x, Bridgestone B330 and B330rx (2012 versions), Srixon Z Star, Z Star XV and Q Star.

I obviously liked all the balls to some extent sans the Nike 20x1 and Q Stars, but after this weekend's stroll with the 2012 B330rx ball, i gotta admit that the lesser balls are fitting me better.

Chrome, TP3, Z Star and B330rx have yielded the best results for me around the whole course - especially off the driver.

it's kind of troubling that i actually thought i was compressing the balls well enough, but some more time with the lesser compression balls i have realized that i should play them more.

SS is right on the cusp of Bridgestone's Demarc - 104-105, high spin player. what i have found is that the supposed lesser compression balls fit my game better even though they may not necessarily feel better and definitely aren't as cool as their tour counterparts.

I have a Z Star ZL sleeve at home that's up for the next round of testing- i hope its not that good... i don't wanna play a $44 2 piecer regularly!
[/quote]


Good for you for being honest with yourself. Every day at work I see guys buying Pro V1s etc and with their swings they could not break an egg with an axe. The ZStar SL is a stunner. I'm hooked.

[butters!]

why is it on titleist website they say even lower swing speeds compress the ball just fine? when you dont compress the ball enough what is the negative effect?

[Gbyeball]

[quote name='butters!' timestamp='1334636398' post='4735934']
why is it on titleist website they say even lower swing speeds compress the ball just fine? when you dont compress the ball enough what is the negative effect?
[/quote]

Loss of distance and with the soft urethane covers more side spin = bigger slice or hook. That being said if your driver SS is above 90 mph you may loose approx. 5 yards. Of course just like clubs certain balls may or may not work well with your swing, there is a lot more than SS that determines compatability.

Buy em and try em !

[Fourmyle of Ceres]

[quote name='skaarsgard' timestamp='1334619914' post='4734074']
however, this year i have tried all of the latest balls in side-by-side comparisons:
Cally Hex Black, Cally Hex Chrome, TM TP5 and TP3, ProV1x and ProV1, Nike 20x1s and 20x1x, Bridgestone B330 and B330rx (2012 versions), Srixon Z Star, Z Star XV and Q Star.[/quote]

My goodness that's a lot of golf balls to have tested between January and April. Either you must play five or six times a week or you're not exactly giving those balls much of a chance to shine!

[skaarsgard]

Fourmyle, you may be right in that I could probably give the balls more time. however, looking at my index, there are 25 posted rounds this year. i have gotten a good amount of time on the course. on top of that, while February had a two-three week stretch of summer like weather, March-April has been pretty cold and rainy - not the best chance to test balls. i'll get some more testing time in here in spring-summer with warmer temps.

yet, i know the Z Star balls - played them quite a bit last year as one of my main gamers. same with ProV - quite a few rounds last fall when the new balls came out.

with all that being said, i am pretty confident in what works and what doesn't and i was completely surprised how much better i was playing with the lower compression balls. they were (for the most part) better almost across the board. the only two tour level balls that i didn't feel gimped by were the Hex Black and TP5. both still needed a little more motivation with the swing but they performed well.

i am in my mid-30's, not in disgusting shape and already realizing that i may not have the ability to use the tour level balls i was comfortable with and enjoyed playing as there are less expensive and better performing balls for my game.

and that is the humbling part.

definitely more to come on this topic as i still have more than 20+ dozen balls and its early in the golf season. at this rate, i bet a lot of them will go up on BST

[Fourmyle of Ceres]

I did a test for a dozen or so rounds with a batch of ProV1x balls, fully expecting that for my weak game it would add strokes to my score. In fact, if there was any effect it was a stroke or two maybe but certainly no more. I got really used to how they acted around the green and saved a stroke every once in a while there to make up for the stroke I lost every once in a while because I was hitting a club longer on my approach or a badly-hit drive hooked or sliced a little extra on me.

Now I'm back to the cheap balls and quite happy with them. I lose that neat feeling of control around the green but I hit them a little higher, a little straighter and a few yards longer which is also fun. And like I say it probably has a net effect of a stroke a round better scoring or so.

But really, I had played a single round here or there in the past with the "Tour" type balls and on such a limited basis couldn't have told me much about the difference. Just too much variability in my game swing to swing and round to round. At any rate, I'm now convinced that the advice about huge differences in results based on type of balls is exaggerated. So hey, if you can spend a dollar or two a ball and get four-dollar results that's a good thing right?

I'm really digging the Wilson Zips I picked up as part of some $6/dozen blemished ball assortments. For well under a dollar a ball I'd probably play them even if they were costing me strokes!

[Aithos]

I recently bought some titleist dt solo balls for 20 bucks after playing a round with a sleeve and getting pretty good results. I was swinging 100-101 at the start of the season and might be a little higher but not too much.

I haven't noticed any distance lost with the driver but I'm hitting a bit shorter with my irons since this is a "spin" ball. However, I've had pretty good feel and they definitely land softer around the green. Now I'd like to try the hex chrome!

[FiveSixAce]

I went from ProVs to Gamer V2s. Birdies talk, so my ProVs walk.