Direct to Consumer Golf Balls

Equipment
#1

I’ve been playing Snell golf balls for the last 4 years. I played the original MTB, then the MTB-BLACK. Recently I started playing the MTB-X, but have noticed the durability isn’t great. When I first started playing Snell I could get through 3+ rounds with one ball. Now they look like they’ve been through a war zone after 1 round. The X seems to be less durable than the Black, but both have been disappointing. Has anybody else seen durability issues with Snell? Did I just get a bad batch?

I’ve been thinking of trying Vice based on my experience with Snell this season. Anyone have experience with those?

#2

I’ve hit the Vice a couple rounds and it performs as well as any other ball I’ve hit.

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#3

I’ve been using the MTB-X since they came out, not sure I have seen the same durability issues. They seem to decay at the same rate I’ve seen from other premium balls. I’ve tested, and the looks of the ball often don’t really show its performance capabilities. Here’s some testing I did on used golf balls

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#4

My Sub70 wedges with 150+ rounds just tear up the cover. But that is good info. I’ll work on not becoming looks obsessed. :smirk:

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#5

I don’t lose a lot of balls and will continue to play a ball until it looks REALLY bad, so that means my ball budget SHOULD be really small, but unfortunately I wind up buying in bulk when I see a good deal on a ball I wanted to try, so I wind up with several dozen balls I’ve moved on from. Fortunately, I also never buy full retail balls. Currently play the TP5 Pix Practice marked ball for $19.99 a dozen. If anyone wants 50 near mint Project (s) matte orange balls, or 36 refurbished TP3 Penta balls for cheap I might be able to help you out…

On the OP question, I noticed the original generation of Vice balls cosmetically tore up very easily (still playable, but looked ugly), but I have not noticed that with later generations or any other DTC balls I’ve played.

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#6

I wish I could play as much golf as you :joy:

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#7

I’ve been playing the MTB-X a couple months now. I used to shred ProV1s with my wedges. I don’t have any durability issues with the Snells without sending one up a cart path.

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#8

Weird. A friend of mine went back to the ProV1X because he was shredding the MTB-X with his wedges and does have the same happen with the ProV1X.

#9

I have noticed a durability issue, but only when I hit the trees, desert rocks, or cart path. Hahaha.

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#10

I play MTB Black sometimes and have not noticed a durability issue with the white balls. The yellow though do seem to show more wear to the yellow color on the cover than yellow Bridgestone and Titleist balls.

DTC - Who do you play and what has your experience been like?
#11

I know with Titleist premium balls, the yellow color is part of the urethane cover process, not just painted on. I wonder what Snell’s process is.

#12

It seem to be painted. See some white coming through at the end of a round. Bridgestone Tour B RX is my normal ball and, like Titleist urethane balls, it is part of the cover and never see that issue with them.

#13

Hey guys, Jason Almeida @ Snell Golf checking in, director of sales & marketing here. Happy we could jump into the new forum and hear from you guys. @Golfer_Jake_78, sorry to hear you have had durability issues, I can’t say we hear that too often. Reach out to me at [email protected] as I would like to learn more and help you out. As for the yellow balls, you are correct that some yellow models have painted covers to make them yellow and others have a pigmented cover material. Some materials like Surlyn and cheaper TPU urethane are easy to pigment. Cast urethane is much tougher (and more expensive) product to the pigment which is why it has been painted yellow for many years now. Titleist has a bit more resources than us (by just a little, LOL), and does now have a system to color the cast urethane that we cannot yet offer. When you damage the paint layers, it does not impact performance but you can now see the natural urethane underneath the paint layers. Let us know of any other questions, happy to hear directly from players at Practical Golf :slight_smile:

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#14

Thanks, Jason - it’s nice to see we have a few companies communicating directly on here already!

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#15

I’ve played both the MTB Black and X and haven’t noticed a durability issue compared to other similar balls.

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#16

Thanks Jason. I’ll reach out here in a bit.

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#17

@SnellGolf I’m curious about urethane… Why is it so much better other materials and what are the trade offs for using it? It seems like the biggest challenge is applying it to the core… I think I remember a story about Dean hand applying covers in the original days!

Have we more or less optimized the cover of golf balls? Is it possible or even desirable to develop a golf ball that generates 25% more spin around the greens and 25% less spin off the driver?

I guess my basic question is: Is there a “perfect” design for a golf ball, and if so, how close are we to getting there?

#18

@Craigers, great questions. I will answer to the best of my ability here and anything above my head I will bring to Dean LOL. In general, urethane helps offer higher spin and durability to golf balls. The Cast urethane golf balls are able to have a very thin cover that provides better short game control and feel without sacrificing ball speed, it more expensive to produce and cannot be reused if a mistake is made in manufacturing. Thermoplastic urethane still is a good process but cant be made as thin and also is able to be reground and “remelted” (my own non technical term) so it is more cost-effective in case of manufacturing defects. This is why many manufacturers do not use the cast urethane process.

As for the perfect golf ball, in my opinion today’s high end golf balls are pretty close to perfection. The multilayer process that Dean played a pivotal role in, allows manufacturers to produce balls high in ball speed with low driver spin but high short iron spin. So we are able to effectively reach launch/spin numbers that are close to perfect. Of course, those numbers become player dependent as well.

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#19

Once y’all figure out how to make the ball that’s NOT player dependent, you’ll really be on to something! :wink:

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#20

and taken over by the USGA/PGA Tour as the official ball to be used by all professionals