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.
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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 a yellow Pro V1
00:26 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,
00:45 which is their sort of second tier urethane ball.
00:48 So these days, if you do want a yellow golf ball,
00:51 but you wanna play a tour golf ball, urethane covered,
00:54 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
01:02 to standard white golf balls.
01:04 (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
01:29 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.
01:46 Yeah, I've got it through the blue sky fine,
01:51 but when it started to drop down,
01:54 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
02:14 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.
02:22 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
02:32 playing an approach shot.
02:33 Okay, so I just missed the fairway with the white ball.
02:36 I've got 180 yards, be interesting to see this
02:39 through very dappled, you can see
02:41 through very dappled light there, 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
03:07 as it did have when the flight dropped with the drive.
03:09 So let's see how we go with the yellow ball.
03:12 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
03:20 at address, didn't it feel,
03:23 didn't it 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 Oh, that's a good shot.
03:37 Yeah, very pleased with the outcome about pin high,
03:44 but again, really found it easy to track the ball,
03:47 the flight of the ball there.
03:48 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,
03:55 left myself, you know, 40 foot putt up the hill.
03:58 What are 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.
04:10 Got a new black putter, so it's quite nice,
04:12 that contrast, black and white.
04:13 I've certainly not given that enough,
04:22 but yeah, you know, white ball behind the putter
04:26 looks very familiar.
04:28 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.
05:02 (birds chirping)
05:05 And a little tap in for par there.
05:12 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
05:43 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
06:06 of the white ball or the yellow ball.
06:07 Interestingly, we were just chatting
06:09 to a couple of golfers out here,
06:11 asking what we were doing.
06:12 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?
06:17 He was a decent golfer, watched him hit a couple of shots,
06:21 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,
06:31 but he did acknowledge that he'd seen Bubba
06:33 using it at the waste management,
06:34 their yellow Pro V1.
06:36 So, I don't know, might be,
06:38 perceptions might change after a while,
06:40 if you see guys on tour using it.
06:43 (ball thuds)
06:45 Yeah, actually found that was a white ball.
07:04 Found that pretty, 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, I definitely think
07:29 the yellow ball is easier to see.
07:32 I think when it goes into the sun, it almost turns black.
07:36 So again, it makes it a little bit easier
07:38 to pick up the flight of, but two pretty,
07:40 I'd be very happy with those shots with a card in my hand.
07:43 So, that was a really interesting experiment,
07:45 playing a 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 But what do you think?
07:54 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?
08:06 I'll pick a comment at random,
08:07 and I'll send you a dozen yellow golf balls,
08:10 just so you can do a bit of product validation yourself.
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08:27 one of our new gear videos.
08:29 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, even with glasses on.
08:38 And I have to say, I definitely find yellow golf ball
08:41 easier to pick out in the flight of the ball,
08:44 particularly I've found, today's obviously
08:47 a lovely sunny day, but in flat light,
08:50 I definitely find a yellow ball easier to pick out
08:52 there when it's sort of dropping out of the sky
08:55 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,
09:02 I quite like that contrast between the yellow
09:06 and the black at address.
09:07 Don't find it off-putting at all.
09:09 I know some people are not keen on the look,
09:11 and there are lots of different finishes
09:14 of the different 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
09:26 something a little bit different to help
09:28 pick up the flight of the golf ball,
09:31 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 he tries different things.
09:39 But I'm certainly, I think, gonna be playing a few rounds
09:42 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.
09:51 But for now, from West Hill, it's goodbye.
09:53 (electronic music)
09:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]