I’m interested to see you do a similar test with some 2 piece balls. Titleist TruFeel, Taylormade Distance+, Callaway Supersoft, etc. These balls are less expensive so potentially used by a larger amount of people. Then compare to the 3 piece balls.
@@TheGolfNerdUnderstandable. If you’re aiming for views, you may be better off going with 2 piece balls simply because a larger amount of people will be using those balls. Also be interesting to see a low compression vs medium compression vs high compression 2 piece balls regarding spin, distance, etc. Woukd be interesting to see if the swing speed and ball compression stuff is true. Is it obvious yet that I play a 2 piece ball? Haha Either way I enjoyed this video and appreciate you putting out this content.
@@randomguy32150 you’ve given me something to think about for sure. Glad you enjoyed it, and that’s what views means to me by the way, people like it. Thanks for reaching out.
Just buy the 48 pack of Maxfli Tours with the $20 off coupon that Dick's offers a few times per year. You get 48 balls for $96 which is what you pay for the "cheaper" balls. Also, it's nowhere near as firm as the TP5-X. It's closer to a TP5 or ProV1. I can't play the TP5-X or ProV1X because they don't launch as high and spin too much for me.
My plan is to convert my entire league into playing the Kirkland ball. I do that by losing them all over the course for others to find. At a buck a ball, I dont spend much time looking for it.
The only way I would say one ball is more forgiving than another would be in relation to the backspin it provides. The higher the back spin the more stable the flight, and vice versa. The two highest spinning balls were the Pro V1 and the Kirkland. Given this, I’d suggest these two would be good options. Hope this helps!!
It’s not the color of the ball that makes it perform less it’s the type of cover. The matte colors don’t fly anywhere near as good as the the “glossy” covers
@@TheGolfNerd I’ve tested the theory with a few balls and I believe it. The yellow kirklands are good balls, no difference in those or the whites. It’s when they change the cover from urethane to matte, they get less aerodynamic somehow
I switched to the Legato LTX3085 it’s low compression and 3 piece and good for under 100 mph swings, but performs and feels like a ProV1. $30 on EBAY. Knocked two strokes off my game but didn’t bust the wallet
I don’t usually have golf balls for more than a few holes before losing them. However, I tend to play 2 balls per hole which is good for comparison. For me Srixon AD333 goes so far, beat a Callaway power drive by about 30 yards. Smoked both. The Calloway was great for approaching shots and chips around the green. Kirkland was good off the tee but surprisingly I lost some distance on approach shots. Either that or had some crazy back spin? Not very scientific from me but I’m enjoying comparing shots and balls to see what combination suits me best. Will work up to better balls when my game improves. Would hurt donating multiple pro vs to the bushes at this moment in time. Calloway supersoft and Srixon AD333 have been decent so far for me as a high handicapper.
My favorite balls to find on the course… I had an all orange Pro Plus… losing that ball was a painful day… found it on the 1st hole and ended up losing it on 17 on a very good drive that must have caught a fescue mound… buying a dozen now
I have no idea how you're getting the Snell with 9 and 11mph less ball speed in your tests. There is now way that is accurate. I just tested out the new Prime 4.0 alongside the new Wilson Staff Model X. I played the Chrome Soft X most of last year. The Snell Prime 4.0 is every bit as long as both other balls I listed. I find it unbelievable that Dean Snell would release a ball lagging that far behinds the others. Something is off with you test.
Human testing is what it is, but I do try to present data that accurately reflects the performance that I see. Having said that, all of the balls that you just mentioned are higher compression 4 piece balls. Everyone who has used the 4.0 Snell has said it performs great, I wish the 3.0 had as well because I really wanted to see it perform well.
The Cut and ProV1 are hard to tell apart. The big difference is the Cut doesn’t advertise, sponsor or endorse and sells factory direct. They cost $19.95/dozen. Seventy percent of the ProV1 goes to advertising, sponsorships and endorsements. ProV1 is marked up 50% at the pro shop. They cost $55/dozen. The balls are impossible for the average player to differentiate.
The Cut offers very good value but I have to stop short of saying I couldn’t see a difference with a Pro V1. It’s similar especially for the price point, but the Pro V1 does edge it out in my testing.
@@TheGolfNerd haven’t hit the Snell or Cut I would say for me the Kirkland is WAY too high spinning throughout the bag but that could be good for the right golfer that could use more spin - I have a suspicion that the txg and Kirkland are if not identical very close to the same ball
Thanks for the feedback! Glad to hear that you have had similar experiences with the Maxfli. It’s always a relief to have some validation with my data!
I must admit, I tried every ball I could get my hands on to see if I could find a ball without the absurd Titleist price point that still played great. I have not tried the Maxfli...but, I did try the Oncore and found, for me anyway, it was easily the equal of Titleist at a reasonable price. If you haven't, give it a try.
Pro V1 is NOT the king of golf balls any longer. In fact it hasn't been for several years. There are MANY balls on the market that are equal and better. You all know know it! The Vice Pro, Callaway Chrome Soft are two that surpass it.....
I would never play a Kirkland ball. They are inconsistent ball for ball which changes the playing characteristics and why they are so cheap vs other higher pricec balls. The reason why Titleist, Taylormade and other top brands are so popular with better players is the consistency ball for ball and why the price is higher. It the quality and control. Srixon Q star had issues of the cores being different and out of round. I would play a Top flight ball over the Kirkland any time.
Top Flite over Kirkland??? I mean, folks are free to make whatever decision they care to make, but I’ve never seen anything from a Kirkland that made me believe it was a vastly inferior product. Either way, please play whatever ball that you like!!
If I remember My Golf Spy did not like the Kirkland and has stated that every year it continues to get worse and shorter. I believe it also had consistency issues from ball to ball.
I think you’re right. I’ve never experienced anything that made me think the Kirkland quality was affecting my game, but I’m sure there are trade offs considering the price point. I do think this latest version is an improvement on their prior 3 pc versions though, so I may not agree with the idea that the ball is getting worse over time.
Wilson triad is my current favorite. Performs almost identical to the pro v1 and Staff. Just slightly softer around the green and $20 cheaper than the other 2
@@gcoffey223 the Triad is quite unforgiving on mishits and reading the Wilson blurb it isn't for beginners. I play the ball as it's very straight and good at everything, except forgiveness on poor iron strikes!!
I'll take my TP5 over my brothers Pro V any day. I don't need a golf ball to back up 15 feet when I hit the green with a wedge. I just need it to stop.
@@TheGolfNerd Thanks for the reply. I must admit I am also trying to use RU-vid to prove my ball is better than the older brother (who is still a better golfer in our 50's). He's in my head. Mental game is the hardest part for me. I know great players can play with any ball. I just try to maximize the limited skillset. Solid review.
Appreciate the feedback…would have loved to see the numbers in a chart. I love the Maxfli Tour. Where it falls short is cover durability. Sure you save money at retail, but the balls get scuffed up after a couple rounds compared to the Pro V1. I experienced even worse cover durability issues w/ the Snell MTB X barely got thru a full round. The Snell and Maxfli for me have been relegated to casual rounds, and I’ll pull out the Pro V1x during competition.
I've played all 3 Maxfli balls & the cover is literally one of the best in the game. In fact I just played 33 holes before I had to too a Maxfli TOUR S in the trash. I also hit them in my sim & it's the only brand that's never split.
I've been trying out different balls over the past year. I was very pleased with the Cut Grey. The yellow Kirklands are great, but not that durable...at just over a dollar a ball I can't complain. The TP5's were really good, but pricier than the other two. I usually game the Callaway matte green Super Soft balls, but they don't have much checking around the green. I'm also kind of liking the Seed Country Mile balls. Finding the perfect ball (for me) is a never ending search. I still lose a ball or two every couple of rounds and I just can't see the value in the Pro V1's, again, for me, maybe as I get better. I'm currently about a 20 hcp. Some 25 years ago when played a few times per week, I was between 10 and 15. Thanks for the review!
Every round I find Vice Pro and Pro Plus balls are a very good day. I might even actually spend $$ on them. {I win all my ProV1’s during a couple annual golf tournaments for charity}
I do enjoy your videos, very concise and to the point. I'm a Maxfli Tour / Vice Pro fanboy. I always have a double dozen Kirklands for one of the courses I play that has water in play on 15 o 18 holes! LOL. Vice has updated the Pro and Tour balls for 2024 but I haven't played them yet as I still have 5 dozen from last year and 3-4 Maxfli Tour. Anymore ball purchases and I'll be sleeping on the couch with them. The Cut Grey sounds very interesting to me though. Better get the blankets ready. Got my first Hole In One last week with the Maxfli Tour! And yes, they do lack a bit on greenside spin
Great comment!! Seems like our results and experiences align pretty well as I found the Vice Pro very good last year. The Cut Grey comes up a little short as compared to the Vice Pro, at least in my testing.
The amazing part is just how long they have maintained that dominance. In business these days it just doesn’t seem like brands can pull it off for as long as they have. All respect here for Titleist.
Thanks, great review. I'm a slow-swing speed 18-20 handicapper who's been playing those softer 2-piece balls, but I've decided to move up to a 3-piece. I've started out with the Maxfli Tour. Dick's multi-box discounts bring the price down to around $30 a box which is good value. I'm interested in Kirkland but I'm not a Cosco member.
I have tried many different balls and one observation is that there are very few ones which are consistent in all aspects like ball flight, spin, greenside control etc and in this regard Prov1 is the best!
Love that. I used to really like the 55 elite?, not sure I’ve got that right. Nothing but love here for Wilson. In the golfing world, I think it’s well established Wilson makes great products that are very competitively priced. I’ll have to check out the zip!?
I think a better way to think of this is +/- 250 revs. Then it’s like 2250 +/- 250 revs which most golfers cannot hit consistently. That’s why I mention that strike can overcome the difference. But as I say, if you want a ball that trends lower, pick the Maxfli.
Snell is the only one to come close. Kirklands are TOTAL Garbage. See there’s a REASON every single RU-vid video on golf balls say ProV-1 killer? Because the STANDARD has been set. PERIOD. I know they are expensive. But there’s a reason.
No offense I would say good video if you showed the numbers from any swing radar. But you are saying all this without showing any data to us. Because like you said this is human testing and swing/club data can play a way bigger factor than just the final ball data.
No offense taken. When making videos it’s often a balance of what do you want to show versus how long will the video be. I decided not to get into numbers, show swings etc, because I can summarize the data in such a way that the viewer gets what they want in a relatively short video. As far as the data is concerned, I collected multiple shots across multiple sessions. I eliminated any shots that were statistical anomalies. This way I could share the results that I was most confident in. This kind of video takes a while to make given all the data, shots, analysis and finally comes making the video.
@@TheGolfNerd i get not wanting to make the video to long but almost the entire video is just a selfie of you talking. you can make the selfie video smaller or overlay the average of the shots you are talking about so people can look at it. less about seeing the swings more on validation of data. cant trust everything you see online if they don't show the testing to back it up. not saying you're lying.
It’s cool. I get your point, just a different way of approaching the same problem. I appreciate the honest feedback! Most folks can’t provide feedback without being jerks, and it’s nice to get feedback from someone who’s just sharing their viewpoint. Have a great season!!
Snell has just come out with the (I believe) the first 4 piece ball. My experience on the short game back spin is very positive and I jave to ask why that ball, as the premium Snell ball wasn't considered. Perhaps just a comment if you added your point of view on that ball. Thanks - good review .
I just wrote out a response and deleted it because I completely misunderstood the question the first time I wrote it. I wanted to compare all 3pc balls, and when I went to their website, of the 3pc options, they recommended the 3.0 for my swing speed. I think it might have performed better had I used the next level up, because the snell struggled with ball speed. Which is ironic because my golf spy said after their first large ball comparison that the hardest balls are the fastest, and this result kind of suggests the same thing. Thanks for the question! Please let me know if I didn’t answer what you were looking for.
I just did a search on the My Golf Spy review. The newer Kirkland got a score of 45/100 (very poor) and they say had inconsistency issues in almost every category. Compression was all over the place, weight was off on many balls and several other issues. The only positive they had was that it was cheap. I think there were golf balls retrieved from the Titanic that had a higher score than a 45 out of 100.
This hasn’t been my experience and certainly didn’t show up in this way during my testing, this year or last but golfers should certainly choose what they are comfortable with!
@@TheGolfNerd whats your SS? im sure you can keep them in play if you dont swing hard. i agree w MGS testing; my experience w kirkland vs tour balls w mid iron-woods is they dont play nearly as well (particularly in consistency with slightly off centre strikes) as tour balls (im 105-110 SS). on the green for chipping theyre very comparable to prov1s. but if the balance tends to be significantly off (tour brands seem to have better quality control-esp prov1), a ball that normally would be on fairway might find itself unplayable.
I get it. I’m not trying to prescribe to anyone that they should play Kirklands over other options, just being transparent that I do. I don’t have any financial entanglements for this, I just think being honest is a good strategy!
My ball speed is 165, 18hc, and I play Kirkland balls. I'm good for losing one or two balls every 18 holes, and I'm not up for paying $15 in balls after paying $45 in green fees... I switched from MaxFli StraightFli to Kirkland last season, and Kirkland check up so well, I don't mind the loss of distance. ProV1x are $54/dozen in my area, and I'm just not swallowing that price until I'm losing less than 2 balls per round...
@@vintageswiss9096 your main priority is cost, and if thats the case, kirklands are a smart buy. i lose less balls w Prov1 or similar than kirkland (low dbl digit HC), and i care more about consistent playing/improvement than cost. bc i also dont want to pay $7/ball when i lose 1-2/round, i usually play tour balls i find (lots of prov1, bc many ppl who play cant swing well enough not to lose them) unless they are exotic like BXS or left dash which im happy to pay for when retail details pop up. my SS (like yours) is high enough to mean that even small deviations in quality can mean large results in dispersion, like how small bumps in road or small tweaks of steering wheel can have drastic effects on a car going more than 200km/h (when it wouldnt make much of a difference going 100)
The Kirkland ball was rated 45/100 by testing. Plus,vthe quality of the ball and consistency ball to ball was equally poor compared to a Prov1 and other balls. I would never play nor recommend the Kirkland ball or anything Kirkland. I will stick to the Titleist ball. However if I had choose between the Kirkland and the Top Flight ball, I would take Top Flight.
No Callaway, no Vice, no Srixon, no Taylormade, no Bridgestone. This just some guys opinion. No serious golfer plays a Kirkland. They are range balls without the stripe. They are the ball of choice for the weekend hacker who doesn't count strokes.
I featured Vice in last year’s video. It faired well. I also featured TP5x in last year’s video. I wanted to focus on just 3 pc balls and preferably on budget options for those looking for a less expensive option. I’ve learned after a couple years that I can’t please everyone, but I also completely respect differing opinions. Hope you have a great season!
