Grade: B-
Teacher’s Comments: It can help, but you still have to know where your ball went.

Every golfer has had the experience of watching a ball roll just off the fairway and then—upon arriving at the location—finding that it is nowhere in sight. Nestled amongst a tuft of grass, the ball stubbornly refuses to be found. I can’t count the number of shots I’ve added to my score on account of balls lost in plain sight.

Visiball claims to have the solution, and indeed, in many situations, they’re right.

Visiball glasses are designed with special tinted lenses that turn everything in your view into a shade of blue—except the golf ball, which stands out as a glowing white. if you’ve got the right general area, and any portion of the ball is visible, these glasses will make it easier to find. You can see the effect in the image below:

I’ve found that the glasses work very well when the ball’s in the rough, and isn’t immediately spotted. With these glasses, white really stands out.

But that’s also the first limitation of the glasses. Everything that’s white really stands out—scraps of paper, the underside of leaves, and other bits. I usually see a couple of likely targets before hitting on the real thing. Sometimes I see a LOT of white spots.

Of course, the glasses also don’t help if the ball is under something, or behind something. There’s got to be enough of the ball exposed to cast a glow. I don’t think it works very well in shaded areas. And you still need to have a good idea of where the ball landed

But for what it’s intended for, the Visiball works pretty well. When a quick visual scan doesn’t turn up the ball, I put on the Visiball glasses, and take another look. If I’ve got the right area, and the ball is in the open, it turns up pretty quickly.

At the instigation of a couple of my readers, I bought a fifteen pack of the new Top Flite D2 Distance balls and tested them for a round. I played two balls, using the Top Flite on every hole and alternating between the HX Hot and the Bridgestone E6 for the other.

My initial impression of the Top Flite D2 is that it’s pretty good. It had excellent distance off the tee with driver and fairway woods; indeed, I hit a couple of titanic drives with it. The D2 outflew the E6, but generally didn’t seem to go as far as the HX Hot (with a couple of exceptions). I couldn’t detect any difference in the feel between the balls off the tee.

I liked the D2s less with irons off the fairway, though. There, I don’t think that they held up as well as either comparison ball in terms of flight. I like my iron shots to soar into a green, stopping quickly. I get that shot with both the HX Hot and the E6. I thought the Top Flite noticably lower, leading to shots that skipped off the back of the green. It’s something that I could adjust to, but I’m not sure I want to.

As for feel, I honestly can’t be sure whether or not these are the rock flites of old. I want to say that I didn’t like the feel of the D2 as much as the HX Hot or the Bridgestone, but dont know how honest I can be about that. LIke many golfers, I was traumatized by the Rock Flites. The idea of them being a “feel ball” just sounds absurd.

Durability of the ball was good. My irons didn’t tear it up (unlike Nikes) and I bounced one off a cart path with little effect.

The core technology of the new Top Flites is the Dimple-in-Dimple pattern on the cover. And it’s exactly what it sounds like. There’s a smaller dimple inside of each of the regular ones. Top Flite says that’s supposed to preduce drag and create more lift. Their mantra is “distance through aerodynamics, not hard ball compression.”

In the end, I don’t think I’d switch to the D2 Distance. Still, for the price, I can recommend that you give them a try. There’s enough there that you may find a ball you really like to play.

Basic Golf Shirt

The Basic Golf Shirt isn’t.

Basic, that is. Rather, it’s a high quality, reasonably priced—and dare I say stylish—golf shirt. (Mrs. GolfBlogger says I know nothing of style.)

Two things jumped out at me immediately when I put The Basic Golf Shirt on.

The first is trivial, but different. It’s got a zipper, instead of buttons at the neck. That somehow gives it a more youthful, athletic look. I showed the shirt to a couple of the golf team members at school and they liked the zipper (and the styling, but more on that later).

The second thing I noticed is that the shirt is constructed from an amazingly lightweight, silky material. The Basic Golf guys call it “CoolDry.” and it works as advertised. I walked 18 wearing it on a (relatively) warm day, and stayed very cool and dry. It’s much, much cooler than the cotton golf shirts that I normally wear. I want about ten more shirts made of the same material.

The styling of the shirt is youthful and has an athletic fit. It held a little closer to the biceps that I’m used to, but in no way hindered my swing. The solid colors with the constrasting undertones remind me of something you might see Sergio Garcia, or some of the other European players wear.

Right now, there apparently are only three color selections in the same style for the shirts, navy with a white undertone; white with a navy undertone (although mine is more grey) and lime with black undertones. I have to assume that as they become more popular, the selection will increase. For now, I’ll just enjoy the one I have and save it for the hotter days.

Samsonite 4 Piece Deluxe Travel Set Review

When I was looking for a golf travel bag last year, I investigated all the usual suspects—brands like ClubGlove and Bag Boy, which are well represented in the pro shops and at the Golf Superstores. Eventually, I settled on a Bag Boy model with a padded top and rip stop nylon sides. Nothing fancy, and probably over priced.

I say that because I recently acquired a four piece Samsonite Golf Travel set which is priced at less than the Bag Boy I got and offers far more value.

It’s not just that the Samsonite set includes a duffel bag and two golf shoe mitts—though that’s a nice plus. It’s that the Samsonite offers what I think is superior protection.

Both the Bag Boy and the Samsonite are constructed of what appears to be very tough nylon. But the Samsonite shines in that it has padding on the sides as well as on the top. This should really help to ensure that your clubs survive a trip through airport luggage or in the trunk of a car. 

Of course, the Samsonite offers all of the other usual bag cover features. It’s got a hard bottom with sealed ball-bearing in-line skate built in for towing. Three rubberized handles give you a variety of options for extracting the bag from your trunk and lugging it about. And there are external pockets.

But there also are a couple of other neat features. First, there’s an elastic lace arrangement on the front for strapping on another bag. And the large front pocket can be zipped off.

The extra pieces—the shoe mitts and the duffel bag—also are nice.

The mitts are lined with a soft material that won’t scruff your finely polished shoes. I had thought at first that each mitt would hold two shoes, but after trying to squeee a pair in each, I gave up and put one shoe in each bag. The tops of the bags close with drawstrings and a plastic lock.

The bags fit into a special side pocket of the accompanying duffel bag. Another nice touch: the shoe pocket has a mesh end to allow them to breathe.

Both the mitts and duffel are constructed of the same tough material as the golf bag cover.

This set offers a good value for the golf traveller.