Ball Test / 2008

Another year, another miracle has occurred. We have finally completed our annual ball test. The logistics involved in getting ball companies to send the balls is always tenuous. We expanded the group of testers who played a round of golf with each ball in the test to 80 golfers. We felt this gives us a better base from which to evaluate each ball and offers more statistically sound ratings.

In the past year many new balls have been introduced. In this test we had 13 balls from 7 manufacturers. Once again we were not able to get Titleist to participate. We sent Titleist many emails and left several phone messages at their ball division and were promised a response but in the end no one from Titleist ever contacted us. We spoke with top management at Taylormade and they indicated they would participate but once again they backed out. We never got a return call from Callaway which is surprising because their balls did so well in last years test.

Ball Test Format
We asked each golfer to play one round with each ball and to be as fair and consistent as they could be in evaluating each of the balls. They promised to do their best and to put aside any preconceived biases they may have had regarding the balls in the test. We understand that golfers can have good days and bad days but we are confident that by having 80 golfers evaluate each ball that the final average results are a good indication of how each ball is perceived by golfers.

Here are the balls that were included in the test:

Bridgestone B330-S
Bridgestone e6+
Wilson Staff Fifty
Nike Karma
Wilson Staff ZIP
Nike One Black
Nike One Platinum
GolfAmerica Eagle Pro
Dixon EARTH
Nike Ignite
Innovex E-MOTION
Neutron Crystal
Bridgestone B330-RX

Following are some ratings; conclusions and observations GolfTest USA made using the results obtained from the test.

Distance: The BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-S and the BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-RX were rated as the best balls for distance.

Control: Again the BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-S and the BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-RX were the best in this category.

Accuracy: The best balls for accuracy were the Nike One Platinum , Nike One Black and the BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-RX.

Putting: The top putting honors go to the Innovex E-MOTION and the Wilson Staff ZIP.

Short Game: Best balls for your short game were the BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-RX and the Nike One Black.

Feel: The top rated balls for feel were the BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-RX, Nike One Black and the BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-S.

Appearance: The top rated ball in Appearance was the Chromax Neutron. The color of the ball in this test was yellow which may account for the high rating.

Durability: The Neutron Crystal also proved to be the "toughest".

Trajectory: The Bridgestone e6+ and the Nike One Platinum rated best for "Trajectory".

Overall: (This rating is not an accumulation or average of the other categories. We asked the testers to take into account everything they look for and feel is important to them in a ball and give an overall rating.)

Overall, the BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-RX rated the best at 8.5 which we believe is the first time a ball has received that high of a rating. It was very obvious that Bridgestone has a real winner with the Tour B330-RX.

We want to make a special mention regarding the Dixon EARTH ball. It is the only “green” Golf Ball on the market and golfers should give it consideration when choosing a ball.

After each tester played and rated all 13 balls, they picked which balls they thought were the top four in the test. The BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-RX got 25% of the first place votes, the Nike One Black, Wilson Staff ZIP, and Bridgestone B330-S each received 15% of the first place votes while the Innovex E-Motion got 10%.

When all votes were counted from 1st to 4th place (We gave 1 point for 4th place on up to 4 points for a 1st place vote) the BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-RX finished on top followed by the Nike One Black and BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-S.

We have looked very carefully at all the results from many different angles and are making this unscientific judgment and taking the liberty of ranking what we think were the top balls in this test. We came to the conclusion that the BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-RX deserved to be ranked #1. The following balls deserve a strong honorable mention. BRIDGESTONE TOUR B330-S, Nike One Platinum , Wilson Staff ZIP, Nike One Black. The Innovex E-MOTION proved to be the real sleeper in the test getting strong ratings across the board.

We are leaving it up to golfers to draw their own conclusions as to how the price of the balls relates to how each ball did in this test. We welcome your thoughts regarding the results of this ball test. Please feel free to post your comments on our "Message Boards".