Mike Harris test the new Titleist Pro V1... in yellow! To see whether you should be playing a yellow ball.
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00:00Hello everyone, Mike Harris from Golf Monthly.
00:08You join me here at lovely West Hill Golf Club in Surrey on a very sunny afternoon.
00:14And in this video, I'm going to be asking, should you be playing a yellow golf ball?
00:19The big thing for 2019, the big talking point is that Titleist have finally released a yellow
00:25Pro V1 and Pro V1X.
00:28And we've got different models from, say, all the main manufacturers, Strixson with
00:32their Z-Star, they do a yellow model, Callaway with the Chrome Soft, they do a yellow model
00:38as well.
00:39TaylorMade 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.
00:48So these days, if you do want a yellow golf ball, but you want to play a tour golf ball
00:52urethane covered, there are plenty of options out there.
00:56So let's get out on the golf course and see how the yellow balls perform, both on their
01:00own and also in comparison to standard white golf balls.
01:08Okay, so we're going to do a little bit of a live on course test here, got a yellow ball
01:24and a white ball, see if I can see much difference between the two when I hit drives, approaches
01:30and also on the green as well.
01:32I'm going to go traditional first, I'm going to go with the white ball.
01:39Okay, pop that one up a little bit.
01:46Yeah, I've got it through the blue sky fine, but when it started to drop down, I felt I
01:54lost it a little bit there going back down through the tree line.
01:57So next up the yellow ball, wow, I have to say that was a much better drive than the
02:14first one with the white ball, but I really found it very, very easy to track the flight
02:19of the yellow ball there.
02:21At no point when it started dipping from its pink trajectory did I lose it like I did with
02:26the white one.
02:27That was quite interesting to see that, let's see what it's like down on the fairway playing
02:32an approach shot.
02:33Okay, so I just missed the fairway with the white ball, I've got 180 yards, be interesting
02:38to see this through very dappled, you can see through very dappled light there, a lot
02:42of shadows, see how I pick up the flight of this.
02:59Yeah pretty good actually, certainly saw it come down very well, so no issues there with
03:05the 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, stood over it in the shadow, I actually
03:17really like looking at the yellow ball at address, don't know, it feels, don't know,
03:23possibly look a little bit bigger, a little bit more confidence inspiring, anyway, let's
03:27see how this one goes.
03:35Oh, that's a good shot.
03:37Yeah, very pleased with the outcome, about pin high, but again, really found it easy
03:45to track the flight of the ball there, so at the moment, yellow ball is definitely winning
03:50it for me.
03:51So here we are up at the green, white ball's just made the front edge, left myself, don't
03:56know, 40 foot putt up the hill, one of my impressions behind the ball, well, been looking
04:02at normally a white ball behind a putter head for a long time, it looks good as it
04:08ever did really, got a new black putter, so it's quite nice, that contrast, black and
04:13white.
04:20I've not, I've certainly not given that enough, but yeah, you know, white ball behind the
04:25putter looks very familiar, anyway, let's now see in a much better approach shot with
04:30my yellow ball, let's see how that is.
04:38So probably a 20 footer up the, up the hill here.
04:44Yeah, I really do like it behind the, behind the ball, really nice.
04:48Yes.
04:57I really do like it behind the, behind the ball, really nice.
05:09And a little tap in for par there.
05:11We asked the Golf Monthly social media audience, so on Twitter, on Instagram, would you consider
05:18playing a yellow ball, and it was very interesting, across Instagram and Twitter, it was almost
05:23exactly 60% saying yes and 40% saying no.
05:27On Twitter, we had over 3,000 respondents in a 24 hour period to the poll, very interesting
05:34to read some of the comments there about why you would or wouldn't play a yellow golf ball,
05:39I think perhaps there's been a bit of a stigma that yellow golf balls are for higher handicappers
05:44who are worried about losing golf balls, or maybe for golfers who are older, whose eyesight
05:49isn't as good.
05:50So we've come down to the fourth tee here at West Hill, lovely par three, quite pretty
05:55tricky, and it certainly is right into the sun, as you can sort of see when I turn this
06:00way, I've got the sun really in my face, so going to see if there's any difference between
06:04picking up the flight of the white ball or yellow ball.
06:06Interestingly, we were just chatting to a couple of golfers out here who were asking
06:10what we were doing, said we were doing a little yellow ball versus white ball test, and I
06:14asked one of the guys, would you ever play a yellow ball?
06:16He was a decent golfer, watched him hit a couple of shots, I would say single-finger
06:21golfer, and he said, definitely not.
06:24I guess the information was that yellow balls were not for better golfers, but he did acknowledge
06:32that he'd seen Bubba using it at the Waste Management, the yellow Pro V1, so, I don't
06:37know, it might be that perceptions might change after a while if you see guys on tour using
06:43it.
06:44Yeah, actually found that was a white ball, found that pretty easy to see, I didn't hit
07:07it, it wasn't directly into the sun.
07:10Right-hand side of the green, I would think, when we get up there.
07:28Yeah, I definitely think the yellow ball is easier to see, I think when it goes into the
07:33sun it almost turns black, so again, it makes it a little bit easier to pick up the flight
07:39of, but I'd be very happy with those shots with a card in my hand.
07:44So, that was a really interesting experiment, playing a yellow golf ball against a white
07:48ball, seeing how it looked down at address, and also seeing the flight of it.
07:53What do you think?
07:54Let us know, put a comment below, let us know, have you played a yellow golf ball before?
07:59Would you play a yellow golf ball now?
08:01Any particular, will you be trying out Titleist's new yellow Pro V1 this year?
08:06I'll pick a comment at random and I'll send you a dozen yellow golf balls, just so you
08:10can do a bit of product validation yourself.
08:14If you enjoyed this video, if you find it useful, give us a thumbs up, let us know what
08:17other sort of gear videos you'd like us to have a look at.
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08:25see whenever we release one of our new gear videos.
08:29But, what about the verdict?
08:30Well, as I said earlier at the start of the video, my eyesight's 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 in the flight
08:44of the ball.
08:45Particularly, I've found, today's obviously a lovely sunny day, but in flat light, I definitely
08:50find a yellow ball easier to pick out there when it's sort of dropping out of the sky
08:55at the top of its flight.
08:57I quite like it at address.
08:58You know, a lot of the modern clubs, I've got a black headed driver and also a black
09:02headed putter.
09:03So, I quite like that contrast between the yellow and the black at address.
09:07Don't find it off-putting at all.
09:09I know some people are not keen on the look, and there are lots of different finishes of
09:14the different, you know, 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 to help
09:28pick up the flight of the golf ball, that 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.
09:37Tries different things.
09:38But, I'm certainly, I think, going to be playing a few rounds with the yellow Titleist ProV1X.
09:44ProV1X is a ball that I normally use.
09:46So, I'm looking forward to putting that in play this season and seeing how I go with
09:50it.
09:51But, for now, from West Hill, it's goodbye.