Ball Fitting Experience

freedom35 · September 14, 2008

Kind of long...

This weekend, I had the opportunity to do a full ball fitting - something I had been hoping to do for quite a while as I've been having a hard time figuring out what ball would fit me best. The fitting was done at the Whistle Bear Performance Centre in Cambridge, ON. So far this year, I've tried the B330s, Taylor Made LDP red and black and Nike One Platinum, and there's always been one thing that's made me keep looking.

The combatants in this ball fitting were the ProV1 and ProV1x, NXT Tour and Extreme and Taylor Made Black and Red. The fitter explained that the One Platinum was not going to be part of the battle after asking me some questions because he's found it to be very short. Cally and Bridgestone have not supplied samples for them, so they were out too.

The fitting started with an 85 yard shot to a practice green that was in very good shape. Spin on the green and feel were the two things that were analyzed. Little spin differences were noticed (balls seemed to take a hop and then stop), except for the NXT Extreme. The LDP Black felt a bit harder, as well as the Extreme, which shot off the club face.

Next up was the 6-iron. At this point, the launch monitor came into play - a Vector Pro. Carry distance and spin were the two main things that were anaylzed here. At this point, the NXT Extreme was dropped as it hardly had any spin and carried a good 8 to 10 yards farther than the other balls. The rest of the balls performed well enough to make it to the next round, with the LDP red and ProV1x seeming to have their noses out front (something I didn't find out until after all was done to avoid bias).

The next test was the driver test, which really started to separate the balls. The LDP red got bounced here, as it didn't spin enough, robbing it of carry. It actually reacted really strangely off my driver, with one centre hit knuckling down the range with 1100rpm of spin. The black got bounced because it just didn't seem to go anywhere. The NXT Tour again didn't spin enough. The winner was the ProV1x. On one particularly well struck shot, I got the following results:

SwingSpeed: 105
Ball Speed: 157
Launch Angle: 13.1
BallSpin: 1900rpm
Carry Distance: 270 yards

The ProV1 also performed well, spinning slightly more and flying slightly shorter - about 5 yards on average shorter than the x. These two balls went on to the putting round - the rest of the balls having been knocked out by now. I hit putts with these balls from 5 feet and 30 feet to see if there was any feel difference. The tester set the ball down so I didn't know which I was putting and I couldn't tell him after putting it, so it's pretty safe to say that I couldn't tell any difference.

Finally, we went about 40 yards from the green for some pitch shots. Again, it was difficult to detect much of any difference. The ProV1 appeared to be a little more tolerant to a slight mishit in producing spin.

So, overall the ProV1x was recommended as the best overall ball for my game. ProV1 was second and it was suggested that I try both and them make my own decision. I went to pay for the session and was given a Titleist hat with the Whistle Bear logo on the side. A nice touch I thought.

Overall thoughts.

Pros

Very thorough. The whole process took somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half and I can't think of anything that wasn't covered. The tester didn't show any bias and there wasn't any pressure at all to buy anything from them. Also, the launch monitor was set up so that I was hitting the ball down the range so I could watch the ball fly and then see that the monitor was providing sensible results. For example, I hit an absolute snipe with one of my driver swings and the monitor came up with tons of hook spin, hardly any backspin and little carry - all matching what I saw the ball do. The tester was very thorough in his explanations of what he was doing and why. And the hat at the end was a nice touch.

Cons

Not many really, except that it would have been nice to see the Bridgestone and Cally balls added to the lineup. The tester explained that Cally was coming aboard and would be for next year and that Bridgestone were not interested. Presumably, Bridgestone prefer to do their ball fitting challenge. Was also a bit surprised that the One Platinum was not even included at the beginning, but I have a hard time believing that it would have outperformed what I got from the ProV1x, so perhaps the tester knew what he was talking about.

Overall, I was extremely happy with my experience and would recommend it to anyone. I'm now convinced that there's a best ball for everyone and that the results that I came up with are completely irrelevant for anyone reading this (ie, nobody should go out and get the ProV1x just because it performed well for me). Every swing is different and everyone needs something different from their ball.

Wayne

funkyfedora · September 14, 2008

Would you be refitted if they had cally and bstone in the mix? Ive heard a lot of great reviews that might bump off the prov's. Just a thought. Great review btw.

bulletbob · September 14, 2008

Great review! That's how a ball fitting should be done in my opinion. Now if I could only find some place in NJ that does it like that.....

jman2407 · September 18, 2008

Who/what company was doing this ball fitting? I agree this is probably the best way to do ball a ball fitting. I can't believe the company let you hit the balls down range. They must have a big expense budget losing all those golf balls, or either some dedicated employees who are willing to go out on the range and search for all the competitor balls you hit amongst the thousands of range balls that are on a driving range at any given time of day. How in the world do they pay for that???

kylemacca01 · September 18, 2008

270 carry with 105mph SS and only 1900 spin. I think the LM was jacked up a bit there. That is extremely low spin.

SaltytheSlicer · September 18, 2008

That really is low spin. I can see why the V1/V1X worked for you. Most of us have to go to balls that get our spin down rather than up.

Sounds like a great experience. They did it the right way with the limited ball selection they had.

freedom35 · September 24, 2008

Who/what company was doing this ball fitting? I agree this is probably the best way to do ball a ball fitting. I can't believe the company let you hit the balls down range. They must have a big expense budget losing all those golf balls, or either some dedicated employees who are willing to go out on the range and search for all the competitor balls you hit amongst the thousands of range balls that are on a driving range at any given time of day. How in the world do they pay for that???

The ball fitting was done at the practice area of a golf course in Cambridge, ON called Whistle Bear. They call it the Performance Centre. I got the impression that the ball companies provide the balls to the Centre for ball fitting purposes, based on what he was telling me. He said that they had Titleist, Taylor Made and Nike on board now and were expecting Callaway in the spring. Also told me that Bridgestone wasn't interested because they do their own ball test thing which he wasn't particularly keen on.

I would imagine that they sorted the balls (range balls were yellow, so it wouldn't be hard) and then I'm not sure what would happen to them after that. All I know is that the balls I hit were brand new.

Wayne

Feddyvon · September 24, 2008

That is definitely the most thorough ball fitting experience that I've read on this site. To be able to watch a true flight path of the ball would be immensely valuable over simply hitting into a net. Out of curiousity, what was the cost of the fitting?

jman2407 · September 25, 2008

There in lies the rub, yellow range balls. How genius!

yes, good question, was this ball fitting free or did it cost money? if so, how much?

freedom35 · September 26, 2008

The centre has an overall fitting fee of $100 per hour. Could use that for driver, iron, wedge, putter or ball fitting. 1 hour minimum. I am a member of a local club which gave me 20% off, so I ended up paying $80 for this session. Pricey, but the information I got is invaluable to me.

Wayne

joe68odessa · September 26, 2008

Didnt Bridgestone sue Titleist fairly recently and win in regards to something about Titleist ripping off some of Bridgestones ball designs? Maybe thats why Bridgestone wasnt involved? I dont know, maybe I am remembering the facts completely wrong. I could be way off base here, not sure, so dont start screaming at me. But I remember something about Bridgestone suing Titleist and winning, and something about Titleist having to pay Bridgestone future royalties or something? Does anyone remember this?

freedom35 · October 5, 2008

Didnt Bridgestone sue Titleist fairly recently and win in regards to something about Titleist ripping off some of Bridgestones ball designs? Maybe thats why Bridgestone wasnt involved? I dont know, maybe I am remembering the facts completely wrong. I could be way off base here, not sure, so dont start screaming at me. But I remember something about Bridgestone suing Titleist and winning, and something about Titleist having to pay Bridgestone future royalties or something? Does anyone remember this?

Sounds familiar, but that's not why they aren't involved in the ball fitting at this facility. They told me it's because Bridgestone is already doing their own thing. Makes sense that they wouldn't want to provide product for the fitting if they already do it (albeit much, much more simply) themselves.

Anyway, a progress report. I've managed to get out to play a couple of times since I did the fitting. I've found that my driver distance is a bit longer than before, spin is just about right for me and the feel is what I'm looking for. So, I've found my ball and can't recommend this process enough.

Wayne