2019 MGS Ball Test

[iacas]

2019 Golf Ball Buyer's Guide

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This is the most impactful test we have ever published. Over the past 10 years, MyGolfSpy has conducted hundreds of tests, and published thousands of articles

You can use the Tableau table directly here if you wish:

MyGolfSpy 2019 Most Wanted Ball Test - TABLES

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MyGolfSpy 2019 Most Wanted Ball Test - TABLES

I like the tables more than the graphs because the graphs make things appear farther apart than they are, because the scale and range of the axes.

Anyway, Callaway doesn't come off very well here.

Also, within the text, they say some things that I've been saying for years based on what I had learned from ball engineers:

• Firmer balls = faster balls
• You don't have to "compress the core"
• Performance is pretty linear - a fast ball at 115 MPH is a fast ball at 85 MPH
• Amateurs over-value "soft feel" and it may be costing them distance.

I still think I prefer the MTB Black over the MTB-X because I prefer not to have too much green side spin, but my daughter will likely enjoy the change from the MTB Red to the MTB-X when she runs out of Reds. 🙂

[criley4way]

They also raised the idea that ball fitting was the next big thing. Nothing will have as broad an effect on your game as the ball. It will be interesting to see if personalized balls become a thing for the high end market. I currently play the ProV1x which seems to be a good fit but I wonder if I am adapting to the ball of fitting the ball to me?

[dennyjones]

The data is nice to see.   Thanks for sharing.   It is interesting to see the difference when you change the club head speed.     At the slower speed I was comparing the Snell MTB Black and the Srixon Q Star Tour.   There isn't much difference.    At the higher club head speed, there is a difference.   Very interesting.  

[iacas]

Not a great chart here for the MTB-X, though.

17 minutes ago, criley4way said:

They also raised the idea that ball fitting was the next big thing. Nothing will have as broad an effect on your game as the ball. It will be interesting to see if personalized balls become a thing for the high end market. I currently play the ProV1x which seems to be a good fit but I wonder if I am adapting to the ball of fitting the ball to me?

Yeah, I still don't think ball fitting is that big of a deal. For many people, the balls perform pretty similarly. There's not a ton of room there, IMO. Maybe they're just suggesting that we fit everything else, so the last small percentage of "fitting" is going to be the ball.

[saevel25]

21 minutes ago, iacas said:

Not a great chart here for the MTB-X, though.

Since this is robot testing, that would be just consistency of product?

 

[iacas]

5 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Since this is robot testing, that would be just consistency of product?

Probably, yeah. But, yeah, it's not a great look.

And MGS glossed over it pretty well. While they don't accept advertising from the "big name" companies… they do from Snell. And so have we, here, at TST. But we didn't just gloss over a huge discrepancy like that in an article while touting our lack of bias, either.

Nor would we. I've upset sponsors in the past by giving an honest take on products.

[DeadMan]

42 minutes ago, criley4way said:

They also raised the idea that ball fitting was the next big thing. Nothing will have as broad an effect on your game as the ball.

When I looked at this data, I actually concluded that there isn't much difference between balls. Look at the difference in carry distance and spin between Titleist ProV1s, ProV1xs, the Bridgestone balls, and the Snell balls. They're virtually the same. Or at least close enough that most amateur golfers aren't going to notice a difference.

[iacas]

15 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

When I looked at this data, I actually concluded that there isn't much difference between balls. Look at the difference in carry distance and spin between Titleist ProV1s, ProV1xs, the Bridgestone balls, and the Snell balls. They're virtually the same. Or at least close enough that most amateur golfers aren't going to notice a difference.

Yep.

The charts make things look very separated, but that's what happens when you plot charts from (I'm making this up) "275 to 289 yards" instead of "0 to 290 yards" or something.

[Foot Wedge]

21 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

When I looked at this data, I actually concluded that there isn't much difference between balls. Look at the difference in carry distance and spin between Titleist ProV1s, ProV1xs, the Bridgestone balls, and the Snell balls. They're virtually the same. Or at least close enough that most amateur golfers aren't going to notice a difference.

I noticed this too.  Having recently bought 4 dozen of the 3 piece Kirklands ,the discrepancy in the charts caught my eye until I took a look at the y axis.  I think the differences ended up being 2-3 MPH as far as ball speeds went, not to mention I am smack dab in the middle of the 2 swing speed charts, so their data sets don't even correlate to me directly.  Anyways I'm looking at this thinking that ball speed difference pales in comparison to the impacts on ball speeds that quality of strike has, which at my skill level is quite a bit.  The Kirkland spins enough greenside for my needs, so I'm not going to worry about it until I am flushing it at, quite literally, a robotic level of consistency. 

[jshots]

20 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

When I looked at this data, I actually concluded that there isn't much difference between balls. Look at the difference in carry distance and spin between Titleist ProV1s, ProV1xs, the Bridgestone balls, and the Snell balls. They're virtually the same. Or at least close enough that most amateur golfers aren't going to notice a difference.

 

4 minutes ago, iacas said:

Yep.

The charts make things look very separated, but that's what happens when you plot charts from (I'm making this up) "275 to 289 yards" instead of "0 to 290 yards" or something.

 

That was my thought too for the most part minus the driver carry distance chart which seems pretty significant. My current ball, Vice Pro Plus, comes in 13 yards shorter than the MTB-x, thats a whole club shorter approach!

I think that is enough that I will at least give them a try.

[DeadMan]

2 minutes ago, jshots said:

That was my thought too for the most part minus the driver carry distance chart which seems pretty significant. My current ball, Vice Pro Plus, comes in 13 yards shorter than the MTB-x, thats a whole club shorter approach!

I think that is enough that I will at least give them a try.

Yeah, this is lost in what I was saying because I was really only looking at a few balls. There does appear to be tiers of golf balls, but the difference in performance among those tiers isn't that big. I was a little surprised that some balls (like the Callaway balls) didn't end up in the high end.

[NM Golf]

Thanks for sharing, really good read. I emailed the link to that article to a bunch of guys I play with. Interesting to see the Srixon ball perform so well, I think I will have to give them another try as I can get them cheap.

[Grass Destruction]

Very interesting data indeed! I've been playing Chrome Soft since the middle of last summer. But I see the Oncore Elixr scored fairly well and I just happen to have received a free sleeve. I'll definitely give them a try now. 

[iacas]

I’ve read today MGS has a beef with Callaway for awhile now.

Also I wonder how many hits they measured with each ball. Those are important numbers.

[Carl3]

On 4/30/2019 at 10:05 AM, iacas said:

The charts make things look very separated, but that's what happens when you plot charts from (I'm making this up) "275 to 289 yards" instead of "0 to 290 yards" or something.

What about shot area? 128 on the low end vs 2,180 on the high end. I wonder of that is in square feet.12 yards off line vs less than a yard. All from a robot.

[Intruder1800]

So we've all been suckered into believing the marketing hype, basing our buying choices on said hype. I too fell for the low compression, more feel but same distance hype but I should have known, you can't kick a soft football as far as a firm one, doh.

[iacas]

Not all of us…

[JxQx]

The data is pretty interesting but doesn't surprise me all that much tbh. I noticed very little difference between all the golf balls I've tried. The only one I had a visible/measurable change with was the Titleist AVX (Which launched lower and spun less), I gained about 5-10 yards per club.

Edit: I found that MGS did a podcast about the testing and findings.

 

Edited May 2, 2019 by JxQx
Added video