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