Callaway HX Tour v Nike PowerDistance Soft Experiment

[pmcarync]

Thought I'd share with y'all a little experiment I did:

After stocking up on balls (HXTours of course) and gloves, had a little money left on my Dicks Gift Card, so picked up a doz Nike Power Distance Soft ($15); ever since I saw the Consumer Reports article last sping that gave that ball a "Best Buy" rating, and it scored 1 point in their ratings above the HXT56, I've been meaning to give them a try and see if they really are as good as CR made them out to be (btw, you can go to consumerreports.org and read the article..search for "golf balls").

Well, this past week I gave it a go. My home course was slow/open so I played two balls off the tee and started to keep track of the distance off the tee; although I'm no Iron Bryon, I figured doing so would eliminate at least some variables (wind, temp, roll, etc.) Also, I don't have a laser/range finder, so did my best walking off from sprinkler heads to determine the distance. Also, it's hard enough sometimes getting 1 ball in the fairway, let alone 2 in a row..well, on two holes, I had to hit a second ball of the same model to get two out there...and ended up with 5 holes that had the two different balls in the fairway (I eliminated ones in the rough as i figure the rough was too big a factor in roll distance). I also have a par 3 in the mix...surprisingly, i got both balls hit with the hyrbid onto the green (from the blue tees it's a 210 yd hole, so often use the hyrbid if the pin's in the back). So the results... HXT avg: 249.2, NikePDS avg: 244.3; if I discard the par3, HXT: 256.0, PDS: 249.8. So a 6+yd advantage to the HXT. Not a huge difference, but a difference. Oh, and of note, I actually hit the Nike 2yds longer on the Par3 so that skews the #'s; not once with the driver did the Nike ball go past the HXT.

Another couple of observations (I played/completed the remainder of the hole strictly with the Nike ball). It doesn't seem to hold the greens as well as I'm used to with the HXT..not sure if a spin thing only or not, but it was noticable esp on the holes where I'm used to a 60-70 wedge into the green and seeing the ball stop after the 2nd or 3rd bounce...didn't see that with the Nike balls. Noticed same with my mid-irons...our first par 3 is a 6 or 7 iron, and for the most part if I land it on the green, it stays within a yard or so of the ballmark; not with the Nike ball. On putting, I was very surprised..this ball did feel soft hitting the face of my putter...softer than the Nike One balls, and I was as comfortable with them than I am with the HXT's or T56's; but it did seem that the ball rolled a bit farther than the HXT's, but that's subjective...not being iron bryon I can't validate it.

All the above for what it's worth... it was sorta fun to play a round that way, even though it isn't that easy to put two balls off the tee into the fairway... and I might just use a regular rotation of Nike PDSoft balls in my bag, at 1/3 the price of the HXT's...

[Rusterson]

Uh...My head is spinning.