Blind Ball Testing Review Thread

[Tevenor]

Played 2 9-hole rounds with the ball and came away pretty impressed. Generally speaking had the best distance of the 4 for me but also had lower spin on iron shots. Feel is really nice and didn't have the tickiness that the TR or TS had. Overall a really good option.

 

[TransplantHacker]

Well I went to my simulator place yesterday and played a round using the "Review" balls. I played each ball on the Par 3 & 5's along with 12 Par 4's, I used my 2 regular balls( Srixon Q-Star & Bridgestone E6) for 2- Par 4's just to look at differences. Overall I like most parts of the Test Balls. IMO, I thought that the Tour Response Ball was a better feel on the Par 3's, The "Blind Ball", was good for approach shots from <120 yds and seemed to have better spin according to trackman. I really liked the Tour Speed off the tee's on the 4's giving me some good distance numbers. So after playing all 4 Balls I would rank them: Distance Tour Speed, Blind Ball, Tour Response, ERC. Feel: Blind, Tour Response, Tour Speed, ERC. Forgiveness: Blind, Tour Response, Tour Speed, ERC.

For the last of the Par 4's I used my own playing balls and found that the Blind& Tour Speed were very close to my E6 and that the Tour Response and Tour Speed were close to the Q-Star.

 

[baylrballa]

Weather finally halfway cooperated to get these out on the course. Of course it was 25+ mph winds on an unfamiliar course. So still more feel based than solid numbers.

The erc and bridgestone are just soft everywhere. Much softer than I am comfortable with.
Erc felt similar to prior chromesofts, not sure if I'm just over compressing them or what, but short and erratic with any full shots. Greenside spin seemed over average.

The bridgestone feels a lot like the erc, but seemed to hold pretty well against the wind making me think it's lower spin. Similar with some runout on wedges I expected to stop quicker. Hard to know with the harsh wind, but felt quite a bit shorter off driver than the other 3.

Titleist too hard, and I usually prefer hard balls. Also seemed a bit spinny and got caught in the wind too much. Hit one hybrid dead into the wind that ballooned like crazy.

The taylormade I think I liked the best, didn't hold the wind as well as the bridgestone but well enough. Definitely the most pleasing feel with the irons.

Not sure any would kick out the vice pros I've been playing recently.
Hope to get them out on a good weather day soon to give them another go.

 

[Stryker]

Snow, wind, and rain has derailed testing for me at the moment. I was going to go to the only place around with indoor sim but they have evidently gone out of business. They are calling for snow again this weekend. I hope they are wrong. I still have yet to hit these to get any type of distance figured out.

 

[rehbirdie]

Snow, wind, and rain has derailed testing for me at the moment. I was going to go to the only place around with indoor sim but they have evidently gone out of business. They are calling for snow again this weekend. I hope they are wrong. I still have yet to hit these to get any type of distance figured out.

Thoughts and prayers! Hope you can get out soon. It's been raining for like 10 days in ATL.

 

[mjkladis]

I’m still liking this blank ball and the ERC Soft the most. I saw a post that said soft but lively feel and that hits it right on the head for me as well.

Blank ball is still the straightest of the bunch for me as well.

Chipping has been just ok for me. I always play some run out so all of these balls work out well and I’m a bump and run player when I’m just off the green.

 

[JDax]

I’ve played about 20 holes with the mystery ball (Bridgestone E12 Contact) and came away impressed with it’s performance, honestly all of these balls performed like I expected.


After about 20 holes the E12 did show signs of wear, but that is to be expected, I thought that it preformed great off the tee, and off of irons, but lacked a little around the green in comparison to the other balls provided.

It was the straightest of the balls tested off of the driver.

If you are a fan of the E-Series of balls, this is an improvement.

Other Thoughts:

I forgot how much I liked the ERC Soft due to the distance & Triple Track. Green side both the ERC & E12 rolled out more than the other two balls tested.

I played the Project A for awhile, and the Tour Response plays and feels very similar to the Project A. That is a good thing. It also doesn’t have that annoying seam that the Project A had. This and the Tour Speed had the best green side spin in my testing.

I was surprised that I didn’t hate the Tour Speed. I normally don’t like non-Pro V1 Titleist offerings. But this ball surprised me (maybe because I set the bar so low).

The Tour B RX is the best ball (in my opinion) in the Bridgestone line up, but if you are looking for a cheaper option, take a look at the E12 Contact.

 

[G-Man]

So an update from me before I head to the simulator this weekend...

Putting... Rolling putts inside allows you to focus on volume and consistency. As I test each ball provided it is clear they are in the same groupings, however each offers a unique experience.

I used a bunch of different putters for each of the rounds

Tour Edge Wingman
Mizuno M Craft III
Odyssey Black Series I
Cure CX1

Bridgestone - So I will say that there is a lot of good behind this ball and cover... The sound and feel are great especially compared to the other balls. The feel was nice and smooth nice push off the face and very pleasing sound

Callaway - The triple track does its job not only on alignment, but also feedback on hitting the ball. Unfortunately the SOFT in ERC did not seem to translate in this test amongst the putters. I thought it was clicky and harsh.

TaylorMade - This one was a perfect match... Very soft and felt the softest of the bunch, not sure if that was the best feeling or not. I liked this ball and rolled smoothly off the face with a great sound no click and more mushy off the face. have to see if I like this at any distance as might be hard to gauge

Titleist - So i played this ball in the past and the putting portion of my test is a huge negative. The only positive here is the alignment aide. Ball is hard and clicky... it does perform on the course, but putting is annoying.



Sound: Best to Worst
1. Taylormade
2. Bridgestone
3. Callaway
4. Titleist

Feel: (Soft to Hard)
1. TaylorMade
2. Bridgestone
3. Callaway
4. Titleist

 

[baylrballa]

Callaway - Unfortunately the SOFT in ERC did not seem to translate in this test amongst the putters. I thought it was clicky and harsh.

crazy how different perception can be. I thought it was like putting a marshmallow.

 

[MWard]

Took the test ball out for 9 holes today, and hit everything.

The ball reacts great off full wedges. The ball didn't move a whole lot either which way, which I was honestly kind of shocked by. I could hit it high or low, and was getting decent action into greens. When you're spinning it, it does hold its line really well. Half wedge shots released, but I was expecting that based on the makeup of the ball, so that wasn't overly surprising.

Mid irons felt like they started to lose a little distance in comparison to the other balls, but we're talking sub 3-4 yds in relation to the others. Noticeable, but probably pretty marginal considering windy conditions.

Driver was probably the most disappointing. This ball felt pretty short in comparison to the others by 8-10 yards. It does not seem to work well with someone who launches it in the mid to high teens. Didn't seem to fly all that straight in relation to the others when faced with cross winds. Two of them are missing in the woods, so that's not useful at all. One of them took a bad bounce off the top branch of a tree and gave it enough right spin to just be lost. Never saw it land, so I assume I just obliterated it. The second one got straight up punished by the wind. Started left center and began fading, and then just ripped across the entire fairway into the right woods. I'm not sure if it was scuffed, I caught a gust, or what. But, I'm not known for hitting 50+ yard fades either. In the 5 holes it was in play, it was in the fairway 3 times. Downwind was fine, into was... short, and cross was not so great.

 

[OldandStiff]

Been building my thoughts on these as I hit them but I better start getting them out before I lose them. Started on the rug and practice green, so I'll start there.

Tools:
O-Works #2
TM FCG
Toulon Azalea
M Craft 1

Putting: By Rank

Tour Speed
ERC Soft
Tour Response
Bridgestone

Reasons:

I play harder balls, lean towards firm & non-lively inserts/putters and more deadening grips with the balls I play, but not always. Familiarity is comforting though, and most of these are very different for me.

I tested the Tour Speed when they came out and while I don't like some things about it, feel and sound off putter isn't actually one of them. It's firm, and provides proper feedback with my putters. Sound is fine by me. Deadish - but firm and audible.

The ERC Soft wasn't bad. No real history with this one for me, and I'd say I was pleasantly surprised by the sound and feel for what I knew of it. A little poppier pitch and feels responsive in a nice way. M Craft really brings it to life.

Tour Response I have tried previously. It's kind of a no man's land for me (or so I thought). Feel and sound are just not what I prefer. It has a weird sound vs. feel disconnect for me. Kind of the opposite of the ERC.

The Bridgestone gives me nothing. I prefer to feel less than some people, but with my setups it truly feels dead. Soft and dead. Just a bad match. Mind blowingly so. Which is really unfortunate and I hope I'm the only one. I'm a bit off the standard on some stuff and full disclosure, I've yet to find a Bridgestone ball with a cover feel I really enjoy. I play one of their balls despite that.

I've hit quite a few greenside and full wedge shots, and some mid irons with them. I'll add my thoughts on that stuff later. It's an interesting lot of balls to compare.

 

[e1iterate]

Here you go THP. The mystery ball had the best feel and forgiveness to me of all balls. Best distance was the Tour Response by far.

Personally I hated everything just about with the Tour Speed ball. ERC didn’t have a bad feel to it, but just too busy for my liking.

Mystery ball felt soft and I think a big reason I liked that was due to the cold right now. I seemed to hit it straighter than the other balls too and had the beat overall scoring results too. It did scuff fairly easily it seemed, but was fine.

Tour Response was great distance wise for me. Feel was fine and durability seemed fine too. I scored ok with this ball.

ERC: the feel was the best thing about it to me. Again too busy and distracting for my personal taste. Decent bite around the greens as well.

The Tour Speed ball I just disliked. Will leave it at that.

 

[Mmaynard11]

Will be rolling these for another quick nine this evening. Had a session on the Trackman last week & was really concerned about the numbers I was seeing.

 

[Mmaynard11]

Got out for 18 day & put the blind ball (Bridgestone e12) into play & had some serious results. Based on typical distances on the course I normally play & I was about 5 -7 yards longer off the tee. On shots into some very hard greens I was seeing the ball check up & on a few shots some very good back spin. Temps were in the low 50’s at start then gradually got colder. Overall very impressed with what I saw today.

 

[Sox_Fan]

Received a 2-pack of the Bridgestone e12 balls today so will chime in with some feedback once I get a chance to put them in play.

 

[robo729]

Ok some more testing with just the Blind Ball and the Tour Response which were my 2 favorites from the last time.
The blind ball is definitely a better ball for iron shots at least for me. By the numbers they had the same spin but the blind one was a little longer for irons. For driver the tour response was a few yards longer but a little less control so maybe a little more spinny versus the blind ball.
For putting which I spent about an hour with all four of them on their indoor putting green. The blind ball was a little soft, I had to use a little more oomph to get the ball to go the same distance as the others. Once I got the distance thing down I did like the blind ball.
Overall I would rate it a solid ball for my overall game. I would take the slightly less distance but more fairways hit or wider wayward shots versus the others. I also liked the way the blind ball stopped on iron shots into the green and the overall feel of the blind ball. The second ball would be the Tour Response just because I lost some shots with the driver with this ball and didn’t seem to have as much spin on shots into the green. The Titleist ball was my least favorite of all and the Callaway was not a close 3rd to the other 2.

 

[MagicSpell]

So I took the "blind ball" (read E12 Contact) out for my Wed afternoon round yesterday. I hadn't played in two weeks due to a short trip, work, and weather. I decided to warm up one hole with a familiar ball (Chromesoft X TT) and then I switched over to the new ball. Here is my overall summary of yesterday's playing experience:
Driver - this ball is LONG and straight for me. 9/12 fairways with some of them much further than usual. Most of my drives were a baby draw but towards the end of the round I finally was able to play a slight fade on a couple. The only wayward shots with driver were a total swing fault on my part (but still resulted in a playable second shot).
Long/mid irons - I had only a couple of long iron shots off the tee yesterday. Unfortunately, one I chunked so it was not much of a data point. The other went so far long I was beyond the next hole's tee box. I suspect there may have been some cart path assisted distance in that one. Long/mid iron shots from elsewhere on the course were mostly knock down (due to low hanging branches or other obstacles) played well with a decent amount of run out along the fairways. I concluded this ball would be real good with knock down shots in the wind based on how it played yesterday.
Short irons/wedges - this was the only "down" side to the new ball for me. I really couldn't get any significant stopping power/check up on the greens. The greens yesterday were hard and fast and any attempt to fly to the pin and stop was a disaster. I finally changed to play for a shorter shot and let the run out take it to the hole. That worked as long as there was some green to work with. With that said, I was able to execute one or two short sided chips with a decent (not excellent) result that left me with a manageable putt. Depending on your greenside style, this ball may take some getting used to.
Putting - I hadn't marked the ball in any way (no alignment aid) so putting was a little different than my usual of lining the ball up and using the alignment to set my putter path. However, I was able to still put pretty confidently and the ball rolled true for me all day. The ball felt good coming off my putter with a fair amount of "feedback" when I stroked it purely. I definitely liked the feel of this ball on the green.

Overall impressions - I really liked this ball with the driver. It boosted my ego off the tee that's for sure. I also liked the feel on the green with the putter. Long irons and fairway shots were decent (neither good nor bad). The only down side I noted was with around the green chips and wedges. On holes where I could play for run out that wasn't as big an issue but I definitely had troubles stopping the ball consistently and coming out of bunkers.

 

[Kevin1951]

I've been using the "blind ball" test since I received them. I've been swapping each ball out while playing several rounds, interspersing the test balls into my Supersoft rotation. I found the "blind ball" compares favorably with my Supersoft. It was equally as forgiving with the ERC coming in next and then the Taylormade and TItleist making up the rest. The blind ball (e12) felt very soft both from the tee and on the green. I haven't much experience using Taylormade, but to my ear and hand, it felt much harder and "clicky" which I don't particularly care for. The "click" makes me feel that I'm hitting the ball too hard and as a result, affects subsequent shots.

For me, the e12 seemed to carry well and I was able to hit it straight for the most part (there were a couple of fliers that I completely attribute to my swing).

Given my level of experience and returning to golf after a 30 year lay-off, I was impressed with the e12 and would give it an extended try in my attempt to find the perfect ball for me.

 

[Annhl8rX]

I knocked the mystery ball (although it’s not a mystery anymore) initially for the excessive rollout and putting feel. I played a full round with it today, and I’ll revise that a bit. I still got a lot of rollout with the ball, but I didn’t have an issue with putting the ball.

Maybe my initial thoughts were just the result of side by side evaluation where it was noticeably different. Using it exclusively today, though, I didn’t notice anything noteworthy about the feel off the putter.

 

[kiwichris]

With the weather and the lack of being able to found time to really put these through their paces , I think I got some reasonable feedback.

Indoor testing with 919 Tour 6 iron, DG 120 X and ESB1 monitor came up with the following.

Best overall ball - Tour Speed (avg ball speed 121.5, avg spin 6580, avg carry 183.75, avg total 193.75)

Lowest spin - Tour Response - 6550, ERC Soft TT - 6552, Tour Speed - 6580, Mystery Ball - 6675

Got 9 holes with these at a fairly firm and fast Talking Stick, feel was pretty similar across the driver (turned out to have a cracked crown) so couldn't get decent feel for driver performance.

Irons had the Tour Response with slightly better feel but overall feel went to the ERC Soft TT.

All in all, based on price point, these are great balls for folks needing a blend of feel & distance.

Personally I would be most likely going with the ERC Soft with Tour Speed a close second.

 

[tequila4kapp]

I overslept for my tee time yesterday, was rushed and forgot my wedges and putters in a carry bag (practice) ... and my test balls. So I played with Q Star Tours.

I played today. Same course (which I’ve played a million times), very similar conditions but with the test ball.

First, the positive - I really did feel like the ball stayed tighter to the fairway on poor strikes. Two OTT heeled drives that hugged the left tree line and a blocked hybrid that stayed in the fairway really stand out as shots that felt like I was stealing. At the same time I was able to shape shots. I worked a 5h around a tree and a wedge around a different tree.

Now the negative. I had one drive with the wind at my back where I reached summer distances, otherwise everything seemed like it was a good club or more short.
- two well struck tee shots on #5. The mystery ball was a good 40 yards short of yesterday's distance and about 20 yards short of my low end regular location on that hole.
- that 5h with a draw around a tree was from 182. That’s an easy #. The ball came up about 15 yards short.
- any number of full swing wedge shots come up about 10 yards short of the green.

The iron shots seemed like they were achieving a higher than normal trajectory. When combined with the distance loss it was easy to start thinking there was some ballooning, though the balls didn’t seem that high. Trajectory off tee shots seemed really nice ... I did not think there was ballooning there.

Now the subjective - I really enjoyed the feel of the ball off all clubs. With longer clubs there was a “thwack” type sound. The ball felt to me like it was into the softer side of things but definitely not a marshmallow. And I was surprisingly happy with the ball around and on the greens. I didn’t see anything special with green side spin but there was a sense of predictability with how the ball would land and roll out.

I’m not drawing any long term conclusions yet but that is what I saw today. More testing to come ...

 

[G-Man]

Ok so used a sleenof balls on different shots. Bstone "blind ball" was long off clubs and felt good. Caveat that the wedges were not what I was hoping for... Hit greens with a lot of run. (Maybe was me).

I feel like response was great, but Titleist Tour Speed is nothing to slouch... I love the sound

 

[Annhl8rX]

Ok so used a sleenof balls on different shots. Bstone "blind ball" was long off clubs and felt good. Caveat that the wedges were not what I was hoping for... Hit greens with a lot of run. (Maybe was me).

I feel like response was great, but Titleist Tour Speed is nothing to slouch... I love the sound

I got a ton of runout with the Bridgestone as well.

 

[Chef23]

I played 18 with the new ball on Saturday. It is hard to give a real evaluation of the ball as it was 40* with 15 mph winds. I did play the full round with the same ball and found the durability was good. I found distance was solid and the ball performed well in the wind. I could easily control trajectory flighting it down and hitting it high. I couldn't get a good feel for spin on full shots as some of the greens were quite firm. I found good touch on short game shots. I generally don't rely a ton on spin around the greens I rely on trajectory but it seemed ok. I would probably like something that spun a touch more on full shots but it is hard to be sure until I can play in decent weather.

 

[tequila4kapp]

I lost two test balls last weekend, one in the water and another plugged. I got out for another 9 today. Same course. I ultimately lost the last test ball due to plugging into soft wet fairways. But before that I saw good stuff, especially with direction and dispersion. Several years ago when I started getting back into golf the e6 was this magical ball that just wanted to go straight. This e12 kind of reminds me of that. Distance off the tee was good, not great. I continued to see slightly less than normal distance on several iron shots.

The other thing from today is that I came away with a better sense of feel off all clubs. The Titliest and TM balls felt most firm to me, then the Bridgestone e12 then the ERC.

I’ll probably look for a sleeve to buy so I can keep testing, as a means of making up for my late start and lost balls.