How confident are golf ball companies really???

Titelist boasts that they are the number 1 ball in golf. Well if you pay people to use your equipment they will. Same way TaylorMade claims to have the number 1 driver on tour. What I would like to know is has there ever been a true blind test on golf balls. lets say there was 100 pros and 100 amateurs capped from 1-25. now they all got to hit a bunch of blank balls with just a single number on them 1,2,3 you get the picture. Would people be able to tell which one is a pro v1 or bridgestone b330 rx or Taylormade tour preferred or nike. and so on and so on with all the tour level balls? same goes with the premium balls. sure some can tell the difference between a prov and an e6 or even a nxt but could a human really know the difference and if so would they have to be closer to a pro or scratch golfer?

Any thoughts would be great on this or if someone has tried this by blacking out the name brand I would love to know what results came of this.

Would these companies be willing to do a true blind test. where each type of ball had its own specific number and pros and amateurs alike could decide with what they really liked and why.

there are test results like http://www.golfdigest.com/images/equipment/2014-05/eqsl32-hot-list-ball-spin-rate-chart.jpg   and site like http://www.golfballtest.org/

I've seen those tests and I understand that certain balls preform differently then others but what makes pro v1 better then b330 or tour preferred or rzn black? when looking at the charts there is so many balls clumped together. Does pro v1 have a "better" feel or "better" in game results then hex chrome or what ever the ball may be. Can a human actually tell the difference if they didn't see the name brand on the ball?

On that chart look how close the b330s pro v1 pro v1x and maxfli u/6 are. Yet how often does maxfli come up in so called great golf ball conversations?

There are no "better" golf balls. They're just different. And even the differences are often exaggerated.

Thats why I started this thread. I personally couldn't tell what makes a ball so great. I just know what I like or what feels nice when I hit it. but I've read so many posts or listened to people say that a pro v1 is the best ball on the market. I'm lead to believe that these people are a product of advertising. I really liked the e6 but I also played other balls that may have felt softer or spun more or anything like that but to say the e6 is the best ball is crazy. I've played pro v1 and pro v1x I don't know what the hype is about but thats just me, I'm not a good golfer and maybe it is noticeable at the next level but could it be noticeable against another tour ball? I don't think so.

I guess thats why I can't figure out what makes pro v1 the number 1 ball in golf and why so many people boast that it is the best ball in golf.

Seems like.. What they say: _______ is the #1 in golf. What they mean: ______ is the most used by elite players in pro and major amateur events, far above the nearest competition. For example: Seriously, look at those numbers.... It's stunning AND factual, so they certainly use it to market to average people.

What they don't say ... "We have a big stable of Touring Pros and Pay them a LOT of money to play our ball .... wanna' know why the price is so high? No need to guess -- marketing."

And let's face it, TItleist makes an excellent Tour Ball and had a head start on most people now in the market ... TM, Nike, and Callaway did not begin making balls until the late '90's.

I play TM Project (a), Callaway SR Balls, and when I can find a good deal or someone gives them to me, a Titleist Pro V1 ball.

I agree. It all comes down to preferences. I prefer prov1's to all other ball, but it's not like the others are crap. When you get this high up in golf manufacturing, I feel all the clubs and balls are very similar.

Titlelist must be doing a great job because at my club and at all the other private clubs that I play at the vast majority play Pro Vs. They have been head and shoulders above all the others for 14 years since their introduction in 2000. I am not commenting on whether they are substantially better in actual performance but rather I am amazed no other brand has come close in 14 years. Look at the product life cycle of other manufactures' balls.

And if you tee it up in any big tournament like a USGA Am, state championship etc... They all play ProV1.... period. So rare to see a player with anything other than a Titleist.

Pro V1s are my favorite ball. The distance is as good as any and better than most from what I can tell. They "feel" good when I hit them and I get the amount of spin that suits me.

I also play with many other golf balls that I find on the course (and I find a lot because I work there). If there is a difference in my scores between when I am using a Pro V1 and most other decent balls it's so small that I would have to do a very long study for it to become apparent.

BTW. In a partial round of 15 holes last week I played my best golf of the year including making birdies on the first 3 holes. I was using an NXT that I had picked up that day while mowing.

MS256: "Pro V1s are my favorite ball" You can stop there.. Lol!

Thank you Mr desmond and golfbarefoot. I agree with both of you. Yes i too believe pro v1 is a great ball, so is the srs from callaway and b330 series and so on and so on. This is why i'm curious to know if we took 100 pros and 100 amateurs had them say what they thought was the best ball or what ball they thought preformed best for them and then gave them a bunch of blank tour balls if they would still say the same thing.

example player 1 says his "best" ball is b330 player 2 says his is pro v1x after they hit a bunch of blank balls player 1 and 2 both say that balls marked "6" was what they found to be their "best" ball. turns out balls marked 6 is Callaway sr2.

See I believe if all tour balls were blank and 100 pros hit them all they would have differences in opinions just because everyone has preference to what they like. And if none of them were paid to play a ball what ball would actually lead the tour as most popular, not best but most popular. The same goes with TaylorMade and their drivers.

Titleist does a very well with teenagers. When I was in high school (graduated in 2010) everyone had a Scotty and a few Vokeys. That's kinda OT though.

This year, 2014, at least 2 of the major tournaments were won by a guy playing a Nike ball.  So that fact speaks volumes.

That is an honest answer that most people don't give. It is your favourite ball. not cause its the best ball. and playing rounds with other balls also have similar results. Thank you MS256 for the post.

Haha! Just play a different ball man! It's that simple. It's your money. Enjoy! It's like your trying to justify NOT playing Pro V1.. Lol!