Never can find a good golf ball review…

Nothing terribly technical been going down lately, but  I haven’t been idle.  Playing a lot of golf this year and finally brought my handi-cap down from 30 to 18

Thats about when you start noticing the little things.  Things like, there is a difference between my 6 and 7 irons.  One biggie that can be solved with a little $$ upfront is the type of ball you use.

With no review geared to the mid-high handi-cap geek golfer easily available, by buddy and I have been testing quite a few types of balls in the $15 - $28 /dozen range.  Any less is a range ball, any more and you’ll tear up when your shank is lost in the trees.

Given that, here are the balls we’ve tried so far, ranked from my favorite to poorest performance:
Callaway CX8 Hots ($25) - Triple core ball with Iomer cover.  Not sure what that means, but the marketing material on the package says it is “Hot off the clubface”.  And it definatly seems to be.  It does stretch the distance about 10% for all clubs, but it is really soft to hit.  By soft I mean it feels weird not to have much feedback on my driver to 6 irons.  But it is plush with 8 to wedges, a lot of control to where I can get the ball to ’stick’ to the green.  Gives me the chance to 2 putt a par.

Bridgestone E6 ($25) - Another triple core ball like the Hot, has even better feel with the short irons.  The cover also can take a cart path or chopping wood without scuffing.  The drawback seems to be off the driver, woods, and hybrid.  No tactile feedback and seems to come up short.  Might have just been the two rounds I shot with these balls, but just didn’t seem to have that pop the Hots did.

Callaway Warbirds ($16) - My old favorite ball, but they are getting phased out I hear.  So you can find them on sale for < $10 some places.  This ball is the baseline for my driving (~250 - 270).  Just seems to do the job everywhere, and it won’t break the bank to come up short and hit the water.

Noodle Long and Soft ($16) - This is my go-to ball if I am running low.  Proshops stock this ball and don’t seem to mark them up as bad as the others.  These are on-par with the Warbirds, but the name is much cooler

Nike Powerdistance, Power Control, etc.. ($15) - Other than the package color, I can’t feel any difference between them.  They seem to want to be placed in the Noodle/Warbird class, but just not there for me.  Not a bad ball, and if I have a bad day I’d rather drop one of these than the above.

Nike Juice (aka Ginormous) ($21) - I really wanted to like this ball.  The packaging is funny as hell, and the ball numbers are all Ginormous^2 or Ginormous^4, etc..  But the ball is as hard as a rock.  I use this ball to validate my spending time writing/talking about golf balls.  You putt a Hot or E6 then imediatly putt a Juice, and anyone will feel the difference.  The plus for this ball is off the driver.  When hit well, it is rediculous the feel and distance you get off it.  This is the only ball I’ve broken 300 yards with.  But is not enough for me to want to play with it.

Wilson Hyper-Ti Performance ($9) -  Nice packaging, and with that many adjatives it must be good.  I bought 4 boxes at a 2 for $10 deal.  What I got is a bunch of range balls.  They hit poorly, and the sound they make off the club some how sounds… sick.  As in, diseased.  The upside is that if you can’t hit over water, or trying out that driver next to ravine, this is the ball to reach for.  Belive me, you’ll be glad you lost it.

There has been other balls I’ve tested that I’m still deciding on.  Nike Mojo’s, Pinacle XT, Titliest NXT, and Nike NX’s are in my bag now.  But after finding the Hots and a deal on cheap logo overruns, I can’t say I’m looking that hard now.

Well, better get back to this computer stuff now.