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Blind Ball Testing Review Thread

SuperStroke
I'm interested in hearing everyone's feedback about the ball and how it compares to the 3 included known balls.

Trying to determine who made the ball (shipping info, comparing dimples, etc) seems beyond the scope of the testing, adds unnecessary "noise", and defeats the purpose of a "blind" test. Not to mention it might curtail future testing opportunities.

Yes, I'm a grumpy old coot. So "get off my lawn" and test some golf balls. ;)
 
I did not receive the PM notifying me I was selected to test and review here on the forum but I did get a random UPS shipping notification about a package coming from a company that makes golf balls. I will not name the company just in case. That is supposed to be here Tuesday so I guess we will see.
 
I'm seeing a honeycomb pattern with hexagons.
 
Look forward to you all testing these. Nice group of balls to compare to. I like the tour response ball.
 
Well I had another package at ups soooo still waiting ing for my mystery test pkg.
 
Took the test balls out for some short game practice today to get the ranking for wedge and putter feel. I did this in 5 parts:

Chips from the fringe (LW and SW)
40 yard pitch from a rough lie (LW)
10 yard pitch from fairway lie (LW)
Flops over a bunker (LW)
Putting

The feel was pretty consistent as far as the ranking across all of the wedge shots.
Keeping in mind that feel is subjective, I'll tell you that I prefer a softer feel around the greens. So ranking softest to hardest here

1. Blank mystery ball
2. Callaway ERC
3. Taylormade tour response
4. Titleist tour speed

I was using the chipping green at my course, not a "real" green for this portion of the testing, so it may not be a fair test for spin. That being said, I was able to at least rank them based on how they behaved.
From most to least spin

1. Taylormade tour response - by far the best checking
2. Callaway ERC - decent check -small release
3. Titleist tour speed - 'very meh' check.
4. Blank mystery ball - almost no check.

I will get a better idea of spin when I actually play a round with these.

Finally, putting. Again, ranking these from softest to hardest off the putter face.

1. Taylormade tour response
2. Blank mystery ball
3. Callaway ERC
4. Titleist tour speed

So far (if you throw away the spin test) the mystery ball is in the lead.
I will get these out on the course and play 6 holes with each - leaving out the tour response since I have played these quite a bit and know how they play.

I will report back with distance and forgiveness thoughts as well as spin on real greens probably late next week.

(y)
 
I haven’t received a shipping notice or the balls so I haven’t received the clue that was mentioned earlier in the thread. I’ve played a variety of balls before and think I’ve got a good idea on who manufactures the mystery ball’s dimple pattern but we will leave that alone for now. I’m excited to test. I am very familiar with the ERC and often play balls more or less in this space, assuming the comparison balls are included for a reason.
 
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Some very good initial testing thoughts @Davidhibler & I will be putting some short game work in tomorrow. How many swings did you take with each ball? As for the spin test how firm was the chipping green?
 
mmaynard11 said:
Some very good initial testing thoughts @Davidhibler & I will be putting some short game work in tomorrow. How many swings did you take with each ball? As for the spin test how firm was the chipping green?
Click to expand...
Windsor practice sesh later this week?
 
mmaynard11 said:
Some very good initial testing thoughts @Davidhibler & I will be putting some short game work in tomorrow. How many swings did you take with each ball? As for the spin test how firm was the chipping green?
Click to expand...
So, at each station I set up, I did 2 rounds. So 6 swings per ball, per station if that makes sense.

The chipping green is pretty firm, pretty similar to the greens on the course, but there were some weeds coming through in some spots. I tried to pick the cleanest landing area.

The putting was done in 3 parts. 25 foot lag putts, 15 foot puts and 10 foot putts.
Then some miscellaneous because I was having fun :)
 
Davidhibler said:
Took the test balls out for some short game practice today to get the ranking for wedge and putter feel. I did this in 5 parts:

Chips from the fringe (LW and SW)
40 yard pitch from a rough lie (LW)
10 yard pitch from fairway lie (LW)
Flops over a bunker (LW)
Putting

The feel was pretty consistent as far as the ranking across all of the wedge shots.
Keeping in mind that feel is subjective, I'll tell you that I prefer a softer feel around the greens. So ranking softest to hardest here

1. Blank mystery ball
2. Callaway ERC
3. Taylormade tour response
4. Titleist tour speed

I was using the chipping green at my course, not a "real" green for this portion of the testing, so it may not be a fair test for spin. That being said, I was able to at least rank them based on how they behaved.
From most to least spin

1. Taylormade tour response - by far the best checking
2. Callaway ERC - decent check -small release
3. Titleist tour speed - 'very meh' check.
4. Blank mystery ball - almost no check.

I will get a better idea of spin when I actually play a round with these.

Finally, putting. Again, ranking these from softest to hardest off the putter face.

1. Taylormade tour response
2. Blank mystery ball
3. Callaway ERC
4. Titleist tour speed

So far (if you throw away the spin test) the mystery ball is in the lead.
I will get these out on the course and play 6 holes with each - leaving out the tour response since I have played these quite a bit and know how they play.

I will report back with distance and forgiveness thoughts as well as spin on real greens probably late next week.

(y)
Click to expand...

Nice write up sir! I hope mine show tomorrow, I may hit the sim across the street from work if they do. I won’t get accurate driver 3w numbers unless they’ve improved their software but should be able to get 5 strikes each with a 50 yard wedge, a full GW and a distance 7i. I should be able to get some good numbers. For whatever reason irons distance and spin rates have been right in line with Trackman but it adds 1500 driver spin. Gave me a complex and an absolutely unhealthy collection of shafts and driver heads for years.

Until I hit an accurate launch monitor then I saw the same thing I see on the course. May bring the LD driver just for the heck of it and see what ungodly spin number it gives me a 3.5* lofted driver with a 90g XX-Flex shaft. With my fairly anemic CHS if it says it spins over 1500 on well struck balls, yeah right.
 
Davidhibler said:
So, at each station I set up, I did 2 rounds. So 6 swings per ball, per station if that makes sense.

The chipping green is pretty firm, pretty similar to the greens on the course, but there were some weeds coming through in some spots. I tried to pick the cleanest landing area.

The putting was done in 3 parts. 25 foot lag putts, 15 foot puts and 10 foot putts.
Then some miscellaneous because I was having fun :)
Click to expand...
Durability? I know they where some wedge shots but any noticeable scuffing on any of the balls?
 
Smiter said:
Nice write up sir! I hope mine show tomorrow, I may hit the sim across the street from work if they do. I won’t get accurate driver 3w numbers unless they’ve improved their software but should be able to get 5 strikes each with a 50 yard wedge, a full GW and a distance 7i. I should be able to get some good numbers. For whatever reason irons distance and spin rates have been right in line with Trackman but it adds 1500 driver spin. Gave me a complex and an absolutely unhealthy collection of shafts and driver heads for years.

Until I hit an accurate launch monitor then I saw the same thing I see on the course. May bring the LD driver just for the heck of it and see what ungodly spin number it gives me a 3.5* lofted driver with a 90g XX-Flex shaft. With my fairly anemic CHS if it says it spins over 1500 on well struck balls, yeah right.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry sir, but there is no such thing as an unhealthy collection of shafts and/or driver heads. Simply does not exist!
🤣🤣
 
Snickerdog said:
Durability? I know they where some wedge shots but any noticeable scuffing on any of the balls?
Click to expand...
Great question.
The tour speeds are scuff free. Some minor scuffing on one of the ERC and one of the mystery balls. The tour response didn't do as well, but still pretty good. Minor scuffing on one and a small piece of the cover peeled above the d in taylormade - might have to zoom in for that
20210110_174935.jpg

EDIT: I did mark these with a gold pen for identification purposes
 
Davidhibler said:
So, at each station I set up, I did 2 rounds. So 6 swings per ball, per station if that makes sense.

The chipping green is pretty firm, pretty similar to the greens on the course, but there were some weeds coming through in some spots. I tried to pick the cleanest landing area.

The putting was done in 3 parts. 25 foot lag putts, 15 foot puts and 10 foot putts.
Then some miscellaneous because I was having fun :)
Click to expand...
Awesome...thanks for the additional details. I’m expecting the greens to be a little firm as well.
 
Davidhibler said:
I'm sorry sir, but there is no such thing as an unhealthy collection of shafts and/or driver heads. Simply does not exist!
🤣🤣
Click to expand...

When I’m having a gear giveaway and I have to think of how I can get this live giveaway done in a couple hours, haha. Yes. Especially since half weren’t even shown (my kid has about 12 drivers in his bag and I wasn’t aware of until right before the giveaway and he wasn’t there at my house that night. And I didn’t post much of the really old stuff.

So I agree in principle, 😂. But it is possible. My problem usually is not so much the buying it’s my half hearted attempt at selling it before it just goes down to the basement.
 
I played all four balls today. It was very cold start. It was about 35 degrees so that has to be taking into consideration with my initial thoughts.

On the front 9 I was switching them out every few holes on the tee and playing the ball all the way in. On the back 9 I did them same, but did do a few side by side comparisons with the mystery ball and the others.

My early thoughts mostly center on the short game aspects.

I really liked how the mystery ball felt off the putter. It was by far my favorite ball to putt. It was soft, but not marshmallow soft. It certainly seemed softer than the other 3 balls. The Taylormade was probably the 2nd best feeling ball followed closely by the ERC and the Titleist coming in 4th. All if them felt good to putt though.

I did a lot of in round chipping and pitching today as the rest of my game was a hot mess. I thought that the mystery ball checked pretty well for me. I am not someone that can put a lot of check on a ball in the first place, but I was pleased with the performance of the mystery ball. I would rate the ERC first in the checking category. The Tour Response and the mystery ball would be interchangeable in the 2nd and 3rd positions. The Titleist was 4th, but still solid.

Mid irons I much preferred the mystery ball over the others. The ERC I would put in second followed by the Titleist and the TM balls. To be fair there wasn't a lot of really well struck mid irons.

My driving game as well as my long clubs were an absolute disaster today and it would not be fair to rank any of the balls or give an accurate ranking based on my performance. I will say the best two hybrids I hit today were with the mystery ball. Both of them were absolutely smoked and longer than I typically hit those clubs. It could have just been me catching it flush or the ball itself, but I was extremely happy with the distance and the ball fight.

The mystery ball did seem to have a nice penetrating flight on well struck balls. They're just wasn't a lot of well struck ones during the course of the round. I will be putting them in play again hopefully on Friday or if not definitely on Saturday so more thoughta next weekend.
 
My thoughts on the mystery ball is that it is a new ball in the 30-35$ per dozen range. Comparable to the other 3. Should be a fun follow.
 
Davidhibler said:
Took the test balls out for some short game practice today to get the ranking for wedge and putter feel. I did this in 5 parts:

Chips from the fringe (LW and SW)
40 yard pitch from a rough lie (LW)
10 yard pitch from fairway lie (LW)
Flops over a bunker (LW)
Putting

The feel was pretty consistent as far as the ranking across all of the wedge shots.
Keeping in mind that feel is subjective, I'll tell you that I prefer a softer feel around the greens. So ranking softest to hardest here

1. Blank mystery ball
2. Callaway ERC
3. Taylormade tour response
4. Titleist tour speed

I was using the chipping green at my course, not a "real" green for this portion of the testing, so it may not be a fair test for spin. That being said, I was able to at least rank them based on how they behaved.
From most to least spin

1. Taylormade tour response - by far the best checking
2. Callaway ERC - decent check -small release
3. Titleist tour speed - 'very meh' check.
4. Blank mystery ball - almost no check.

I will get a better idea of spin when I actually play a round with these.

Finally, putting. Again, ranking these from softest to hardest off the putter face.

1. Taylormade tour response
2. Blank mystery ball
3. Callaway ERC
4. Titleist tour speed

So far (if you throw away the spin test) the mystery ball is in the lead.
I will get these out on the course and play 6 holes with each - leaving out the tour response since I have played these quite a bit and know how they play.

I will report back with distance and forgiveness thoughts as well as spin on real greens probably late next week.

(y)
Click to expand...

well written.
 
I'll get in here soon enough, but Im pretending to be a northerner today with 6" of snow on the ground. 😳
 
were these shipped USPS ? still didnt get mine, and USPS is sooo delayed here
 
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Looking forward to following along here, some great info so far. I am still playin the Tour BX, but I would love to have a lower cost alternative for those times I am trying to work out some swing issues or having a rough day keeping drives in play.

And I want to find out what the mystery ball is!
 
I should get mine in sometime this week. I was going to check UPS my choice but after seeing some people post it will ruin the surprise, I kept away.

It will be exciting to see how this ball performs against their competition. I’ll check them out on a Foresight machine since I believe it gives the best ball data. That won’t keep me from trying them all on the course but who doesn’t like data!!
 
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