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Lightning Golf Balls Review Thread

SuperStroke
Review #2: Milledgeville Country Club 4/9/15

After a great first round out with the HL3 SmackDaddy, I was hoping for the same results yesterday. My buddy was with me, who purchased a dozen after I let him try a couple out last weekend (he ordered on Tuesday and they were delivered yesterday afternoon) and we were looking for a few things that stuck out last time out: Launch, spin, and durability.

I absolutely hit full shots higher with this ball than the SR2 and Chrome Soft. I'm hitting driver higher than ever. So much so that I'm considering lofting down a little to see if I can squeeze a little more distance out of it. And I've never been a very high ball flight kind of player. This might be my favorite feature of this ball.

The HL3 SmackDaddy spins enough. It's easy to hold greens and I've even spun a few wedges back a few feet. Mid and short irons tend to stop within a couple of feet of their pitch marks, which is what I'm looking for. I will say that this ball doesn't spin quite as much around the greens with chips and pitches as I've had with other balls, but it spins enough. My friend, who usually plays ProV1s, really enjoys the spin he sees around the greens with this ball.

I've had a full two rounds on this one ball now and other than a very small scuff from a big bounce off a cart path, it's still going strong. I may try to get one more round out of it. Overall, a very strong performance. I'll honestly say I wasn't expecting much, but for someone that has always struggled with launch, this ball is a very good fit for my game right now. I'm tempted to go ahead and buy another dozen, especially with that 40% off sale they're having right now. My friend just bought a dozen and he's about to order another dozen with the sale that's going on.

I don't see myself changing balls anytime soon. I have another round tomorrow and then we'll see if it will unseat my SR2/Chrome Soft for good.
 
Pretty impressive MT. Are you hitting them just as straight with your driver too?
 
Lightning Golf Balls Review Thread

drp3434 said:
Pretty impressive MT. Are you hitting them just as straight with your driver too?
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Yessir. I will admit, I've been working hard on gripping the club with my right hand properly and that's part of the reason, but even on holes when I hit two off the tee, the SmackDaddy launches noticeably higher and straighter than the Chrome Soft.

If I do miss, it's from aiming a little right expecting a draw and just hitting it straight right. You can see that on my last scorecard. Lots of FW misses right.
 
coers said:
Yes sir. I got a sleeve I used on Saturday to test. Just gotta find those balls again. I really like the Monsta ball, and me only using one Lightning golf ball for a whole round Saturday means a lot.
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I was hoping someone would try a side by side with both of them.
 
I still have done any REAL work on this ball as of yet, but it is early. We had rain four straight days this week and the course is open to walking only. It will get better soon. I'm hoping to get out Sunday. Can't wait to get the season started.

Good stuff so far from you that have been out. I'll catch up soon!
 
Great review MT, I will put my Lightning Golf balls in play tomorrow morning, and can't wait to see how well the ball plays. I am a little concerned with the height you are getting with the driver. I hit my driver pretty high as well, and am wondering did the ball ballon on ya' very much ?
 
jitzy said:
I was hoping someone would try a side by side with both of them.
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I'm going to dig the Monsta out and play it with the lightning ones tomorrow. Should be interesting and look forward to the short game area where there great at.
 
coers said:
I'm going to dig the Monsta out and play it with the lightning ones tomorrow. Should be interesting and look forward to the short game area where there great at.
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I kinda have a feeling there the same ball being sold by different people.
 
Intimadator2007 said:
Great review MT, I will put my Lightning Golf balls in play tomorrow morning, and can't wait to see how well the ball plays. I am a little concerned with the height you are getting with the driver. I hit my driver pretty high as well, and am wondering did the ball ballon on ya' very much ?
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You might be pleasantly surprised, I hit a high ball aswell and I got a very controlled piercing flight from my driver.

If I can ill be out again on Monday for another round of testing.
 
Miller Time said:
Yessir. I will admit, I've been working hard on gripping the club with my right hand properly and that's part of the reason, but even on holes when I hit two off the tee, the SmackDaddy launches noticeably higher and straighter than the Chrome Soft.

If I do miss, it's from aiming a little right expecting a draw and just hitting it straight right. You can see that on my last scorecard. Lots of FW misses right.
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Sweet dude. These are sounding really interesting to me. If I wasn't loaded up on balls I would probably snag a dozen.
 
I got out to the course today and put the Lightning HL3 Smack Daddy in play today and this ball is a solid performing golf ball.

My ball of choice for many years has been Titelist ProV1 and the new Taylor Made TP's , so the SmackDaddy had stiff competition to stand up to , and It did.

During this test I was hitting a new driver I have never hit until the first hole this morning , with no range swings either. So I was taking a chance on hurting the performance of the ball with a club I've never hit.

On the first tee box , I tee'ed up The Smack Daddy and put a good swing on it , Hitting a laser down the middle of the fairway .
The ball is very explosive off the face of a driver. I would say this ball is very competitive with any other premium golf ball on the marketfrom the tee box.

On the first hole I did push an 8 iron into the greenside bunker with my approach shot . The sand this morning was very wet and heavy , just awful bunker conditions. I am usually a pretty good sand player and do not mind being in the sand on most days,just not today. I hit a terrible thinned shot sending the ball over the green and off the green. Went on to make a bogey. Upon cleaning my ball I did notice a light scratch or scuff from a bladed wedge out of the bunker.
From the fairway this ball just flat out performs fantastic when a good swing is put on it. You hit the center of the club face with this ball and you will need to club down. The ball is very springy off the clubface as it is with a driver. Today the greens were very firm and I didn't really see anyone fixing ball too many ball marks or divots today as they normally are , so I can't say the ball backed up or spun as much today as other testers have seen, plus my swing does not cause to much spin on any day.
Around the greens , again the ball flat out performs well. Get the ball rolling to the hole and it stays online.

I did loose 2 balls today 1 in the water and 1 in tall grass. I also gave a ball to another THP'er and another friend in our group, so I have a good amount of balls left and will be putting them in play again at the Kentucky Outing next weekend.

I am excited to be playing this ball , it is a fun ball to hit , in knowing if you pure it , it will fly. I will be buying a dozen at the discounted price while its available, Its just to good of a ball for $25 to let slide by.

I look forward to doing more testing with this ball. I think with some better swings than I had today and some softer greens , this ball could be a major sleeper.
 
I've been doing the chipping/putting comparison among the Lightning HL3, the Bridgestone B330RX and the ProV1 almost every day (except for Masters weekend) and continue to be impressed. The HL3 feels, sounds and reacts to putting and short pitches as the other balls do.

Today I got my second opportunity to play the HL3 on the course. If you remember my comments from the first full swing experience you know I was not pleased. The ball "felt" very hard.

I do not know what changed but today was a very different experience.

I think I still prefer the B330RX and the ProV1 but for no tangible, specific reason. I did not have that harsh feeling that I experienced earlier. The ball performed very well. I hesitate to say the ball flew higher but it was high rnough. I dont; generate enough speed anymore to get much backspin on full wedges but the ball did not run away on well struck shots.

One aspect that seemed to be consistent with my earlier esperience was a lack of side spin. On a couple of occasions I wanted to hit hard hooks and slices to get around some trees and these balls did not seem to curve as much as my usual balls.

While my score was not satisfactory (84 with 3 doubles) I certainly cannot fault the ball.

I used the ball I played before and another new ball and have no reason not to use them both again so durability is more than acceptable.

This seems like a good ball. II'll continue to play it and not be concerned that it is hurting my game.
 
Had these out on the putting/chipping green tonight, and even though my short 60 degree shots need a lot of work, I was pleasantly surprised by how well these balls stuck on short shots. 15-20 foot shots held with very little roll when struck well. Felt really good off the SeeMore z2c as well.

Going to get their first run on the course tomorrow. I'm pondering not pulling my driver much at all after some issues on the range today, but I have high hopes, even with the 3w, that this ball will perform well. I'll let you guys know!
 
Played the HL3 a lot this weekend. This time I didn't see the lower flight off the driver, so I guess that may have been more related to the grip change. I went back to the interlock for consistency & the ball does tend to get pretty high up there.

The only other balls I put in play this weekend were the Duo Spin & the Z-Star. The DuoSpin & HL3 were longer than the Z-Star for me, but the Z-Star out performs them both on & around the greens.
 
Another day out with the HL3 and more of the same thoughts. The exception today was the course had punched and sanded the greens within the last couple of days. So no new thoughts of putting performance as it was pointless. Today was very windy and I had some rough results on high iron shots, but any ball would in those conditions and again driving is a treat with this ball, its low spin and very predictable. For somebody that needs all the help he can get off the tee box its great. Feel across the board is impressive its powerful and soft feeling, a very nice balance of the two. It only shows its distance ball nature on touch shots around the green, but again its still surprisingly nice around and on the green. The best shot of my round was at the 160yard par 3 4th, the wind was gusting hard over back right to left, I wanted to keep the ball low so tried a 4iron punch shot I've been working on. I hit it perfectly, ball went left to right and landed in the front portion on the green in front of the flag. One bounce then hit the flag pole and rolled to about 17 feet, tap in par. The HL3 wasn't phased at all by the wind, it seems to love going low. I played a newest gen Pro V1x along side of the HL3 and in every aspect the little guy can go punch for punch with Titleist. I'd say I like the new Pro V1x more a tad bit, only because its a bit softer around the green. However at Lightning's price point you would just be thick headed to go Titleist. The HL3 is good very good.
 
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Intimadator2007 said:
I got out to the course today and put the Lightning HL3 Smack Daddy in play today and this ball is a solid performing golf ball.

My ball of choice for many years has been Titelist ProV1 and the new Taylor Made TP's , so the SmackDaddy had stiff competition to stand up to , and It did.

During this test I was hitting a new driver I have never hit until the first hole this morning , with no range swings either. So I was taking a chance on hurting the performance of the ball with a club I've never hit.

On the first tee box , I tee'ed up The Smack Daddy and put a good swing on it , Hitting a laser down the middle of the fairway .
The ball is very explosive off the face of a driver. I would say this ball is very competitive with any other premium golf ball on the marketfrom the tee box.

On the first hole I did push an 8 iron into the greenside bunker with my approach shot . The sand this morning was very wet and heavy , just awful bunker conditions. I am usually a pretty good sand player and do not mind being in the sand on most days,just not today. I hit a terrible thinned shot sending the ball over the green and off the green. Went on to make a bogey. Upon cleaning my ball I did notice a light scratch or scuff from a bladed wedge out of the bunker.
From the fairway this ball just flat out performs fantastic when a good swing is put on it. You hit the center of the club face with this ball and you will need to club down. The ball is very springy off the clubface as it is with a driver. Today the greens were very firm and I didn't really see anyone fixing ball too many ball marks or divots today as they normally are , so I can't say the ball backed up or spun as much today as other testers have seen, plus my swing does not cause to much spin on any day.
Around the greens , again the ball flat out performs well. Get the ball rolling to the hole and it stays online.

I did loose 2 balls today 1 in the water and 1 in tall grass. I also gave a ball to another THP'er and another friend in our group, so I have a good amount of balls left and will be putting them in play again at the Kentucky Outing next weekend.

I am excited to be playing this ball , it is a fun ball to hit , in knowing if you pure it , it will fly. I will be buying a dozen at the discounted price while its available, Its just to good of a ball for $25 to let slide by.

I look forward to doing more testing with this ball. I think with some better swings than I had today and some softer greens , this ball could be a major sleeper.
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I witnessed this round. The ball performed well for Bobby. The A player he gave one to also enjoyed the ball, I believe he used it for the majority of the back nine and had good things to say about it. I would also classify him as borderline proV snob so this was surprising.

All I can add is that I do not like the logo. It is too big, distracting and it looks cheap IMO...but in the end what does that matter really?
 
I got out this weekend and played both Saturday and Sunday with the LH3 Smackdaddy. Ball performed well for me with the driver, irons and on the putting green. Where this ball continues to win for me are shots into the green with irons and wedges. Getting some great feel around the green and know that they won't roll out very long. Only issue I had was on hole #9 Saturday was when I hit a errant shot and lost a ball. But so far this ball is performing well and I am liking it. I pulled another ball out that I had 2 rounds in after the water shot and noticed she had some character to her. Even with some scratches and a cart path scrapes on the ball it performed well and I'll keep at it with the ball.
 
So I played absolutely terrible today, but I think I can still give a few decent comments on the ball and it's performance.

Durability: Balls seem to hold up really well. Only real cuts I saw were shots with a hybrid that may have found a tree or two. To the other testers, do you find that colors from mud, sand and other things seem to seep into the cover? After cleaning the ball after a few iron shots, I find that the covers almost stain and hold color. I don't think I've ever seen it to this extent on any other ball.

Driver: I really like the flight of this ball. When I have my driver under control, I definitely notice a lower flight than I see with the Bridgestone e6 and the Nike RZN Red. Side spin seems to be well under control, too. I can't say that I gained much distance-wise, but the flight is much more in tune with what I'd llike to see.

Wedges: This is where this ball shines for me. The ball is noticeably tacky to the touch, and that really helps get things spinning off the wedges and shorter irons. i'll post a picture from my phone of a shot into the green with a 7 iron and came back a good foot and a half on a flat green.

And while not really a gaming issue, all my playing partners commented on the ID circles, and really liked the idea. All in all, the ball seems to be working well. Not going to help my swing faults, but shots struck well definitely perform.
 
I had my first chance to get out with the Lightening Balls on Sunday evening, but it was really wet, and I had at least 5 tee balls plugged. I'm taking notes and I will be using the ball on Thursday hoping the rain holds off.

It is still early for us here, so like I noted before, there is plenty of time to really work with the ball when the conditions become a little more "normal".

Good work so far everyone!
 
Saw the sale was still going on and thought I'd pick up a dozen of these. Thanks @LightningGolf
 
sudseh said:
Saw the sale was still going on and thought I'd pick up a dozen of these.
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Let us know what you think. I've enjoyed my rounds with them.
 
I will be playing a round with them this weekend. Will see how they handle my torture of a game.
 
I have enjoyed my rounds with them to.. Be a much cheaper route if you want something similar to some Titleist golf balls.
Miller Time said:
Let us know what you think. I've enjoyed my rounds with them.
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