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2023 Golf Ball Dissection

 Once again, I busted out the ol' PVC cutter and chopped up some golf balls!  I've accrued a small assortment of golf balls over the last year, so in preparation for the 2023 golf season, I thought I'd share my findings with Teh Intarnetz!


Comparing 3 of the "Poor Man's ProV1" ball - top is a Cut Grey, middle is a Top Flite Gamer, bottom is a Kirkland Supreme V2.  Of these 3, the Top Flite Gamer works best for me.  The Kirkland feels really good to hit in the middle of the season (warm temps, dry weather, etc.), but many an Internet Forumite have talked about how spinny Kirklands are.

These are a couple golf course finds - top is a Srixon Softfeel, bottom is a Precept Powerdrive.  Notice the 2-piece construction, which is pretty typical for a golf ball that sells for less than $20 a dozen (not that that's a bad thing by any means, it's just not something that's seen on tour-level balls)

More 2-piece balls - top/orange is a Wilson Ultra 50, bottom/blue is a Wilson Chaos.  Generally, between the two, I prefer the Ultra.  The Chaos is incredibly hard and rocky feeling when you hit it, plus the blue blends in surprisingly well with the green grass of a golf course.  It gets lost against the sky, so it's hard to track.  Overall, I don't know why the hell I chose a blue ball, but here we are.

Even more 2-piece balls - top is a Pinnacle Gold, bottom is a Top Flite XL 2000.  The Pinnacle is just a golf ball to me, purely mediocre at everything.  The XL 2000 ranks near the blue Chaos above in balls that I don't like playing.

Compared here are 3 offerings from Taylor Made:  Top is their Distance+ , middle is their Rocketballz, bottom is their Tour Response.  Notice the 2-piece construction on the Distance+, I think those sell for around $18 a dozen.  The Rocketballz looks shockingly similar to all 3 of the "Poor Man's ProV1" balls shown above and several variants of Bridgestone balls below.  That 3-piece design is generally what I choose to play for myself - it offers me (as a hack golfer) the best balance of feel, distance, and control (which is vitally important to a guy with a chronic case of slicing the ball)  Bottom is the Tour Response - of note in this design is the super thin outer shell.  Given that the colors of the core are inverted from the Rocketballz, I wonder if they're the same urethane composition...

Here we have 3 variations of Bridgestone's e6 ball - top is an original e6 from 2018 or 2019, middle is an e6 Soft from 2021 or 2022, and bottom is an e6 after Bridgestone made e6 their budget/2-piece ball.

Top is a 2022 Bridgestone Tour B RXS, bottom is a 2023 Tour B RXS.  The dimple pattern looks a little deeper on the 2023, and the mantle looks a touch thicker on the 2023 as well.  Compare the outer layer on these with the e6's above, then compare them to the Taylor Made Tour Response - as the Tour B RXS is one of Bridgestone's PGA offerings, they're going to have a thinner shell than their more "pedestrian" offerings like the e6.  These were pre-production samples purchased from the 2022 and 2023 West Michigan Golf Show.

And finally, the oft-maligned Callaway Warbird.  Top is some sort of early variant, I don't know the actual year.  Bottom was a door prize from the 2022 West Michigan Golf Show, so we can probably surmise that it's a 2021 or 2022 version.  Good to see that Callaway has kept the Warbird consistent throughout the years!  I've been playing this ball since sometime in high school; one of the first rounds I ever shot on one ball was with an OG Callaway Warbird at Wallinwood Springs over in ol' Jenison.





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