2013 Bridgestone e5 Golf Ball Forum Testing Thread

[Hawk]

This will be the thread for the many forum members that will be testing the new 2013 Bridgestone e5 golf ball. I know plenty of you have been waiting to share your thoughts, so please feel free to do so here.

Please keep this clean of banter until some reviews are posted.

 

[blugold]

I have been testing the new E5. It is urethane covered ball with a solid core. New for 2013 Bridgestone included the dual dimple technology into this ball. I played the e5 almost exclusively last season. For the price, it is one of the best balls available.

The cover seems very durable as well. It is the same cover that is used on the B330 series. And that is one of the most durable available.

 

[Oregon Golfer]

I have been testing the new E5. It is urethane covered ball with a solid core. New for 2013 Bridgestone included the dual dimple technology into this ball. I played the e5 almost exclusively last season. For the price, it is one of the best balls available.

The cover seems very durable as well. It is the same cover that is used on the B330 series. And that is one of the most durable available.

FIFY. I really need to give this ball a try. Glad to hear about the durability, I have always considered the B330 balls to be extremely durable.

 

[mightyquinn]

I was fitted for the Bridgestone B330RX originally and was sent the e5 to test out. I do like the new packaging and the only difference visually between the 2012 and the 2013 model is the “e->” alignment mark on the side of the ball. The 2012 model has a red line and arrow and the 2013 model has a black line. Bridgestone says the new e5 features newly optimized dual dimple, 4% shallower than previous generation for optimal ball flight. These features combined with the urethane cover means golfers looking for distance never have to sacrifice greenside control again.

On the 20[SUP]th[/SUP] of January I was able to take the e5 out for a spin for 36 holes but actually only played it for about 27 holes due to needing to warm up first. It was about 45° outside when we started and ended up getting to 65° by the time we were finished. The only ball I lost this day was on the first hole, we both decided to hit 2 ball off the first tee since we didn’t have time to warm up before teeing off. The first one I hit was down the right side of the fairway in the rough so I decided to hit a second one and proceeded to pull it left and through the fairway on the adjacent hole and into a little pond of water. I am going to break it down by clubs:

Driver: Feels really nice off the driver when hit solid and you can tell when you don’t hit it flush. This ball really flies off the driver and just seems to go forever, I do seem to get a higher ball flight with this ball than I do with my Callaway Chromes I am currently playing. I am definitely getting as good or better distance with this ball off the driver than any other ball. As far as sidespin goes, I would say it doesn’t have any more sidespin than any other “spin” ball.

Hybrids & Long Irons: Feels nice and soft off of well-struck shots and checks up real fast when hitting greens. Depending on the club and how high you hit the ball it seemed I was able to get a one hop and stop with this ball.

Mid & Short Irons: Same as above for feel. This ball definitely checks up real fast and I was able to get the ball to back up on a few occasions and on one it caused me to roll off the front of the green when I thought I had hit a good shot to a front pin location. It is amazing how much spin you can get from a 2-piece ball!!!

Wedges: I didn’t take too many full wedge shots into the greens on this day but I was hitting my 55° SCOR wedge for pitching from about 40-60 yards out and this ball was money!! I was able to hit a low knock down pitch that would hit, check and stop consistently all day. It was nice to be able to add that shot to my arsenal. I also hit several shots out of greenside bunkers with my SCOR lob wedges and I was able to get up and down 2 out of 3 times, the ball would just hit and check right next to the hole.

Putter: This ball has a nice soft solid feel off my Odyssey putter, which I really liked and seemed to roll pretty true to where I was aiming.

I have to say that I always wanted to try this ball out to see what it was about but since it only comes in white and I already had a good stash of balls, I never tried it until now. So far this ball is just amazing for what it does and for how much it costs. I would say this ball is just as good or better than the ProV1(x) and anyone who plays it should give it a shot. After just 1 ½ rounds of golf with this ball, I would seriously consider this as a everyday gamer, I just wish they would make it in Optic Yellow!!!! Bridgestone definitely has something really good going here!!! Here are some pics of the ball after 27 holes of play and a few trees. Seems to be holding up quite well.

Thanks to THP and Bridgestone Golf for this great opportunity to give back to this great community!!

Here are some pics of the new packaging and the letter that came with it.

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Here is a few of the ball after 27 holes and a few trees.

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[blugold]

FIFY. I really need to give this ball a try. Glad to hear about the durability, I have always considered the B330 balls to be extremely durable.

Thanks for pointing that out. Stupid iPhone

 

[JF]

This is the one I got. I love the new packaging! Pictures above me.

I'll let my interesting theory out right now:

a) This is a tour level ball.
b) Tour level balls are now obsolete because this is just as good as one.

Spin, distance, feel, everything about it just seemed to match up with my B330s and ProV1s. I'm amazed.

 

[mightyquinn]

This is the one I got. I love the new packaging! Pictures above me.

I'll let my interesting theory out right now:

a) This is a tour level ball.
b) Tour level balls are now obsolete because this is just as good as one.

Spin, distance, feel, everything about it just seemed to match up with my B330s and ProV1s. I'm amazed.

My feelings exactly!!!

 

[INgolfer]

A new e5, sweet! Will be catching up on this thread at lunch, definitely can't wait to read some great writeups!

 

[Franklin51]

I want to echo JF16s comments. I have only got some putting and short game practice in with the E5 but compared to my ProV1 it holds its own. Great check up on low pitch shots and soft off the putter.

 

[War Eagle]

Mightyquinn is killing it! Nice review to open it up.

I'm testing the e6, but game the e5 on a regular basis. Looking forward to more reviews.

 

[blugold]

I really feel like this ball gets looked over because it doesn't come In optic yellow and is only a two piece.

 

[More Gooder]

I look forward to this one, I love the e5.

 

[War Eagle]

I really feel like this ball gets looked over because it doesn't come In optic yellow and is only a two piece.

Still one of my favorites. Long, straight, and I get crazy spin on shots in to the green with it.

 

[ArmyGolf]

I am going to buy a sleeve of these. e6 isn't for me, but this sounds like it very well could compete with the Q-star I know and love.

 

[pattont]

I was only able to play 6 holes because of the rain/snow that we had gotten the past few days, but I will test again shortly.During this short test I was really impressed by this ball. It looks like the 2012 version, but doesn't act like it. The shell seems much more durable than previous generations and I left the course without a single "skuffy" on it.

------------

Weather Conditions: 48 degrees, Sunny, Still had 2 inches of snow on the ground in areas.
Driver: Feels really good. If anything its a little on the softer side in my opinion, but it went straight and far.

Hybrids & Long Irons: 3-iron off a par 4 tee. The ball was hit right in the sweet spot of the club and it went... LONG. I do not carry a hybrid at this time, but I did his 3 wood off the tee a couple of times and I would echo the previous point.

Mid & Short Irons: I didn't have many short iron, non-wedge shots. The one shot that I can for sure remember having a short iron to was a 9-iron and it was on top of the hill so I couldn't see the spin. I missed the green right (but that wasn't the ball's fault )

Wedges: Because of the rain/snow the course was closed and we were able to walk a few holes without a fee. I was able to pull out a number of different wedges and hit around the green and even back from 50-75 yds and in. The ball checked up very quickly. On one par 3 the pin was in the front and it was roughly 130yds from the back tees. I hit a soft pitching wedge because I want to take some spin off. It hit about 10 yards into the green and spun back pin-high. I was super impressed and shocked at the same time because neither of the e5 or e6 from last year was able to do that for me. Chipping around the green with this ball was nice because of the feel that it offered. I really enjoyed the ball from 20-30yds and in.

Putter: This ball had a great soft feel for me off my Scotty. I was rolling it great (albeit offline :-( on this day).

I really appreicate the opportunity from THP and Bridgestone. This is my first testing gig I have had the opportunity to do. I won't let you down!

 

[wjmcfarl]

So, I was able to play 9 the day I received the balls from Bridgestone. I was tired, just finished 6 nights in a row at work, but couldn't wait to hit the course. But first things first, I snapped some shots of the new stuff:

Then I went to the course. I'll have to preface this review with the disclaimer that I just got a new set of RBZ steel stiff flex irons. I'm going from regular flex graphite Burner 1.0 so I'm working on getting the feel of these new clubs. My first testing day was only my second round with the new clubs.

To start, I normally play the V2 gamer or Pro V1 because I really like a ball with control around the green. I find myself making a lot of off the green chip shots so stopping power is a must for me. The issue here is that with my long clubs I can occasionally create a lot of side spin with my mis-hits which can result in a bad pull hook or the occasional slice.

With that said, this ball off the driver face leaves HOT. I don't have numbers to back up this claim but it honestly was faster off the face than the Pro V1 or the V2 Gamer. This also resulted in increased distance for me. For 9 holes, my average drive with either my driver or my 3W was at least 3-5 yards further with the Bridgestone e5. The only issue was that my mis-hits with the driver were a little worse and seemed to exaggerate the slice, lost one ball OOB. But this is part of a swing flaw not necessarily a problem with the ball itself just an observation that the shot displacement with the e5 seemed to have a little more disparity. Granted only 9 holes worth of testing and with new clubs so I'm gonna continue to track the numbers.

As far as iron shots are concerned, a well struck shot had great control and just the right amount of spin for my swing. Stopped beautifully on the green with the only two iron shots that hit the green from the fairway. Playing from just off the green, the ball handled well and really was very workable. I have practiced with it some more at the chipping green and the results are consistent in that it really gives me good control of my short chip shots. Important for me because I always think of my chipping as just long range putting, lol. I save a lot of pars from just off the green and this ball handled the task well.

I still have a lot of game left to test these balls out. I have been hitting the range daily to get a feel for my new irons so as to eliminate that variable as much as possible. I do really like the ball from first impression. Very hot of the driver face, good holding power with my irons, and good control from just off the green.

That's all for now. I've got eighteen to play tomorrow at Moody Gardens in Galveston so I should be able to test them out a little more there.

Thanks for the opportunity THP and Bridgestone.

 

[Franklin51]

I am going to buy a sleeve of these. e6 isn't for me, but this sounds like it very well could compete with the Q-star I know and love.

To me it blew the Qstar away in my short game testing.

 

[DawgDaddy]

I was chosen to test the new e-5 offering from Bridgestoneand have already played 3 rounds with them. I am very appreciative to THP and Bridgestone Golf for this testingopportunity and wish to thank both for this exciting challenge.

First here’s a little personal history. I am a 65 year oldretiree and I play or practice 3 to 5 days per week. I began playing golf atthe young age of 51, and am primarily self taught with only one 4 lesson seriesof instruction. I have not checked my driver SS in the last 4 years but I wouldsay now it is in the 90-92 mph range. I have lost a lot of distance sinceretiring but when I play the senior tees I can still score fairly well attimes. My typical distances are:

Driver - 220/240yards
3 hybrid - 180/190yards
7 iron - 135/145yards
PW - 110/115 yards

I hit the ball fairly straight but some days there will be afade and some days a draw. I do like forthe ball to have some spin around the greens and usually my short game ispretty good. I attribute the loss of distance since retiring mostly to mylosing flexibility when I try to over swing to get some swing speed crazythings can happen with the shot so I pretty much given up on getting any of thedistance back. I just play golf for the fun of it and these balls look likethey can certainly add to the fun part of golf.

I have been fitted by Bridgestone live several times andhave done the B-Fit online fitting numerous times, always the recommendation isfor the B330-RX which has been my ball of choice for the past 4 years. Sometimes in the winter I will play the e-5but I always go back to the RX when the weather warms up as it has always hadslightly better distance for me and even though the e-5 has a urethane cover,the RX has always had slightly better reaction in my estimation.

My initial thoughts upon opening the package are that the packaging just jumpsout at you, very nice looking and informative, nice job Bridgestone. The balls have the now familiar dimple in adimple pattern that Bridgestone began using with their last incarnation ofballs and the cover feels very “soft”.

My first round with these balls was a pleasant surprise as Ihit many shots comparing the e-5 and last year’s e-6 which I had bought forthis testing. The e-5 was consistentlywithin a few yards of the e-6 on my drives which before the gap was alwaysfairly large. I did not keep score for the round as I was alternating balls, but I would have guess it to be a solidday had I been keeping score. I have found the ball to be very durable and will post comparison pictures at the end of this write up.

Here are my thoughts for each club group.

Driver – This e-5 seems to be slightly longer than the pastoffering IMO, I have no data to back this but I do plan to get my hands on theprevious e-5 and compare the two. Thee-5 offers a sound comparable to the RX and will easily work either right orleft. My launch angle was my normalmid-high launch and the roll out was very close to what I am used toseeing. I will compare it head to headwith the RX later this week.

Woods & hybrids – Again the sound was very pleasant andthe ball launched at a mid-high angle. Workability is everything anyone could desire IMO.

Irons – Nice high launch off of the irons and not a ton ofroll out on the irons. I am justchanging over to Black CB3’s and that may account for the higher launch angleover what I am used to seeing.

Wedges – This ball will stop every bit as well as the RX, Iam not a huge spin player but Saturday I had a 60 yard uphill shot to the pinand my buddy at the green told me I had backed up my approach shot, sure enoughwhen I got to the green the ball was 4 feet behind the pitch mark. Not something you see with a ball that isnot “tour level” very often. I wasdeadly with my chipping Saturday and got up an down at least 5 times because ofthe predictability of the e-5.

Putter – The sound and feel of this ball was friendlyimmediately and I have had some very solid rounds with the putter with it. I would think anyone currently using a “tourlevel” ball would have zero trouble adapting to this ball on the green.

This looks like it may be a very, very solid offering in thee series for sure. I won't post any pictures as this thread is starting to explode and there are already many great pictures posted. Great start by my fellow testers.

Here is a picture to show the durability of the e-5, the first ball was used for 2 rounds, the middle for 1 round and the right side ball is brand new. You can tell they do hold up pretty well as I tried to take a picture of the worse wear on each of the balls. These scuffs are from clubs only as I did not hit any cart paths or trees. The first ball has so many dots on is as I usually play a yellow ball and like being able to easily tell my ball apart from my playing partners.

Spoiler

 

[Damaikis]

Bridgestone 2013 e5 Golf Ball- Pictures and Initial Thoughts

Bridgestone 2013 e5 Golf Ball- Pictures and Initial Thoughts

I was chosen to test the new Bridgestone 2013 e5 golf ball. Like its predecessor, it is a two-layer ball with a gradational core and a urethane cover. Changes and improvements have been made on the dual-dimple technology to make it 4% shallower than on the previous e5. This is meant to provide exceptional distance without having to sacrifice great greenside performance. I have gamed the 2011 version of the e5 for a few weeks now, so I feel confident that I will be able to provide an accurate comparison on improvements and similarities. I took some pictures of the packaging and of the balls themselves:

The balls look and feel very similar to the previous ones with no changes in the graphics and the same material for the cover. The packaging, on the other hand, looks fantastic and is likely to attract a lot of attention on the shelves. I think overall, Bridgestone did a fantastic job in the design aspect of the new e5 as they kept the good things and even improved on a lot. I look forward to gaming these balls for the near future and would like to thank Bridgestone and THP for the opportunity to test a full dozen of these new golf balls.

 

[Damaikis]

Bridgestone 2013 e5 Golf Ball- First Round

Bridgestone 2013 e5 Golf Ball- First Round

I was able to get out this weekend for a round of 18 holes to formulate my thoughts on the new e5 golf ball. Like I said before, I have gamed the 2011 version of the e5 for quite a few weeks now, so I have a thorough idea of how it performs and should be able to make accurate judgments on improvements or changes in this golf ball. It was fairly warm this weekend and I used all of the clubs listed in my signature. Thank you again to Bridgestone and THP for this testing opportunity.

The first thing I wanted to look for in this ball was performance around the greens. That is the biggest seller of this ball and what originally drew me in to trying it. It is a cheaper, distance-type ball, but it has a urethane cover to keep up greenside performance. Based on the holes I played this weekend, it seems like the e5 checked up on short game shots about an equal amount as its older version. While it was not able to perform quite as well as a 3 or 4-layer “tour” ball, it provided much more spin than a normal, surlyn-covered ball of a similar price. While I was hoping that they could have improved this aspect some, I was pleased with the amount of action I did get for a ball in this price range. Anybody who likes the greenside feel and spin of a urethane-covered ball but doesn’t want to spend $40 a dozen should definitely look to this ball as an option.

Another thing I was looking for in terms of greenside performance is the audible sound it makes when struck. While most urethane-covered balls feel soft and have a gentle thump, the e5 feels very hard and makes a loud clicking noise when it is hit. This is one aspect I really did not like as it messes with the feel/sound aspect of my short game. Despite this, the performance was still there enough to make me like it.

In terms of distance, I did not find this ball to be very long for me. I have played all sorts of balls from distance to tour and this ball is definitely shorter than both distance and tour balls. I even found the new e5 to be a bit shorter for me than the old e5 has been. Off both the irons and the driver I have seen a solid, high ball flight like I did with the older e5, but the distance just was not there for me. I will look more into this my next time out to the course. This shorter distance was from both of the irons and the driver for me.

I also found this ball to be a bit “spinnier” than its predecessor off the tee and from the irons/wedges. On tee shots, this meant to slightly more exaggerated misses than a normal distance ball or than the old e5, though it will definitely be straighter off the tee than a normal tour ball. While having more spin is bad from the tee box, it was very helpful to me from the irons. These balls spun back for me a few feet on all my shots into greens, which is about the same as with a tour ball. With the old e5, I was able to get the ball to stop in its own pitch mark, but having this added spin is very nice for me and something I like in my game.

Overall, I had to say that I was a bit underwhelmed by my first outing with the new e5. Having played the old one for a while, I was looking for improvements in areas like the greenside performance and sound/feel and I had hoped that it would have improved or at least stayed the same on long-shot performance as the old e5. Unfortunately, it lived up to neither of those expectations for me this past weekend. Based on what I saw and experienced, they made no noticeable improvements in this particular golf ball and it even digressed in a few areas. Despite that, there were still several things about this ball that I liked, and I will continue to game it during the cold months until something can beat it out. I am going to try to get out this week, but I will definitely get out this weekend to do some testing. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will get back to you as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

 

[IceyShanks]

The greenside spin on this ball is a huge selling factor.

 

[Hawk]

Great start guys. Thanks.

 

[Damaikis]

This is the one I got. I love the new packaging! Pictures above me.

I'll let my interesting theory out right now:

a) This is a tour level ball.
b) Tour level balls are now obsolete because this is just as good as one.

Spin, distance, feel, everything about it just seemed to match up with my B330s and ProV1s. I'm amazed.

Really? That interests me because for me, the e5 is still far below a Tour ball. Lacks all of the things you mentioned compared to a Tour ball IMO. I'll be getting out soon for more testing to see if I can solidify those thoughts or if they change.

 

[blugold]

Really? That interests me because for me, the e5 is still far below a Tour ball. Lacks all of the things you mentioned compared to a Tour ball IMO. I'll be getting out soon for more testing to see if I can solidify those thoughts or if they change.

I'm not going to disagree with you dam. But go out and keep these things in mind. What are you losing with the e5 and what are you gaining with a tour level ball. The ask yourself if those gain are with the extra $25 you pay per dozen.

Forget what you know about the ball and be as objective and subjective as possible.

I do agree that the B330 series is probably a better ball but are they $25 better. For my game, I don't think so.

 

[Damaikis]

I'm not going to disagree with you dam. But go out and keep these things in mind. What are you losing with the e5 and what are you gaining with a tour level ball. The ask yourself if those gain are with the extra $25 you pay per dozen.

Forget what you know about the ball and be as objective and subjective as possible.

I do agree that the B330 series is probably a better ball but are they $25 better. For my game, I don't think so.

I know what you're saying. I still like these balls a lot, they are my gamer during the cold months. For the price point they are at, they are a very good option for someone who wants a urethane cover. I just don't really see the comparison to Tour balls in my time with them.