One of biggest struggles for the majority of golfers out there is alignment, and there are a plethora of different ways to work on improving that aspect of one’s game. A new take on providing a simple and straight forward practice tool to improve alignment is the “Sight Ball” and THP got to take a look at the product.
What is the “Sight Ball”?
Sight Ball is a golf ball training aid that is meant to be used on the golf course. The design allows you to use this aid for driving, putting and your short game. Practicing with this method on the golf course will help you gain a new perspective, or muscle memory toward hitting your favorite brand of ball during tournament time!
The Sight Ball Mission is to help you practice and improve while you are on the course. While practicing on the driving range is beneficial, it all comes down to what you do on the golf course. Sight Ball is determined to help you gain a new perspective toward hitting your ball choice and improve your game while practicing!
- Sight Ball’s unique design helps you improve your Focus, Accuracy, Stance, and Training to become a F.A.S.T. golfer on the course.
o Focus: Having a sharp focus on your ball is key. Before swinging, get a good look at the Sight staring back at your eyes to get a better focus and keep your head down!
o Accuracy: Everyone wants to hit their ball accurately. By pointing the front Sight toward your hitting direction you will be able to actually aim your ball on the course and get a straighter shot!
o Stance: With each club comes a different stance position to the ball. When taking your stance, be sure to check to see where the Sight pointing at your feet is facing in order to get a great stance position!
o Training: Training with Sight Ball helps you gain a new perspective toward hitting your favorite brand of ball on the course. After training, go out with your favorite brand of ball and try to apply the Focus, Accuracy, and Stance perspective you used with Sight Ball to your ball!
Using “Sight Ball”:
As described in the information from the company above, putting the Sight Ball into use is pretty straight forward. The golf balls have red “scope sights” on all sides and they serve to aid in alignment training in order to help increase overall accuracy. It really is as simple as using the sights to point towards your target line, then aligning the face to match that angle, and then the stance off of that.
Although the Sight Ball is intended by the company to be used throughout the entire set of clubs (woods, irons, wedges, putter), time spent with them really showed the most effectiveness for this reviewer came in the smaller swings with nearer targets like putting and chipping. As the ball gets further away and forward due to setup changes as clubs elongate, ensuring proper ball alignment became a bit more difficult; not impossible, but more difficult. It’s good to keep in mind though that you don’t have to only align the sights down the line toward the target. It can be manipulated as needed or preferred for practice.
Additionally, these are in fact real golf balls, though they are more akin to a range ball in terms of design. So, although the company mentions physically getting them out and about on the course to help ingrain the benefits of the sights for alignment, they are not going to perform like the high-end golf balls that many amateurs are using. The balls did however show decent durability in terms of the sight markings not getting worn down after repeated swings. Still, as quality is concerned it is likely safest to focus on chipping/pitching and putting with them.
As the tons of golfers out there who use lines on their golf-balls know, alignment aids work, and this is simply a unique take on alignment and it definitely can be effective. The question though for many will be how is it different than marking up their own balls with one of the different marking stencils out there to emulate something similar, and frankly that will be a personal preference type of answer. In all however, it is definitely an interesting product and it’s always nice to see companies thinking outside of the box to try and help people improve their games.
The “Sight Balls” are available in a half-dozen ($14.95) as well as a range bucket full ($69.95) and can be found directly on their website at www.sightballs.com.
Great review James, interesting that you see the most benefit in the shorter shots area of the game as that is the area most golfers improvement would have the greatest effect on their game and scores. Sounds like a solid investment for short game practice.
Interesting product and nice review James. To me it looks better than the Callaway Truvis but the fact that it’s just a range ball with a high price tag may keep me away from them
Nice job James. Interesting product but not sure I want to give up playing a good ball for a range ball just to get some alignment help.
Interesting product. Glad to hear that the durability is there for those that would benefit from them that don’t need/want a higher performing ball from a spin/feel perspective.
I think for a mid-capper that already has the type of ball they prefer I wonder what purpose this will really serve as it’s impossible not to think that the golfer would become dependent on the sight lines assuming they worked for them. Well as soon as they transition to their gamer ball I fail to see how this would really help as I truly believe I would want to see this while I play.
Well done James. Actually the F.A.S.T. approach to practice is as interesting to me as the ball. Anything that improves one’s concentration during practice has to be beneficial.
Very interesting and great review. These balls are way too busy for me though. I like as little distractions as possible on the ball.
Very complete review of a product I do not think I would use. I see this working on putts only and maybe off the tee. The other claims seem far fetched to me.
Thanks for the well written review James. JMHO, but I see these as just another entry in the long line of golf gimmicks that will help very few and profit from quite a few.
Adding a pattern to enhance contrast and depth perception is a good idea. I also like the idea of lines for alignment. But this design is just OK as far as I am concerned and I don’t see the point of having it on a poor quality ball.
I tried the Chrome Soft Truvis last week. The pattern does what it is supposed to and I enjoyed using it for my short game. It is a good ball for full shots, but is not as visible as the yellow balls I normally use. The guy who developed the Truvis pattern sold it on Srixon Z-Star balls. I don’t know if he will continue selling those now that Callaway has put it on one of their balls.
Solid review James with some good information.
I can see how these would be beneficial with someone trying to engrain a swing path and focusing on the target to make sure they are not coming OTT during the down swing. I don’t see this as being something to use long term, but it’s a great teaching aide to help drive home some swing fixes. I also see this as something to train with every once in a while to make sure bad habits haven’t creeped in.
Great review James! I really like the marks on the ball and thinking about picking some up for my practice net.
This is a completely inaccurate and misleading review. The balls are rocks, which fine, you’re going to use the sight markings for putting and chipping, not full swings. The markings do NOT last very long. I have the balls and proof of the poor quality.
Additionally, the markings might somewhat help you concentrate during your putting stroke, but because the balls are of such inferior quality, you don’t get a true representation of your stroke. They don’t roll true and the feeling off the face of the putter is atrocious.
If you’re looking for this type of gimmick, at least pick something up with a legitimate ball behind it like the Callaway Truvis.
It is shameful to present this product as a legitimate training aid.
Charles, sorry to hear you had such a rough time with them. As I mentioned in the spotlight, they are not a high quality ball, that was acknowledged. In a significant amount of range and practice time spent with them, there were no issues with roll and the markings did last, even in significant chipping and pitching time.
It will definitely be a hit/miss product with people, but that is the nice thing about options, we have the option to try and use something, and the option not to.
James,
I apologize for commenting so late. I saw the review and have been meaning to say thank you for such a great write up on my product. As the founder of the company it makes me happy to see others see and use the Sight Ball Method and hear back from them. I am currently working on getting the method on higher quality balls for golfers to train with. I appreciate you taking the time to use my product and give a review for others to see. Feel free to contact me anytime or share Sight Ball with other fellow golfers. Thank you.
Harry Briggs