Ball Selection Process, 2010

[rebby]

For the first year in as long as I can remember, I played something other than a Titleist last year. Last year's ball selection process (I never did post my conclusions in the thread last year) resulted in me primarily gaming a Bridgestone B330-S. The B330-S is a great ball and I have no qualms about playing it again this year but, quite honestly, there are a LOT of really good golf balls out there today. Far more than there used to be. With that in mind, ball selection process version 2010 begins pretty much where I left off last year.

This year I'll be testing a number of balls using the B330-S and the B330 as my baseline. I really like the B330-S, about the only complaints that I have about it include;

• Performance in the wind - On windy days I strongly preferred the lower spinning B330, especially off the tee. I would like to play a ball this year that was lower spinning off of the tee to avoid having to bag 2 balls. This might be asking for a bit much though since I strongly prefer a soft, high spinning, golf ball off of my irons and wedges.
• Feel - I really like a soft feeling golf ball. Although the B330-S is not a hard ball by any level of measurement, I wouldn't mind a softer feeling ball (especially off the flatstick).

With my list of complaints being so nitpicky, I wouldn't mind sticking w/the B330-S/B330 for this year. I have to at least try a few others though, right?

This year I'll be testing the following golf balls;

• Bridgestone B330-S/B330 - My current gamer, I'll use this ball as my "baseline".
• Srixon Z-Star - I probably should have included this ball last year. I've heard a lot of great things about it and felt that it was worth giving a try.
• Nike One Tour - Although traditionally somewhat of an "anti-Nike" person, I got 4 dozen of these for about $11/dozen a few weeks ago. I bought them mainly for practice and they impressed me enough that I'll set the bias aside and give them a fair shot at making my bag.
• TaylorMade Penta TP - Like Nike, I really don't like TM gear, never have. However, I'm really impressed w/this golf ball so I'm going to take a much closer look at it.
• Callaway Tour i(s)/i(z) - I liked the Tour i enough that I'd like to check out the new iterations.

Chance are that you noticed that I won't be testing the Callaway Tour i/ix or Titleist Pro v1/v1x. This is by design, I gave these a good hard look last spring and selected the B330-S instead. There are enough golf balls out there that I won't be repeating my ball test with these, my time is better spent looking at the new offerings and comparing them to my established baseline.

Unlike my 2009 test, I'm going to concentrate more on course performance this year. There are enough shots that I need to make on a consistent basis that I'm going to focus on them and judge accordingly. Furthermore, at this time of the year it's pretty easy to play a number of shots on a single hole without causing any problems on the course. This, I feel, will give me a much more realistic testing medium than hitting balls in an empty field did. I'll also be hitting a great deal more wedge shots than I have in years past. I won't be judging balls on any type of pass/fail or letter grade criteria either. Instead I'm simply going to rank them in order and take notes about what I like/dislike about each ball as I try them out. In the end, these are all great premium balls that should perform well.

[rebby]

Bridgestone B330-S

I really like this golf ball. It's been a great performer for me. It's a very good all around golf ball that works well the vast majority of the time. Performance does suffer a bit in high wind though. In high wind I do have difficultly with spin off of the tee (especially hitting into the wind) and usually fall back to the B330.

• Durability - This is a very durable ball. I make a pretty aggressive swing and play a lot of spin off my irons and wedges. Although I do tear up the cover a bit, I can easily get 18+ holes out of a new B330-S. In tournament/league play, I generally switch balls every 6-9 holes but, with this ball, I really don't need to.
• Off the tee - This is a great ball off the tee. It's plenty long and has a pretty good feel. This is a high spin ball however and hitting driver is no exception to this. As I said before, due to the spin, I will play the B330 in windy conditions instead.
• Irons - This ball performs very well off the irons. The short irons and wedges are where it really shines. It's pretty easy to control the amount of spin and you can get away with hitting some very hot, aggressive, high spinning wedges into tucked pins. Due to the high spin of this ball, working the ball left/right is pretty easy as well. I like to hit an iron shot that comes into the green soft, takes a bounce and sits still, this is a great ball for playing those shots (even into hard greens).
• Around the green - Not a bad ball around the green. It's a tad firmer than I would prefer (not clickly, just firm) but still quite acceptable. It plays softer than it feels though (ie: as firm as it feels, I expect it to come out hotter than it does. Based on the feel, it's surprisingly responsive and spins well).

Overall it's a very good ball. I gamed it last year and would be very happy to game it again this year. As I stated above, this will be my "baseline" in comparison for the other balls.[/list]

[rebby]

TaylorMade Penta TP

This is a very good all around ball with one exception. I really had a difficult time with various pitch shots and half wedges. I love the feel, distance, and control. This ball is very hot off the wedges though. It carries further than I'm used to, launches higher, spins less and rolls out more.

• Durability - The cover on the Penta TP shreds a lot easier than the B330-S. It's apparent that the cover is softer and bites the club face a bit harder. After 9 holes the ball was pretty shredded and could have been delegated to the shag bag. After 18 holes, the cover was significantly ripped apart. The shredding of the cover did not seem to affect play much if at all.
• Off the tee - I really like this ball off the tee. Distance is definitely improved. I found that the ball was going roughly 5-10 yards further than the B330-S on a regular basis. Side spin was also reduced. This ball did launch higher than the B330-S though which led to some difficultly in the wind. Obviously, the winder the conditions, the more the ball was affected due to the higher launch. In calm conditions though, I loved the higher launch and lower spin from this ball.
• Irons - As I mentioned above, this ball is hot off of the irons. Distance is roughly similar to what I get with pretty much any other ball, maybe a yard or two further. Spin, compared to the B330-S, is quite a bit lower though. Even when pinching a full wedge tight the ball was rolling out much further than I'm used to. I come across my wedges and short irons pretty aggressively and am used to a ball stopping pretty quickly, this was not the case w/the Penta.
• Around the green - Again, hot off of my wedges. Doesn't spin a whole lot and worked quite a bit better for bump an run shots than trying to hit something with spin that's going to stop quickly. Short sided or hitting to pin that's below you proved to be difficult as I couldn't get the ball to check up and stop. Even after a week of gaming the Penta, I just couldn't adjust. Off the putter though, this is an AWESOME golf ball. Gave me that nice soft feel of the balata that I grew up playing. Not mushy, but a nice soft click that had a great feel.

I think that the Penta is a very good ball. I was really looking forward to gaming it all year after putting with it but the performance that I got off of my wedges and short irons are really a thorn in the side. As much as I love the ball off the driver, long irons and putter, performance with my wedges is most important. For that reason, the Penta will not make the cut for 2010.

Current Rank

1. B330-S
2. Penta TP

[Paz]

The B330-S is a fantastic ball. It's good to try new things but I imagine you won't be switching at the end of your trials.