Chromax Distance - Forum Testing Review Thread

I am going to the range today to work out a plan of attack for this testing. I hope I can bring some good info to the THP members. Looking forward to getting started hopefully this weekend.

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When the sun hits these things are they blinding?

Serious question here.

JRod said:

When the sun hits these things are they blinding?

Serious question here.

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I've never really noticed that, but I could see it being a possibility. Maybe the sun will actually shine today and I can find out.

Hawk said:

I've never really noticed that, but I could see it being a possibility. Maybe the sun will actually shine today and I can find out.

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Cool.


Seems like a great concept but that's a possible issue I see.

mward2002 said:

Prepping ya'll for it now, one of my reviews will be on a lit par 3 course at night. I have a feeling this ball will be really really cool to watch under the bright lights.

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That will be really cool to see!

Awesome initial review Hawk, it definitely looks brighter than the previous version.

Yea it does. I was very happy to see that. I wasn't impressed with the previous green at all and always like to see companies try to improve.

I really enjoyed that Hawk! I was going to quick post a request to see them in the outdoors in the rough, and glad I waited to scroll through everything!!

Any chance you can draw a comparison to a white ball next time out?

Sure can. Should have some actual golf course grass to drop them in as well rather than my front yard. I've got the camera packed up.

I love the color of those. Good start Hawk.

Chromax Distance Ball Testing

12/4/2012
18 Holes at my home course - Pinnacle Country Club
50's
15mph winds


Today I was able to play 18 holes at my home course using the Chromax Distance balls. I've talked a bit about my home course, but for those that haven't read about it - it's a pretty classic park land style course with substantial elevation changes, lots of trees, uneven lies, and tricky greens. Not a place that you can get away with spraying the ball around, which is sort of what I did off the tee today. Not the balls fault in any way. Just didn't have my best stuff with the driver.

First of all, how did the ball look in the sunshine? In my opinion, it looked awesome! No bothersome glare and the color really popped. Here's a little picture with a Chromax on the tee.



I'll reiterate that I think Chromax made a huge improvement with the color they chose for this line of balls. While the previous generations were flashy, I wasn't completely convinced that the metallic colors really showed up better than any other ball out there. My feeling today was that the green showed up nicely from a variety of lies and distances.


After pull hooking my first drive into the the trees I was able to spot it from quite a ways away and took a quick picture. Obviously, pictures don't really do it justice, but maybe you'll catch a glimpse of the ball out there. First pic was from about 100 yards. Thanks to my wayward driving I got to see how they looked in a real nice variety of lies. Here's a some examples of my adventures today:









In all, I thought visibility was very good. Definitely an improvement from previous lines. Not 100% sure that it beats the yellow we see from other brands, but it definitely holds its own pretty well.


Full swings

First of all, the ball I've played most often for the last couple months is the Bridgestone e6. One thing about that ball is that it is extremely soft feeling on full shots. The Chromax Distance was definitely a departure from this. It had a pretty substantial firmness to it that was noticeable from driver down to irons. I'm not prepared to classify it in the 'rock' category and I wasn't turned off by it, but it was definitely firm.

Good driver swings gave me a fairly high ball flight that didn't appear to carry much sidespin. Bad swings were just bad swings like I'd see with any ball. Not straight, not high, and not good. I won't go as far as saying that I saw any longer shots than expected, but I did hit a couple balls into the longer limits of my abilities. Just a couple though.

Irons were high and it seemed like the ball held it's line very nicely for the most part. Trajectory was high enough to hold every green I landed on and I'd classify greens today as medium firm. Basically similar to the performance that I see from the e6 in that I can rely on trajectory and spin to keep the ball on the green. No immediate hop/stops or anything like that, but acceptable performance in my opinion.

Here's a 7 iron I hit into the 2nd hole, a par 3. The ball hit the green, rolled out about 20 feet and ended up a little left and past the pin.




Wedges

I'm going to break this down into pitches and chip shots since they are different techniques and I expect different things from the ball.

Chip Shots

I had a pretty good variety of lies for chip shots today from fringe to light rough to deeper rough. I didn't get any 'check' or spin from these shots, which is exactly what I expected. Performance was exactly the same as I'd see from other surlyn balls. In fact, I hit three balls with the same cover from the same lie - medium rough. As you can see, I got very similar results. I took this shot from the base of the green, about 50 feet to the right of where this picture was taken.



I like a ball like this for chip shots. I can get predictable roll without worrying that spin will throw it off line or stop it too quickly. Just matches my technique.

Pitch Shots

These are the shots that I rely on to save my scores if my irons or driver is off. Today it was the driver, so I had a pretty good number of pitches from 100 yards to 30 yards. The farther out I get with this shot, the more I expect the ball to spin and the faster I expect the ball to stop. Going in, I knew that I wasn't going to see any dead stopping shots, but I did hope to see enough spin to control distance. Turns out that I was pleased with what I saw. Again, very similar to what I'd see with the e6 I normally play.

Here's what I saw from a 100 yards shot - a 9:00 swing RocketBladez PW.




I walked off a few pitches from short range (less that 50 yards) and saw anywhere from 4 to 7 paces of roll out. Roll out seemed to increase as the loft of the wedge decreased, which makes sense to me. Again, expected and predictable.

I did take a moment to test the Chromax Distance vs a Z-Star for a 30 yard pitch to a flag that was right up on the front of the green - about 7 paces from the edge. For the shot I opened the face to throw up a soft lob that I wanted to stop quickly. The Z-Star stopped very fast here and the Chromax rolled out about three times as much, but still not anything abnormal. No surprise there. For what it's worth, both were makeable putts.


That's about it for today. Feel free to ask questions if you have them.

Nice right up hawk!

nice write up Hawk, I really like the contrast between the rough and the ball, can't wait to start testing these

Gotta ask, where was that ball in the first pic? I couldn't find it.

Good stuff Hawk, your reviews are really making me chomp at the bit to get my testing started.

mward2002 said:

Gotta ask, where was that ball in the first pic? I couldn't find it.

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I debated even posting that. In person it was very visible. If you look at the split tree in the center, the ball is to the right of it not quite to the next tree.

Thanks for the reads and comments folks. Cant wait to compare notes!

Great thoughts and comments Hawk, so excited to get these in hand. Reads like your results are similar to what they are stating in comparisons and look forward to see what I see within the lines of your last post. I'll have a few different balls/categories as well, but really liking the brighter green color comparatively.

With our greens really getting a good freezing at night, I don't expect to get any hops and stops until later in the afternoon (if at all depending on the nightly freeze). I've been playing the E6 and the W50 and been able to get both to hop/stop after the noon hours. With the big compression differences to the 50, could be fun. Will throw a few in the mix of different classes. Any and all ball comp's will be given a chance if possible, just ask.

EDIT: Been having a lot of success out of the green side sand lately, so will be one of my first stops along with the putting.

J4U said:

Great thoughts and comments Hawk, so excited to get these in hand. Reads like your results are similar to what they are stating in comparisons and look forward to see what I see within the lines of your last post. I'll have a few different balls/categories as well, but really liking the brighter green color comparatively.

With our greens really getting a good freezing at night, I don't expect to get any hops and stops until later in the afternoon (if at all depending on the nightly freeze). I've been playing the E6 and the W50 and been able to get both to hop/stop after the noon hours. With the big compression differences to the 50, could be fun. Will throw a few in the mix of different classes. Any and all ball comp's will be given a chance if possible, just ask.

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I hit a W/S 50 today a few times. BIG difference in feel.

Hawk said:

I hit a W/S 50 today a few times. BIG difference in feel.

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I figured it was going to be pretty dramatic, can't wait to feel the burn!

Hawk, that is a great write up. I liked the chip shot photo with the 3 balls for comperison. Nice visuals. This ball def stands out in the grass and looks like it does what it is designed to. Can't wait to recieve my Chromax and get started..

Let's hope the USPS is speedy!

Wow. I really like the green color of those. It really POPS

Man, I like it too, WCBM. Much more than I expected to.

Hawk said:

Man, I like it too, WCBM. Much more than I expected to.

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I find myself dabbling in the colored ball market way more than I would have thought a few years ago. Yellow, orange, and I would game that green in a heartbeat.

Hawk said:

I debated even posting that. In person it was very visible. If you look at the split tree in the center, the ball is to the right of it not quite to the next tree.

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Found it! Tricky thing. It really pops though in the dormant grass. I can't wait to compare it to what they feel their ball is comparable to.