Ball suggestions, currently using e6 but want more greenside/approach spin

I'd like to see Tiger or Phil play an E6. How cool would it be to see these guys in the fw for a change?

I went through this late last season as well. I played the e6 for the majority of the season. It was really great off the tee - into the green, or around it, was another matter. It never seemed to stop when I wanted it to. In fact a friend of mine still plays them and has the same problem.

I switched from the e6 to the PentaTP (when they were B2G1F) and had great success with it. When they were discontinued, I looked at the B330RX and Srixon Q-Star. I ended up with the Titleist NXT Tour S. It's still long off the tee but holds the green really well for $32/dz. I enjoyed the B330RX as well, but at $45/dz I couldn't justify it.

tequila4kapp said:

Gamer v2.

It is as straight as the E6 but longer and checks up way better on the greens. I found a ProV1x(?) and played it a couple of holes but went back to the Gamer in part because the Gamer was checking up better than the ProV. Now I know there's no way that should be happening, but it was for me today. I even had a hole where the Gamer backed up about 6 inches from where it landed on the green.

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I second the Gamer V2. LOVE that ball, and it costs less than $20 a dozen. Unless you're in tournament play, I don't see why you wouldn't play this. It's a cheap 3 piece with good check up and I don't have problems hitting it off of the tee (doesn't pick up too much spin)

I would look at the Bridgestone 330 RXS or the e5

ddec said:

I would look at the Bridgestone 330 RXS or the e5

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I think from what I've gathered that I will first try the 330RX. I am just guessing but, I gotta believe that the RX is going to have much better performance around green for me compared to e6. Also, thanks for the comments about the RXs, but, I'm guessing that this might be more spin off the driver than what I want with my slicing issues on bad swings.

I also intend to try the gamerV2 and possibly the e5. The one thing I've heard about the e5 is that it tends to produce a higher ball flight. Is this the case? If anything, I think I need a more penetrating ball flight especially from my driver.

Thanks for all of the comments and help, (further comments are always welcome!) I have league today, I might try to play a few holes ahead of time with the RX and see what I think. If it's working good, I will try it in league. I'll let you guys know how it goes. Thanks again, this has been by far the best advice for golf that I've found.

MacGregor VIP is the best low cost ball made. I keep some in the bag with Pentas and TM Black LDPs and I honestly can't tell which one I am hitting at any one time.

mrvandelay said:

I went through this late last season as well. I played the e6 for the majority of the season. It was really great off the tee - into the green, or around it, was another matter. It never seemed to stop when I wanted it to. In fact a friend of mine still plays them and has the same problem.

I switched from the e6 to the PentaTP (when they were B2G1F) and had great success with it. When they were discontinued, I looked at the B330RX and Srixon Q-Star. I ended up with the Titleist NXT Tour S. It's still long off the tee but holds the green really well for $32/dz. I enjoyed the B330RX as well, but at $45/dz I couldn't justify it.

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I have a couple sleeves of the TP's and will be trying them out as well. If I remember correctly, I thought I read that the Penta's have a little less spin than the Pro V's, which would be great for me.

my game sounds like yours. my pro says the e6 will be best for me. i have used prov1x, penta, i(z), qstar, rx330,nxt tour in the last year.
i am not worried so much about stopping power on the greens, but i can be wild off the tee and i play a lot in the wind.

my pro says something about not compressing the ball enough to get the benfit of the more expensive balls.
i don't know what that means. how can i not compress it? i'm hitting the ball far (not skulling it). doesn't that mean i'm compressing it?

Smackdaddy said:

my game sounds like yours. my pro says the e6 will be best for me. i have used prov1x, penta, i(z), qstar, rx330,nxt tour in the last year.
i am not worried so much about stopping power on the greens, but i can be wild off the tee and i play a lot in the wind.

my pro says something about not compressing the ball enough to get the benfit of the more expensive balls.
i don't know what that means. how can i not compress it? i'm hitting the ball far (not skulling it). doesn't that mean i'm compressing it?

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I agree. If I'm playing in a windy day or a tight course with a lot of OB, hazards... I'm likely going to stick with the e6. I guess I'm just looking to "upgrade" if you will to something that I can start working with that will help out my short game as well.

My home course is only 9 holes, but, extremely tight and fairly short except for the 2 par 5's (which are 550 and 525 yards both uphill 2nd shots.) So, honestly, besides those two holes and maybe 1 or 2 par 4's I'm better off using an iron off the tee anyway (the longest par 4 is 375 yards, but uphill.) So, I kind of decided that I think I can score better if I use irons off the tee but get a ball that has more predictability on my short game and just try to concentrate on that this year.

Not sure if this is the right solution, but, just something I've been pondering.

PlzCoolerMe said:

I agree. If I'm playing in a windy day or a tight course with a lot of OB, hazards... I'm likely going to stick with the e6. I guess I'm just looking to "upgrade" if you will to something that I can start working with that will help out my short game as well.

My home course is only 9 holes, but, extremely tight and fairly short except for the 2 par 5's (which are 550 and 525 yards both uphill 2nd shots.) So, honestly, besides those two holes and maybe 1 or 2 par 4's I'm better off using an iron off the tee anyway (the longest par 4 is 375 yards, but uphill.) So, I kind of decided that I think I can score better if I use irons off the tee but get a ball that has more predictability on my short game and just try to concentrate on that this year.

Not sure if this is the right solution, but, just something I've been pondering.

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fwiw, and i may be in the minority, i do not think guys at our handicap level can really discern a lot of the differences between balls.
my swing to swing variation will cause more differences in the final position of the ball than some tiny variation in the shape of the dimple. i think. at least for the driver swing.
i can see a difference in the short game stopping power for sure, but generally i'm aiming for the middle of the green anyways on full swings and a pitch or chip where it is hard to utilize the stopping power (at my handicap level). whether my first putt is from 10' or 15' isn't going to change my score much. so by far the most important components for me are straight flight off the tee and wind fighting power. ymmv.

i don't think you are giving up anything with the e6. believe me, i know, it's tempting to spend more (but i don't think you're going to get more).
but if you find something better let me know. i lose about 6 balls a round, so i have plenty of opportunity to buy more balls.

i'm thinking of trying the vision balls, so if you try those please do report back.

Smackdaddy said:

fwiw, and i may be in the minority, i do not think guys at our handicap level can really discern a lot of the differences between balls.
my swing to swing variation will cause more differences in the final position of the ball than some tiny variation in the shape of the dimple. i think. at least for the driver swing.
i can see a difference in the short game stopping power for sure, but generally i'm aiming for the middle of the green anyways on full swings and a pitch or chip where it is hard to utilize the stopping power (at my handicap level). whether my first putt is from 10' or 15' isn't going to change my score much. so by far the most important components for me are straight flight off the tee and wind fighting power. ymmv.

i don't think you are giving up anything with the e6. believe me, i know, it's tempting to spend more (but i don't think you're going to get more).
but if you find something better let me know. i lose about 6 balls a round, so i have plenty of opportunity to buy more balls.

i'm thinking of trying the vision balls, so if you try those please do report back.

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I mean, I know what you're saying and generally agree, but, I've played the others before and can definitely tell when chipping and on approach shots with 7 iron down. That was one of the main reasons I tried the Q star. It acted quite a bit better in that respect for me, but, I seemed to lose some distance on drives and it didn't seem quite at straight for me.

Don't get me wrong, I really could care less about "dead on stop and backspin" but, I do want something that will "hold" the green better and not release quite as much on those chip shots... Accuracy though, is definitely #1 for me. Maybe I'm just being too picky or looking for something that doesn't exist for my game.

Played in two leagues today. The first was a scramble league where a lot of the golfers are older guys who just enjoy being out there but don't want to have to worry about playing their own balls b/c it would take forever.

Since it was "scramble" format, I used the RX through most of the round, but, switched to e6 on drives with OB to worry about. The results were pretty much what I expected, but, maybe didn't get quite as much spin on the drives as I would have thought with the RX (which was great.) I actually probably gained about 5 to 10 yards of distance with the RX with only 5 or so yards of "slice" added on miss-hits. I was having problems chipping so I couldn't get a real good idea of the change. But, I hit some good approach shots, had one stop and drop right beside it's divot (which I can't ever remember doing with e6.) Also held a couple greens that I'm sure would have ran off with e6.

Not sure this is "compressing" of the RX, but, it did seem like 2 drives almost exploded off my driver which was also unique. So, all in all, my first experience with the RX was a positive one.

My 2nd league was a normal format but, I was half-drunk by this time and playing like crap so I decided to use the e6 rather than lose my good RX. I only ended up losing 1 ball, but, still shot horrible. So, not sure if my results would have changed much with the RX here anyways. Certainly wouldn't have been a good "gauge" of the difference.

I think my next ball I will test will be last yr's Penta and then hopefully the Cally iz. I have 12 new Callaways, but, unfortunately they are the i(s) version. Anyone want to trade lol? Also, after reading some stuff on the golfwrx forums, I think I might try the Zstar xv as well.

All in all, I have to say I was happy with the 330RX and will likely be playing it as long as wind or OB is a huge issue.

Have any of you guys that have my slicing issues tested all of those (iz, penta tp, 330rx, and Zstar xv)? If so, what are your thoughts?

Also, I did read some stuff that makes me think that I should try the older Cally Ix as well rather than or with the iz. Seemed like some folks thought that the ix was a better ball than the iz. Thoughts?

thedue said:

I'd like to see Tiger or Phil play an E6. How cool would it be to see these guys in the fw for a change?

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LMAO...that definitely made me chuckle.

Our games sound very similar and I've been experimenting with balls too so I'm coming back to give more feedback.

I tried the RXS, Z Star and Z Star XS. Both Srixon products were really good but had noticeably more driver spin then the RXS, e6 or Gamer2. Not bad, just more - and given where my game is at I don't need to take on the added risk of that little extra right / left variation. If my swing was say 10% more reliable off the tees the Srixon products would be in the mix. I found the RXS to be virtually as straight as the Gamer2 and e6, but with significantly better green side action. So far the Gamer2 will be the ball I use early in the season or if I know my swing is particularly troublesome or if I don't want to spend $ on the more expensive balls; the RXS will be my regular gamer. I will be trying the RX ball shortly - have read from others that distance might be a bit more than the RXS with only slightly less action on the greens.

I have traveled a similar route as you when it comes to golf balls. I started out playing the Cally Diablo, then went to Diablo Tours, liked em but nothing real special. Got a special on the i(s) and loved them except for off the tee. I then tried the E6 and loved everything about it except the significant rollout. Then went to QStar and really liked everything, it had more check but still rolled out too much on high wedge shots. I've not moved on to the Cally Hex Chrome, this ball is the hands down winner. Everything is 10 yards longer, it feels very solid off the driver and the iron/wedge spin is phenomenal! I strongly suggest you check it out, I'm sold.

I really like the b330RXS, much spinnier than the RX. But it definitely gets sideways if you arent careful off the tee.

As Sanjay said, I think if you are looking for something of a "hybrid" between the e6 and RXs, the RX might be the ball for you. Definitely better around the green than the e6 and less side spin than the RXs. I've tried the Penta TP, and Callaway iz since I started this thread and the 330rx seems to be the ball for me so far. I mean, the RX isn't going to get you the most spin around the greens by any means, but, it is a TON better than the e6 without sacrificing that much forgiveness off of the tee.

tequila4kapp said:

Our games sound very similar and I've been experimenting with balls too so I'm coming back to give more feedback.

I tried the RXS, Z Star and Z Star XS. Both Srixon products were really good but had noticeably more driver spin then the RXS, e6 or Gamer2. Not bad, just more - and given where my game is at I don't need to take on the added risk of that little extra right / left variation. If my swing was say 10% more reliable off the tees the Srixon products would be in the mix. I found the RXS to be virtually as straight as the Gamer2 and e6, but with significantly better green side action. So far the Gamer2 will be the ball I use early in the season or if I know my swing is particularly troublesome or if I don't want to spend $ on the more expensive balls; the RXS will be my regular gamer. I will be trying the RX ball shortly - have read from others that distance might be a bit more than the RXS with only slightly less action on the greens.

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