Chromax Distance - Forum Testing Review Thread

[Oregon Jack]

okay guys, here's my write-up for yesterdays round (12/16/12).

Played again at Chehalem Glenn, in Newberg, OR.

i played all 18 with the Chromax "Glowballz" as I call them.

It was a lot of the same as last time, except this time I noticed a few things different- some positive, some negative.

as a recap, here's my first write-up, to refer back to-

Spoiler

OK. played today, lost a greenie tho

played pretty well considering i havn't been on a course in too long.

so let's see if i can give a decent write-up.

the very first thing i noticed about the orange ball was you can see it very, very, very well with grey cloud background. very easy to see while flying. also pretty easy to see on the ground. i called it the candle ball. the green ball though, wasn't quite as easy to see while flying (still easy, just not as easy, namean?<- that is how i say know what i mean in gangster talk.) but i could see the green ball from a mile away in the rough. as for plugged balls, the orange was easy to see, but again, i could see the green from a mile away, even when there was only 1cm of the ball showing. pretty dang good in my book.

2nd hole: par 5, 470ish. straight away.
driver (note: my driver SS is 112)- played the orange chromax. felt really good off the face, and was pretty good distance wise, i actually hit my furthest couple drives while playing the chromax's. every time i hit the chromax with a driver though, it was lower than i expected ball flight. felt good though, not too hard, not too soft, good distance, not too much side spin. I like it!
4 hybo- pretty much the same as the driver, except i thinned it and it went right, but that's my fault, not the balls fault.
58* flop- felt a bit hard here, but really not too noticable. although, when it came down, it was not rolling out, and it even spun towards the hole a bit.
putter- felt good, not too hard, not too soft. didn't feel like a rubber ball, but didn't feel like a rock. made the bird. so far, i'm liking it better than the NIKE PD SOFT that i played the first hole.

5th hole: par 3, 185ish uphill, shallow/wide green.
6 iron- toe'd it, but it still went dead straight. usually when i do that with a softer ball, it tends to fade a bit. but nope, went dead straight. very nice, at least for me.
50* wedge pitch shot (about 20 yards, w/ new atv)-
bump n run type shot, landed it way short of where i wanted it to, and like i said before i ran wayyyy out. about 10 feet past the pin. i don't like this. seems to be fine when the ball is coming down steeply, but when it's not at much of an angle, this ball will roll until it falls of the edge of the Earth.

the only bad shot i hit while playing a chromax was on #10, big ol' slice into the ravine. i loved that green freek

compared to the other balls i had played, the NIKE PD SOFT and the Titleist PROV1X, i think i liked the chromax the best.
the nike's were too soft, and had lots of side-spin. i always play them just because they're cheap-o's and i don't really care if i lose a $15-dozen ball. the Titleist's where pretty similar to the Chromax's, but i really lean on the Chromax's becase of how easy they are to see, and how almost impossible they are to lose. a few times today my main thought was "holy crap, even a blind man could see these." (will be buying a dozen of the greens for my 92 yr old family friend who is color blind for christmas). the prov1x's had a bit too high of a flight for me, again not much different than the Chromax's, but enough. they (the titleists) also had a bit more spin. my usual shot-shape is a 5-10yrd draw, and the Chromax's were usually going 4-7 yrds. very minimal. the titleists, however, were going the full 10, sometimes 15. I look forward to playing these balls again. like i've said before, the Chromax's don't give much spin with short game, as where the amount of spin i was able to produce with the titleists saved my bacon twice today, but i kind of like that more. i can rely on my lower trajectory shot shape and be able to land on the front of a green and have it roll out. i know i might be sounding kind of counter-intuitive to myself, but i'm just saying what i'm thinking, so just run with me here.

side note: i believe a main reason the Chromax's don't spin much is because they don't really have a dimple pattern, which allows them to fly straighter because there are no dimples for the wind to push and spin. same for putting and pitch shots, no dimples to grab onto the green. just let me know if i'm making any sence.

welp, this is really all i can think of to write for now, but i might be back later with more. let me know if you have any questions, i'd be more than happy to answer them.

thanks again for this opportunity, THP. i'm loving these balls.​

as i mentioned in the first write up, i was able to get these balls to my way for the most part last sunday. i was able to get them to go straight, long, and they felt good off the face of just about all of my clubs. same for today- felt good, went straight (when i hit it well), and went about the same length as i expected. my only negative last week was i was not at all able to get these balls to spin.

today, though, there were 3 major things that i noticed differently.
1- off the driver, on #2, i just pured a drive to about 280. nobody behind me, so i pulled out a prov1x and tried to compare. also hit that ball pretty well, and it went 295. this also happened on #17. 275 w/ chromax, 300 w/ prov1x (which again didn't feel like as great of a swing as the first one).

2- it spun! only a couple times, but i had to hit a couple big flop shots yesterday, and when they came down they really spun hard. #5, i believe, a 180-ish yrd par 3. landed behind the green, with a trap in between me and a shallow green, and if i went deep i risked going into the ravine. the pin was right up next to the edge of the green closest to the trap aswell. i was able to flop it out of fairly deep rough, got it up pretty high, and it landed about 5 feet past the pin and stopped dead. again on #15. behind the green again with trap in between the green and my ball. flopped it up and it stopped dead. me likey!

3- sight! i know i raved about them being easy to see last time, but i tried just for the heck of covering one in mud and dropping it into some deep rough. walked about 20 yards away and i could still see it plain as day. wow. i bought half a dozen green (compression 75's) for my family friend for christmas today. why aren't they sold in full dozens?

other than those differences, they're pretty much still the same for me- straight, decently long, not too much spin.

recap of today's write-up
major differences are:
negatives- not as long as "comparable" prov1x's
positives- 1) starting to see some spin being spun. the light is near! and 2) more raving about how awesomely easy it is to see.

thanks guys!

 

[Oregon Jack]

also, i just wanted to add specific feel with each club real quick

driver- i can't really tell much differences between balls off my driver, as i'm always looking to see if it hooked or not. as long as i hear the same old "CRACK!" sound, i'm good.
5 wood- still getting the feel for my new 5 wood (thanks to ONE-T!), but it's feeling pretty good so far. seems pretty easy to work the ball with the longer clubs, sometimes not in my favor, but still easier than with shorter irons.
hybrids- weird. is there some sort of weird technology in the face of the 910 hybrids that i don't know about? i can't seem to hit any good shots with these balls. could just be my head screwing with me, but for the hell of it i'm blaming the club, haha.
irons- just how i like it. the perfect mixture of hard and soft, can get it to go straight when i hit it good, about the same distance as i usually hit my irons. although, when i hit short punch shots, it feels a bit harder. i guess it makes sence that the harder you swing at it (or the quicker the club head speed) the softer it will feel, but still. feels harder with shorter shots, and i don't like that- it always feels somewhat similar no matter the shot with other balls.
wedges- not bad, on the harder side, but not too bad.
putter- perfect. just the right mixture.

so far i'm rating this ball a 7.5/10.

 

[Kobey]

Thanks for the great reviews guys. I have my reservations about these but they are mainly marketing points that would keep me from regularly playing them.

 

[afwcardinal]

Trying to get my pictures downloaded, but photobucket has been giving me fits for about 3 hour. After all the photos are downloaded and labeled I will give an indepth review on my round.

 

[Mr. Satchmo]

Trying to get my pictures downloaded, but photobucket has been giving me fits for about 3 hour. After all the photos are downloaded and labeled I will give an indepth review on my round.

If you have a Mac, try Flickr, it's built into to iPhoto, with a press of a button, it's ready to post on THP that's how I'm doing my chromax testing pics


Tapatalk on iPhone 5

 

[afwcardinal]

Today I took the Chromax balls for my first trip around the course with them. I had some good luck with these balls today. They responded pretty much like I expected, because of all the reviews from the other testers. I was able to put some very good shots on these from some good lies and bad. I can def see what everyone has been saying about these balls glowing. The gold ball is quite easy to see in flight and from 40/50 yds away. The sun just radiates off (or should I say through) the ball. I was able to see this ball in flight each and every shot whether into the sun or away. This is def a plus for me because I tend to have difficulty tracking the ball, especially this time of year. iI started hole #1 with Just the callaway HX hot, to get away from the club house by myself and get a few swings in prior to breaking out the chromax balls. On hole #2, I did a side by side with the gold and the HX.
Hole 2

A you can see they were pretty much equal. they had approx. the same height and ball flight, which was a draw of about 20 yds R/L. These 2 were hit with the 3W with maybe an 8mph tail wind and went anywhere from 265-280 yds. I hit these both absolutely perfect. 10 yds difference between the 2.

The approach shot was also very good.

The ball mark you see is from the chromax ball. The HX was actually just off the green and it is lying 3 where it is. I will say that the HX was actually hit really good, but hit just short of the green and stuck. They had water excessively and the ball just about plug maybe 2 yds short of the green. I was able to sink the chromax for birdie and got par with the HX. I need to point out also that this course is usually hard as concrete everywhere and I normally do not play onto the green with a front pin placement. You usually have to landing short and bounce it up. Today it was water in everywhere and I even had to move the ball a few times because of causual water in the fairway.

I did not play the chromax for the next 2 holes because I had someone coming up on me pretty quickly, but I did par both. I actually plugged my tee shot about 4 ft to the left of the pin on the par 3 4th.

Hole 5

I played the chromax and the Hx again and did not have a great tee shot with the chromax ball. I hit a balloon shot with the 3W, but this was due to the clown with the stick, and I nailed the HX. I was 143 out with the chromax and hit my 8i and stuck the shot about 15/18' from the pin with maybe a 1.5' / 2' of roll out. The HX ball was about 85 yds out and I hit my 53* to about 12' with about 3' roll out.

Hole 6
I teedoff with the chromax first on this hole proceeded to draw the ball about 30yds R/L. It was not the longest hit due to the rough around a fairway bunker at about 210yds outl Thw HX tee shot was about 30yds longer because it stayed in the faiway. I had 120yds left for the chromax and put the P wedge about 10' below the pin. For the HX I had 90yds and put the S wedge over the green about 2 yds. Got both down in par.


Hole 7 was just a quick hole 100yds ovedr water, but I got in a hurry because 2 gentlemen had caught up with me and I did not wish to hold anyone up since I was actually playing 2 balls on most holes. I did par the hole and found a new wedge to boot. The foursome in front of me had left it, so I hurried onlong and caught them on #8 tee box. They were real curious about that gold ball they kept seeing hitting the greens behind them. I got to have a little chat with them about the balls and what I was doing out there today. I think they were a little impressed with the ball and the visibilty of it.
I let the twosome behind me get through an I proceeded to take out the driver for the first time with the chromax.

Hole 8
I played three balls from the tee here. It was the first time that I had hit the green and gold chromax on the same hole. I pretty much hooked the first shot which was with the golg ball. I then hit the HX to better judge the green by getting another hok out of the way, and wouldn't you know it, I blistered that ball down the right side with no hook at all. Ended up ith #14 fairway. Then I proceeded to hook the green ball. I thought I was going to have trouble locating the chromax balls, especially since I hd not looked at the flight nof the green ball, but I both chromax balls about 5yds apart side by side. I had to punch the ball down the LH side under the trees and then chip up. I ended up bogeying the hole because the ball hit the green and rolled out a tremendous distance. I was shocked at the roll I got here because the green is severely sloped toward me. Imissed about a 15' down hill putt. First bogey of the day.

Hole 9 was a one ball hole and I bogeyed with the gold ball due to my second shot was from within a divot. I wanted to see how I could play that shot and it was not good, but the approach into the green was surprising.

You can see te ball mark short of the pin about 5' and look at that roll out. I almost made that putt coming back but could not pull it off. All in all it was a very good first 9.

I am out of time for tonight, thanks to my super fast computer. I will get somemore up tomorrow on the back 9. I will say this, shot 1 over on the front and that is because of 2 bogeys in a row to close out the side. I was trying to be deliberate about every swing today, because I wanted to put some good shot on these balls. I wanted to evaluate them with quality shot making and not just hacking at the ball. What it did was slow me way down and I made great contact all day long. 9 greens in regulation today and 5 within 2yds or less for regulation. I did put a few bad swings on display today, bu for the most part I was able to recover with quality 2nd shots. It was very fun testing today and can not wait to get back to it.

 

[TripleBogieTim]

Good first thoughts afwcardinal

 

[Oregon Golfer]

Good write up afwcardinal. So based on this initial test would you pay the $ for the Chromomax over the HX Hot?

 

[d_in_la]

Chromax Golf Balls Initial Impressions

Alright, finally getting some time to get some posts in on these Chromax Golf Balls. Major apologies to all my fellow testers, the THP community and Chromax. While I have gotten out and tested with these balls, I lacked time (or the will to find the time?) to move those notes to complete thoughts. This starts a run of posts for the next few days on these very interesting golf balls.

First, a little about me: I play to about a 17 or 18 handicap, but since my move to the bay area about a year ago, I have yet to find my “home” course. As of now, I kinda migrate around to random courses around me in the east bay and surrounding areas. I still play with c.2006 Callaway Big Bertha irons, which are … meh. And I would suggest the strongest part of my game is mental - I neither get too high or too low and when I do, it is a quick spike not a spiral descent into golf madness! I suspect this comes with knowing that my brief moments of golf-lucidity are mixed in with the more frequent ingredients of golf-averageness and golf-hilariously-badness. I had hoped to improve my short game in 2012, but new city, new job, I didn’t practice quite as much as I would have liked, but I hope to change that in 2013. (omg, is this year nearly over … daaaayum!)

As for this testing, I’m not sure what to think. Are these balls just a gimmick with a pretty exterior or can they actually hold up to other offerings? What kind of distance balls are they? Do they run straight and long? Can i get them to check or will they at least be consistent enough I could reasonably guess what would happen if I play them a certain way? Will the metallic-gel thing throw me off? Could these knock my gamers off their perch? Anyhoo … on to first impressions.

Packaging: Has there ever been a golf ball sleeve design that so perfectly captured the contents within? I mean, sure, these are “distance” balls, but even without reading the tagline: “Exclusive High Visibility Technology” I knew these things would be bright and shiny. I couldn’t wait to rip it open to see the orbs within.

The Look: And oh my what orbs they are. I have to say that in my time playing golf, I’ve never seen anything quite like these balls. I have seen metallic-like balls, gel-like balls, but never gel-encased metallic balls. These Chromax balls are a huge departure from the normal standard white I play - usually Bridgestone e6s. The green balls really make you pause at first blush. Even on the most verdant course on the prettiest day, I can’t imagine green Chromax balls not standing out - unless they are covered in leaves, which, has happened to me! As I pulled the orange Chromaxes, they even attracted the attention of my sister from across the room. Of course she asked if they were those orange foil wrapped chocolate things you have to smash to get at the pieces inside! Mmm...chocolate. <cough> sorry, I love them things. Back to the Chromaxes: I will admit to feeling a bit uncomfortable standing over the ball and looking at something that hasn’t matched my previous golf experience. Not only did seeing through to the metallic wrapped core throw me off, but not really being able to see any dimples kinda threw me off. We’ll see if that lasts with a driver, iron, wedge or putter in my hand. (Spoiler: it does go away.)

Construction Issue: two of the balls I received had rough spots. Both very small, and I don’t think it would affect play, but two of the greenies had little sharp ridges. One was just a little prick, like a pin was dipped into the still drying gel exterior and pulled out, the other a line about quarter the width of the fingernail on your pinky. Orange balls were perfect. I cannot speak to the overall build quality, but even for low-range balls, I wouldn’t expect rough patches.

Carpet putting test: Like many, my first club-on-Chromax experience is with the flatstick around the house. Being a distance ball, they feel, sound and react as expected - clicky and a bit hard. Certainly nothing I couldn’t get used to or even have used in the past.

That about covers initial impressions and I’ll get my first on-course and short game testing experience up tomorrow.

 

[Oregon Jack]

Good write up afwcardinal. So based on this initial test would you pay the $ for the Chromomax over the HX Hot?

I wouldnt. The Hx Hot is a pretty soft ball IMO, but it performs. If it came in exotic colors i would buy it all of the time.

 

[TRyan]

Spoiler

Background Information http://www.thehackersparadise.com/fo...hlight=chromax
Initial Feel http://www.thehackersparadise.com/f...esting-Review-Thread/page10&highlight=chromax
On Course Impressions http://www.thehackersparadise.com/f...x-Distance-Forum-Testing-Review-Thread/page13

Dates: Saturday December 15[SUP]th [/SUP]and Sunday December 16[SUP]th[/SUP]
Location: Saturday: Heart of America 9 Hole Course and Driving Range Sunday: Hillcrest Golf Course Kansas City MO
Testing: Chromax Golf Balls on a total of 27 holes
Purpose: Get a good all around feel of the Chromax ball in comparison to its earlier counterpart, and the Srixon Q-Star

Alright guys, I am back with another review, and sorry if it gets a bit long winded, but want to make sure I get all of my thoughts down. I started on Saturday at Heart of America. I went to the Par 3 course there because I really wanted to see how this ball reacted on shorter shots. If you remember my previous thoughts, (If not look up hehe) then you know that I wasn’t a big fan of how this ball performed on shots inside around 110 yards. The ball just felt heavy to me, but I wanted to test it further and see if it was more of an anomaly.

Saturday:

I shot a +5 32 on my 9 holes, and a lot of that should be attributed to my putting. I had intentions of bringing the camcorder, but I completely forgot. I will tell you a few shots that stood out. I had a Par 3 that was 145 yards. It was pretty windy and the ground and greens have been hard in this low 40s weather as you guys can imagine.. I grabbed a 9 iron and prepared to land a bit short of the flag and have it roll out. I hit it clean, that kind of shot that feels like a Mizuno buttery forged knife of Zeus and it had a nice high ball flight that seemed to cut through the wind. I had it landing about 20 feet short, which is what I wanted, but when it hit, it STUCK. Holy crap I stuck a Chromax. I was shocked. This was the theme throughout my day though. On approach shots, with a good, ball first swing I was getting the ball to stop, or to have minimal, very minimal rollout.

Iron Shots (Used 9,PW,AW,SW on tee shots): A- This ball really impressed me on Saturday. Off the irons I got a nice boring ball flight, and the “thud” was much less noticeable. I don’t know if that is because I am getting used to it, or because I was striking the ball pretty well, but I really enjoyed this ball off my tee shots.

Chips: C+. I don’t really care for this ball too much around the green. I have to play much more rollout then I am used to, and I saw quite a bit of unpredictable spin. Just to give an example, I missed the green just off to the left. I was in really fluffy rough and hit the Chromax on a high arching shot short of the pin. The ball rolled right past the pin and 15 feet past, something I didn’t really see with a Q-Star or E6. Just for comparisons sake I dropped a Q-Star and the ball hit in front of the pin and rolled just a couple feet past the green.

Putting: D. I really dislike this ball off the putter face. It feels so heavy, and distance control is unbelievably tough for me with this ball. I know others are feeling this too, but standing over this ball I just don’t have much, if any, confidence with this ball at all!

Sunday:
Well on Sunday I decided to fight the bitter cold to give you, the readers, what you want. I went to the course and noticed there were about three other cars in the parking lot, which got me very excited. I paid for my tee time and headed to the putting green where I practiced rolling the Chromax, the older pink version of the Chromax, and the Q-Star. I noticed the older version seemed a bit softer, and I think it is. I did notice the old version isn’t near as bright, but it seemed to have a softer feel off the clubface. I feel like they traded the color for the feel, and I think for the target market the ball performs fairly well.

I went throughout my round playing the Chromax exclusively, but using the older Chromax and the Q-Star on various shots to see if I noticed differences. I shot an 87 with the Chromax, and that was with 36 putts, 3 of which were three jacks. I just cannot putt with this ball very well at this time.

Driver: A-. The Chromax continues to shine for me off the driver. I am seeing a nice high ball flight which cuts through the wind nicely, and very minimal sidespin. It performs very similar to the Q-Star for me, and that is something I really like about this ball. I noticed with the older Chromax that I tended to balloon it pretty bad. I don’t know if it was a mental thing, but I was consistently 10-15 yards behind the newer ball, but always on a similar flight path. The older ball still wants to go straight, but just too high for me.

Irons B+. I saw the same type of stuff on Sunday with the Chromax. On good, clean shots the ball will check up pretty well, very similar to the Q-Star, and on swings that are thin or a bit fat the ball will rollout similar to any other 2 piece ball. I dropped all three of these balls at 125 yards and found they all landed within very similar distances. I think on the driver and iron/approach shots the Q-Star and newer Chromax are very similar, the older Chromax being different only in that it seems to balloon quite a bit for me on driver swings.

Chips: C. I think that on Sunday I messed around with my ball position and stuff and was able to predict the rollout a bit better. I still saw a couple outliers where the ball seemed to rollout much more than I predicted, but for the most part it rolled out to a predictable distance, just not as good as the Q-Star in this aspect. The older Chromax seemed to perform a bit more like the Q-Star to me. It was a bit softer off the face than the new ball and it didn’t rollout as much I didn’t think.

Putting D. I just can’t figure this ball out off the putter. It feels like I am hitting a rock. Distance control has become a complete guess and I 3 putted on a fairly easy green from 15 feet away. I dropped a Q-Star on the same putt and put the ball within inches on my first putt. I don’t know what I am going to have to do with this ball putting wise, but it isn’t my friend as of now.

What did this weekend teach me? It taught me that on good swings the Chromax is a performer. Not only is it easy to find, it is a good ball when you make a good swing. I know this ball isn’t for everyone, it certainly won’t be my gamer if I can’t figure out the putting, but I do enjoy it in certain aspects of the game that I have outlined above.

 

[Oregon Jack]

Great write ups, guys. Very well done.

 

[afwcardinal]

Good write up afwcardinal. So based on this initial test would you pay the $ for the Chromomax over the HX Hot?

To be honest, I would not pay premium prices for these. I would have to think about these for late fall/ winter golf if they were at the lower end of the scale. There are other balls out there that I would be looking at also, because of the price. I plan on put this ball up against the callaway chrome yellow next time out. I think that will be a good test of high visibility balls. I am really curious as to how that will go. And the gold ball, well I really did like that ball as far as I could always see this ball. I dont think I would be paying $40/dozen though.

 

[DawgDaddy]

Enjoyed reading your write ups this a.m. afw, d-i-l and TH, good stuff guys.

 

[afwcardinal]

Spoiler

Background Information http://www.thehackersparadise.com/fo...hlight=chromax
Initial Feel http://www.thehackersparadise.com/f...esting-Review-Thread/page10&highlight=chromax
On Course Impressions http://www.thehackersparadise.com/f...x-Distance-Forum-Testing-Review-Thread/page13

Dates: Saturday December 15[SUP]th [/SUP]and Sunday December 16[SUP]th[/SUP]
Location: Saturday: Heart of America 9 Hole Course and Driving Range Sunday: Hillcrest Golf Course Kansas City MO
Testing: Chromax Golf Balls on a total of 27 holes
Purpose: Get a good all around feel of the Chromax ball in comparison to its earlier counterpart, and the Srixon Q-Star

Alright guys, I am back with another review, and sorry if it gets a bit long winded, but want to make sure I get all of my thoughts down. I started on Saturday at Heart of America. I went to the Par 3 course there because I really wanted to see how this ball reacted on shorter shots. If you remember my previous thoughts, (If not look up hehe) then you know that I wasn’t a big fan of how this ball performed on shots inside around 110 yards. The ball just felt heavy to me, but I wanted to test it further and see if it was more of an anomaly.

Saturday:

I shot a +5 32 on my 9 holes, and a lot of that should be attributed to my putting. I had intentions of bringing the camcorder, but I completely forgot. I will tell you a few shots that stood out. I had a Par 3 that was 145 yards. It was pretty windy and the ground and greens have been hard in this low 40s weather as you guys can imagine.. I grabbed a 9 iron and prepared to land a bit short of the flag and have it roll out. I hit it clean, that kind of shot that feels like a Mizuno buttery forged knife of Zeus and it had a nice high ball flight that seemed to cut through the wind. I had it landing about 20 feet short, which is what I wanted, but when it hit, it STUCK. Holy crap I stuck a Chromax. I was shocked. This was the theme throughout my day though. On approach shots, with a good, ball first swing I was getting the ball to stop, or to have minimal, very minimal rollout.

Iron Shots (Used 9,PW,AW,SW on tee shots): A- This ball really impressed me on Saturday. Off the irons I got a nice boring ball flight, and the “thud” was much less noticeable. I don’t know if that is because I am getting used to it, or because I was striking the ball pretty well, but I really enjoyed this ball off my tee shots.

Chips: C+. I don’t really care for this ball too much around the green. I have to play much more rollout then I am used to, and I saw quite a bit of unpredictable spin. Just to give an example, I missed the green just off to the left. I was in really fluffy rough and hit the Chromax on a high arching shot short of the pin. The ball rolled right past the pin and 15 feet past, something I didn’t really see with a Q-Star or E6. Just for comparisons sake I dropped a Q-Star and the ball hit in front of the pin and rolled just a couple feet past the green.

Putting: D. I really dislike this ball off the putter face. It feels so heavy, and distance control is unbelievably tough for me with this ball. I know others are feeling this too, but standing over this ball I just don’t have much, if any, confidence with this ball at all!

Sunday:
Well on Sunday I decided to fight the bitter cold to give you, the readers, what you want. I went to the course and noticed there were about three other cars in the parking lot, which got me very excited. I paid for my tee time and headed to the putting green where I practiced rolling the Chromax, the older pink version of the Chromax, and the Q-Star. I noticed the older version seemed a bit softer, and I think it is. I did notice the old version isn’t near as bright, but it seemed to have a softer feel off the clubface. I feel like they traded the color for the feel, and I think for the target market the ball performs fairly well.

I went throughout my round playing the Chromax exclusively, but using the older Chromax and the Q-Star on various shots to see if I noticed differences. I shot an 87 with the Chromax, and that was with 36 putts, 3 of which were three jacks. I just cannot putt with this ball very well at this time.

Driver: A-. The Chromax continues to shine for me off the driver. I am seeing a nice high ball flight which cuts through the wind nicely, and very minimal sidespin. It performs very similar to the Q-Star for me, and that is something I really like about this ball. I noticed with the older Chromax that I tended to balloon it pretty bad. I don’t know if it was a mental thing, but I was consistently 10-15 yards behind the newer ball, but always on a similar flight path. The older ball still wants to go straight, but just too high for me.

Irons B+. I saw the same type of stuff on Sunday with the Chromax. On good, clean shots the ball will check up pretty well, very similar to the Q-Star, and on swings that are thin or a bit fat the ball will rollout similar to any other 2 piece ball. I dropped all three of these balls at 125 yards and found they all landed within very similar distances. I think on the driver and iron/approach shots the Q-Star and newer Chromax are very similar, the older Chromax being different only in that it seems to balloon quite a bit for me on driver swings.

Chips: C. I think that on Sunday I messed around with my ball position and stuff and was able to predict the rollout a bit better. I still saw a couple outliers where the ball seemed to rollout much more than I predicted, but for the most part it rolled out to a predictable distance, just not as good as the Q-Star in this aspect. The older Chromax seemed to perform a bit more like the Q-Star to me. It was a bit softer off the face than the new ball and it didn’t rollout as much I didn’t think.

Putting D. I just can’t figure this ball out off the putter. It feels like I am hitting a rock. Distance control has become a complete guess and I 3 putted on a fairly easy green from 15 feet away. I dropped a Q-Star on the same putt and put the ball within inches on my first putt. I don’t know what I am going to have to do with this ball putting wise, but it isn’t my friend as of now.

What did this weekend teach me? It taught me that on good swings the Chromax is a performer. Not only is it easy to find, it is a good ball when you make a good swing. I know this ball isn’t for everyone, it certainly won’t be my gamer if I can’t figure out the putting, but I do enjoy it in certain aspects of the game that I have outlined above.

Nice job. Glad to see your were able to get some good results with these in play. I was seeing the same thing yesterday, good performance from the chromax on quality struck shots. I had quite a few that just stuck to the green, but I did have some short shots that would roll out unbelievably long. I don't believe I was seeing spin stopp these balls, but trajectory. On shots that I could get a 3/4 swing or greater on they stopped. On 1/2 swings or less it would look like it was biting the green and would proceed to roll out 20/25'. And this was with very soft greens.

 

[Hawk]

Enjoyed reading all the reviews, testers. Thanks for the sharing your thoughts. Interesting to hear about the distance difference with the old vs new Chromax, TexasHacker. I'm hoping to try the same and we can see how they react to a slower swing speed than yours.

 

[TRyan]

Enjoyed reading all the reviews, testers. Thanks for the sharing your thoughts. Interesting to hear about the distance difference with the old vs new Chromax, TexasHacker. I'm hoping to try the same and we can see how they react to a slower swing speed than yours.

Do you remember the specs on the old chromax Hawk? The cover certainly feels different and I swear it was ballooning, but that might be me


TapaTalk from the iPhone

 

[Hawk]

Just what's on the website. M1x is 75 compression and the M2x is 85 compression. The touch test makes me think the covers are the same, but maybe they sound softer due to the core. Tough to say though.

 

[afwcardinal]

Back to yesterdays round. At the start of the back 9, I switched to the green chromax ball as the primary bullet. This side started just like the front, absolutely perfect. 3W about 240yds with a slight draw to it. The green ball is not near as bright as the gold in flight or in the grass . It was a little less noticable IMO.

Hole 11

Par 3 119yds with the wind coming L/R. I played the green chromax against the NXT.

The ball flights were identical, but the NXT released back down the hill, maybe a little back spin. The chromax pretty much just stuck and stayed. This was def an up hill putt. The chromax went right up to the hole and then rolled about 4' back down. I had a little testy put for par and sank it. The NXT actually rolled right up to the hole and stop about 6" below the hole.

Hole 12

On this hole I only hit the chromax from the tee. Nice little draw about 230yds. I then hit both the chromax and the NXT into the green. The NXT did seem to travel a bit higher on this shot, but the distance was identical. This seemed to be the same result al day between these 2 balls. This next pic was just to swhow the divot of the 2 shots into the green and then the location of the ball at the green.

I hope you can see this, but the chromax ball pretty much stayed where it landed with the no spin with the wedge yet the NXT backed up a few feet.
Holes 13-15 were routine holes with nothing interesting but the same nice ball flight and distance.

Hole 16
This was the second driver hole for me. I played both chromax balls on this hole because I wanted to hit them both with the driver. This hole plays a little over 500 yds. You can kind of see the cart by the right.

This is 235 yds out. This is where I drove the green chromax. The gold one was actually to the right of this about 15yds. I moved it to here to speed up my second shot because I had a group behind me. I ended up just left of the green pin high with the green. I adjust my angle slightly for the gold and ended up just off the green to the right. Ended up with birdie on his hole. I believe that was the first time ever for birdie here. The wind is what usually kills you on this hole. It is either hard R/L in the winter and L/R in the summer.

I

I did not play the last 2 very good and bogeyed them both. Believe I was rushing because I needed to be somewhere but really wanted to finish this round. I have one more pic here that I wanted to post. This is 18 green. The green ball was hit from within the trees from 160 yds out. the other was from 110 yds ctr of the fairway.

Not the best picture in the world, but I was able to finish out with 2 in reg from very different lies. I three putted the green ball, which was the official ball for the hole. Lipped out the gold for my birdie.

To sum up these balls for this round, I would give them an A-. They both hit very well when struck with a solid swing and the flight was not bad. The only real downside that I found with them were a few short halve wedge shots that released to much IMO. They released out excessively on #8, 9, and 14. More than likely it was just me on 8 and 14, but #9 was confusing. That was a good ball mark I left and the ball rolled a good 30'+ ft out.

I also played both nines with different putters. Almost forgot about that. I used the Ray Cook Austin 1 putter on the first 9. No insert there. The putts were a little harsh off the putter, but were manageable. I was expecting the solid putter to roll these chromax long all day, but I came away pleased with the results wih this flat stick. I had no 3 putts at all and the tempo of the putts did not really change for me. It was not like hit a rock like I was expecting. The sound with this putter was a little clicky sounding and I really had not issue with this.

I went to the White Hot Odyssey with the insert on the bag 9 and I never even noticed any sound. The ball came off this club smooth and the tempo was almost perfect every time.

I really don't know what to say about these at this time. My round was almost perfect all day. I had a better ball striking day than I believe I have ever had. I believe these balls are ok and I really did like the gold for the fact that I can see them very easily. For this time of year that has become rather important. I have lost balls on this course where I know I hit a good shot, but could not see the ball for anything. These balls did not play any different really than the 2 balls that I put them up against and that actually says a lot right there. They had one thing going for them was looks. You dont always pick the wildest looking or the best looking girl to go to the dance. The smart choice is the one that doesn't break you, is nice looking, and you can still enjoy your time together. So, yes I might purchase these in the future if the price was comparable to others in the high visibility category, but not if they were priced as a premium ball.

 

[Hawk]

Excellent write-up and pictures, afw. The distance you saw sounds very comparable the other balls you were using off the tee, which is good to see. Judging by your numbers, I'd say you fit into a higher swing speed category - stating the obvious there. I never would have guessed it, but the orange ball does really seem to pop out well on that landscape. I really do want to try them out.

A pretty good trend seems to be appearing. Similar to other 2-piece balls in distance and full shot performance (for most, but not all); not as much spin as urethane balls, but not unlike similar covered balls; good performance in the wind; easy to spot in a variety of environments; the price is a detraction.

 

[afwcardinal]

Excellent write-up and pictures, afw. The distance you saw sounds very comparable the other balls you were using off the tee, which is good to see. Judging by your numbers, I'd say you fit into a higher swing speed category - stating the obvious there. I never would have guessed it, but the orange ball does really seem to pop out well on that landscape. I really do want to try them out.

A pretty good trend seems to be appearing. Similar to other 2-piece balls in distance and full shot performance (for most, but not all); not as much spin as urethane balls, but not unlike similar covered balls; good performance in the wind; easy to spot in a variety of environments; the price is a detraction.

Hawk, it was just one of those days that it seems like every shoot was dead on the screws. I did not understand how solid it was all day. Even when I had an errant shot, the recovery shoot was right on the money. The ball performed as everyone has been stated. Nothing out of the ordinary far this type of ball.

 

[Hawk]

Hawk, it was just one of those days that it seems like every shoot was dead on the screws. I did not understand how solid it was all day. Even when I had an errant shot, the recovery shoot was right on the money. The ball performed as everyone has been starting. Nothing out of the ordinary far this type of ball.

Have to love that. This is one of the more enjoyable reviews I've done in awhile.

 

[MWard]

Have to love that. This is one of the more enjoyable reviews I've done in awhile.

It's definitely a fun review. I went out last night and did my night golf test to see how it would look. I was incredibly disappointed how the lights weren't anywhere near as bright as I needed them to be. Couldn't see a darn shot on video

 

[Hawk]

You need an infrared camera!

 

[MWard]

You need an infrared camera!

That would be so awesome it's not even funny. It was a real disappointment. The lights really focus on the tee box and green with mediocre light on the landing areas. The only real way to do it would be on a lit driving range and then it'd be bye bye Chromax balls.