Golf Ball Review - Blind Ball Testing

Love all the thoughts so far, pretty sure I know what manufacteur we are working with but that doesn't tell me which ball it is

Cant wait to hear more thoughts!

tequila4kapp said:

I hoped to get out and play this morning, but wasn’t able to. So I snuck in a quick short game practice to scratch my testing itch. I covered four different scenarios:

1. 10 foot short sided pitch. I intentionally propped the ball up on top of the grass and tried to spin it using my 58* wedge. The orientation was such that the green was sloping slightly away from me.

2. Same as #1 but this time from about 4 feet closer, with a more traditional chip technique off the first cut. Afterward I gave myself the same basic shot (ie, land it and let it run out) but from a different orientation to the hole, distance and club – these were 25 foot chip shot with the ball about 5 or 6 feet into the first cut using my 50* wedge (the exact shot I practiced extensively last weekend with Hopkins range balls).

3. 50 foot chip, 50* gap wedge, alternating shots between the mystery ball and my normal gamer, last season’s PV1.

What I saw/conclusions: I don’t think the test ball is going to magically transform my short game and give me tour level abilities to spin the ball. I thought the ball was running out a little more than I am used to with PV1s through tests 1 and 2 but when I put the ball heads up/alternating shots against the PV1 in scenario #3 I saw that it was reacting precisely the same way once it touched the putting surface. However, the ball was different in one noticeable manner – how it felt off the face. The test ball is much more muted, lower pitched and softer off the club than the PV1. I don’t want to say it is as soft as the Chrome Soft or Wilson FG Tour, but it was clearly a move in that direction from the PV1.


And because THPers do not live by the written word alone I decided to toss in a little video to cover test scenario #4:




What I saw/conclusions: I am not sure how well it comes through in the video, but to me this test confirmed what I experienced in my night 1 carpet putting test – the test ball is definitely softer, quieter and has a lower tone than my prior gamer. In person, the sound differences are really quite obvious. Feel is probably a bit more subjective but, in my opinion, definitely there.

Click to expand...

Well we know for sure it made you a better putter!!:act-up:

Interesting. I always wondered about the differences between high end ball manufacturers like Titleist and Bridgestone. Somebody gave me a sleeve of old Cally Warbirds and they go a mile but theyre kind of rock hard upon impact.

That is quite a different sound. -CRW- said it was "muted" I believe, and that's the perfect word to describe it. Not by 10 decibels but definitely a different sound. Maybe blunted? Tequila4kapp said it was "dull." That's a good word choice too. Obviously you had that line grooved in by the time you got to the mystery ball, but it seemed like they were following the line well with different speeds... Is that just me? I think that's what -CRW- was saying too. I am soooo interested in what's going on here!

Great start Frank! I like you're breakdown of each test, and the video is a nice touch.

tequila4kapp said:

I hoped to get out and play this morning, but wasn’t able to. So I snuck in a quick short game practice to scratch my testing itch. I covered four different scenarios:

1. 10 foot short sided pitch. I intentionally propped the ball up on top of the grass and tried to spin it using my 58* wedge. The orientation was such that the green was sloping slightly away from me.

2. Same as #1 but this time from about 4 feet closer, with a more traditional chip technique off the first cut. Afterward I gave myself the same basic shot (ie, land it and let it run out) but from a different orientation to the hole, distance and club – these were 25 foot chip shot with the ball about 5 or 6 feet into the first cut using my 50* wedge (the exact shot I practiced extensively last weekend with Hopkins range balls).

3. 50 foot chip, 50* gap wedge, alternating shots between the mystery ball and my normal gamer, last season’s PV1.

What I saw/conclusions: I don’t think the test ball is going to magically transform my short game and give me tour level abilities to spin the ball. I thought the ball was running out a little more than I am used to with PV1s through tests 1 and 2 but when I put the ball heads up/alternating shots against the PV1 in scenario #3 I saw that it was reacting precisely the same way once it touched the putting surface. However, the ball was different in one noticeable manner – how it felt off the face. The test ball is much more muted, lower pitched and softer off the club than the PV1. I don’t want to say it is as soft as the Chrome Soft or Wilson FG Tour, but it was clearly a move in that direction from the PV1.


And because THPers do not live by the written word alone I decided to toss in a little video to cover test scenario #4:




What I saw/conclusions: I am not sure how well it comes through in the video, but to me this test confirmed what I experienced in my night 1 carpet putting test – the test ball is definitely softer, quieter and has a lower tone than my prior gamer. In person, the sound differences are really quite obvious. Feel is probably a bit more subjective but, in my opinion, definitely there.

Click to expand...

Frank that mystery ball is a keeper for the putting portion for sure. I like your video review it is a great touch, well done


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Really notice the sound difference there. Next video turn the camera though.

Thanks for the video and nice putting.

I got a chance to putt with the mystery ball in the basement for a bit last night. I was dodging a 1 year old who was downright giddy about crawling after the putts, picking up the balls and throwing them, but I think I got a decent enough sense for a first review.

There are quite a few pictures already, but here is one more. The orientation is wrong, but if you look closely, you'll see the the ball is not entirely unmarked. Three dimples are marked K5D (one character per dimple). Now I have no idea what that means, but I will say that after seeing an ad for Bridgestone balls last night, it's hard to believe these aren't Bridgestones of some sort.



I've never played Bridgestones (or whatever other dimple on dimple ball it might be), so no preconceived notions. I'd say I spent about a half hour putting with 4 balls: the mystery ball, a Chrome Soft, a Pro V1, and a Titleist Velocity. I tried to putt them in every order imaginable, putted with my eyes closed to listen to sound, and did combinations like 3 mystery balls in a row followed by a Chrome Soft, or vice versa to really try to differentiate.

Here are my first impressions:

1. I don't know that I'd always be able to tell the difference between urethane and surlyn in hand, but I'd guess this is urethane. In hand, this felt pretty similar to the Pro V1, but maybe a touch softer. It did not feel as soft or as tacky as the Chrome Soft. It was nowhere near as hard as the Velocity.

2. To my ear, no ball is particularly loud coming off my putter (maybe it's the insert, I don't know), and I didn't have any other putters to mess around with. That said, the mystery ball was very quiet. Not quite as quiet as the Chrome Soft, but very very close. It was noticeably quieter than both Titleist balls.

3. I know it's debatable whether it is possible to tell a difference in feel from ball to ball when putting. Some swear it's a big deal, others say it's impossible to tell. I'm in between - I think I can feel a difference between a rock hard distance ball and a Super Soft, for example. But I've never done a blind test, so don't hold me to it.

On feel, my results mimicked the sound, so I'll admit the possibility that I just imputed sound to feel. The Chrome Soft felt the softest, followed by the mystery ball, then the Pro V1, then the Velocity. I'm going to try to figure out a way to do a blind test with earplugs to really see if I can tell a difference.

More importantly, I'm going to try to get this out to the course, but we're stuck with rain for the next week or so. I'll be out there as soon as I can though.


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Nice write up and feedback, Big Sky. I never noticed the lettering on the dimples. Wonder what it means?

Re making 3 putts in a row with the test ball in the video...That was pretty much luck, I think. I was really trying to focus on keeping the grip pressure the same, making sure I hit the ball on the same spot of the putter face and use the same amount of force (I may not have done so great on this one) - all the stuff that would impact sound.

I got out for some twilight golf at a local Exec course last night. I'm still processing what I may or may not have seen. A bigger sample size could be in order, so I may well hold off posting any feedback until after I play Sunday morning.

I am really interested to see more on course feedback of others!

Without saying more, I have known balls from Bridgestone with the K5D markings in the urethane. I just didn't want to say what for fear of influencing the testing.

OK, I have two rounds on these balls now.
1. They drive straight and sound good off the face but I saw no increase in distance.
2. Long iron, I lost a few yards but they did seem to land lightly and did not over run the greens
on long approach shots.
3. Mid to short irons, ball flight was fine, distance was in the right range for me and landing a 130yd. 9iron on the green
the ball checked well and had me flag hunting.
4. Out of the sand I got great spin, twice the ball just hit and stopped dead and once on a 30yd bunker
shot I got it to spin back 3'.
5.Off the putter, sounds good and rolls just fine. (it's round)
6. Overall I found them to be a good to better ball and if the price point was good I'd purchase them.

Golf Ball Review - Blind Ball Testing

I played 9 holes with one of these today. I kept a chrome soft in play the entire front 9 so even though I didn't plan on it for fear of losing one before more extensive short game testing, I put one in play.
I wanted to give some initial feedback. This ball is relatively soft, muted at impact. I really enjoyed it on solid strikes. Distance seemed to be similar to most balls I have played. I did hit several balls exceptionally high (3w, driver, 9i). These were all high on the club face but seemed really much higher than the usual miss. Probably nothing to do with the ball but I did make note of it. I also saw more roll out on shots inside 100yrds after switching from Chrome Soft to the mystery ball.

After 9 holes the mystery ball looked brand new, durability seems good.

These are just initial observations with the sample size being very small.


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Well I had a chance to run up to the practice area for some chipping and putting. For this batch of testing I put it in play against my current game ball, TM project(a) (both used), and a sleeve of brand new tour preferred X. For the putting I used 3 different putters. A never compromise solid metal milled face. A TM white smoke with soft insert, An older TM with a hard composite insert.

I really noticed no difference with the different putters. No ball felt better with putter A over putter B/C.

As to the balls. As others have said the ball is not overly tacky. Much less tacky than the TP x or a Pro V1. It was similar in feel to the TM P(a).

As to feel off the putters. To me the mystery ball had a very different feel than the TP X. The TP X had a very solid feel through the whole ball while the mystery ball felt, and this is not the right word, hollow. As if most of the weight was in the cover. The P(a) was somewhere in between the two.

Sound was definitely a bit more muted/tinny while the other two were more of a solid thump.

Next I took my 60deg and hit 20 yard pitches to see how rollout was. The least rollout was consistently they TPx, followed closely by the mystery ball, the P(a) had a bit more rollout.

Weather permitting I will get out this weekend for some actual on course testing. I do have experience with the B330-s from Vegas 2 years ago. I found that ball to be ok but not best for my game. Slight loss of distance with no real gains elsewhere. This ball feels like the s so far but we shall see what it is like on the course.

Well it rained again today, but I could no longer stand it and got on a course anyway. My kid had First Tee practice today so afterward we went outside on the 3 hole course there and worked on his short game while I tested the mystery golf balls. Just for reference, the course was soaked but the greens weren't overly soft.

I hit 3 of the mystery golf balls, 2 Taylormade RBZ Urethanes, and 1 new current model Bridgestone E6. I hit shots from 2 yards off the green to 60 yards off the green at various distances with various lies. I also hit from the far side and the short side to the pin. I hit everything with my Bridgestone 58 degree wedge with stock wedge flex DG Spinner shaft. This is the very first time for me to hit the club and shaft so there was some adjustment going on with distance control for me due to the unknowns of how the new club would perform for me. I am happy with the club, but not sure the shaft is for me, but that's for another thread.

My first round of testing was at roughly 15 yards from a thin lie, sort of an over sized skirt at the front of the green. I hit each ball at least 5 times a piece. As others have said, I didn't feel like the mystery ball was very soft or very hard. Somewhere in between I guess. And I found Jugger18's comment on the ball performing similar to the TM Project(a) ball very interesting. I feel like the Project(a) performs very similar to it's predecessor, the RBZ Urethane. And during my testing today I found the mystery ball to perform very similar to my RBZ Urethane balls. Each shot bounced once and rolled out roughly a foot or so, with the exception of the E6. I've never been a fan of the E6 around greens and it consistently hopped 2-3 times and rolled out 2 to 3 feet each shot. My best shots with the mystery ball and RBZ urethane balls stopped within a foot or two of the pin, while my best with the E6 rolled past 3+ feet.

My next position was roughly 20 yards from the pin in thicker rough just off the edge of the over sized skirt area in front of the green. The results were the same as before, even when intentionally trying to alter the flight of the ball. I tried moving the ball back in my stance and flighting it a little lower with more spin and got the one hop and stop, and also moving the ball forward and sort of lobbing it up to the pin resulting in a one bounce (versus a hop I guess) and still staying within a foot or so of where it landed. Again, the E6 bounced/hopped more with the same type shots and rolled out more. I couldn't see a measurable difference between the RBZ Urethane and the mystery ball.

I then moved to roughly 2 yards off the green in a tight lie on the green skirt on the far side from the pin and moved the ball way back and hit it with a putt-like stroke, intentionally trying to get it to land fast and roll out. I saw the same results again - the RBZ Urethane and mystery balls performed similarly while the E6 rolled out 6+ feet more. My best shots with the RBZ Urethane and mystery balls were near the pin, while my best with the E6 rolled just off the back of the green - some on the opposite skirt, some just in the rough. All shots were hit to land roughly have way there and roll out the remaining half. I could have hit the E6 softer and accomplished the same distances as the other balls, but I was intentionally trying to make the same stroke for as accurate a comparison as I could make.

I then moved back to 45 yards from a teeing ground, and again to 60 yards from a teeing ground (First Tee kids teeing areas). I saw the same results as above. I actually went to the green both times and looked at the distance of the balls from their pitch marks and the RBZ Urethane and mystery balls were within 1 to 2 feet from their pitch marks, and the E6 was 4-6 feet from it's pitch marks.

My 8 year old hit them and approves of them! For fun I filmed him hit a few shots and in return he filmed me. I made a comment about his last shot being fat (not being negative) and karma paid me a visit resulting in me chunking my last shot. Neither of the videos really show results of the testing, but my first few were of the mystery ball before I switched to the RBZ Urethane balls. You can tell in the video that the sound is different even from the RBZ Urethane balls, despite them performing similarly for me. The mystery balls sound more "muted". I'm not sure what other word to use for the sound, but just a little different (and not in a bad way).

This first video is of my 8 year old at 45 yards with his US Kids Advanced/Tour Series 55 degree sand wedge (plays at 31.5"):



This second video is of me at 60 yards with the Bridgestone J15 chrome 58 degree wedge with DG Spinner wedge flex shaft.

[video=youtube;-ucGRdz0bpA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ucGRdz0bpA[/video]

I love your son's commentary in the video. Good stuff. Also, nice write up.

goodearth said:

OK, I have two rounds on these balls now.
1. They drive straight and sound good off the face but I saw no increase in distance.
2. Long iron, I lost a few yards but they did seem to land lightly and did not over run the greens on long approach shots.
3. Mid to short irons, ball flight was fine, distance was in the right range for me and landing a 130yd. 9iron on the green
the ball checked well and had me flag hunting.
4. Out of the sand I got great spin, twice the ball just hit and stopped dead and once on a 30yd bunker
shot I got it to spin back 3'.
5.Off the putter, sounds good and rolls just fine. (it's round)
6. Overall I found them to be a good to better ball and if the price point was good I'd purchase them.

Click to expand...

You mention the ball checked well with 9 iron. What does that mean for you? Was it different in this regard than your normal gamer?

tequila4kapp said:

I love your son's commentary in the video. Good stuff. Also, nice write up.

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I showed my wife when we got home this evening and she thought it was hilarious. If he doesn't make it as a golfer he can go into sports commentary.

ETA - I have a tee time tomorrow afternoon and if the weather holds out I will be able to hit this ball during an actual round and will hit approach shots, par 3's, and eventually long shots/drives before the round is finished.

Yes it was better than my regular ball which tends to run out a bit unless I really hit a pure shot. These balls were really sticking and stopping for me. What I will say though is my short irons were much better then usual and I hit a lot more real golf shots than normal.

tequila4kapp said:

You mention the ball checked well with 9 iron. What does that mean for you? Was it different in this regard than your normal gamer?

Click to expand...

-CRW- can you hit some E6's again with the mystery ball? Curious as to the difference in sound.

Golf Ball Review - Blind Ball Testing

Weirdest thing. When I practice short game with the mystery ball alone I get an ever increasing sense that it rolls out more from around the green than I'm used to. But then I randomly toss 6 balls (3 testers and 3 prior year PV1s) in a semi circle around the practice green and I get this




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Just got home a little while ago and had these waiting for me. My initial reaction was along the lines of what other people have said. Hoping to get out in the next few days to give these a go.

tequila4kapp said:

Weirdest thing. When I practice short game with the mystery ball alone I get an ever increasing sense that it rolls out more from around the green than I'm used to. But then I randomly toss 6 balls (3 testers and 3 prior year PV1s) in a semi circle around the practice green and I get this

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Click to expand...

As in, tossed with your hand? If so, then I'm sure it has more to do with how the ball is reacting to the club face than it is with the green surface.

jacob.komenda said:

-CRW- can you hit some E6's again with the mystery ball? Curious as to the difference in sound.

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I will at some point this week. I didn't hit the E6 today.

-CRW- said:

As in, tossed with your hand? If so, then I'm sure it has more to do with how the ball is reacting to the club face than it is with the green surface.

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Sorry, that wasn't clear. I tossed the balls around the green and chipped them all. The test balls react the same as the PV1s. But I can only see it that way when it's heads up - when it's test balls by themselves I end up thinking they are worse.

I had the mystery ball in play a couple different times today but was selective based on potential trouble I could hit into. Couple quick thoughts from yesterday and today

-love the feel and sound with the putter. Not too soft, not too firm and not a loud click at impact

-I did have a few instances where the ball seemed to roll out a little more than expected with iron shots and wedge approaches

-seemed to be every bit as far as the other ball I played today (B330)

I need to take a sharpie to one of these just for putting purposes. I figured no alignment aid may help me be a little more focused on feel but I felt lost without some sort of line

Some good stuff in here, playing a ball with no markings or anything and breaking it down makes reviewing a whole new ball of wax doesn't it? Its awesome.

I think I'll join in on Monday.