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TaylorMade Blind Ball Testing Results

SuperStroke
Well maybe I don't know what spin means. When I talk about spin I mean that the ball is hopping and stopping with no roll out. This was on all full iron shots. I had a 4 iron hop and stop with this ball. On chips and stuff I was getting roll out but roll out that I was expecting and not more. I think someone else said something about higher handicaps vs. lower handicaps. Well I would definitely fit in the higher cap category and I was getting this ball to stop.
 
I will be testing these this evening and post about my findings tomorrow.
 
I love how each person and review is different with very little similarities. Like how mult. people can see the same exact thing yet have different interpretations for what just happened. fascinating.
 
I think we all have different views on the old spin lol. It is very interesting though.
Chunkylover77 said:
Well maybe I don't know what spin means. When I talk about spin I mean that the ball is hopping and stopping with no roll out. This was on all full iron shots. I had a 4 iron hop and stop with this ball. On chips and stuff I was getting roll out but roll out that I was expecting and not more. I think someone else said something about higher handicaps vs. lower handicaps. Well I would definitely fit in the higher cap category and I was getting this ball to stop.
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The spin characteritics are odd. For me, it goes like this-

Driver- Little spin, hits and roooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllls.
Irons- High spin, Drops and stops.
Around green- little spin, hits and rolls out.


I dont get it....
 
aggro said:
The spin characteritics are odd. For me, it goes like this-

Driver- Little spin, hits and roooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllls.
Irons- High spin, Drops and stops.
Around green- little spin, hits and rolls out.


I dont get it....
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Exactly. That's the same exact thing I'm getting. I hit a beautiful 3 iron from about 160 into the green today and it bounced about 7 feet and stopped. 2 holes later I hit a chip just a little too hard and low and it rolls over the green. And I'm gaining 10 yards on my drives because of the roll this ball gets off of the head. It's confusing. I wanna know what ball this is...
 
Ok three of us played with the dozen I received. We all took notes and will be comparing them. I like this ball. I have avoided reading the other write ups. I had a good for me game and managed not to lose any. This was tough, because the course we played requires you to carry the French Broad seven times. The cover held up well to the two awesome barkies I had and a couple of cart path travels. Seems durable and held up to my wedge work out earlier. I will collect my thoughts and write up a complete review for tomorrow.
 
Chunkylover77 said:
Alright I'm completely confused about the reviews. How can a ball be a hop and stop for one player and another player gets no spin on the greens. As I said in my review I had a downhill 155 yard shot with a hook lie. When I say downhill I also mean that the ball was on a downhill lie so that is not a recipe for extra spin. The ball was at most a foot from it's mark. This ball was super spin for me on the greens.
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i haven't hit full iron shots with it yet CL, just practiced on the chipping green with them. the longest shot i could execute was about 45 yards and i couldn't get them to spin at all. i can't comment on the spin characteristics of the ball from full iron shots yet.

maybe they're left handed golf balls????????
 
TC said:
i haven't hit full iron shots with it yet CL, just practiced on the chipping green with them. the longest shot i could execute was about 45 yards and i couldn't get them to spin at all. i can't comment on the spin characteristics of the ball from full iron shots yet.

maybe they're left handed golf balls????????
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Please, please, please... :D
 
I have played two rounds with these balls but to be honest I am playing so bad right now that I'm not sure I can give a good review because I'm just not striking the ball well enough. I mean it's been BAD with my irons!!! I am playing a really nice course tomorrow so I want one more chance to review them. I hit my irons well on the range tonight so maybe I will be able to duplicate that tomorrow!

I hit my driver well and I really like the feel off it. I have not noticed any change in distance really and the flight seems about the same as when I use the ProVI. I especially like the feel of this ball when I am chipping and putting. It is so soft!

We had a friend of ours who is a low handicapper try these balls out on a couple holes today. He was fascinated with these balls. He plays the TM Red balls now and could not believe how soft these balls were. He first played a short par 3 over water. He hit two shots about 130 yards onto the green and both of the balls spun back about 3 feet and stopped. He just kept going on and on about how good these felt and how he wanted to buy some as soon as they came out.

Next he went to our #9 hole and hit them with his driver. He said he got normal ball flight and distance on the drive. He hit two again to the green but neither shots had any spin but we figured that was because he hit behind the flag onto a downhill slope.

He practiced chipping and hitting sand shots too. He was really having a problem getting the ball to the hole because he is used to throwing it out and letting it run. This ball was so soft to him that he could not hit it far enough to get it there. He eventually started throwing it much closer to the hole and had really nice results. He said it would take some practice to get used to this ball on the green because it was just so soft.

We took video with my cell phone but they are poor quality. Wish we had remembered our camera so you could see the spin he put on these balls. It wasn't much but it was a nice little zip on both shots to the par 3 green.
 
Such different interpretations of this ball by tons of different people.......... so interesting.... so no spin, some tons of spin. I guess this shows you really have to fit the ball to your game. This ball apparently doesn't fit other people.
 
TC said:
i haven't hit full iron shots with it yet CL, just practiced on the chipping green with them. the longest shot i could execute was about 45 yards and i couldn't get them to spin at all. i can't comment on the spin characteristics of the ball from full iron shots yet.

maybe they're left handed golf balls????????
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I found this ball to react best to full strokes. The little half wedge shots roll but the full swing wedge shots stopped on a dime. This ball complements my arsenal of wedges very well. My wife really drained some long putts and hit long drives with it. She, however, was not able to stop it on the green like Ludicrous Axhandle McShaftwielder and me. I wouldn't say it had back spin but it stopped like I like. This ball wants you to get on it. I too had problems getting it to stop in my yard. I now attribute that to my tentative swing. My point is don't make up your mind yet.
 
Chunkylover77 said:
Well maybe I don't know what spin means. When I talk about spin I mean that the ball is hopping and stopping with no roll out. This was on all full iron shots. I had a 4 iron hop and stop with this ball. On chips and stuff I was getting roll out but roll out that I was expecting and not more. I think someone else said something about higher handicaps vs. lower handicaps. Well I would definitely fit in the higher cap category and I was getting this ball to stop.
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Chunk -- I don't believe you have to be a super star or low handicap golfer to spin a golf ball. It has so many varibles such as type greens, green slope, equipment used, technique used by player low or high handicapper, yada dada doo. I spun these new unmarked balls back on two holes at our golf course. It probaly had alot to do with the green slope, however I did feel the ball compress and it was pinched very well. Most of my shots from 75 plus yards were the hop & stop type results. My chips close to the green were not exactly show stopping spin but again it has alot to do with the greens you are playing on and your skill level around the greens. My wedge shots had that nice pop and stop and occasional spin on the tiltled greens. My chipping is sub par right now but we will not go into that as we are reviewing a new ball. A friend of KellyBo's and mine came by the range today where Kelly was hitting a couple of buckets of range balls. We asked him to try the new balls and rode around watching him. He was awe struck with them and had no problem putting show nuff spin on them on a par 3 hole however his shots into our #9 hole, came in extremely high but just hit the green spun in it's tracks and released forward just a bit. In all fairness both shots he hit into #9 came down where the green was slopeing away. Not easy to spin a ball back up the hill.... He was impressed and I am impressed. KellyBo and I are going to play Chateau Elan Golf Course tomorrow towards Atlanta. It has bent grass greens and we will test them more there.
 
I feel that these balls have MUCH Better spin on full shots then half shots. I had one of my best putting days of the year yesterday with this ball. I had great control of my speed all day, as about 4 or 5 stopped on the lip! :banghead:
 
I have avoided reading this post until after my evaluation of these test balls. We’ve also had some really nice weather for the last 5 days and I’ve tried to take advantage of it!!

I started my testing with a visit to the practice green and chipping area and will be comparing these to my favorite ball the B-330 RXS.

Feel: One word sums it up pretty well…….soft, almost too soft! These have a very muted feel to them. To the point where it’s hard to tell if you mis-hit these.

Spin: Although these feel very soft, they don’t seem to have any real green holding ability. The same shots hit with the 330s will grab the green while the test balls seem like they want to, but then roll out instead.

Putting: These roll true and have a nice feel off my putter. I noticed very little difference between the 330s and the test ball with the exception of sound. The test balls have a bit deeper sound to them off the face of the putter.

On the course:

Driver: Something is missing here! The same muted feel I experienced with the wedges, but the distance is way off. 10 – 15 yards shorter than my 330s. No major slice or hard fades, just a soft roll over to the right as I like to see….but short!!!!

Fairways: Since I was coming up short it required a longer club into the greens or on par fives more club to usual lay ups. This shouldn’t be a big problem, but these balls require an extra club or two to get the distance needed to reach the green. Only one real negative for me here and that is the lack of distance! These feel buttery soft from the fairways with woods or irons.

Wedges and approach shots: As long as you don’t mind using more club you are good to go unless you need to hit something in tight and have the ball stop quick or even spin a little. The only shots I could generate any real spin back to me were on full SW shots from around 100 yards out. Around the green is where this gets frustrating, because these feel so soft you think you can make these stop where you want….but nnnnooooo they release and roll out. When a 330 is played from the same spot it will stop a good 10 feet sooner than the test balls.

The TM test balls are bit confusing. Nice feel, but the loss of distance is a real killer for me on these. Maybe these are a softer compression than I need and would make a good ball for slower swing speeds?! Thanks to Taylor Made and THP for the chance to test these out. Unfortunately, not a ball I would purchase!
 
One of the things I've always wondered when testing balls is, how can people be so sure of their results? I for one know that my swing is hardly repeatable. It's very rare I can pull off the same result in back to back swings. The lie also changes with every shot taken with each ball. Even my putter stroke doesn't feel 100% consistent enough. But anyways, those are just thoughts running through my head as I was testing this ball.

TaylorMade Blind Ball = tmbb

I got these balls Friday, and have played 4 rounds since. For 2 of the rounds, I alternated between Pentas and tmbb every hole. For the other 2 rounds, I played the tmbb for as long as I had it, then would switch to the Penta after losing it. (My swing is going under some reconstruction right now, and I am averaging about one ball lost per round.)

First off, I LOVE the feel off my putter. I use a Method and when I make solid contact, it's just a soft thud. Softer than the Penta and much softer than the Nike One Tour. I'm not sure if feel has anything to do with lag putting (my putting stroke is still a work-in-progress), but with this ball I tended to lag slightly better. The feel off my driver and full iron shots was similar to most premium balls. Completely unlike any of the rocks that are around.

Spin wise, I've had mixed results. Not as much spin for me as the Penta, but I am able to get some spin out of it. Most full iron shots with good contact stopped Pentas about a foot away from the divot. The tmbb would roll out a few more feet. On short pitches, I've experienced about the same thing. Unless it's a perfect lie, it tends to roll out a bit further than the Penta. Chipping wise, it worked exactly the same way. I chip with a lower trajectory and the tmbb rolled out the same distance as the Penta. (multiple chips to the same hole alternating between the 2 different balls)

Trajectory and side-spin.
The tmbb flies lower than the Penta for me. I hit most balls very high with out much ballooning, but couldn't get the tmbb to pick up as high. I'm not sure if this is something I like about it or not. For one, playing a towering shot like my usual trajectory is nice in no-wind conditions, but that's hardly ever the case. Although I am trying to lower my shots, doing so with a ball that spins slightly less for me means a-little-further-away-from-the-hole-then-I-would-like-when-hitting-it-just-the-way-I-wanted.
Definitely less side-spin then a Penta for me. I've mostly gotten rid of any slice/duck hooks, but when they do come out, (maybe twice or 3 times per round), the tmbb was never as severe.

I'll be continuing to test these until I lose them all, which may be 2 weeks or hopefully as long as 2 months (swing willing) and will keep my thoughts here updated!

So far though, I like this ball.
 
I did some side by side chipping and pitching with the test balls and various other balls such as the Nike Tour D, Bridgestone 330-rx, Bridgestone E6, ProV1, Callaway i(z), etc.

Chipping I could barely tell the difference between any of the balls. My chipping technique tends to produce a knuckleball that then rolls out so this is really no surprise.

Pitching at 20 yards the test ball failed to produce stopping spin. Only the Titliest HP Distance ball had less rollout. The test ball felt great to hit and I could pop it up very easily but it simply rolled more than the others after touchdown.

Pitching at 40 yards produced more of the same. The greens weren't as soft as they were the first day I used the ball (when I saw a 5ft hop and stop from similar distance) and it was clear that these type of shots were going to have to be landed near the front of the green or risk rolling off the back. This thread isn't about the other balls so I'll refrain from my opinions about which were best for these shots but the test ball definitely ranked in the lower tier for me in terms of greenside spin.

In my opinion, the type of spin I evaluated is a bit overrated. Its really just a small part of your overall potential score. If a ball saves you strokes elsewhere then I'm willing to accept less spin on these rare shots. Putting and full iron shots are the strong points of the ball. I've honestly never putted a more friendly ball. I'd still consider using a ball like this if it matched up well with my driver swing speed for good distance and no excessive side spin.
 
So I found good stopping power with long-mid irons. Part of it was due to the excessively high ball-flight, part due to good spin.

Ball would just land, hop, then stop within 6 feet of the ball mark. That's not where I'm losing spin...

It's the 25-foot chip that flies 70% of the way to the hole with a 62degree wedge (aggressive chip), looks like its going to fly past and then hits the brakes.

I physically cannot do that with this ball. I can hit the same chip, but it will launch slightly higher, land and bleed out an additional 8 feet. That's my bread-and-butter chip, which is why I would prefer another ball.

As to the SoCal folks, I hear you on the rain...but I have been testing my everyday ball in the same conditions so it's a clean A/B test.
 
claycribbs said:
I feel that these balls have MUCH Better spin on full shots then half shots. I had one of my best putting days of the year yesterday with this ball. I had great control of my speed all day, as about 4 or 5 stopped on the lip! :banghead:
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But playing at Metter you should have baby wedges into all par 4's and 5's...... :D
 
I will get a chance to play with these tomorrow and the rest of the week, so stay tuned for my report :) Its taken me a few days to get out, been going through some things lately...

I've been putting around with them, and I really like them. I'd really like to chip with them and see how they are around the greens as my Precepts like to roll and keep on rolling. And I've been good too, I haven't been reading other people's reviews yet :D
 
I'll play tomorrow but it was weird today. The ball suddenly felt harder when I chipped it. It must have been something in my swing, but the first shot I was like, "Whoa"
 
TC said:
i haven't hit full iron shots with it yet CL, just practiced on the chipping green with them. the longest shot i could execute was about 45 yards and i couldn't get them to spin at all. i can't comment on the spin characteristics of the ball from full iron shots yet.

maybe they're left handed golf balls????????
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You know I don't think I had any longish pitches with this ball. I'll take it to the range and check that out. To me they are starting to sound like schizophrenic balls.
 
Chunkylover77 said:
You know I don't think I had any longish pitches with this ball. I'll take it to the range and check that out. To me they are starting to sound like schizophrenic balls.
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sounds good CL. when you do, hit them side by side with a premium ball, i'd like to know your findings.
 
cmoors said:
It's the 25-foot chip that flies 70% of the way to the hole with a 62degree wedge (aggressive chip), looks like its going to fly past and then hits the brakes.

I physically cannot do that with this ball
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Yep that was my experience as well. I was opening the face of my 64 and flipping the ball in the air like you would if short sided to the pin. Some balls roll when they hit and some bite. The TM rolls. I'm not however sold that this is all that important.
 
Ole Gray said:
Chunk -- I don't believe you have to be a super star or low handicap golfer to spin a golf ball. It has so many varibles such as type greens, green slope, equipment used, technique used by player low or high handicapper, yada dada doo. I spun these new unmarked balls back on two holes at our golf course. It probaly had alot to do with the green slope, however I did feel the ball compress and it was pinched very well. Most of my shots from 75 plus yards were the hop & stop type results. My chips close to the green were not exactly show stopping spin but again it has alot to do with the greens you are playing on and your skill level around the greens. My wedge shots had that nice pop and stop and occasional spin on the tiltled greens. My chipping is sub par right now but we will not go into that as we are reviewing a new ball. A friend of KellyBo's and mine came by the range today where Kelly was hitting a couple of buckets of range balls. We asked him to try the new balls and rode around watching him. He was awe struck with them and had no problem putting show nuff spin on them on a par 3 hole however his shots into our #9 hole, came in extremely high but just hit the green spun in it's tracks and released forward just a bit. In all fairness both shots he hit into #9 came down where the green was slopeing away. Not easy to spin a ball back up the hill.... He was impressed and I am impressed. KellyBo and I are going to play Chateau Elan Golf Course tomorrow towards Atlanta. It has bent grass greens and we will test them more there.
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Interesting. I don't know what type of greens are at the course I played. Will have to check that out. Good point though OG!
 
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