Cheap vs Expensive Golf Balls Test
In this Cheap Vs Expensive Golf Balls Test, Neil Tappin puts the Kirkland Signature 2.0 up against the Callaway Chrome Soft X to see how they compare.
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00:00Now, for many golfers, their number one priority when searching for a golf ball is something
00:14with a urethane cover.
00:15They understand that urethane cover provides them with the spin and the feel they're looking
00:20for in the short game, and it also allows the manufacturers to build in some of those
00:23design elements that give them distance in the long game.
00:27And if you're going to go down the route of a urethane golf ball, you've got three options,
00:31broadly speaking.
00:32You've got the Tourplane models by the premium brands, but they are likely to set you back
00:36somewhere in the region of about £50 per dozen.
00:41And then you've got a new band of golf balls that are sort of mid-priced urethane offerings,
00:45again from the top brands, but they will still come in at around about £30 per dozen.
00:51If you don't want to pay that much, your next option is something like this.
00:56This is the Kirkland Signature 2.0.
00:59It's a urethane-covered ball, and it costs just over £1 per golf ball.
01:04Now, we wanted to find out what you give up on if you were to go for something like this,
01:08so we're going to put it through its paces in a series of head-to-head challenges up
01:13against a Tour premium urethane-covered golf ball, the Callaway Chrome Soft X.
01:19We're going to find out how these two golf balls compare to each other on a series of
01:23challenges out on the golf course, and then I've also already hit them both on a launch
01:28bulletin, and I'll show you that data as well.
01:30It's very interesting.
01:31Right.
01:32We're here at the London Club.
01:33Let's get started.
01:53Okay, so for the first of my three challenges, I've come down here to the 11th hole on the
02:03Heritage course at London Club, and I'm going to hit three shots with each golf ball, starting
02:07with the Callaway.
02:08Now, this is a tough hole.
02:10It's playing about 165 yards.
02:12It's into quite a strong breeze, but it's downhill.
02:15I'm going to hit a 7-iron, and we'll see how I get on with both of these golf balls.
02:24Skinny.
02:27Pin high.
02:39Right.
02:40Six golf balls.
02:41Safely on board.
02:42Let's go and find out which one's closest.
02:44Okay.
02:45So we've come down here to the green to find out how each of those six shots has done.
02:49Hopefully, you can see all the shots that I hit, and the one that's closest to the flag
02:53is this one right in front of me here, and that, hopefully you can see that, is the Kirkland
02:58Signature, and it's about 25 feet short, so not bad.
03:03Now, the others, the three Callaway shots are here, one, here, two, and the one up there
03:13that's to my left to your right, that's probably the one I hit the furthest.
03:17So that means the shortest one was the Kirkland, and there's one in the middle there that was
03:22also a Kirkland, so I'd say in terms of performance from that little test, there's not an awful
03:26lot to choose between them.
03:29The Kirkland actually did pretty well.
03:31The last thing I will say, though, is that I probably, the shots I hit with the Kirkland
03:35ball, I probably hit them a little bit better than the ones that I hit with the Callaway,
03:40but all in all, I'd say both golf balls gave me pretty good performance in pretty tricky
03:44weather conditions.
03:53Right, time for some bunker shots, and to see just how well both of these golf balls
03:58spin, how much control I'm able to get around the green.
04:01Again, I'm going to hit three shots with each golf ball, and you'll hopefully be able to
04:05see just how much spin control I'm getting when hitting a shot like this.
04:09I'm going to start with the Kirkland, and then move on to the Callaway.
04:22I'm going to start with the Kirkland.
04:53Okay, so all six shots played, I'd say I got pretty good spin control with both golf balls.
05:13In fact, it was a blind test.
05:14I'm not sure I really would have been able to tell much of a difference between the two.
05:18That's the Kirkland signature, the one that's closest to the hole.
05:20That one is a Callaway, and I'd say that one, I don't know.
05:24I felt as if that one spun the most of the shots that I hit, but all round, I'd say the
05:29performance from the bunker was very good, and it's kind of what I would expect from
05:34a good quality premium urethane golf ball.
05:37So, so far with the Kirkland signature, so good.
05:50Right, time to find out how good these golf balls are off the tee with a driver, and I've
06:01come to the 14th hole, which is a good opportunity to test them out, because it's just over 400
06:06yards, and it's a dogleg right to left, and there are some bunkers on the corner of the
06:10dogleg, which I feel like I should be able to make it over those bunkers fairly easily.
06:15It is into the wind, but I feel like I should make that carry quite easily.
06:17So I'm going to hit three with the Kirkland, three with the Callaway.
06:20We'll see how we get on.
06:34Let's give the Callaway a go.
06:48Right, six shots hit.
06:49Let's find out where they are.
06:51Okay, so some interesting findings here.
06:54Now, the longest shot I hit was with the Callaway.
06:56That's the Callaway Chrome Soft X up there.
06:59That's also a Callaway there, and there's one just in the rough over here, which is
07:03down the left-hand side of this hole.
07:05They're all very similar distance, actually, up the hole.
07:08This one here leaves me about 130 yards in, so it's got about 270 yards, which I'm very
07:13pleased with, into the wind.
07:15The best shot I hit with the Kirkland is sitting right here.
07:18I'd be very pleased with this, but this was by far and away the best shot I hit with the
07:23Kirkland, because the other two, which weren't too bad.
07:26One, you can see, is in the foreground of the shot.
07:28The other one is even shorter down here on the left-hand side, and I've paced it out.
07:33From the ball that's shortest to the ball that's longest is 24 yards, which is not insignificant.
07:40And I will come on, and I will talk about the launch monitor data in this video, but
07:44certainly, the findings that I've had on this test, while I was playing it out on the
07:48golf course, and from the launch monitor, would say that the Callaway Chrome Soft X
07:52does provide me, certainly at my clubhead speed, with that bit of extra distance, and
07:57you can see what that means, actually, when you're out on the golf course.
08:00So I'm going to hit one of these.
08:02I think I'll hit this one.
08:04So at the start of this video, I said we'd take a look at the launch monitor data, and
08:07I'll show you that now, but it's also worth saying, I also tested both of these over nine
08:12holes here at the London Club, in what can only be described as some dreadful weather
08:16conditions.
08:17So I do have a pretty good feel for how both of these golf balls perform in all areas of
08:22the game.
08:23Now, I'm going to start by talking about this 50-yard point, and I'm going to talk about
08:29Now, I'm going to start by talking about this 50-yard pitch I hit on the launch monitor,
08:35and as you can see from the data, the Callaway did spin more.
08:38So I was getting 6991 RPM of spin with the Callaway, which is very good.
08:43It was offering plenty of control, but that number for Kirkland is also very good, and
08:47it's something that I noticed probably even more when I was out on the golf course, to
08:51be honest with you, hitting shots around the greens, just how well this spins.
08:55It does offer really good short game spin control, but then when you also add in the
09:00fact that it's also got a lovely soft feel off the putter face, I think the short game
09:04is where you really see the benefit of this golf ball.
09:07It performs really well.
09:09But how does it perform further out?
09:11Well, let's take a look at the 7-iron data.
09:13So as you can see, the Callaway was offering me more ball speed.
09:17So there's a jump in ball speed for me from the Callaway of five miles per hour.
09:21The launch angle was the same, and it was a little bit lower spinning the Callaway than
09:26the Kirkland.
09:27So I was getting more distance with that Callaway Chrome Soft X.
09:30Now, I think it's important here to say that when I tested the Callaway golf ball for the
09:35first time, I was really impressed with this Callaway Chrome Soft X.
09:39It provided excellent distance in the long game and good control in the short game.
09:43And that's why I chose it for this particular video, because if you are thinking about going
09:50for a cheaper urethane golf ball, this is your one option with Kirkland.
09:54But with Callaway, you've got three options where you can choose something that's going
09:57to really sort of fit your game.
09:58That's why I chose the Chrome Soft X.
10:00And you can see from that number, those numbers there, just how well it does suit my game.
10:05And the same was true off the tee.
10:07So take a look at it.
10:08That jump in ball speed in particular with the driver.
10:12So 164 versus 158.
10:14The Callaway also launching a fraction higher, but spinning less and providing quite significant
10:20extra distance gain.
10:22And I think when you saw the driver comparison I did out on the golf course, the challenge
10:26that I did, the Callaway golf balls were all longer than the Kirkland golf balls.
10:31But actually, it was during my on-course testing, both today and I've also tested this Kirkland
10:37ball before where I just feel like if you're giving up something, for me, it's off the
10:42tee.
10:43It's a little bit of distance off the tee.
10:44It's not drastic.
10:46You're not losing 50 yards, but you might on certain shots lose 20 or 30 yards.
10:52For me, that was certainly the case.
10:54Whilst I was getting great spin control from the Kirkland around the greens, I was also
10:57getting a bit more spin off the tee.
10:59And I think that goes to talk to exactly what you get if you invest in a premium ball.
11:06You get that separation in performance, in spin performance between the long game and
11:11the short game.
11:12You get an all-rounder, something that works really well in every department of the game.
11:17This Kirkland ball is very impressive, but it's better around the green than it is off
11:23the tee.
11:24Okay, so there you have it.
11:25That's my look at the Kirkland Signature 2.0 golf ball.
11:28And I think had I been testing this on its own, I'd have been really impressed with it.
11:33I was really impressed with it because it offers fantastic short game performance.
11:37So really lovely feel off the putter face and fantastic spin control when you're hitting
11:41bunker shots, chip shots, pit shots.
11:44It performs fantastically well, especially when you consider the price.
11:49But for me, as I started to move further away from the green, I felt as if this was spinning
11:55a little bit too much for me.
11:57And that's where the Callaway Chrome Soft sort of separated itself in terms of performance
12:02because it still offered all those same attributes around the green meant that if I was choosing,
12:07I think I'd probably choose to pay the extra and go for the Callaway Chrome Soft.
12:11But that doesn't necessarily mean that's the right thing for everyone out there.
12:14I think it's a good idea to figure out what your budget is for a golf ball and then make
12:19your choice accordingly.
12:20And if you don't want to stretch to those premium level golf balls, then the Kirkland
12:25Signature 2.0 is a fantastic option that will perform very well.
12:30But it's worth just knowing exactly what you are giving up on.
12:34That's it.
12:35If you've enjoyed the video, please do hit the like button.
12:38But that's it for now from the London Club.
12:40We'll see you next time.