MEMBER REVIEWS: Bridgestone e12 Contact Golf Ball! See What Members Are Saying!

[GolfWRX_Official]

We have five members testing out the Bridgestone e12 Contact Golf Ball. The members listed below will be reporting back to the community on their performance and what they are seeing on the course while using this product. Please feel free to ask any questions that you might have, as the testers will be happy to answer them! The testers are:

@Drumdog 
@nath75
@timmy8151

@Jeff58
@rooski

Special thank you to @Bridgestone Golf for putting on this testing event for our members!
 

[rooski]

Thanks for the opportunity to test these out. Currently waiting for mine to arrive, saving this spot here to edit once I get them and can test them around the course as well as in my 30-50y chipping setup at home

 

Got a chance to take the Bridgestone e12 Contact out on the course today for a quick 9 holes at a local course, as well as a bit of home practice in my chipping range. (Will update on more thoughts after I get out to play a bit more this weekend)

 

 

 

Background on me: I'm a 28 year old tall/strong golfer with a driver swing speed of ~125 mph and a handicap around scratch. My club/shaft/ball requirements are a bit odder than most. I currently play the Chrome Soft Triple Track.

 

 

 

Initial Impressions: When you pull out a sleeve of the e12 Contact, they look absolutely prime. I've always admired Bridgestone ball dimple patterns and they really inspire a confidence in you unlike many other balls. The e12 Contact bring that experience to a different level, the uniqueness is a bit unlike any other ball on the market. The alignment line on the ball was a bit small for my tastes, but I am a bit biased as I currently use a Triple Track golf ball.

 

 

 

Feel: The feel of the golf ball was better than I anticipated given that it is not a urethane cover ball. It had a nice soft feel and an excellent sound coming off of well struck shots.

 

Especially in the short game, particularly flop shots, I felt like I instantly knew how the ball would react on the green. This is not something I am lacking with a standard tour level ball but the first couple short-sided flop shots I hit with the e12 were really great. I give it a 10/10 when it comes to feel around the green.

 

Mid-iron feel was as good as any other ball on the market. I ended up hitting quite a few 7-9 iron shots into greens with the e12 Contact and the feel and performance out of the rough specifically was significantly better than average compared to most other balls I have played. There may be something to the increased surface contact out of the rough, my ball felt like it was coming out of a fairway and I generated a ton of spin out of the rough.

 

Feel from the long-irons and driver were standard, not any better and worse than most balls I've tried. In a blind sample I would maybe tell you this ball felt marginally less "squishy" than urethane cover balls. I'd consider the e12 Contact as good here as any other ball I've tried, and I've basically tried them all.

 

As far as the putter is concerned, I couldn't quite get on with the feel of the e12. This could just come down to Surlyn vs Urethane, but I did feel like the ball was a bit harder than I would like off a putter face.

 

Downside on feel: On thinned or toe-side shots, this ball felt a bit hard and odd-sounding to me. The performance was great and I'd even go as far to say that it may have performed better than most other balls (left rough vs left trees on a toe-shot), but my playing partner even commented on one, "that sounded a bit weird". Do not conflate feel and performance though, the mishit shots kept their line and performed well, they just sounded off.

 

 

 

Distance: It is a bit difficult for me to eek out more distance, but the Bridgestone Contact was absolutely not lacking in this regard. There's not a ton to say about it, but I had absolutely no doubt stepping up to this ball that it would go the distance. Drivers went their normal 320-330 with a really nice trajectory, and wedges went up and stopped fast.

 

My irons had a great flight and a few wedges even shocked me with how I was able to control their distance. 

 

If distance control or overall distance is your concern, the e12 Contact will do you well.

 

Spin: I'm a a major spinner of the ball. As I've gotten specifically fitted for shafts and clubs, most of my longer clubs we look to take spin off rather than put it on. On well struck shots of all kind into the green, this ball ripped backwards for me. Maybe even a bit more than normal compared to my standard Chrome Soft. It never seemed to over spin with longer shots though which was excellent.

 

Our greens were perhaps a bit soft today, but I was getting an average of 8-10 feet of backspin on mid irons, and had a knockdown gap wedge hit and spin back 7 feet. I don't usually see backspin into the greens like this with my Chrome Soft and it let me be a bit more aggressive with my short shots, was very cool. Caveat however, I do think the greens were over-watered as its extremely hot here recently and they have to struggle to keep greens alive at the moment.

 

I did not feel like this ball performed as well on mishits in the spin department. Generally with a Chrome Soft if I catch it a bit thin the ball will hit and check up near its ball mark, but with this ball I did notice they were continuing to roll forward a good 8-10 feet, not something you necessarily want on a thin shot. 

 

I would need to validate my first opinions on a launch monitor and with more play, but if you feel confident that you hit the ball pretty well into greens most of the time, the Bridgestone e12 Contact will absolutely give you the spin you're looking for, if not more.

 

 

 

Overall: I really enjoyed looking down at and playing the e12 Contact. I wish it could have given me a bit more softness and spin on mishits, but this ball is confidence inspiring and a joy to hit on well struck golf shots.

 

As stated in my review above, my experience is almost exclusively positive in regards to distance, feel, spin, and any other characteristic you could attribute to a golf ball.

 

My biggest downside was the feel off the putter face. It may have to do with how the Odyssey metal hinge inserts react with Surlyn, but it didn't inspire the same "touchy" and "soft" feel of putting that a urethane ball would have for me.

 

Fundamentally, I would absolutely recommend this golf ball to anybody that is looking for a bit of performance assistance on mishits, as well as a much better deal than your classic 3-piece urethane ball. There were only marginal differences for me and in some cases I think this ball may have even performed better.

 

If I were to rate it on a scale of 1-10, I'd give this ball a solid

 

 

 

8.7/10

 

 

Feel free to tag me or quote and ask any questions about the ball. Happy to answer, or throw a few down and specifically test whatever you might be wondering

Edited August 11, 2021 by rooski

[timmy8151]

Thanks @Bridgestone Golf & @GolfWRX_Official for selecting me.  Balls were delivered last night but didn't have a chance to hit them.  Going to try to play a local Par 3 pitch and putt tonight after work to get some feedback.

[nath75]

Quick thanks to @BridgestoneGolf & @GolfWRX_Official for giving me the opportunity to test this product, received a nicely packaged shipment of two dozen balls last night. Will be taking them out for some testing and will be posting soon.

[Bridgestone Golf]

Looking forward to seeing the feedback from everyone. If you have any questions, please feel free to tag us and ask!

[nath75]

ALRIGHT....here's my current gamer (Tour BX) along side the e12 compare/contrast shots for first impressions. I have a couple of shag bags with a dozen of each for A/B testing with impressions.

 

Background - I've been playing the Tour BX for the better part of a year now, I'm a higher spin player and wanted something to help me tame it a bit. Added bonus, it's pretty breezy here on the Pacific coast with the marine layer blowing in from the west in the afternoons, and I wanted a ball that is well behaved in the wind and that's how I arrived at the TBX.

First impressions looking at both balls, the dimples on the e12 are much more pronounced/obviously geometrically shaped than the TBX which is really nothing more than a visual thing but I'm confident you could tell the difference between unmarked balls. It does have a more defined line to help line up the ball on putts and will be putting that to the test in a few days. In the hand, the covers feel similar under a fingernail scratch and the e12 doesn't seem like it's going to be a squishy, super-ballish low compression distance ball under full swings. If the juice is in the dimple design, then I trust that it won't feel like I'm hitting something made of silicone.

[nath75]

Had some spare time this afternoon, went and hit shots from 10-30 yards off artificial turf and my initial impressions are that from a feel sense, with a 58* wedge I can't really tell which ball I'm hitting because they feel very similar at those ranges. I find that there's not much difference in spin I can get beyond 20 yards to 30 yards between the two hitting low runners, and both will stop relatively the same taking the ball up higher (stands to reason) so from a feel perspective for me, I'd be pretty confident playing this ball very much the same way I'd play the TBX at those yardages. Next iteration will be from 30-50 yards so I can really start to see a difference, because I don't really get the sauce going inside of that yardage. Hopefully by the end of the week I can get enough shots out to 100 yards to have a better impression by the weekend when I can get out on the course and just hit A/B shots at different ranges from turf. Also, will be able to use the launch monitor to see the numbers which I can post here. More to follow...

[Drumdog]

First I want to thank both @BridgestoneGolf & @GolfWRX_Official for the opportunity to test and review these balls. 

 

Some background on me  -  I'm 63 yrs old and currently a 7 hdcp. I was holding at 5 the last couple of years until I had both of my knees replaced this last winter and am still learning how they are affecting my swing and game. My current gamer has been the Callaway Chromesoft balls. My driver is a Tour Edge C721 and irons are Callaway Apex CF19's. I now avg. 260 with the driver, 160 with the 7iron and 130 with the PW.

I'm a better than avg putter and honestly a lot of my pars are 1 putt.

Compared to the CS balls, I got the same distances on all clubs respectively with the e12's. I have never been a real spinner of the ball with irons and I didn't see any difference with these. I did like the compression and the little extra softness over the CS. The e12's don't feel squishy but I can feel the difference. As far as putting goes, with my TMAG Ghost Spider, I can feel a little extra softness (which I like) and they roll just like other quality balls. I will say that the durability may be in question. The 2nd photo shows what happened on a well struck wedge from 125 yards. It was really the only shot I hit that day that actually hopped and stopped. That damage came from that one shot. After that hole, I put a new one into play and have yet to see any more damage like that.

 

I have had the chance to play the e12's for 3 rounds and so far at $10 less per dozen than the CS, I find them to be a pretty darn good value. I will be putting them in play again this weekend for a tournament and if they continue to perform like the last 3 rounds, I can see these being in my bag for awhile. 

I will have more thoughts and impressions next week.

Edited July 29, 2021 by Drumdog

[nath75]

UPDATE: balls dirty, need a wash. Gotta compile stats from today, hit roughly 200 shots from 30-50. Will post an uodate tomorrow.

[Jeff58]

Thank you to Bridgestone Golf for this opportunity to review the e12 Contact.

 

Golf ball reviews and tests tend to follow one of two routes. 

 

An objective test provides actual data for a robot, whose impact characteristics are not necessarily matched to a human's. 
It also provides no input as to how a ball feels or its overall playing characteristics.

 

A subjective review, as we have here, provides human feedback, but lacks statistically valid data due to the small sample size combined with the inherent variability of the player.

 

I offer a third approach, a hybrid of the other two, with me as "robot". While I have a greater degree of variability than a robot, by utilizing an adequately large sample size, the variation will statistically "even out" between the two balls.

 

This test will compare the e12 Contact vs. the 2021 Titleist V1x. The 2021 V1x's design is optimized for what actually makes a difference in one's game, and in concept is the reverse of the e12 Contact in several ways. The question to be hopefully answered is how these opposing designs work in the real world.

 

Note - V1X are yellow, e12 Contact are white

 

Part A - Short Game

 

Note -For putts, I do not move from the initial address position. I don't look up between shots. I move the ball to the same initial stance location and take each shot quickly, about 5 seconds between shots.

 

20' uphill putt, TM Spyder X 

 

 

20' uphill putt, Cameron M1

 

 

30' downhill putt

 

 

30' downhill putt

 

 

60' uphill putt, L to R break.

 

 

20 yard chip, Vokey 52 gap wedge, crowned green.

 

 

30 yard "chip", Vokey 52 Gap Wedge

 

 

40 yard pitch shot, Vokey 58 lob wedge

 

 

Test notes - The chip and pitch shots are off a *very* tight lie over a hard pack surface. The balls could not be scooped or undercut for additional height.

 

Part A Conclusions -

 

Putting - There is no difference between these balls whatsoever in terms of performance. A player may react subconsciously to a ball's feel and change their stroke to compensate. All balls weigh the same, are the same size, you don't compress or distort them in a putt, and any difference in the frictional coefficients of a ball's cover are minute. The e12 Contact is significantly softer than the V1x. In terms of feel, I preferred the e12 Contact off the Cameron, while the Spyder X was more of a toss up.

 

Chipping and pitching - There is a visible difference in response, particularly with the longer pitch shot. The e12 Contact was noticeably higher (about 3-4' at 40 yards), whereas the V1x, while lower, was also spinning significantly more and stopping faster. What we see is that the e12 Contact is generally longer. What we also see is that the e12 Contact is more often closer to the pin. My subjective impression is that the e12 Contact was easier to produce "good" results. It flew higher, landed softer, and its additional rollout was modest.

I then found two additional volunteers to compare the balls at a 20 yard pitch shot with their lob wedges. Both stated that they saw no significant difference in performance. Both preferred the e12 Contact on the basis of feel, which is significantly softer than the V1x. One of these wedges was a TM MG2 Raw model with significant rust. After hitting with this wedge (but not my Vokeys), all the e12 Contacts showed light scuffing, while the V1X's showed no signs of use.

 

[rooski]

4 minutes ago, Jeff58 said:

What we also see is that the e12 Contact is more often closer to the pin. My subjective impression is that the e12 Contact was easier to produce "good" results. It flew higher, landed softer, and its additional rollout was modest.

 

In general I think I can agree to this on my on course subjective tests. I didn't feel as if my shots were as "cool" as with a urethane tour ball, but the e12 was great around the greens.

 

They went higher and didn't rip quite as hard from right around the green, but they just reacted exactly as you would expect a round ball to react. Around the greens was my favorite part about it

[Drumdog]

I took the e12's out for another run this weekend at a 2 day tournament. They performed just as well as the previous 2 rounds.

Compared to my normal gamers (Chrome Soft) I got all the same distances with the same irons and woods. I think I have found my new gamers once my supply of the Chrome Softs are gone. 

 

On a side note, I gave a sleeve of these to a friend (10 hdcp) that was playing in the same tournament to test and give me his opinion.

He has been playing the Kirkland balls. After the 2 rounds this weekend, he was very impressed with E12's. One complaint he had about the Kirkland balls is spinning them too much. He didn't have that problem with the e12's overspinning and they did check up for him just fine.

He managed to play the whole tourney on one ball and had no damage to to it. He didn't see any difference in distance off the woods but he said he was getting 3-5 yards more distance on his irons. (maybe less spin?) We will be playing our Thursday league and I will get more opinions from him then. 

[nath75]

After a very long busy week, FINALLY getting out on the course today. Will post results from the round.

[nath75]

On 7/28/2021 at 4:30 PM, nath75 said:

Had some spare time this afternoon, went and hit shots from 10-30 yards off artificial turf and my initial impressions are that from a feel sense, with a 58* wedge I can't really tell which ball I'm hitting because they feel very similar at those ranges. I find that there's not much difference in spin I can get beyond 20 yards to 30 yards between the two hitting low runners, and both will stop relatively the same taking the ball up higher (stands to reason) so from a feel perspective for me, I'd be pretty confident playing this ball very much the same way I'd play the TBX at those yardages. Next iteration will be from 30-50 yards so I can really start to see a difference, because I don't really get the sauce going inside of that yardage. Hopefully by the end of the week I can get enough shots out to 100 yards to have a better impression by the weekend when I can get out on the course and just hit A/B shots at different ranges from turf. Also, will be able to use the launch monitor to see the numbers which I can post here. More to follow...

e12 vs TBX at 30, 40, 50 yards last week (-/+ feet from yardage, shortest and longest two outliers taken out for each):

 

58* TM MG2 Hi toe

30 yards

e12 -7 +12 (19 ft differential)

TBX -3 +15 (18 ft differential)

 

40 yards

e12 -10 +16 (26 ft differential)

TBX -6 +18 (24 ft differential)

 

50 yards

e12 -15 +5 (20 ft differential)

TBX -3 +20 (23 ft differential)

 

54* TM MG2 Hi toe

30 yards

e12 -3 +18 (21 ft differential)

TBX +1 +18 (17 ft differential)

 

40 yards

e12 +1 +20 (21 ft differential)

TBX -1 +18 (19 ft differential)

 

50 yards

e12 +3 +25 (22 ft differential)

TBX -3 +25 (28 ft differential)

 

Can't really explain why the 58* underperformed the the 54* at 40 yards other than it was just a really weird feel distance for me with that club. For me, the numbers mean no loss in performance from the Tour BX to the e12.

[nath75]

ALRIGHT, first game review and I'll put the bottom line up front - if I keep hitting fairways with these things the way I did today, it will be going in my bag full time. 77% fairways hit, my misses were marginal in the first cut. Granted, the course I played today is where you go when you're struggling to find your confidence again but regardless, even for that course I felt very confident playing the e12. They're priced at a point where it becomes a serious point of consideration for me.

Wanted to play two balls for a better comparison but it was pretty busy out there, will have to get in a round during the week to be able to. I've played Monterey Pines enough to be able to compare based on experience so it'll have to do for now.

 

Thoughts from the course:

 

On the greens: Today was the first opportunity I had to test them putting, and again comparing to my regular gamer the Tour BX, the feel is very similar so it felt familiar from the first roll. I don't like the feel spongy lower compression balls, and this certainly doesn't have that at all. The alignment line is much more prominent that the line on the TBX which is nice if you don't mark your balls before play which I do anyway. 28 total putts through the round today so I can't say I felt uneasy standing over the ball at address.

 

Off the tee: Took an easy swing off of 1 and off it went, felt great at impact and flew right through the familiar window. One thing I did notice throughout the round is that it really does fly straight. There are a couple of tee shots that require a bit of shaping and found I had a bit of difficulty getting it to turn as predictably as the TBX for me, though being more familiar with the ball flight I'd play those shots accordingly. As the round progressed though, it really did feel like a fire and forget ball that just seemed to find the short grass.

 

Iron play: As a higher spin player, I was pretty eager to see how the ball reacted with the greens and how aggressively I could play to the pin, and I found that they offered great stopping spin but I didn't get balls ripping back away from the pins. Had pretty good proximity to the pin, this is something that really helped the round especially on the back 9. Ball felt pretty similar to the TBX at impact and I still got high ball flight that I'm used to.

 

Around the greens: Gave me a very familiar, confident feeling with wedge in hand. Spun predictably, not at all difficult to get to spin, go high, keep low, or release out. Had a couple of plugged lies that resulted in a few strokes lost but can't blame the ball for that at all.

 

Overall, today's experience with the e12 is causing me to have to have a hard think about keeping the TBX in my bag rather than going over to this ball at my daily gamer. I want to get out on a few different courses to better shape my impression but the e12 is off to a great start.

 

 

[timmy8151]

Again thanks to @Bridgestone Golf & @GolfWRX_Official for selecting me for this testing.  I meant to have a review done earlier but strained my back a couple weeks back and didn't get to play much but did get 3 rounds in with the E12 Contact.

 

Info: A little about myself. Currently a 13.5 HC player who by Golfwrx standards is a short hitter (225 yd average with Driver).  Strengths of my game (according to Arccos) is putting and short game, with my weakness being Driving and Approach shots.  Current gamer ball has been the Snell MTB Black due to its all-around characteristics and good price. Most of my play is on a links style course and where I can play the ball on the ground and my hope with a new ball is one that can get a little bit.

 

Looks: I've played the E6 Bridgestone ball in the past which was more of distance ball but was intrigued by E12 which advertises distance a spin. I had signed up for the matte green ball but was delivered the white ball which has a nice glossy finish.  I prefer the current "B" Logo rather than the spelled out name

 

Driver:  As noted above this is currently the weakest part of my game and I would say I didn't get any meaningful data from the E12.  Looking at my Arccos data my dispersion was greater with the E12 but that's because I can't find the center of the clubface with the driver regardless of ball.  

 

Iron:   Another weakness of my game has been my iron/approach shots and I think this is where the E12 shined for me.  Before I hurt my back I was able to play a local par 3 which is along the SF Bay and is know for it's windy conditions in the afternoon.  I normally struggle at this course but the in the round I played with the E12 I did really well.  The ball did seem to just want to go straight and almost cut through the wind.  This wasn't just on low/med trajectory shots either, it was for high shots as well.  On a larger course my GIR numbers and approach shots have really improved as well.  It's only been 3 rounds but my Arccos is showing a marked increase in GIR % from about 39% to 52%

 

Pitches and Chips:  For pitches between 50-75 yds I didn't notice any real differences between the E12 and my current gamer on spin or distance.  There may have been slightly more height but nothing that really jumps out.  For chips around the green I don't flop it much but did notice that on my stock chip I did get a little more roll-out on my ball.  From the sand I did get 2 sandys on my last round but not sure I can attribute that the ball

 

Putting:  This the strongest part of my game and I have not putted well at all with the E12.  The ball felt a little dead off my putter face and I had speed control using this ball.  For the most part I was leaving a lot of putts short.  Now my putter, Bettinardi Innovai 6.0 doesn't have the hottest face but I didn't have these issues with my Snell

 

Initial Conclusions:   Besides my results on putting, I really like how this ball performed with my irons. I have another 2-day club tournament this coming weekend and hope to have more feedback on the the E12 off the tee and I'm going to be working on my putting with this ball during the week.  More to follow...

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by timmy8151

[nath75]

The lads at TXG just posted a review of the e12 Contact on YouTube!

 

Take a look and see how their numbers compare with our testing, here:

 

 

 

[Drumdog]

The more I play this ball, the more I like it. For me it performs just as good as the Chrome Softs in all aspects.

I need to get my hands on some of the yellow ones as that is my preferred color. I know the color makes no difference in performance of the ball, but I think it makes a little difference in the performance of the golfer...namely me.

At any rate, I like the balls and I love the price on them, so I see them being a gamer for me in the future.

 

As far as the friend at league goes that I gave a sleeve to, he is a convert as well. He said that the balls worked well for him and he too liked the price. Supposedly he will be stopping at Dick's today on his way to our league night and will be picking up a dozen.

 

Thanks again for the opportunity to test and review the balls. 

[Jeff58]

Part B. Full shots

 

Test equipment -

Ping i210 and Callaway Apex 19 irons

Ping G410 and TaylorMade SIM2 MAX drivers

 

My driver swing speed is 100mph

 

I believed that the first part (short game) of this test would be somewhat difficult and the full shot portion easier and straight forward. Not so much.

 

Feel - Bridgestone has to differentiate their products, and this is not a B-series in term of compression or feel. This is a low compression ball, obviously so. It’s soft all the time. Off conventional wedges and non-insert putters, it’s great. With some clubs, the i210’s for instance, there is almost no indication that you’ve hit the ball at all, which is unusual to state the obvious. This, I think, was an excellent indicator of the target buyer. They’re playing GI or SGI irons, not butter-forgies. I’d *really* like to try these with G425 irons.

 

Precision - Accuracy is produced by the golfer. He or she defines the target with absolute accuracy on every shot. The problem is that the the actual target is not identical to the intended target, sometimes significantly so. 

The golf ball produces precision. If it is physically perfect, it will fly identically every time. If the club/ball/swing mechanics produces a landing condition with zero roll, all terrain variation is removed. In theory, the Contact has a big advantage over “normal” balls: It’s straighter. If your average approach shot has 5 yards of lateral drift due to spin-axis offset, and this is zeroed out, the advantage would be tremendous, and overwhelm any other limitations the ball may have.

The question is whether this actually happens. And the answer was not trivial to determine. First, a launch monitor isn’t very useful. The Contact ball/shot does have a tilted spin axis just like any other ball, and the LM “models” it. For the Contact though, it’s not that it isn’t spinning, it’s that it doesn’t matter, and the LM is inaccurate.
In real life, what I see is that our error is compound. The face angle to the target line creates “side-spin”, and to a significant degree the Contact removes that error. However, it’s not “smart”, and has no idea of your intended target. Any deviation from the intended swing plane is unaffected. It can only go straighter to where you’re aiming.

The other reality here is that there is only so much correction potential. Truly bad hooks and slices are fundamentally unaffected. And the worse the swing, the less the Contact can correct. It isn’t a savior for bad swings.

 

7-PW - The key to approach shots is proximity to the pin, and in order to achieve that, the ball must stop, optimally immediately. It’s no secret that low scores become far easier to achieve when you can drive far enough that your approach shot literally stops where it lands. With the i210’s and a 2021 V1x, I have a “spin window” of zero roll from 60-140 yards. That’s the most I’ve ever been able to produce. With the Contact, unless the surface is soft or slanted towards you, the ball rarely completely stops from any distance. However, rollout is usually acceptably short from around 75-125 yards.

 

4-6 Irons - Compared to the V1x, the Contact has less carry but often longer total yardage. The reason is trajectory and spin. The Contact’s trajectory is arched, as in a continuous curve. The V1x is flatter, and the maximum height occurs later, visibly so. From a distance precision point of view, the V1x is just better. However, since in many cases we’re effectively aiming in the direction of the green with only modest hope of actually ending up there, the Contact’s straighter flight can often make up for its inability to stop. For the single digit player, this may not be an acceptable trade off, but for the average Joe, probably so.

 

Driver FW’s and Hybrids - The Contact launches higher and doesn’t have the same ball speed. Generally it’s not as long. However, all my clubs were selected based on performance with the V1x, so that shouldn’t be all that surprising. While it may not be as fast initially, it also seems to loose speed more slowly. The Contact is also very good in windy conditions, as expected.

 

Forgiveness - We now see manufacturers touting their balls as “forgiving”. On face value, that appears questionable. However, that may be because we have no means of direct feedback. With an iron, you can see the ball mark near the toe and that the ball ended up near the green anyway. It’s clearly forgiving of a poor strike. With a ball, there is no visible indication what the ball did at all. The Contact does three things. The first is obvious; it’s straighter. The second is that it launches high and easily due to its low compression. The third is that it doesn’t spin a whole lot on normal shots. That means that on poor impacts, the effect of spin falloff is reduced. Played back to back with the V1x over many holes, this becomes more and more obvious.

 

The competition-

 

Q-Star Tour - I have always liked the Tour. It’s the most affordable non-Kirkland urethane ball, particularly when bought with typical discount, and its play characteristics do little wrong. The QST feels “better” than the Contact and it’s flight characteristics are more normal. However, from scoring point of view, the Contact is likely better for the slower to average swing speed player.

 

Kirkland - The Kirkland family is the best value of any product in golf, and its spins and flight characteristics are optimized for the good player with average swing speeds. What the Kirkland doesn’t have is the forgiveness factor. It spins a ton. If you hit it badly, it spins a ton in the wrong direction. Some may see this as a training aid, others not so much.

 

Chrome Soft / BXRS / Similar soft - Frankly, I see no reason whatsoever to prefer these to the e12 Contact, even if the cost were the same, which they obviously aren’t.

 

Lastly -

 

The Contact’s cover shows scuffing from wedge and short iron shots pretty much instantly. If you’re hitting a lot of full wedges and sand shots, a Contact isn’t likely to be acceptable after two rounds. Of course, for the intended buyer, no ball is going to last two rounds anyway.

 

For me, when my iron game is sharp, I have about 5 yards of draw at 150 yards. That tells me that I’m balanced, my swing path is adequately from the inside, and my hands are releasing the club head correctly. With the Contact, that movement is pretty much removed.

 

Thank you Bridgestone for making unique 

products in a sea of copies.

[Bridgestone Golf]

On 8/7/2021 at 8:43 PM, nath75 said:

ALRIGHT, first game review and I'll put the bottom line up front - if I keep hitting fairways with these things the way I did today, it will be going in my bag full time. 77% fairways hit, my misses were marginal in the first cut. Granted, the course I played today is where you go when you're struggling to find your confidence again but regardless, even for that course I felt very confident playing the e12. They're priced at a point where it becomes a serious point of consideration for me.

Wanted to play two balls for a better comparison but it was pretty busy out there, will have to get in a round during the week to be able to. I've played Monterey Pines enough to be able to compare based on experience so it'll have to do for now.

 

Thoughts from the course:

 

On the greens: Today was the first opportunity I had to test them putting, and again comparing to my regular gamer the Tour BX, the feel is very similar so it felt familiar from the first roll. I don't like the feel spongy lower compression balls, and this certainly doesn't have that at all. The alignment line is much more prominent that the line on the TBX which is nice if you don't mark your balls before play which I do anyway. 28 total putts through the round today so I can't say I felt uneasy standing over the ball at address.

 

Off the tee: Took an easy swing off of 1 and off it went, felt great at impact and flew right through the familiar window. One thing I did notice throughout the round is that it really does fly straight. There are a couple of tee shots that require a bit of shaping and found I had a bit of difficulty getting it to turn as predictably as the TBX for me, though being more familiar with the ball flight I'd play those shots accordingly. As the round progressed though, it really did feel like a fire and forget ball that just seemed to find the short grass.

 

Iron play: As a higher spin player, I was pretty eager to see how the ball reacted with the greens and how aggressively I could play to the pin, and I found that they offered great stopping spin but I didn't get balls ripping back away from the pins. Had pretty good proximity to the pin, this is something that really helped the round especially on the back 9. Ball felt pretty similar to the TBX at impact and I still got high ball flight that I'm used to.

 

Around the greens: Gave me a very familiar, confident feeling with wedge in hand. Spun predictably, not at all difficult to get to spin, go high, keep low, or release out. Had a couple of plugged lies that resulted in a few strokes lost but can't blame the ball for that at all.

 

Overall, today's experience with the e12 is causing me to have to have a hard think about keeping the TBX in my bag rather than going over to this ball at my daily gamer. I want to get out on a few different courses to better shape my impression but the e12 is off to a great start.

 

 

 

Great review of the product. Especially like the description of the flight off the tee. Often shaping the ball is needed but with this product we really designed the dimple pattern and the driver spin package to fly as straight as possible. We do find players hitting more and more fairways with the e12 CONTACT due to its sidespin reduction (or by decreasing the spin axis tilt) of the golf ball for straighter flight. 

 

Thanks for the review and great playing!

 

- Adam Rehberg, Ball Fitting Manager

Edited August 17, 2021 by Bridgestone Golf

[Bridgestone Golf]

On 8/9/2021 at 10:50 PM, timmy8151 said:

Again thanks to @Bridgestone Golf & @GolfWRX_Official for selecting me for this testing.  I meant to have a review done earlier but strained my back a couple weeks back and didn't get to play much but did get 3 rounds in with the E12 Contact.

 

Info: A little about myself. Currently a 13.5 HC player who by Golfwrx standards is a short hitter (225 yd average with Driver).  Strengths of my game (according to Arccos) is putting and short game, with my weakness being Driving and Approach shots.  Current gamer ball has been the Snell MTB Black due to its all-around characteristics and good price. Most of my play is on a links style course and where I can play the ball on the ground and my hope with a new ball is one that can get a little bit.

 

Looks: I've played the E6 Bridgestone ball in the past which was more of distance ball but was intrigued by E12 which advertises distance a spin. I had signed up for the matte green ball but was delivered the white ball which has a nice glossy finish.  I prefer the current "B" Logo rather than the spelled out name

 

Driver:  As noted above this is currently the weakest part of my game and I would say I didn't get any meaningful data from the E12.  Looking at my Arccos data my dispersion was greater with the E12 but that's because I can't find the center of the clubface with the driver regardless of ball.  

 

Iron:   Another weakness of my game has been my iron/approach shots and I think this is where the E12 shined for me.  Before I hurt my back I was able to play a local par 3 which is along the SF Bay and is know for it's windy conditions in the afternoon.  I normally struggle at this course but the in the round I played with the E12 I did really well.  The ball did seem to just want to go straight and almost cut through the wind.  This wasn't just on low/med trajectory shots either, it was for high shots as well.  On a larger course my GIR numbers and approach shots have really improved as well.  It's only been 3 rounds but my Arccos is showing a marked increase in GIR % from about 39% to 52%

 

Pitches and Chips:  For pitches between 50-75 yds I didn't notice any real differences between the E12 and my current gamer on spin or distance.  There may have been slightly more height but nothing that really jumps out.  For chips around the green I don't flop it much but did notice that on my stock chip I did get a little more roll-out on my ball.  From the sand I did get 2 sandys on my last round but not sure I can attribute that the ball

 

Putting:  This the strongest part of my game and I have not putted well at all with the E12.  The ball felt a little dead off my putter face and I had speed control using this ball.  For the most part I was leaving a lot of putts short.  Now my putter, Bettinardi Innovai 6.0 doesn't have the hottest face but I didn't have these issues with my Snell

 

Initial Conclusions:   Besides my results on putting, I really like how this ball performed with my irons. I have another 2-day club tournament this coming weekend and hope to have more feedback on the the E12 off the tee and I'm going to be working on my putting with this ball during the week.  More to follow...

 

Love the graphics for the dispersion. Great feedback. Good luck the 2 day tourney! Let us know how it goes. 

 

Adam Rehberg - Ball Fitting Manager

[Drumdog]

Took the e12's out again this weekend. This time the wife and I played in a Chapman tourney. We both played the e12's so the balls would stay consistent for the tournament. I'm a 6.1 hdcp and she is a 19.2 hdcp.

 

Let's just say the balls worked terrifically and we placed 2nd in the 1st flight of the tourney.

I will definitely be purchasing the yellow e12's when these white ones are gone. I'm not losing them, so the yellow ones may not be in the bag until next year !

 

Thanks again for the opportunity @Bridgestone Golf & @GolfWRX_Official   !!

[nath75]

Wanted to post another update with the card from last round at Pacific Grove last weekend. To add to the earlier review, the ball really is a remarkable fairway finder and I will officially be putting it in the bag moving forward. Best behaved ball in the wind I've hit in quite some time, would put it in Srixon Z Star territory maybe even better. At this point cannot find a reason why I wouldn't replace Tour BX with these for my game.

 

Three test rounds with the e12 were 77%, 85%, 71% fairways hit respectively.

 

Thanks again to Bridgestone for the incredible opportunity, looking forward to possibly more in the future.

[Drumdog]

Played in another couple's chapman tourney this weekend with the wife. Had her play the e12 along with me again for consistency.

While we did not win, I almost aced a 139 yard par 3 into the wind with my 9 iron. The ball checked up perfectly and just broke right of the cup and left us with a 6 inch tap in bird. The wife almost got her first ace ever. 125 yard par 3 with her 5 hybrid. The ball bounced just in front of the green, rolled up and glanced off the pin leaving us a 4 foot bird. The e12 continues to perform very well for both of us.

I have been recommending it to all of my friends that don't insist on buying the most expensive balls on the market, regardless of their game.

Edited September 20, 2021 by Drumdog