Longest urethane cover ball with irons

[Haig]

As I continue to fight Father Time and losing, my stubbornness keeps me from hitting a 6 where I used to hit a 7. What urethane covered balls have you guys found that go the longest with the irons? I’m not concerned with driver distance just irons. Thanks

[bluedot]

Unless you're looking for a bunch of guys touting the ball that they play, you might want to look at the testing data done by Today's Golfer and MGS.  That will at least give you a starting point that's more than me or others trying to justify what we do and what we spend.

 

A couple of generalizations are worth mentioning, perhaps.  Harder balls are typically longer than softer balls, though you have to compare two specific balls to be sure.  The yardage differences become smaller, both by yards and percentages, as you get closer to the green; to use one example, the AVX tests as 4 yards longer than the ProV1x with a 7 iron, but the difference by the time you get to a pitching wedge.  There is, of course, some degree of trade-off between spin rates and distance; the AVX is spinning about 800 rpms less than the V1x in the MGS testing.  And finally, ,there is another consideration in all of this, which is the consistency of the distance that you get; the Today's Golfer testing has at least some data for that, which shows, for instance, that the two ProV1's are shining stars in the market for consistency.

 

 

[rwbloom93]

9 hours ago, Haig said:

As I continue to fight Father Time and losing, my stubbornness keeps me from hitting a 6 where I used to hit a 7. What urethane covered balls have you guys found that go the longest with the irons? I’m not concerned with driver distance just irons. Thanks

 

Unfortunately, what is farther for one golfer is not always farther for another.  Your swing characteristics (IMHO) and the clubs you use (confirmed by the robots) can effect ball performance from golfer to golfer.

 

Having said that, my anecdotal evidence (and the 'bots) confirm most of the "softer" urethane balls go farther than the "firmer" balls for irons.  Although there are significant differences in the two robot tests for Driver and Wedge data, there is much conformity for the 7 iron data. IMHO try the Tour B RX and Tour B RXS. Others to try include the AVX, Srixon QST, Chrome Soft, Wilson Staff Duo Urethane, etc....Both robot tests have them in the upper part of the distance chart.

 

As a side note, if you want to hit a 7 iron when you know father time is telling you a 6 iron, then the "softer" ionomer balls might be better for you.  The Wilson Duo Spin is the longest ball off the irons for me (But not the driver) followed closely by the TourSoft, TruFeel, Srixon Soft Feel.  

 

Regards

 

 

[LCP]

Taylormade TP5x. Really low spin off of iron shots for added distance.  Too long/low spinning for me sometimes.

[A.Princey]

Tour B RX, low, low spin off long irons and high launch.

[MattM97]

I've found the longest to be TP5X, Z-Star XV and Tour B X to be the longest and when I say longest I mean like max of 5 yards longer if struck perfectly. 

[arbeck]

Iron distance is going to be all about spin. In the large ball test, there was only about 1MPH difference in ball speed at and 85MPH swing speed between the balls with a 7i. But there was a 7 yard difference in carry distance. That's almost entirely due to spin. In general, a soft ball spins less. The problem is that a soft ball is also in general slower with a driver (even at a slow swing speed). So you might be gaining 5 yards with an iron but losing 5 yards with a driver. On most holes, assuming you are reaching in two shots, you aren't gaining much of anything.

 

There have been some good suggestions already, but I'd rule out things like the Wilson Duo Pro (loosing too much driver distance) and the AVX (lower swing speeds generally need high peak heights, not lower peak heights).

 

The TP5x is a good shout, it's high launch and low spin and firm enough to not lose any ball speed. But if I had to suggest one ball I'd probably say the Bridgestone BRX. It's firm enough (similar to the BXS and Pro V1) that ball speed off the driver won't be lowered for you. It's very low spin so you will gain with irons. I can attest that it's at least a half club longer for me with all my irons and wedges (full swing, my 7i speed is 83MPH). The big ball test says it's not any shorter with a driver. You just have to decide if you can deal with a loss of a little short game spin and quite a big of spin on approach shots.

[North Butte]

I got to the point with AVX, due to the combination of lower trajectory and considerably lower spin than the Pro V1x I normally use, where it was almost like hitting a 7-iron with AVX and hitting a 6-iron with Pro V1x produced the same shot. A ball that makes iron shots fly lower, spin less and travel about 6-8 yards farther is roughly comparable to taking one club less loft.

 

Where it seemed to pay off was with longer irons. I could hit a 5-iron shot with AVX that went as far (carry+roll) as a 4-iron shot with Pro V1x. But it seemed like hitting a good shot with a 5-iron was still easier than with a 4-iron.

 

Where it did not pay off was with 8-iron, 9-iron, PW. As a low-hitting, short-hitting bogey golfer giving up both spin and height on those short iron shots just was too much to give up on firm greens. I found myself needing to aim for 20 feet short of the hole when the flag was near the back of the green. 

[CougarRed]

Yep, Bridgestone BRX or TM TP5X.