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Polara Golf Ball Testing Review Thread

SuperStroke
After reading that great review I'm thinking about picking a couple of boxes of these up for my mom, dad, and grandpa. I'm no pro myself but I'm a good bit better than them, and I think picking these up for them would just help them enjoy the game more and want to play with me. Can't wait to hear more.

EDIT- I feel like a loser for spelling hear "here" hehe
 
I was able to take the XS out for 9 this afternoon. While not in mid season golf shape, I am coming off a 6 round trip in AZ, so not too rusty from the winter up north. While I know these are not tournament / handicap approved, I figure there is still a place in my bag for some fun rounds and games with buddies.

I decided to first test the XS; since it is a 3 piece ball and probably the most comparable to what I typically play. With that, I tried to play this ball exactly as I would play with my NXT. I wanted to compare the 2 like for like so I tried to fly the ball the same distance with iron shots, chip it to the same spots, and flop it to the same heights. I brought the instruction sheet with me and tried to use it as much as possible. When they say the balls do not like low lofted drivers, they mean it. I hit my drives about 35 yards shorter than my normal drive with an NXT Tour. After 2 drives going nowhere, I teed off with my 4 wood for the rest of the holes. The 4 wood went about 5 yards shorter than my drives. The direction on these balls off the tee was great. I was able to work them a bit either direction, but didn’t have any BAD misses. My typical miss is a hook, but the worst one was probably 7-10 yards offline.

I played the ball down everywhere and didn’t notice much of a change with the iron shots; they flew like most other 3 piece balls when not ‘aligned’ in the fairway. I was actually surprised at the spin rate on the green, they stopped as close to the hole as my normal NXT without significant sidespin. I also tried a few low punch shots and didn’t see anything too unexpected (which was nice). The balls did fly well on par 3’s when aligned on the tee. Playing these all I could think of is the old Dalton golf infomercial I used to see as a kid “Hit the ball straight as you can point; guaranteed!!”

The XS ball performed as expected from all putts and chips around the green. The one area I did notice a change was out of the sand. I couldn’t really lay a finger on it, but they just seemed dead out of the sand. After my first sand shot, I tossed a few back and made various lies; same dead results. On the next sand shot I compensated with a less lofted wedge and was able to get up and down.

The XS balls do perform as advertised, while the lack of USGA approval will deter me from using them full time. I could see my wife and some casual golf buddies liking these much more, since it will help them keep it in play.

They do look VERY different when standing over a shot; I still wasn’t comfortable by the end of the 9 holes. Sorry for the lack of pics, our digital camera was left on a tee box in AZ :banghead:. I hope to play the Ultimate Straight this weekend and will post another review on that. I didn’t want to switch back and forth tonight; as I wanted to keep the test as close to my normal round as possible.

This is my first THP review; be gentle :angel:
 
great reviews. I cant wait to get mine. I wonder if you hit your driver high if you can still hit a 9.5 deg without much loss?
 
dubbledxu said:
I was able to take the XS out for 9 this afternoon. While not in mid season golf shape, I am coming off a 6 round trip in AZ, so not too rusty from the winter up north. While I know these are not tournament / handicap approved, I figure there is still a place in my bag for some fun rounds and games with buddies.

I decided to first test the XS; since it is a 3 piece ball and probably the most comparable to what I typically play. With that, I tried to play this ball exactly as I would play with my NXT. I wanted to compare the 2 like for like so I tried to fly the ball the same distance with iron shots, chip it to the same spots, and flop it to the same heights. I brought the instruction sheet with me and tried to use it as much as possible. When they say the balls do not like low lofted drivers, they mean it. I hit my drives about 35 yards shorter than my normal drive with an NXT Tour. After 2 drives going nowhere, I teed off with my 4 wood for the rest of the holes. The 4 wood went about 5 yards shorter than my drives. The direction on these balls off the tee was great. I was able to work them a bit either direction, but didn’t have any BAD misses. My typical miss is a hook, but the worst one was probably 7-10 yards offline.

I played the ball down everywhere and didn’t notice much of a change with the iron shots; they flew like most other 3 piece balls when not ‘aligned’ in the fairway. I was actually surprised at the spin rate on the green, they stopped as close to the hole as my normal NXT without significant sidespin. I also tried a few low punch shots and didn’t see anything too unexpected (which was nice). The balls did fly well on par 3’s when aligned on the tee. Playing these all I could think of is the old Dalton golf infomercial I used to see as a kid “Hit the ball straight as you can point; guaranteed!!”

The XS ball performed as expected from all putts and chips around the green. The one area I did notice a change was out of the sand. I couldn’t really lay a finger on it, but they just seemed dead out of the sand. After my first sand shot, I tossed a few back and made various lies; same dead results. On the next sand shot I compensated with a less lofted wedge and was able to get up and down.

The XS balls do perform as advertised, while the lack of USGA approval will deter me from using them full time. I could see my wife and some casual golf buddies liking these much more, since it will help them keep it in play.

They do look VERY different when standing over a shot; I still wasn’t comfortable by the end of the 9 holes. Sorry for the lack of pics, our digital camera was left on a tee box in AZ :banghead:. I hope to play the Ultimate Straight this weekend and will post another review on that. I didn’t want to switch back and forth tonight; as I wanted to keep the test as close to my normal round as possible.

This is my first THP review; be gentle :angel:
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Nothing to be gentle about! Great review!
 
Wow, Two great reviews right off the bat. Inky, that was superb sir great right up, dubbledxu very nice right up, that was very interesting info about being dead from the sand. Can't wait to get my hands on these guys, but the lack of distance on the driver seems problamatic.
 
Nice review. Wierd u lost that much distance off the drives
 
RxGus said:
I don't believe that is how this ball works. It doesn't promote a certain ball spin direction so you can't use it to "cause" a draw/fade. From what I gathered on the website it is either "on" or "off". There may be some interesting effects if the ball is aligned something other than straight or 90*, but I think testers will be able to pick up on that pretty quick.
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True. The ball doesn't promote a certain ball spin, it reduces ball spin when you use the alignment feature. You can still work the ball either way even when using the side stamp but will not get the normal "curve" that you would playing your regular ball.
 
SethO said:
Can't wait to give these a spin (see what I did there?). I have been having some driver issues, so I will be very interested to see if these work as advertised.
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After one round I would have to say that these balls may be better than advertised. Haven't tried to get one to go sideways yet but can say that my normal cut shot has at least 5-8 more yards on it than I was able to get out of the Polara balls today.
 
MaryC said:
OH BOY!! I can't wait to get my package. I already have a playing lesson lined up with my instructor on the sim for Saturday and on Sunday I'm going to hit the Par 3 in Fairfield that just opened for the season.
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The par 3's today were a lot of fun. Never tried to work the ball into any of the greens, it was just align the side stamp, point and shoot. Nothing to it.
 
I'm wondering if you tee off with your driver and put the alignment line at the 90* mark would you see your 30 yards or so come back?
 
Hole~Out~1983 said:
No doubt, there are plenty of players out there that have no interest in hndcp's or tournament play and I agree this would be a great product for those people to just be able to enjoy the game a little more.
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I think this is a terrific product for casual golfers that play a few times a year, normally in a company scramble or family outing or something. Will definately increase their chances of finding the fairways.
 
JB said:
Incredible write up.
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Thank you, appreciate your feedback. I was excited to be picked to be a tester and still am. Just trying to really organize my thoughts so I don't ramble.
 
gbigoose1 said:
Great review man. So it does feel and react well off the wedges? I think that is what you were getting at.
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Thank you. It's not just the wedges although I can tell you that the 2 piece ball never moved more than 8 feet off of a ball mark on the front 9. It really is a solid ball through the bag for me with the exception of the driver and that has more to do with my launch angle and driver loft than any deficiencies in the golf ball.
 
great reviews so far... i cant wait to start testing
 
Great insight guys, you covered just about every question/concern that I had about the ball. I can say that I was a bit suprised by the performance that you guys described about the ball but it was a 100% pleasant suprise. Keep up the testing and the great reviews.
 
Great pair of reviews, gentlemen! I'm really looking forward to trying these out now, especially after hearing they perform like a "normal" ball when not using the alignment system. Should be interesting to see how they handle my big fade/hook (depending on, well...) lol!
 
Wow. Great reviews. The bar has been set. Can't wait to try these out.
 
Great Reviews Gentleman! I can't wait to put these to the test.
 
highscoreinky said:
I think this is a terrific product for casual golfers that play a few times a year, normally in a company scramble or family outing or something. Will definately increase their chances of finding the fairways.
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I could see these balls being used in a friendly scramble when 'you just need one out in the fairway somewhere'. The lack of distance doesnt lend itself well to most scramble drives, but will help when your 3 partners are in the woods
 
Great job on the review so far. The driver loft issue is interesting to me, but makes sense.
 
Hawk said:
Great job on the review so far. The driver loft issue is interesting to me, but makes sense.
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i agree, great job so far, hopefully mine are here today or tomorrow. the driver issue kinda has me worried since i play a 9* but we will see
 
Reading these reviews makes me wish I signed up to test these balls. Then again they do not sound like they would mesh with my driver swing. But I'd still love to try em.


Tappin to the oldies
 
Thinking on the driver loft issue, I'm not sure what to expect. My J38 is 9.5*, but I tend to hit some very high drives. My launch angle is usually in the 15* range - so we'll see how that works with this ball.
 
Great write up dubbledxu and very similar to my results after the first round of testing.
 
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