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2012 Bridgestone Golf Ball Forum Review Thread

SuperStroke
Shot my best round ever with the b330rx. (92) off the tee they were alright but man with the irons those balls seemed to jump off the club face. Nice ball. I'll be using them from now on.


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NikeGolfGuy said:
Shot my best round ever with the b330rx. (92) off the tee they were alright but man with the irons those balls seemed to jump off the club face. Nice ball. I'll be using them from now on.


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Thats great to hear! Congrats man!
 
Test Date: 2/25/12
Ball Used: 2012 Bridgestone B330-RX Optic Yellow
Environment: Mostly Sunny, 15-20mph winds, 51*, Right ankle in brace

Played 18 holes with Ole Gray and T0AD today. To say it was windy is an understatement on some of the holes. Off the tee, I only noticed loss of distance on a couple holes where the ball got up a little too much, otherwise my driver and 3 wood were on the mark. My irons and wedges also had no distance loss in the wind today. The biggest thing I noticed today was on the greens. For one the greens were very fast today, with some of the pin placements on the edges of slopes. If you missed the hole, or were just off a little on the break there were holes where you could end up off the green, where normally you might be 6 inches to 4 feet from the hole. On a few of these said holes I did notice that the 330-RX stopped better than the balls the other guys were playing. There is just something with the dimple pattern or the sizing of the dimples that helped them stop a little better when trickling down the green.
 
Playing 18 tomorrow morning instead of doing an intense short game session. My dad wants to play, so i cant say no.

I am going to put the B330S in play so hope to have a good write up tomorrow afternoon/night for you guys.
 
chewie69 said:
Test Date: 2/25/12
Ball Used: 2012 Bridgestone B330-RX Optic Yellow
Environment: Mostly Sunny, 15-20mph winds, 51*, Right ankle in brace

Played 18 holes with Ole Gray and T0AD today. To say it was windy is an understatement on some of the holes. Off the tee, I only noticed loss of distance on a couple holes where the ball got up a little too much, otherwise my driver and 3 wood were on the mark. My irons and wedges also had no distance loss in the wind today. The biggest thing I noticed today was on the greens. For one the greens were very fast today, with some of the pin placements on the edges of slopes. If you missed the hole, or were just off a little on the break there were holes where you could end up off the green, where normally you might be 6 inches to 4 feet from the hole. On a few of these said holes I did notice that the 330-RX stopped better than the balls the other guys were playing. There is just something with the dimple pattern or the sizing of the dimples that helped them stop a little better when trickling down the green.
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LOL, now you see how I putted off the green twice for a 6 on a par three I was on in regulation. That goat track will clean your clock even when you are playing pretty well. I will be rolling the new RXs next time I am over there for sure.
 
I got out there for a surprise 9 holes today and it was just me and my son so I decided I would play 2 balls on every hole, of course the RXS and the RX. I was just out for some fun so what I decided to do was play best ball, I'd hit both choose the better one and play from there, and log which of the two balls had the better shot. I would never look at each shot which ball I was hitting, I would place the white side up and hit and only see which is which when I got to the balls. The results to me were staggering, I only used 2 of the shots from the RXS, all the rest were the RX shots!
Now this could have been dumb luck but we are talking about 26 full shots with the two balls and only 2 RXS shots were used. Pretty strange, to say the least but I did discover that for me the RXS is shorter off the tee, probably by about 10 yards and this is because it goes much higher for me than the RX does. Even though I wouldn't look at what ball I put down on the tee, the moment I looked up and saw the ball flight, I could tell you what ball that was. Off the irons the results were similar again, they were a little shorter for me and the ball flight was higher, I would say too high to where I was definatly losing distance.
Around the greens I would always hit chips with both of these balls just to see them react and I have to say I like the RX better here too. The RXS might have more spin (might) but the RX just seemed to be more consistent for me, but that could be all in my head. Either way they both perform like you would expect a Urethane covered tour ball to play, plenty of spin and easy to get to check and run out, and on little pitches you can put a ton of spin on them.

Someone talked about durability above and like I've found Bridgestone balls in the past they are more than durable enough. I wouldn't put them in the same class as one other more durable cover on the market, but I've played one RX ball for 27 holes with a ton of wedge shots and it still has some more holes left in it. So far I've come away impressed with both balls, but the RX of the too is by far the better ball for my swing.
 
Nice writeup CB

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nice write up CB... i agree with the durability i've been happy enough with it.
 
Ooooooooook…..after conbobulating (I know, not a word) my notes into something legible, here we are.
I was fortunate enough to get out for THREE rounds on Wednesday and came in with the plan of putting a different ball into play for each round…and I did…sort of.

My testing is over the 2012 B-330 and B330-S, but I also so happen to be coming from the B330-RX as my gamer and as mentioned in my initial thoughts I’m a borderline guy as to which ball I should be playing since my SS most recently sits at 106, the bottom for the 330/330-S and just above the RX I was coming from.

With wanting to put a different one of the three into play for each round I came to the realization that it wouldn’t be the fairest way to see the ball performance characteristics for me on course as I’d be cold/rusty round 1 and tired by round 3, so I decided to play each ball 6-hole’s of each round to obviously end up at 18 each. So, here’s to hoping this is easy enough to read!

Round(s) Played: 3
Date: 2/22/12
Weather: 67-78 Degrees, Clear, No Wind

2012 B330 – Played Holes: 7-12 R1, 13-18 R2, 1-6 R3

Flight: The 330 had a flight that I really, really like. For me, it was the most penetrating of the three balls through the marathon of golf. Off the tee, the irons, and the wedges its flight was down, noticeably so from the 330-S. There was no wind to speak of o the day compared to my first time out with them so I really can’t speak on the wind flight this time, which is a bummer.

Spin: I’m not a back it up type of guy on approach and wedge shots, so that won’t apply to any of my testing with any of the balls. That said I do like the ability to control the roll out, the 330 did so admirably and was noticeably better than the RX I’ve been playing and not as far behind that of the 330-S that I thought it would be. I had some hop and stops and most roll outs were within mere than acceptable range for me (except the 2 bladed 6i’s with the 330…BOO!).
Distance: Very good IMO. I make no mistake I’m still pretty rusty, so the ball striking was off and on all day as was the tee game. That said, the 330 was the longer of the two 2012 balls (I’ll get to the RX at the end) time and time again when I look at my recorded distances on my note-pad. I’m not going to bore with distance after distance but I will put out there that with the Driver I averaged about 270.4 using the 330. Sorry, though I can hit bombs form time to time, I’m not an internet driver gents LOL.

Putting: The 330 has that good audible feedback I love, the ‘click’ without being a bad/harsh sound. I found that my lag putting with the 330 was very VERY good compared to that of the 2011 RX over the past season, I can’t yet put my finger on it all the way and if it has to do with the dual dimples, but the speed of the 330 seems toned down a bit. I know that sounds strange, but it’s a good thing IMO. I’ll have to come back on this in future rounds.
Durability: I’ll openly admit, the 330 was abused moreso on the rounds than the 330-2 or RX were LOL. It seems that any time I smacked a tree or caught a cart path the 330 was the one. That said, the durability is everything I expect from using Bridgestone prior to this, second to none IMO. One of the 330’s does have one minor path scuff but nothing like I would have seen using a PV1 or whatever. I can dig it.

2012 B330-S – Played Holes: 13-18 R1, 1-6 R2, 7-12 R3

Flight: I was honestly surprised how much higher my flight with the 330-S was compared to the 330 on a non-windy day where I could actually see a true flight path. Now, not to say it was TOO much, but I prefer a flatter flight since I’m a high-baller naturally and the 330-S just got up a little more than the 330, that’s all.

Spin: Greenside and from approaches the 330-S was the clear-cut winner just like I thought it would be as for me it spun WAY more than my old RX’s and enough more than the 330 to make a couple of pitch shots into REALLY good pitch shots with a true hop and stop where I got a couple feet of roll with the 330 still. I honest to goodness love this aspect. I don’t know if its because I’m getting better with the short game and hitting down and taking advantage of spinning a ball more than I used to in my game, but it was enough for me to notice. Tommy likey.

Distance: My average with the 330-S off the tee was noticeably less than the 330, as a matter of fact, it was about 8 yards shorter coming in at 261.2 with the big-stick. Add to that I was not as accurate with the 330-S which I would jump to the conclusion is because it does spin more but it was not a bad drop in accuracy. With the irons and wedges the 330-S outshined the 330 easily and believe it or not was about the same length as far as my gaps went. I think it will come into one of those pick your poison things, do you want length or the short game bite. Its still VERY early though.

Putting: Had some excellent lags with the 330-S and much like the 330 I really do think I have WAAAAY more distance control than I ever have with the 2011 330-RX I’ve been gaming. My issue with the 330-S again comes back to the sound feedback, its just more dulled. It just is for me. I don’t get that audible click. I know to a lot of you guys this whole click vs non-click thing makes me look picky and crazy but it’s a HUGE part of my putting and something that really does impact my game. Now, did I roll badly with the 330-S? No. Was it as good as the 330? 29 putts to 28 putts with the 330, so you could say it was as good.

Durability: Wonderful. The 330-S didn’t get abused off paths or trees like the 330 did but I did catch one hell of a sprinkler head hop into a trap from about 150 out LOL. Not a mark on the 330’s yet.

2011 B330-RX – Played Holes: 1-6 R1, 7-12 R2, 13-18 R3

**Disclaimer – This isn’t about the RX, I know, but because I’m borderline on the fitting, I want to compare some parts of it to the 330 and 330-S**

Flight: Actually the flight for the RX for me sat in-between the 330 and 330-S, which makes me automatically wonder about the 2012 RX with the dual dimples and if what impact they might play.

Spin: The 2011 RX rolled out more for me every time on every approach, pitch, chip, and flop than the 330 OR the 330-S did, but I honestly expected that. Its not uncontrollable crazy long roll out, its easily playable, just longer than the two test balls.

Distance: OK, this is why I put the RX in here. I hit the RX longer than the 330 AND the 330-S off the tee and off the irons. I averaged about 271.2 with the driver and I’d guesstimate about 4 yards longer with the irons. Now, this leads me to question my ability to fully compress the 330 and 330-S, which since I’m borderline on the SS might very well make sense. I do however want to play more and get my swing back around more before I jump to that conclusion, my ball-striking and lag creation is still rusty right now. More testing definitely necessary.

Putting: ‘Click’? Check. Running balls longer than the 330 and 330-S? BIG check. It took some legit effort to adjust each time I came back around to the 2011 RX form the two 2012 balls.

Overall thoughts:

I’m more intrigued now than when I started this testing, I really and truly am. My borderline SS is an interesting conundrum for the ability to compress the 330 and 330-S apparently, but we will see if it stays so as the weather warms up and so does my swing. I will say if you put a gun to my head and make me pick right now, I couldn’t. Every one of these three bring something to the table I like and something I don’t like.
This testing is a fun one, and only getting started.
 
wow what a great write up Jman....
 
coolbreeze said:
I got out there for a surprise 9 holes today and it was just me and my son so I decided I would play 2 balls on every hole, of course the RXS and the RX. I was just out for some fun so what I decided to do was play best ball, I'd hit both choose the better one and play from there, and log which of the two balls had the better shot. I would never look at each shot which ball I was hitting, I would place the white side up and hit and only see which is which when I got to the balls. The results to me were staggering, I only used 2 of the shots from the RXS, all the rest were the RX shots!
Now this could have been dumb luck but we are talking about 26 full shots with the two balls and only 2 RXS shots were used. Pretty strange, to say the least but I did discover that for me the RXS is shorter off the tee, probably by about 10 yards and this is because it goes much higher for me than the RX does. Even though I wouldn't look at what ball I put down on the tee, the moment I looked up and saw the ball flight, I could tell you what ball that was. Off the irons the results were similar again, they were a little shorter for me and the ball flight was higher, I would say too high to where I was definatly losing distance.
Around the greens I would always hit chips with both of these balls just to see them react and I have to say I like the RX better here too. The RXS might have more spin (might) but the RX just seemed to be more consistent for me, but that could be all in my head. Either way they both perform like you would expect a Urethane covered tour ball to play, plenty of spin and easy to get to check and run out, and on little pitches you can put a ton of spin on them.

Someone talked about durability above and like I've found Bridgestone balls in the past they are more than durable enough. I wouldn't put them in the same class as one other more durable cover on the market, but I've played one RX ball for 27 holes with a ton of wedge shots and it still has some more holes left in it. So far I've come away impressed with both balls, but the RX of the too is by far the better ball for my swing.
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That good stuff CB, what is your SS? What shape are playing, draw, fade or straight?
 
GREAT write-up Jman. Fantastic stuff.
 
Tadashi70 said:
That good stuff CB, what is your SS? What shape are playing, draw, fade or straight?
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Its right now at 105 with my SL 290, and I'm playing a slight fade with my driver, and a draw with my irons. I'm trying to get back to a fade with my irons, which is coming.
 
Terrific feedback breezy and jman, very descriptive and easy to understand.

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tapatalk
 
First off I got in 18 today and will get 18 in more tomorrow. But I wanted to summarize my thoughts from today before I forgot. Sorry for the duplicate form, but after reading others reviews this way was easy to format my thoughts:

Date: 2/25/12
Weather: 39 Degrees, Clear, Windy, COLD

2012 B330 RX – Front Nine

Flight: The RX had a lower ball flight for me and it was easier for me to get the ball to the distance I wanted in the high winds. With the driver it seemed to get away from me a bit and wasn't as accurate as I thought I should have been. But the wind and cold racked havoc on me.

Spin: I thought the RX had more spin than the RXS, I know that defies how they are supposed to be tailored, but I was much more off center of the fairway on almost all shots with the RX. But as I said earlier the flight was more to my liking. Especially in the wind!

Distance: This is one thing that has helped my game with both balls. I'd say the added spin of the RX led to loss of distance. But still longer than my normal ball, which is usually a Pro V1x. But the added distance was a huge improvement and the thing I liked the most while trying these balls out.

Putting: I should say this was my first round with my new seemore so I was much more worried about it than my ball while putting. But I'll say with both balls my pace was much better and probably best with the RX.

Durability: I have to say I was impressed with both the RX and RXS in terms of durability as I have a tendency to hit into trees on my course very often and hit my fair share of them as well. I'll have some pics as soon as I can get them uploaded. But I couldn't find a mark on them. I'm also one who uses spit on his finger to clean the ball on the green before putting, and it's weird but I think this cover cleaned much easier than other balls for me.

2012 B330-RXS – Back Nine

Flight: The RXS had a much higher flight than the RX, but I think that will help as the greens start to soften up and I can spin the ball a bit more. The higher flight was a huge help in the short game and it felt like the ball kind of just lightly dropped where I was trying to go.

Spin: Like I said above, I think the RXS didn't spin as much for me and that was especially noticeable on my longer shots where I was much more accurate with the RXS. I loved the way it seemed to just roll and check rather then hit and spin a ton. I know that sounds similar but for me I liked the way the RXS reacted for me.

Distance: I was considerably longer with the RXS than my current ball, but also a little longer than the RX. I actually had a few shots where I hit a shorter club or two depending on the wind today.

Putting: Like I mentioned above putting was last on my mind for the ball as the SeeMore got the most of my attention. But I certainly loved the feel of both balls.

Durability: Awesome again, can't say enough good things about the durability. As long as I don't lose them, I'll have them around for quite a while.

After today's round I'd say the RXS won, but I'm going to switch which balls I use on which holes tomorrow. Updated thoughts and pictures coming! Once again thanks the Jman for the layout. It really helped direct my thoughts.
 
Hehe, nice format there Icey! LOL

Seriously though, good writeup though dude, interesting on the RX/RXS spin you were seeing, very intriguing.
 
Very nice write ups Breeze, Jman and Icey. I am seeing more distance with the RXS also Icey which goes against what would be expected but I have been told when hitting on a launch monitor that I do indeed need more spin with the driver.
 
Some real nice reviews in here lately. I am very interested to hear more from those with that borderline swing speed of 105. It seems like all 4 of the test balls could be an option at that swing speed.
 
Howzat said:
Some real nice reviews in here lately. I am very interested to hear more from those with that borderline swing speed of 105. It seems like all 4 of the test balls could be an option at that swing speed.
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Thats what I'm battling with right now. I've got to get more rounds on them and get the swing in check to see how I'm compressing the ball, right now the RX is leading in that category of compression but the 330 and 33-S really aren't far behind, its hard to explain but I still don't think I'm fully compressing them yet.
 
Got out to the practice green today. It was about 36˚ with gusts up to 37 mph, per Weather Bug. Needless to say, a little chilly. I practiced exclusively with the RXS today, as I wanted to focus on just one ball as my time was a little limited. After my lesson this week, I'm feeling much more confident in my game in general and that translated today after I got warmed up (as much as I could anyways). I practiced a bunch of distances today, from good and bad lies. No sand shots as the sand at this practice facility is under repair. Started up close and worked my way back.

On chip shots, I am seeing less rollout than I'm used to. Wasn't noticing a ton of check, but like another tester said, it seems to settle quickly into a true roll. After getting used to it, I think that it actually helped as I was able to be a little more aggressive and focus on accelerating down through the ball. I'm excited to get this ball back on the course as I seem to find myself chipping quite a bit.

On short pitch shots around 10 - 15 yds I was seeing a little higher than ball flight than I'm used to. Thought it might be a result of my swing, but I pulled one of my older balls and it did seem like I was hitting it harder. Could have just been me though. With the cold, the green was a bit hard, but I was seeing about what I expected out of this ball. A little less roll out than I'm used to. Certainly no hop & stop, but the results were very consistent.

I was seeing similar results on the longer pitch shots, around 30 yds. What appeared to be a little higher ball flight with a short but consistent rollout after landing.

I also played a buch of flop and (my best attempt at) knock down shots. After a little over an hour of practice with the RXS, I'd say that the best way to describe this ball is predictable. Sure the wind played a little with some of the higher shots, but I feel like I have a good idea where the ball will end up as long as I put a good swing on it. I can't wait until it warms up a little and the greens soften up some. I'm really interested to see how these balls react in more optimal conditions.

Since it was abandoned due to the weather, I jumped on the first hole on the adjacent par 3 course. Took a few close-to-full swings into the green. On these I was seeing one hop and stop on well struck shots. Ball usually ended ~5-10 feet from it's pitch mark.

I did get some putting in as well. I continue to enjoy the feel of this ball when putting. Getting used to the distance with this ball is something that I've struggled with just a touch, but I'm getting much more accustomed to it. It's more of a mental thing I'm sure.

Certainly more to follow. Great job by all of the testers so far. There's been a lot of good info in this thread.
 
Great reviews guys. Once i think all the frost is gone, I'm making my out for 18 and will have a report later this afternoon.
 
Jman said:
Hehe, nice format there Icey! LOL

Seriously though, good writeup though dude, interesting on the RX/RXS spin you were seeing, very intriguing.
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I'm glad your not calling me a thief!!! The spin was baffling for me as well, I expected to see the opposite. Looks like I may still get out today. I'm hoping to try and review how each ball does with each club in my bag.
 
I haven't made it out for a round this weekend but I did sneak away to short game practice facility this morning. I focused on 15-20 yard chips & pitches and some putting. I used solely the B330 and B330s as I wanted to find more about the differences of these balls as opposed to how they differ from competing balls.

15-20yd Chips:
From this distance my normal shot, (assuming there is plenty of green to work with), would be a low-flighted, skipping/skidding shot. I am comfortable with this shot and I feel I can get close to the hole on most shots.
I found that both balls performed well, with plenty of bite. If I had to say which checked up better I would have to give the edge to the B330s, BUT, I also found that the B330 was more consistent. There were lots of well struck shots with the B330s that would check up much sooner than expected while well struck shots with the B330 all ended up in the same area very consistently. With my handicap it would be easy to chalk this up to inconsistent striking of the ball but I hit about 50 shots with each ball and I feel this to be one of the better parts of my game. I feel that this consistency is so important that it is worth repeating; I found the results with the B330 were more predictable and consistent. This was very surprising to me and I plan on giving this much more attention and seeing if this continues or was an anomaly. The "inconsisteness" (I love making up words) with the B330s was actually due to the shots performing better than expected, but not all the time.

15-20yd pitches:
This would be my second preferred option from this distance. A mid-lofted pitch shot is not the shot I would usually play from this distance unless there is an obstacle between me and the green or there is little green to work with, but I do practice it a lot and am comfortable with it.
I really struggled to find any significant differences between the 2 balls with this shot. Both performed very well and stopped with an expected 5' or so of rollout.

Putting:
I haven't reviewed this aspect of these balls yet because I am not picky about my ball off the putter as long as it isn't super-hard feeling/sounding and I get consistent distance control. After seeing many review posts by other testers that focused on putting I thought I would spend some time looking at this too. After about 20 minutes on the putting green I was reminded of why I have not focused on this yet; I found both balls to be very similar off the putter, with good sound/feel and predictable distances. Both of these balls work very well for me with the putter.

Not a big review post here but I did find one area with significant and unexpected differences. I will follow up with more testing of the short chip shot with the B330s and see if the results continue.
 
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