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Blind Ball Testing Review Thread

SuperStroke
Got a quick 9 in tonight at a local Par 3 with my boy. Used my driver once for a 277 yard 2nd hole. Drove the green. Other than that the ball felt great again off of my irons and wedges. My putting struggled tonight, but it's do to the greens being really bad. I go to this Par 3 mainly because they don't charge me for my son to play, and it's really good for working on my irons and short game. More reviews to follow. This ball is fantastic so far for me.


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- Just tap it in, just tap it in.
 
Here's the first part of my review. For my sake I am breaking this down into some categories and I will make separate posts for each category. Looks and tactile feel of the ball are positive. Dimple pattern is semi symmetrical and not distracting at address. Wish I could be more insightful here. Was eager to get to the nitty gritty and went straight to my testing plan.

PUTTING

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Some of the balls used for putting testing....

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To offer up some different perspectives I grabbed some putters that may represent what many of us are using. An old Ping Anser 4 with no milling. An Odyssey Backstryke (currently in my bag) with a White Ice insert, and a Heavy Putter D1-DF with a milled face. The Heavy was also included as it gives me a very repeatable stroke, great for this test. Observations were made from my indoor putting area and I had the ball out for 27 holes today. I feel comfortable enough to continue with this part of the my review.

Backstryke - This insert is pretty soft. The only ball that feels significantly different off my Backstryke is my wife's Volvik Crystals. Those things are quite crisp off any putter. This is why I decided to chose different putters for this part of my test. This insert spat out the same feel and feedback with the various 2 and 3 piece balls I was using. There were variances in sound, but not so much I could consistently say "Z Stars feel like this as opposed to test ball".

Results with the Backstryke indoors and on the course are quite good. The ball seems to roll away from the putter with the expected speed. What I mean by that is sometimes my E6 can pop off the Backstryke a bit quicker than anticipated. My Z Stars can be a bit more sluggish than anticipated. Quite pleased with the results on the course. I didn't set any personal records, but I made the putts I thought I would make and didn't miss anything easy. Test ball is a winner off the Backstryke. Since I got consistent speed off the putter I was able to be quite accurate on the course.

Ping Anser 4 - I doubt anyone uses this putter any longer, but it seemed a standard example of a non milled face putter. I only used this indoors. Immediately I can tell the difference between the various balls I am using. The test ball comes off with a little firmness with some depth. My E6's pop off the face with little feedback, no depth at impact. Z Stars come off with little firmness and a lot of depth. The other 2 piece examples were similar to the E6. More pop and less depth. The test ball falls dead between the Z Star and the others. A satisfying mix of pop and depth. Firmness at immediate impact with some lingering softness.

This is a tough putter for me as I am a straight back and through putter. I can't consistently make anything with this putter. In comes my ultimate training putter...

Heavy Putter D1-DF - I use this putter throughout the year to quiet my hands and build confidence during practice. It is ugly, but it works. I decided to use the Heavy to test accuracy. In the feel department the results are exactly the same as with the Ping. The test ball comes off with firmness and a softness at once. Nice mix.

E6 - 7 of 10 from 8 feet
Z Star - 7 of 10 from 8 feet
Random 2 pc was Srixon AD333 - 8 of 10 from 8 feet
Test Ball - 8 of 10 from 8 feet

Not much there to distinguish the balls. But, I had the most confidence in the test ball. I was confident in the speed I was going to get and confidence is pretty important when putting. The quality of the makes was best with the test ball. No around the worlds and no pop ups at the back of my practice hole. The makes dropped nicely in dead center or slightly left or right of center. I was fully warmed up when I did this.

Overall, I really like the test ball while putting. It is a great blend of firmness and softness that equates to great feel. An amateur like me tends to leave putts short so having the extra pop over the Z Star is nice. On the greens it is a contender in my book.
 
Great write up and pics griff, I agree wholeheartedly about this ball and putting, for some reason it seems perfect with my Cleveland putter.
 
Nice write up griff. I like the idea of really separating the testing categories so as to concentrate on individual characteristics and not confuse yourself.
 
Well after a turbulent week of thunderstorms and a 3 year old with a high fever I managed to play yesterday.

I rotated through 3 balls through 20 holes (we replayed 3 and 4 due to slow group in front and no one behind us). Srixon Soft Feel, Pro V1 and Mystery Ball.

With driver the Pro V1 and the Mystery Ball were both a little longer then the Soft feel. My best drives yesterday were 250 carries with the V1 and the mystery ball. About 240 with the soft feel. I also had a nice fade off the tee with the mystery ball on hole 6 which is an uphill dog leg right par 5. Stuck the green with a 3 wood from 220 out. Missed the eagle putt of course.

Both the V1 and the Mystery ball feel harder off the club face then the soft feel just like I had experienced previously. Which is to be expected, the soft feel is a marshmellow of a ball. And I like a soft feeling golf ball. (mind you I'm talking core, not cover at this point).

With full irons I really didn't notice much difference in length between the three. I would tend to favor the mystery ball and the v1 over my soft feel only because both balls tend to get up a little higher then the soft feel and stuck the greens better.

The v1 and mystery ball both rolled out a little less on chips compared to the soft feel. I'm really used to the soft feel and the e6's so I'll need to spend more time at the chipping/putting green to dial it in.

As far as putter I actually like the soft feel the best in terms of feel, but again I need to spend more time at the practice green with just the mystery ball so I can get used to it vs what I've been playing for so long.

Informally I'd say the mystery ball wouldn't be horrid for me. I hit it well and it feels good. I just need to determine if I can like it more around and on the green. It seems to behave closer to a pro v1 then the soft-feel. Harder to compress then the soft-feel, a little more consistent around the green.

It was just one round but I was glad to finally get out an play with it as opposed to hitting it into a net or putting in a garage.
 
Played 18 with the mystery ball today. Didn't really have my best stuff, but got some good feedback. Sad to say that I lost two balls. I'm not playing anywhere with trees for awhile.

Off the tee: After the launch monitor testing, I noticed a pretty big issue with spin off my driver. I decided to put the R9 head back on my shaft in the hopes of lowering it a bit. When I made good contact I was hitting the ball pretty far. Not nearly as high as the SuperTri gets the ball up there, but still very acceptable. Well struck shots were right in my normal distance range, so no real increase or decrease in distance from my normal ball. The ball felt real nice, though switching drivers kind of threw me off in regards to the feel. Everything seemed a bit harsher with the R9. I'm probably imagining that, but that's what I thought I felt.

Irons/hybrids: The mystery ball seemed to flight a bit lower today than it had in the past. That's surely just a product of the swing I had today. Nonetheless, the spin was still very high. A couple times I hit the ball short and wished it didn't spin so much as the ball just stopped in front of the green rather than running up onto it. Can't have your cake and eat it too ;)

Wedges: Short chips shots had plenty of bite to allow me to control them. Full wedge shots just stopped dead in their tracks. I actually spun a ball backwards about 12 inches today, which rarely ever happens to me. One shot of note was a 50 yard pitch I had. I've been working a low, boring pitch that has a lot of spin and had the perfect opportunity for it. The ball came off low, hit the green, danced around, and stopped dead. It was really cool to see how much spin I was able to get on the ball. Definitely a spinny ball.
 
I played the blind ball today. I was given a ball by the BullFrog. Ball flight off the tee was normal for me. My launch angle with a 9.0 driver is 13.0-15.0. Mid irons did not stop as well as my normal ball, I play anything soft, 3-4 cover ball. 100 yard and in shots, the ball stopped with in a bounce or so, chipping was normal, so was putting. The role felt fine.
 
Part 2 here. Want to get this up as work will tie me up over the next couple days.

PITCHES, CHIPS, WEDGES

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Upper left is a Mizuno MP T10 60*. This club probably has the freshest and most aggressive grooves among my wedges. Mizuno will test durability. Upper right is a 2011 Niblick 42*. Lower is a Cleveland CG16 58*.

Indoors I have about 20 feet of chipping space. My observations with putting are carrying over to chips and pitches. The test ball doesn't spin as much as the Z Star. However, it does considerably better than the 2 piece balls. Indoors, doing little 8-10 foot flops, the Z Star pops almost straight in the air after landing and just dies about 6 inches later. The E6 and other 2 piece balls seem to ignore my attempts to get them to stop. The test ball seems to fall right between. The test ball checks up and has a little more roll out than the Z Star.

I am seeing solid consistency with indoor chips. Not surprising to me given how the test ball performs while putting. Z Star can stop up shorter than anticipated and the other 2 piece balls can get away from me.

On the course I am having success with the test ball pitching and chipping. Test ball comes off my Niblicks and CG16 with a satisfying thump. Spin for me has a lot to do with my lie. With my E6 I have little chance to get it to stop around the green from the rough. The test ball has given me adequate stopping power out of the rough while chipping. It lands softer and rolls out exactly how I envision before the shot. Example of this is I blew the green by about 20 yards with my 8 iron (flyer out of rough) and I had a pretty miserable lie. Had about 20 feet of green to work with. Pulled the 56 Niblick and popped it nicely out of the rough and onto the green to about 6 feet right of the hole. Ball hit, slowed up a bit and rolled out a total of 8-10 feet.

I get quite a bit more spin from the fairway with the test ball. An example yesterday was when I had 45 yards to the pin that was only about 8 feet from the front fringe. I decided to attempt to land the ball on the front part of the green and hope for the best. Used the CG16 and pulled off the shot. It landed about 4 feet in front of the pin and pretty much stopped dead. Kicked about a foot toward 2 o clock. This is they type of shot I give up with my E6. I am not a high spin player and when I try to over cook one the results are never good. It's nice to have more control around the green and the test ball is giving it to me without sacrificing much.

Full shots with wedges have been a mixed bag. Spin and control is great. Just about perfect for my game. However, accuracy on full shots with my wedges is no better than average. I've only had 45 holes with the test ball and I will continue to work with accuracy on full shots. What I have noticed is the ball flight can be a bit weak from my wedges. Trajectory is a bit lower than I am used to. This could be leading to sidespin having a greater effect than I want. Will have to do more testing to figure this out. I'm not hooking and slicing my wedges. The test ball seems to falter a bit on the way to my target. It may only be 5 yards, but that can be the difference between missing the green or having extra footage on my putt. It's an issue I think I can work through. Wish I had a launch monitor available to me as I bet that would tell the tale.

I set one ball aside to test durability. I don't have a net so I had to concoct a makeshift hitting area that involved hanging old blankets and tarps from trees and staking them out. Was quite the setup and I wish I would have taken a picture. My wife and son think I am nuts. Anyway, I wasn't able to scuff the test ball with the Mizuno until shot 16. Good thing as my blanket setup was not holding up. It is a minor scuff and I doubt it would effect playability. In no way would the durability of the ball prevent me from putting it in play. That's all I need to know from this part of my test.

In summary, around the greens the test ball is fantastic for my game. Better than what I have used in the past. Full wedges are average for me in the accuracy department....not terrible at all, just average. Ball stops up nicely if a bit off my line.

This is an ongoing test. I will continually update my observations with regard to accuracy until the last test ball disappears into the sunset. Haven't lost one yet!
 
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Good report griff, I particularly like your ingenious durability test.
 
griff said:
Part 2 here. Want to get this up as work will tie me up over the next couple days.
I don't have a net so I had to concoct a makeshift hitting area that involved hanging old blankets and tarps from trees and staking them out. Was quite the setup and I wish I would have taken a picture. My wife and son think I am nuts. Anyway, I wasn't able to scuff the test ball with the Mizuno until shot 16. Good thing as my blanket setup was not holding up. It is a minor scuff and I doubt it would effect playability. In no way would the durability of the ball prevent me from putting it in play. That's all I need to know from this part of my test.
!
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This is awesome! I wish you had pictures of that to show us. I have often wished I had a net to hit into, and have never thought about this idea. Good work my friend!
 
Good stuff everyone...nice job with the make shift net griff!
 
war.eagle said:
This is awesome! I wish you had pictures of that to show us. I have often wished I had a net to hit into, and have never thought about this idea. Good work my friend!
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Thanks! In hindsight it would have been quicker to just let it fly. Didn't want to lose it though. I pulled every bit of camping experience out of my head to set that thing up. Adding the tarp was key.
 
good reviews guys, glad the ball is working for the majority, really excited to see what the ball is... keep the reviews coming because i would love to read more!!
 
Another great writeup griff. I really do enjoy the concentration on different aspects of the game. Your focus makes me focus, if that makes sense. I will take this under advisement for my own future reviews.
 
Played a full 18 today but did not hit the X ball too much because it was crowded and I didn't want to be rushed and pull-yank or block-push any OB and out of sight.
On the holes I DID play it on, it was business as usual. LONG and nice and squishy off the Octane. Smooth on button-hits on irons, and nice and soft off the putter.
I did learn something today. Either my wedge/chip swing needs work or I just need to learn to work the balls as I play them. I had an instance where I really had to put the ball way back in my stance and come down hard on it. What came of it was a lowish shot that hit and checked up REAL nice. I tried it again later just for giggles and produced the same thing. So, as I knew before anyway, I'm more of a sweeper and like to slide the face under to get it high and land soft. This is what was producing the rollout.

Anyway, I still have some for more testing so more to come.
(I did hit the Vision 808 a little today so go to that thread if you so wish)
 
I gottoplay with this ball again today, and the results were the same as last time, I love the fact that this ball releases to the hole! It has just enough rollout to get me a little closer to the hole. The driver is soft and long and I'm taking a club less into the greens which make for a good scoring day. I'd put this ball in play, no doubt. I am practicing formy P.A.T. this coming week, so I'm going to put the X factor ball on hold for a week so I can game my regulars.
 
Had a chance to catch up on some of the reviews since my first impressions are out of the way. Great job everyone. Thanks for enjoying my reviews btw, means a lot that people can take something from them. More to come from me as I sort things out.
 
Played my usual Sunday round this morning exclusively with Ball X, on Sunday's I play in a regular Skins game with 10-15 others usually 2 to 3 fivesomes. today we had 12 so it was three foursomes. Let's just say I made money with this ball today:D

I shot 40-41 for a nice 81 so I not only grabbed several skins but I took low net for the front and for total.

My drives were consistently 10 yards longer than normal and I hit 11 out of 13 fairways! I am loving this ball!! It was kinda funny, one of the guys I play with all the time who usually outdrives me by 5-10 yards was behind me all day...he even wanted to know what I was doing for the extra distance...I told him about Ball X and I let him hit one off a par 5 and he was impressed, he was past me by 15 yards....needless to say, I took it away from him after that hole :D

Irons were nice and crisp and about 5 yards longer than normal and my wedges were rocking!! I really love this ball for my shortgame...I chipped in for birdie on 16 from about 10 yards...carried the chip over a ridge and landed it about 2 1/2 feet from the hole, it hopped to a few inches and them just trickled in!!

I can't wait to find out what this ball is!

More to come soon!
 
I got out on Saturday and Sunday with the blind ball. Very impressed with the distance off of the driver with this little ball. I didn't notice a lot of side spin with this ball. I thought the flight was pretty darn straight. I had a ton of confindence that my drive would end up were I wanted. The biggest/only complaint I have with this ball off of the tee is that it is really soft. I like to feel the ball hit the club face. I don't get that with this ball. I could get over it pretty quick because of the awesome distance and accuracy results.

The iron shots got a lot of back spin. I backed up a 9i on par 3. I was very happy with that. I did one hop a green on a par 5. The ball carried the front buncker, landed on the green and rolled off into a wooded area. Never to be seen again. I have never over shot a par 5 with my second shot before. I was impressed with myself.

I was having some distance control issues with my wedges. I was 80ish yards out. I took my 56* wedge and over shot the green. I have never hit that club that far. That result may have been because of my swing (which I am getting more confidence in) than the ball. I also got a chance to hit some big high flop shots. I got very little release with this ball with that shot. It's fun hitting a high flop and having the ball bounce twice and stop.

I was having some distance control issues with my putter. I think that it was more of my putting stroke, and less of the ball. I wasn't really hitting the putter well. I was missing the center a lot. But the ball was being left real short. Shorter than usual.
 
Great job on the feedback, guys. Blu, I'm glad you've finally been able to get your mystery testing on!
 
Hawk said:
Great job on the feedback, guys. Blu, I'm glad you've finally been able to get your mystery testing on!
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Since last Thursday, I have gotten 3 rounds in with them. It was tough finding time early last week. Sometimes work can be a b-word. On a completely unrelated note, I burnt my forehead on a steam line on Friday. So that was fun.
 
I can't wait to hear what oem makes this ball sounds like everyone really likes this ball.
 
Aaronthehack said:
I can't wait to hear what oem makes this ball sounds like everyone really likes this ball.
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As much as I want to hear who makes it, I am more interested at the cost. I really like the iron and wedge spin, I like the distance off of the driver. I am still on the fence about the feel with the driver.
 
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