BRIDGESTONE Tour B330-RXS

Bridgestone had a terrific idea last year with its Bridgestone RX Tour, a “tour level” ball designed for players with slower swing speeds. Although it was too expensive for my tastes, I did try it and found that it worked very well.

Now, Bridgestone has released the RXS, a version that’s supposed to offer more spin control and a softer feel. I’ll give it a try, but I’m still waiting for them to get that price point down to the low 30s at least.

TITLEIST NXT Tour

The Titleist NXT Tour is a new three layer ball that fits somewhere between the now-venerable Pro V1 and the somewhat less respected two layer NXT.

Aside from the usual large, fast core, and responsive mantle that every three piece boasts, the main difference seems to be in the cover. The NXT Tour has a low-count, high coverage dimple pattern that’s supposed to help golfers with distance. And although I have never thought Titleist balls had a durability problem, the thin cover is said to be designed to be more durable than previous, similar designs.

I wonder about the price point, however. For a three piece Titleist, it’s not a bad price, either. Golfsmith has them for just under $30 a dozen.

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.