Should You Play A Yellow Ball?

Golf Monthly

Mike Harris test the new Titleist Pro V1... in yellow! To see whether you should be playing a yellow ball.

Transcript

00:00 (electronic music)

00:02 Hello everyone, Mike Harris from Golf Monthly.

00:08 You join me here at lovely West Hill Golf Club in Surrey

00:11 on a very sunny afternoon.

00:13 And in this video, I'm gonna be asking,

00:16 should you be playing a yellow golf ball?

00:19 The big thing for 2019, the big talking point

00:21 is that Titleist have finally released

00:24 a yellow Pro V1 and Pro V1X.

00:28 And we've got different models from say,

00:30 all the main manufacturers,

00:31 Strixen with their Z-Star, they do a yellow model.

00:36 Callaway with the Chrome Soft,

00:37 they do a yellow model as well.

00:39 TaylorMade don't do their TP5 in the UK anyway, in yellow,

00:43 but they do do Project A,

00:44 which is their sort of second tier urethane ball.

00:48 So these days, if you do want a yellow golf ball,

00:50 but you wanna play a tour golf ball, urethane covered,

00:53 there are plenty of options out there.

00:55 So let's get out on the golf course

00:57 and see how the yellow balls perform,

00:59 both on their own and also in comparison

01:01 to standard white golf balls.

01:03 (upbeat music)

01:06 Okay, so we're gonna do a little bit

01:21 of a live on-course test here.

01:22 Got a yellow ball and a white ball,

01:25 see if I can see much difference between the two

01:28 when I hit drives, approaches,

01:30 and also on the green as well.

01:32 Gonna go with, gonna go traditional first,

01:34 gonna go with the white ball.

01:36 Okay, pop that one up a little bit.

01:45 Yeah, I've got it through the blue sky fine,

01:51 but when it started to drop down,

01:53 I felt I lost it a little bit there,

01:55 going back down through the tree line.

01:57 So next up, the yellow ball.

02:00 Wow, I have to say that was a much better drive

02:13 than the first one with the white ball,

02:15 but I really found it very, very easy

02:18 to track the flight of the yellow ball there.

02:21 At no point when it started dipping

02:23 from its peak trajectory did I lose it

02:25 like I did with the white one,

02:26 so that was quite interesting to see that.

02:29 Let's see what it's like down on the fairway

02:31 playing an approach shot.

02:33 Okay, so I just missed the fairway with the white ball.

02:36 I've got 180 yards.

02:37 Be interesting to see this through very dappled,

02:40 you can see through very dappled light there,

02:42 a lot of shadows.

02:44 See how I pick up the flight of this.

02:46 (birds chirping)

02:49 Yeah, pretty good actually.

03:00 Certainly saw it come down very well,

03:03 so no issues there with the white ball

03:06 as it did have when the flight dropped with the drive.

03:09 So let's see how we go with the yellow ball.

03:11 Okay, so 15, 20 yards further on with the yellow ball.

03:16 Stood over it in the shadow.

03:17 I actually really like looking at the yellow ball

03:19 at address.

03:20 Don't know, it feels,

03:23 don't know, possibly look a little bit bigger,

03:24 a little bit more confidence inspiring.

03:26 Anyway, let's see how this one goes.

03:28 Ooh, that's a good shot.

03:37 Yeah, very pleased with the outcome, about pin high,

03:43 but again, really found it easy to track the ball,

03:46 the flight of the ball there.

03:47 So at the moment, yellow ball

03:49 was definitely winning it for me.

03:51 So here we are up at the green.

03:53 White ball's just made the front edge,

03:54 left myself, to know, 40 foot putt up the hill.

03:58 One of my impressions behind the ball,

04:01 well, been looking at normally a white ball

04:03 behind a putter head for a long time.

04:05 It looks good as it ever did really.

04:09 Got a new black putter,

04:11 so it's quite nice, that contrast, black and white.

04:13 I've not, I've certainly not given that enough,

04:21 but yeah, you know, white ball behind the putter

04:25 looks very familiar.

04:27 Anyway, let's now see,

04:29 hit a much better approach shot with my yellow ball.

04:31 Let's see how that is.

04:38 So probably a 20 footer up the hill here.

04:42 Yeah, I really do like it behind the ball, really nice.

04:49 I really do like it behind the ball, really nice.

05:01 (wind blowing)

05:04 And a little tap in for par there.

05:11 We asked the Golf Monthly social media audience,

05:17 so on Twitter, on Instagram,

05:18 would you consider playing a yellow ball?

05:21 And it was very interesting, across Instagram and Twitter,

05:24 it was almost exactly 60% saying yes,

05:27 and 40% saying no.

05:29 On Twitter, we had over 3,000 respondents

05:32 in a 24 hour period to the poll.

05:35 Very interesting to read some of the comments there

05:38 about why you would or wouldn't play a yellow golf ball.

05:41 I think perhaps there's been a bit of a stigma

05:42 that yellow golf balls are for higher handicappers

05:45 who are worried about losing golf balls,

05:47 or maybe for golfers who are older,

05:49 whose eyesight isn't as good.

05:51 So we've come down to the fourth tee here at West Hill,

05:54 lovely par three, pretty tricky,

05:57 and it certainly is right into the sun,

05:59 as you can sort of see when I turn this way,

06:01 I've got the sun really in my face.

06:03 So gonna see if there's any difference

06:04 between picking up the flight

06:05 of the white ball or the yellow ball.

06:07 Interestingly, we were just chatting

06:09 to a couple of golfers out here,

06:10 asking what we were doing,

06:11 said we were doing a little yellow ball

06:13 versus white ball test,

06:14 and I asked one of the guys,

06:15 would you ever play a yellow ball?

06:16 He was a decent golfer, watched him hit a couple of shots,

06:20 I would say, you know, single figure golfer,

06:22 and he said, definitely not.

06:24 So, and sort of, I guess the information was that,

06:27 you know, yellow balls were not for better golfers,

06:30 but he did acknowledge that he'd seen Bubba

06:33 using it at the waste management,

06:34 the yellow Pro V1, so, I don't know,

06:37 might be that perceptions might change after a while,

06:40 if you see guys on tour using it.

06:44 (ball thuds)

06:46 Yeah, actually found that was a white ball,

07:03 found that pretty easy to see,

07:06 I didn't hit it, it wasn't directly into the sun.

07:12 Right hand side of the green,

07:13 I would think, when we get up there.

07:15 Yeah, I definitely think the yellow ball is easier to see,

07:31 I think when it goes into the sun, it almost turns black.

07:36 So again, it makes it a little bit easier

07:37 to pick up the flight of, but,

07:39 to pretty, I'd be very happy with those shots,

07:42 with a card in my hand.

07:43 So, that was a really interesting experiment,

07:45 playing yellow golf ball against a white ball,

07:48 seeing how it looked down at address,

07:50 and also seeing the flight of it.

07:52 What do you think?

07:53 Let us know, put a comment below,

07:56 let us know, have you played a yellow golf ball before?

07:58 Would you play a yellow golf ball now?

08:00 Any particular, will you be trying out

08:02 Titleist's new yellow Pro V1 this year?

08:05 I'll pick a comment at random,

08:07 and I'll send you a dozen yellow golf balls,

08:09 just so you can do a bit of product validation yourself.

08:14 If you enjoyed this video, if you find it useful,

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08:26 one of our new gear videos.

08:28 But, what about the verdict?

08:30 Well, as I said earlier at the start of the video,

08:32 my eyesight's not as good as it was

08:35 when I was maybe in my sort of 20s,

08:36 even with glasses on, and I have to say,

08:38 I definitely find yellow golf ball easier to pick out

08:42 in the flight of the ball, particularly I've found,

08:46 today's obviously a lovely sunny day,

08:48 but in flat light, I definitely find a yellow ball

08:51 easier to pick out there when it's sort of

08:54 dropping out of the sky at the top of its flight.

08:57 I quite like it at address, you know,

08:59 a lot of the modern clubs, I've got a black-headed driver

09:01 and also a black-headed putter, I quite like that contrast

09:04 between the yellow and the black at address.

09:07 Don't find it off-putting at all.

09:08 I know some people are not keen on the look,

09:11 and there are lots of different finishes

09:14 of the different, you know, yellow golf balls.

09:16 Some are sort of more of that sort of chalky matte finish,

09:19 some are really sort of bright, almost sort of pearlescent.

09:22 But I definitely think that if you are looking for

09:25 something a little bit different to help

09:28 pick up the flight of the golf ball,

09:30 that a yellow golf ball is certainly worth trying.

09:33 So Bubba Watson's been trying them out on tour,

09:35 I know that Bubba's quite a quirky guy,

09:37 tries different things.

09:38 But I'm certainly, I think, gonna be playing

09:41 a few rounds with the yellow Titleist Pro V1X.

09:44 Pro V1X is a ball that I normally use,

09:46 so I'm looking forward to putting that in play this season

09:49 and seeing how I go with it.

09:50 But for now, from West Hill, it's goodbye.

09:53 (electronic music)

09:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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