Best ball for mid level golfers

[ltom]

I've been trying different balls having a mid level swing speed.  Figure for us it's a 3 piece ball like Titleist Tour Speed, Q star tour and TM Tour Response.  So far the TM is winning.  For 35 bucks you get cast urethane cover.  Looking for other opinions.

Edited April 12, 2021 by ltom

[MattM97]

I'd try out some of the DTC offerings like Snell, Vice and Sugar golf. Each of those price per dozen is under that $35 price point and have good to great reviews. 

[ltom]

The vice pro soft are the same price. Wondering about quality control on DTCs...

Edited April 12, 2021 by ltom

[MattM97]

Just now, ltom said:

The vice pro soft are the same price. 

 

They're less when you buy in bulk. So if you like the balls buy 5 dozen balls and it's like $26 a dozen. Sometimes Vice has promos where they add in an extra dozen balls which drops the price even more. 

[Pepperturbo]

My buddy is a mid-level golfer.  He loves ProVs but won't spend the money.  Do what he does, plays any ball he finds on the golf course. 😛  Nothing wrong with that route.

 

 

[Jsmitty1990]

I play to around a 2 handicap and I play the vice pro plus. I did some in course and off course testing used to be a die hard tp5x player and for the money you can’t beat the vice. 
 

ive not tested the other companies though so I can’t speak to them..

[North Butte]

How fast you swing the club has zero relationship to what ball you'll get the best results from.

 

And nowadays price has very little relationship to performance.

 

Don't buy into the marketing memes by Bridgestone et. al. that you might swing your driver too fast or too slow for a certain ball to work properly. 

[ltom]

Hmm my local pro shop said it all depends on your swing speed.  What the heck.  Not sure who to believe.  I just know when I used z-stars recently they didn't go anywhere off my driver.  It seems like swing speed does matter when it comes to compression.

[Jsmitty1990]

Vice has a ball fitter on the website 

[MattM97]

26 minutes ago, Pepperturbo said:

My buddy is a mid-level golfer.  He loves ProVs but won't spend the money.  Do what he does, plays any ball he finds on the golf course. 😛  Nothing wrong with that route.

 

 

 

I don't slice Top Flites into the woods because I suck, I do it to stock up on ProV1s I find. 

[ltom]

2 minutes ago, Jsmitty1990 said:

Vice has a ball fitter on the website 

It said vice tour for me.

[jholz]

As far as retail OEM balls are concerned, I would say that you are in the right area - depending on what you want and the variables of your game.

 

For me, the Q-Star Tours are a great compromise. Decent price, urethane cover, and softer compression. 

 

For a long time I was a "play whatever the hell you have in your bag" kind of guy, but this year I decided to go with a single ball for the entire season - both play and practice. We will see how that goes. 

[ltom]

6 minutes ago, jholz said:

As far as retail OEM balls are concerned, I would say that you are in the right area - depending on what you want and the variables of your game.

 

For me, the Q-Star Tours are a great compromise. Decent price, urethane cover, and softer compression. 

 

For a long time I was a "play whatever the hell you have in your bag" kind of guy, but this year I decided to go with a single ball for the entire season - both play and practice. We will see how that goes. 

I didn't realize Q-star tours had urethane covers.  Is anyone gonna try the new Divides.

[jholz]

1 minute ago, ltom said:

I didn't realize Q-star tours had urethane covers.  Is anyone gonna try the new Divides.

 

Yeah, the regular Q-Stars are Ionomer, the Tour is Urethane - hence the "Tour" name. 

[TwistedSister]

1 hour ago, ltom said:

Hmm my local pro shop said it all depends on your swing speed.  What the heck.  Not sure who to believe.  I just know when I used z-stars recently they didn't go anywhere off my driver.  It seems like swing speed does matter when it comes to compression.

What kind of Driver speed do you have?  I have played Z Stars for two years and get plenty of distance.  My driver speed was just tested at 93MPH. 

[Tanner25]

OP have you tried the Tour Speed? I haven't just curious. I think the TM Tour Response gets the best reviews here. If you can deal with less green side spin. The Srixon Soft Feels, feel excellent! Prior gen in yellow is hard to argue with. 

[ltom]

42 minutes ago, dhacker56 said:

What kind of Driver speed do you have?  I have played Z Stars for two years and get plenty of distance.  My driver speed was just tested at 93MPH. 

Cobra f6 

[TwistedSister]

44 minutes ago, ltom said:

Cobra f6 

Swing Speed or carry distance?

[ltom]

3 hours ago, jholz said:

As far as retail OEM balls are concerned, I would say that you are in the right area - depending on what you want and the variables of your game.

 

For me, the Q-Star Tours are a great compromise. Decent price, urethane cover, and softer compression. 

 

For a long time I was a "play whatever the hell you have in your bag" kind of guy, but this year I decided to go with a single ball for the entire season - both play and practice. We will see how that goes. 

Same here. Trying the find the right ball for me instead of whatever I find at the course.

[ltom]

30 minutes ago, dhacker56 said:

Swing Speed or carry distance?

92 and 210

[moolman]

4 hours ago, dhacker56 said:

What kind of Driver speed do you have?  I have played Z Stars for two years and get plenty of distance.  My driver speed was just tested at 93MPH. 

 

I switch off between the Z-Star and Q Star Tour, I have no problems with the Z-Star. Not sure of my swing speed but I use the Garmin watch for distance tracking and it tells me that my average drive is 240. If I'm on flat ground, I expect my driver to go anywhere from 220-250 or so and I've measured it with the watch every hole. I use a 9* Radspeed XB with Fuji Motorex R flex.

[TwistedSister]

46 minutes ago, moolman said:

 

I switch off between the Z-Star and Q Star Tour, I have no problems with the Z-Star. Not sure of my swing speed but I use the Garmin watch for distance tracking and it tells me that my average drive is 240. If I'm on flat ground, I expect my driver to go anywhere from 220-250 or so and I've measured it with the watch every hole. I use a 9* Radspeed XB with Fuji Motorex R flex.

My carry distance is right in your ballpark... I have a Mavrik 10.5 turned to 9.5 and an Evenflow CAMO 65R. 

Also game a SLDR 430 12* turned down to 10*  with Aldila 2KNV Blue 65 R.  both shafts are tipped 1/2".

[TwistedSister]

2 hours ago, ltom said:

92 and 210

See my last post.

[akronswitness]

7 hours ago, Pepperturbo said:

My buddy is a mid-level golfer.  He loves ProVs but won't spend the money.  Do what he does, plays any ball he finds on the golf course. 😛  Nothing wrong with that route.

 

 

Ive been doing that for 15 years, even when I played seriously lol. I have never actually cared to stick to 1 ball long enough for me to develop a opinion or notice the difference between any ball. I usually just play whatever balls I find in the woods on the course or buy a bucket of refurbished balls online at a discount rate.

 

To this day I could play a ProV1 for front 9 and a Top Flight on the back 9 and not be able to tell a single difference. Im not good enough of a golfer to care things like spin control on the green from 165 yards out 😄

The only ball Ive ever to actually be able to tell a difference with is the Noodle because of how soft it is off the club. Its like butter.

[5 O'Clock Charlie]

As a 3, I like to tinker with golf balls. I prefer Ionomer covers because as a high spin player, they don't rip back off the greens for me. I can also figure out how to deal with them around the greens. I tried the Maxfli Softfli for a few rounds, I think they ran about $20 for a dz. I was skeptical about the super low compression, but they felt fine off the driver and irons. I swing around 106mph with the driver and couldn't tell any distance difference with those or Titleist Tour Soft. The putter was the biggest issue.  Milled putter and 35 compression balls = marshmallow feel. I had no touch on the greens. Got some TF Gamers coming in as the reviews are pretty good. Going to give them a go here shortly.

[Pepperturbo]

15 hours ago, akronswitness said:

Ive been doing that for 15 years, even when I played seriously lol. I have never actually cared to stick to 1 ball long enough for me to develop a opinion or notice the difference between any ball. I usually just play whatever balls I find in the woods on the course or buy a bucket of refurbished balls online at a discount rate.

 

To this day I could play a ProV1 for front 9 and a Top Flight on the back 9 and not be able to tell a single difference. Im not good enough of a golfer to care things like spin control on the green from 165 yards out 😄

The only ball Ive ever to actually be able to tell a difference with is the Noodle because of how soft it is off the club. Its like butter.

You're not alone.  That's true with a lot of people.  That to my way of thinking comes under lack of "attention to details", which requires patience and forethought.

 

If you can hit the green from 165yds out, spin control is in play.  The buddy I referenced has hit into greens and his ball jumped running to back of the green, and in many cases off the back.  When he's hitting a small pitch, he hits the ball low, often too low, so he ends up playing army golf around the green.  All of that could change, and suddenly he'd take 1-3 strokes off a lot of holes.  Just because of the ball and how he impacts it. 

 

All he'd need is to know how far his ball rolls out when it hits the green, and his game would change.

[95124hacker]

Look for close outs at the end of each season of the premium balls, or take advantage of the Buy 3, get 1 free deals from Titleist, Bridgestone, Taylormade & Callaway. Modern golf balls when stored properly don’t expire, so hoard away. Kirkland 3-piece & MG C4 are always good budget options, as are the Spalding Tours.

[scott406]

I switch between Sirxon Z Star and Bridgestone RX last year

I just had a driver fitting so my swing speed is 96mph  and I hit it around 240

 

This year I am testing several golf balls so I can stick with one for the year

 

So far the Snell Black is the winner

 

I had a dozen Elixr from OnCore, which are nice but do not travel as far as the Snell (IMO)

The RX was too hard off the putter for me

I am playing the last of the Z-Stars I have left, then I am going to order a couple of dozen Snell Blacks for the summer

I have not tried the Vice, might give that a go

 

 

 

 

[phizzy30]

On 4/12/2021 at 11:46 AM, ltom said:

The vice pro soft are the same price. Wondering about quality control on DTCs...

I can tell you that the Snell line of balls flat out perform and quality control is second to none.  Around 30 bucks for the MTB line and even less for their other line.  MTB line is the equivalent to the higher priced tour level balls IMO and no I'm not a spokes person for Dean.  Give it a go.  I'm confident you will be at the very least satisfied if not amazed. 

Edited April 13, 2021 by phizzy30

[akronswitness]

4 hours ago, Pepperturbo said:

You're not alone.  That's true with a lot of people.  That to my way of thinking comes under lack of "attention to details", which requires patience and forethought.

 

If you can hit the green from 165yds out, spin control is in play.  The buddy I referenced has hit into greens and his ball jumped running to back of the green, and in many cases off the back.  When he's hitting a small pitch, he hits the ball low, often too low, so he ends up playing army golf around the green.  All of that could change, and suddenly he'd take 1-3 strokes off a lot of holes.  Just because of the ball and how he impacts it. 

 

All he'd need is to know how far his ball rolls out when it hits the green, and his game would change.

 

Its consistency as well. If I was good enough to grab my 7 iron and hit it 150-155 yards 10x in a row in the middle of the fairway--I would probably notice a difference in changing balls.

 

However, for 70% of golfers out there they are just not consistent with each and every swing to be able to gather any sort of information of what each individual ball is doing and not doing for them (like myself a 13 handicap golfer).

 

Some days I go out and smash my driver 280 consistently all day long and hit 11-12 fairways. The next week I will go out and slice every drive I hit into the rough or OB. Is it the golf ball? Or is it the fact that Im just a average golfer. I dont think there is any golf ball thats just going to forgive you from being a mid-high handicap golfer. If you have inconsistency with your swing there is no Titlist ProV1SuperXBatman ball thats going to do anything for you lol