The Ball Test
IT is a wet, windy and - above all - dark January morning. Even NCG’s band of exceptionally keen golfers look slightly underwhelmed. We quickly gather within the warmth of the fitting suite of the Academy at De Vere Oulton Hall, near Leeds.
Within minutes spirits have been raised as James Whitaker, head teaching pro and academy manager, enters the room equipped with a tray of coffess and the best part of 2,000 brand-new balls are unpacked. In front of us are the latest offerings across the entire ranges from the likes of Titleist, Srixon, Bridgestone, Nike, Callaway and Wilson Staff.
Our six testers have handicaps ranging from 2 to 28. The biggest- hitting among us is capable of carrying (that’s not including roll) his drivers in excess of 260 yards, while others in the group average a more modest 185.
In other words, at least one of our group should be a golfer of comparable ability and swing speed to you.
The idea is that each of our panel will be allocated a batch of the balls. With each of these balls he will hit a selection of shots with a driver, then a mid-iron and finally a wedge.
For every single shot that is hit, the FlightScope computer system will collect dozens of pieces of data. It uses a laser to track the flight of the ball and provides precise information on how far a shot
Throughout the process, James will be on hand to collect the results and then make some sense from the avalanche of data and turn it into something we can all understand!
Some 10 hours later, and the testing is complete.
Let’s have a look at the results.
Who hit which balls
It was not possible for every player to test every ball. We tried to give each tester a good selection of samples from several different manufacturers. Since the Titleist Pro V1 series is such a dominant performer, we asked everyone to test this model.
Carries and distances
In all cases, the distances quoted on the following pages are how far the shots carried.
In summer conditions, with a driver, you should reckon on around 25 yards of run; with a mid-iron seven or eight yards of run; and with a wedge a couple of yards of run.
In addition, the temperature on the day of our test was around 5˚C. In temperatures of around 20˚C, you might expect to carry your driver 10-15 yards further on average.
