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've got it through the blue sky fine but when it starts to go with the blue sky, I'm going to go with the blue sky.
01:29So let's see if we can see a lot of difference between the two when I hit drives, approaches and also on the green as well.
01:34Going to go with the white ball.
01:40Okay, pop that one up a little bit. Yeah, I've 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.
01:57So next up the yellow ball.
02:11Wow, 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.
02:21At no point when it started dipping from its peak trajectory did I lose it like I did with the white one.
02:26So that was quite interesting to see that.
02:30Let's see what it's like down on the fairway playing an approach shot.
02:33Okay, so I just missed the fairway with the white ball.
02:36I've got 180 yards. Be interesting to see this through very dappled.
02:40You can see through very dappled light there, a lot of shadows.
02:43See how I pick up the flight of this.
02:56Yeah, pretty good actually.
03:00Certainly saw it come down very well.
03:03So 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.
03:11Okay, so 15, 20 yards further on with the yellow ball.
03:15Stood over it in the shadow.
03:17I actually really like looking at the yellow ball at a dress.
03:21I don't know.
03:22It feels, I don't know, possibly look a little bit bigger, a little bit more confidence in sparring.
03:26Anyway, let's see how this one goes.
03:31Oh, that's a good shot.
03:41Yeah, very pleased with the outcome about pin high.
03:44But 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.
03:53White ball's just made the front edge.
03:55Left myself, you know, 40 foot putt up the hill.
03:59What are my impressions behind the ball?
04:01Well, I've been looking at normally a white ball behind a putter head for a long time.
04:06It looks as good as it ever did, really.
04:09Got a new black putter, so it's quite nice, that contrast, black and white.
04:19I've certainly not given that enough.
04:22But yeah, you know, white ball behind the putter looks very familiar.
04:28Let's now see in a much better approach shot with my yellow ball.
04:31Let's see how that is.
04:38So probably a 20 footer up the hill here.
04:45Yeah, I really do like it behind the ball.
04:47Really nice.
04:48I really do like it behind the ball.
04:49Really nice.
04:50I really do like it behind the ball.
04:52Really nice.
04:53And a little tap in for par there.
04:56We asked the Golf Monthly social media audience on Twitter, on Instagram, would you consider playing a yellow ball?
05:06And it was very interesting, across Instagram and Twitter, it was almost exactly 60% saying yes and 40% saying no.
05:16On Twitter, we had over 3,000 respondents in a 24 hour period to the poll.
05:19Very interesting to read some of the comments there about why you would or wouldn't play a yellow golf ball.
05:28But 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 or maybe for golfers who are older whose eyesight isn't as good.
05:46So we've come down to the fourth tee here at West Hill, a lovely par three, pretty tricky.
05:56And it certainly is right into the sun, as you can sort of see when I turn this way, I've got the sun really in my face.
06:02So 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.
06:11We 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, actually found that was a white ball.
07:04I found that pretty, pretty easy to see.
07:07I didn't hit it.
07:08It wasn't directly into the sun.
07:09Right hand side of the green, I would think when we get up there.
07:14I definitely, I definitely think the yellow ball is easier to see.
07:31I think when it goes into the sun, it almost turns black.
07:36So 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 yellow golf ball against a white ball,
07:48seeing how it looked down at address and also seeing the flight of it.
07:52But what do you think?
07:53Let 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.
08:21Remember, do subscribe to the channel if you don't already and hit notifications
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, my eyesight is not as good as it was
08:35when I was maybe in my sort of twenties, even with glasses on.
08:38And I have to say, I definitely find yellow golf ball easier to pick out
08:42in the flight of the ball.
08:44Particularly, I've found today's obviously a lovely sunny day,
08:48but in flat light, I definitely find a yellow ball easier to pick out
08:52there when 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.
09:33Bubba 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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