00:00Hello everyone, Mike Harris from Golf Monthly. You join me here at lovely West Hill Golf Club
00:10in Surrey on a very sunny afternoon and in this video I'm going to be asking should you be playing
00:17a yellow golf ball? The big thing for 2019, the big talking point is that Titleist have finally
00:24released a yellow Pro V1 and Pro V1X and we've got different models from say all the main manufacturers
00:31Strixen with their Z-Star, they do a yellow model. Callaway with the Chrome Soft, they do a yellow
00:38model as well. TaylorMade don't do their TP5 in the UK anyway in yellow but they do do Project A which
00:45is their sort of second tier urethane ball. So these days if you do want a yellow golf ball but you want
00:51to play a tour golf ball urethane covered, there are plenty of options out there. So let's get out
00:56on the golf course and see how the yellow balls perform both on their own and also in comparison
01:01to standard white golf balls.
01:07Okay, so we're going to do a little bit of a live on course test here. Got a yellow ball and a white ball. See if we can see much difference between the two when I hit drives, approaches and also on the green as well.
01:08Going to go with traditional first, going to go with the white ball.
01:22Okay, pop that one up a little bit. Yeah I got it through the blue sky fine but when it starts to get to the blue sky, I'm gonna go with the blue sky fine but when it starts to get to the blue sky, I'm going to go with the blue sky.
01:29So it's going to go with the blue sky and the hit drives approaches and also on the green as well. Going to go with the white ball.
01:36Okay, pop that one up a little bit.
01:44Yeah, got it through the blue sky fine but when it started to drop down I felt I lost it a little bit there going back down through the tree line. So next up I'm going to go with the blue sky.
01:52The yellow ball.
01:59Wow, I have to say that was a much better drive than the first one with the white ball but I really found it very, very easy to track the flight of the yellow ball there.
02:18At no point when it started dipping from its peak trajectory did I lose it like I did with the white one. So that was quite interesting to see that.
02:28Let's see what it's like down on the fairway playing an approach shot.
02:32Okay, so I just missed the fairway with the white ball. I've got 180 yards. Be interesting to see this through very dappled light there. A lot of shadows.
02:42See how I pick up the flight of this.
02:58Yeah, pretty good actually. Certainly saw it come down very well. So no issues there with the white ball as I did have when the flight dropped with the drive.
03:09So let's see how we go with the yellow ball.
03:12Okay, so 15, 20 yards further on with the yellow ball.
03:16Stood over it in the shadow. I actually really like looking at the yellow ball at a dress.
03:21I don't know, it feels, I don't know, possibly look a little bit bigger, a little bit more confidence inspiring.
03:26Anyway, let's see how this one goes.
03:29Oh, that's a good shot.
03:40Yeah, very pleased with the outcome about pin high. But again, really found it easy to track the flight of the ball there.
03:48So at the moment, yellow ball is definitely winning it for me.
03:51So here we are up at the green. White ball's just made the front edge, left myself, you know, 40 foot putt up the hill.
03:58One of my impressions behind the ball, well, I've been looking at normally a white ball behind a putter head for a long time.
04:05Looks, it looks as good as it ever did, really. Got a new black putter, so it's quite nice, that contrast, black and white.
04:20I've not, I've certainly not given that enough, but yeah, you know, white ball behind the putter looks very familiar.
04:28Let's now see, hit a much better approach shot with my yellow ball, let's see how that is.
04:38So probably a 20 footer up the, up the hill here.
04:45Yeah, I really do like it behind the, behind the ball, really nice.
04:49And a little tap in for par there.
04:59We all asked the Golf Monthly social media audience, so on Twitter, on Instagram, would you like that?
05:06Yeah.
05:07I really do like it behind the, behind the ball, really nice.
05:11And a little tap in for par there.
05:14We all asked the Golf Monthly social media audience, so on Twitter, on Instagram, would you consider playing a yellow ball?
05:21And it was very interesting, across Instagram and Twitter, it was almost exactly 60% saying yes, and 40% saying no.
05:29On Twitter, we had over 3,000 respondents in a 24 hour period to the poll.
05:35Very interesting to read some of the comments there about why you would or wouldn't play a yellow golf ball.
05:41Well, I think perhaps there's been a bit of a stigma that yellow golf balls are for higher handicappers who are worried about losing golf balls,
05:47or maybe for golfers who are older, whose eyesight isn't as good.
05:51So we've come down to the fourth tee here at West Hill.
05:54Lovely par three, quite pretty tricky.
05:57And it certainly is right into the sun, as you can sort of see when I turn this way.
06:01I've got the sun really in my face.
06:03So I'm going to see if there's any difference between picking up the flight of the white ball or yellow ball.
06:07Interestingly, we were just chatting to a couple of golfers out here who were asking what we were doing.
06:12He said we were doing a little yellow ball versus white ball test.
06:14And I asked one of the guys, would you ever play a yellow ball?
06:17He was a decent golfer, watched him hit a couple of shots.
06:21I would say, you know, single figure golfer.
06:22And he said, definitely not.
06:24So, and sort of, I guess the information was that, you know, yellow balls were not for better golfers,
06:31but he did acknowledge that he'd seen Bubba using it at the waste management, the yellow Pro V1.
06:36So, I don't know, might be better.
06:38Perceptions might change after a while, if you see guys on tour using it.
06:43Yeah, I actually found that was a white ball.
07:04I found that pretty, pretty easy to see.
07:07I didn't hit it, it wasn't directly into the sun.
07:12Right hand side of the green, I would think when we get up there.
07:28Yeah, I definitely, I definitely think the yellow ball is easier to see.
07:32I think when it goes into the sun, it almost turns black.
07:35So again, it makes it a little bit easier to pick up the flight off.
07:39But to pretty, I'd be very happy with those shots with a card in my hand.
07:43So that was a really interesting experiment playing a yellow golf ball against a white ball,
07:48seeing how it looked down at a dress and also seeing the flight of it.
07:52What do you think? Let us know, put a comment below.
07:55Let us know, have you played a yellow golf ball before?
07:58Would you play a yellow golf ball now?
08:00Any particular, will you be trying out Titleist's new yellow Pro V1 this year?
08:05I'll pick a comment at random and I'll send you a dozen yellow golf balls
08:09just so you can do a bit of product validation yourself.
08:13If you enjoyed this video, if you find it useful, give us a thumbs up.
08:16Let us know what other sort of gear videos you'd like us to have a look at.
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08:24so you see whenever we release one of our new gear videos.
08:28But what about the verdict?
08:30Well, as I said earlier at the start of the video,
08:32my eyesight is not as good as it was when I was maybe in my sort of twenties,
08:36even with glasses on.
08:37And I have to say, I definitely find yellow golf ball easier to pick out in the flight of the ball.
08:44Particularly, I've found today is obviously a lovely sunny day,
08:48but in flat light, I definitely find a yellow ball easier to pick out there
08:53when it's sort of dropping out of the sky at the top of its flight.
08:56I quite like it at a dress.
08:58You know, a lot of the modern clubs, I've got a black-headed driver
09:01and also a black-headed putter.
09:02I quite like that contrast between the yellow and the black at a dress.
09:07Don't find it off-putting at all.
09:08I know some people are not keen on the look
09:11and there are lots of different finishes of the different yellow golf balls.
09:16Some are sort of more of that sort of chalky matte finish.
09:19Some are really sort of bright, almost sort of pearlescent.
09:22But I definitely think that if you are looking for something a little bit different
09:27to help pick up the flight of the golf ball,
09:30that a yellow golf ball is certainly worth trying.
09:33So Bubba Watson's been trying them out on tour.
09:35I know that Bubba's quite a quirky guy, tries different things.
09:38But I'm certainly, I think, going to be playing a few rounds
09:42with the yellow Titleist Pro V1X.
09:44Pro V1X is a ball that I normally use.
09:46So I'm looking forward to putting that in play this season
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