TAYLORMADE Noodle + Easy Distance

I saw these at Target the other day, and it turns out they’re a bit of a stealth product—as are all of TaylorMade’s Noodle lineup. There’s no mention of them on the TaylorMade website, and they’ve got no site of their own. All I can really tell is that they’re cheap—$14.99—and designed for people with swing speeds of less than $85 mph. That’d make them good for both Seniors and most ladies.

It’s a shame what’s happened to TaylorMade’s site in the last couple of years. Once upon a time it was useful and interesting. Then they built some sort of strange “virtual locker room,” and apparently spend more time on eye candy than actual content. Their “press room” hasn’t been updated since April of 2009 (from the date of the last press release). And their outreach to bloggers and the like also has suffered. There was a time when I got regular products from TaylorMade for review. In the last couple of years, nothing.

CALLAWAY Tour iz

It was not so long ago that the three piece ball represented the pinnacle of golf ball evolution. But if three are good, then four—or even five!—are better. And if one core is good, it follows that two are better. The 2010 Callaway Tour iz ball is the second generation of Callaway’s Dual Core construction. Each of the two has different spin properties that are supposed to deliver less spin off the driver and more from the irons. It’s also got the terrific HEX pattern in lieu of dimples. Callaway says that the “improved” design results in more stability through windy conditions, minimizing wind effects on trajectory.

These just might be the thing to play here on those windy Michigan spring days.

CALLAWAY Solaire White

Callaway has a new line of women’s golf equipment out, with clubs and balls marketed under the Solaire name. The Solaire ball is designed for slower swing speeds, and thus might also be great for senior men golfers. But they’ve done them up in a luminous finish that might very well cut them out of that market.

I’ve always thought that—were I a woman—I’d find the marketing of women’s clubs vaguely insulting. While men are enticed with technological developments, they try to attract women by making the clubs pink, adding Swarovski crystals, and color to the balls. Mrs. GoflBlogger was recently given a sleeve of women’s balls in pink and lavender with leopard spots.

Actually, with the boomers all retiring, a company might do very well marketing lines of senior equipment.

Just don’t make them in grey.

What I need is for one of the ball manufacturers to develop a ball specifically for winter play. It’d have to be a very low compression ball, with a very soft cover. And, because of the wind and hard ground, I’d like it to be designed to fly low and roll. The winter ball should also be available in blaze orange.

I have a few suggestions for names:

The Nike Yeti.

The Titleist Tundra

The Callaway Chill

The TaylorMade Arctic.

MACGREGOR VIP

I wonder who’s making these.

MacGregor was acquired by GolfSmith earlier this year, so these MacGregor VIP balls have to be a product of the Golf superstore.

They’re expensive at $39 a dozen, so you have to assume that it’s a multi piece ball, but the literature doesn’t say. From the GolfSmith site:

The MacGregor VIP features a urethane cover that provides the ultimate in control-shot shaping, spin control, pin point distance control and stroke-saving short game control. All of this with no sacrifice in distance. The unique core design provides exceptional ball velocity combined with ideal high launch angle, low spin launch conditions for greater carry and distance. Finally, the high trajectory 330-dimple pattern provides a strong and penetrating trajectory in all wind conditions.

I think GolfSmith likely is making a mistake pricing these in the same range as the Pro V1, Bridgestone Tour models and so forth. I can’t imagine anyone with $39 burning a hole in their pocket choosing these instead of the Pro V. But if it was in the $20 range, they might gain some traction.

PRECEPT EV Extra Spin 15-Pack

The Precept EV Extra spin now comes in a fifteen pack, which, at $15 makes it an exceptional value. The ball is a two piece that Precept says is exceptionally soft and has nice spin around the green.

Precept has been making some inroads these last few years with the ladies market, thanks to their work with LPGA players. Paula Creamer plays a Precept.

Precept is manufactured by Bridgestone.

I really want to like Nike balls. They feel good off the tee, irons and putter, and are as long as anything I play on a regular basis. But there’s something wrong with the covers. Case in point: I recently bought a box of the NIKE Power Distance Long 2009. With them, I had one of my best driving days in memory. But the balls wouldn’t survive more than a couple of holes without a scruff.

The photo above is of a Nike PD Long after just three holes. I hit the following with the ball. Hole 1: Driver to fairway, three wood to fairway, nine iron to green. Putt. Putt. Hole 2: 4 hybrid to sand trap. Wedge to green. Putt. Hole 3: Driver to fairway. Seven iron to just off the green. Chip with a seven iron. Putt. Putt.

It was then I noticed the scruffs. They were staring at me angrily, taunting me with their intimation of flawed aerodynamic performance. There are scruffs on the opposite side of the ball also. It wasn’t a fluke. Every ball I put into play became destined for the shag bag after just a couple of holes.

I’ve always thought that the covers on Nike balls were a bit “soft.” But this was ridiculous. How the heck does a ball get scruffed like this after three holes without hitting a cart path, tree or other hard object?

Intellectually, I know that at my level of play scruffs probably don’t make any difference. The minor aerodynamic flaws pale in comparison to the flaws in my swing. But I still expect more.