SEVEN THINGS WE LEARNED...

Mail order balls are every bit a match for the 1

market leader

Our numbers speak for themselves, and emphatically answer YES to the question: Can mail order balls really compete against the No.1 ball in golf? But we’d say this model only works for premium balls because the profit margin (when you’re not paying tour players to use them) is so good. It’s difficult to make the model work for say a two-piece ball which would need to sell for a similar cost as a well-known ball, but isn’t available in American Golf or pro shops across the country.

Ball fitting really should be a thing

2

Titleist will hate us for showing how differently our pro’s best fitting Titleist (Pro V1x) fared against the standard Pro V1. They’ll argue what’s the point, and what’s to be gained? Well, in this instance it illustrates brilliantly how important it is to get the right fitting ball, as giving up 22 yards off the tee is huge, especially if your decision is based on a bit more feel and workability. Admittedly, you can’t get fit for any mail order balls in our test, but through a process of trialling a “selected pack” which contains all the balls a brand produces at a lower cost, you can try your way to a perfect new ball.

Is it time to stop blindly playing the Titleist 3

Pro V1?

If you’ve blindly played the Titleist Pro V1 for years we couldn’t think of a better time to reassess if it’s still your best ball. The Pro V1 underwent some updates at the start of 2018 and Titleist said themselves that some players would now be better off switching between the 1 and 1x.

It’s got to be covered in urethane

4

If you absolutely swear your game demands a tour-level ball, then you have to make sure the cover is urethane. All the top brand’s tour balls are urethane covered and so was each of our mail order models. At this moment in time a urethane cover has got to be the absolute bare minimum for a ball to be considered a tour ball.

A Pepsi challenge on balls would throw up 5

interesting results!

We didn’t expect our test pro to admit to not really being able to feel the difference between our test balls. That’s how far the mail order competition has come. To be fair, he thought all the ‘X’ style balls felt similar, as did the slightly different feeling/ sounding standard balls. But he was adamant that if we were able to blindfold golfers for a proper “Pepsi challenge” – where participants can’t be swayed by brand perception and marketing – we’d end up with some very interesting results.

Go for the hardest ball you can tolerate

6

There are very few golfers who want to give up distance from the tee, and rightly so as it’s proven the further you’re down the fairway from the tee equals closer approaches. Our test pro reckoned if you want a rule of thumb for picking a ball in the tour-level category, go for the hardest ball you can tolerate. It means you won’t give up distance. Just remember, the longest driver ball isn’t always the longest iron ball, so a combination of both is a great idea.

You’d still want to put any new ball to the

7

golf course test

Our numbers are created within a controlled environment, so we can bring you data that’s not contaminated by wind, temperature or mishits. It means we can compare each ball accurately. The ultimate test, though, is taking any new ball to the course, and comparing it to your usual ball from every situation – including your wallet’s point of view!