Golf Ball spin rates for higher swing speed/low handicap

PeteNC · February 19, 2019

I'm interesting in some comprehensive detail on what people are seeing for different spin rates (driver and other) across the high end balls. I've been playing Srixon XV for quite a few years as it was usually one of the softer yet lower spin balls off the tee, while having spin with the short irons. I'd ideally like as low of spin as possible off the tee while maintaining good short iron spin.

I was surprised to see Pro V's as being slightly less.

Here's one link with some numbers that surprised me. Granted it's one person with a fixed set of clubs and the swing speed is a little lower than mine.

I was surprised to see Pro V's as being slightly less, including the regular being less than the x.

https://www.tgw.com/golf-guide/top-ten-golf-ball-comparison-2019/

Mahamilto · February 19, 2019

Interesting. Everything I have seen so far showed the TP5X being much lower spin than the V1x in the driver. Wonder why there was such a huge difference for this tester.

arbeck · February 19, 2019

I don't know their methodology, but I have to assume it was flawed. Nothing I've seen has shown a ball having 700 RPM of difference of spin on equivalent strikes with a driver. Pretty much any ball is going to be within a few hundred RPM with a driver assuming they were hit the same. Chances are they are including some off strikes in the data.

This also comes about in other parts of the test. There's simply no way I believe the e12 speed spun 800 RPM less with a SW versus a 7i. The numbers for both the Z-Star and the Pro V1 on the 7i seem way off (I swing my equivalent lofted 7i at 80MPH and get mid 5500-6300 RPM with a Pro V1).

PeteNC · February 20, 2019

I don't know their methodology, but I have to assume it was flawed. Nothing I've seen has shown a ball having 700 RPM of difference of spin on equivalent strikes with a driver. Pretty much any ball is going to be within a few hundred RPM with a driver assuming they were hit the same. Chances are they are including some off strikes in the data.

This also comes about in other parts of the test. There's simply no way I believe the e12 speed spun 800 RPM less with a SW versus a 7i. The numbers for both the Z-Star and the Pro V1 on the 7i seem way off (I swing my equivalent lofted 7i at 80MPH and get mid 5500-6300 RPM with a Pro V1).

I am just seeing that...I wonder if it was a typo or actually poor hits, etc.

hound25 · February 22, 2019

Bridgestone Tour Bx. I am around 120 with the driver and this ball is great.

greenwavegolfer · February 22, 2019

I don't know their methodology, but I have to assume it was flawed. Nothing I've seen has shown a ball having 700 RPM of difference of spin on equivalent strikes with a driver. Pretty much any ball is going to be within a few hundred RPM with a driver assuming they were hit the same. Chances are they are including some off strikes in the data.

This also comes about in other parts of the test. There's simply no way I believe the e12 speed spun 800 RPM less with a SW versus a 7i. The numbers for both the Z-Star and the Pro V1 on the 7i seem way off (I swing my equivalent lofted 7i at 80MPH and get mid 5500-6300 RPM with a Pro V1).

I agree, something is rotten in Denmark with this "test". They don't say how many shots were hit with each ball just that they took an "average" so is it 2? Is it 10? If closer to the latter were outliers thrown out? It's pretty clear that these numbers are just not reliable at all. Also, why use an Apex '19 7i (I'm assuming in this case it's not the "Pro" model as they don't specify) as we know those clubs can be prone to low spin fliers (the CF '16 certainly were and I've heard reports of the '19 version having similar issues) so I think that might be one of the issues with the 7i numbers. But man there's some crazy stuff in there. The e12 speed spinning half as much as others on the wedge? And for someone hitting a 7i 165-170 why is he only hitting his 54º wedge 85-90 yards? They don't say if he was trying to hit a specific distance or a full shot, but I have to believe for the purposes of this experiment a full shot makes more sense because it's a hell of a lot harder to control spin on a partial shot so that could introduce some variance if that's how he was hitting them. I think I'll wait for the TXG review of all the new balls as I'm sure it will be much more accurate than whatever they did to get these numbers.