I was lucky enough to win an online golf ball fitting through Twitter from the people at Ballnamic. I managed to get a few options from my session and did a short video on it too. This post adds a bit more context to the fitting, the results and the overall experience.
I first heard of Ballnamic (which keeps getting auto-corrected to balsamic) on the Sweet Spot Podcast earlier this year. It was published on 16th January, 2023 (podcast link) and I really liked their idea.
Having previously experience TaylorMade and Titleist online fittings it was very obvious that you are there for the brand so you have partially made your mind up already.
So the idea of an impartial ball selector appealed to me. There is a connection with PING but they don’t make balls anymore so the selection process should be neutral.
My 2 disclaimers before I proceed: 1) this service is available in the USA only at the moment, presumably because this is 2) paid service.
After, or probably during that podcast I went to the site and noted the disclaimers above and my interest stopped at that point. I was somewhat disappointed.
Jump forward 3 months and out of the blue I responded to a tweet and won a free fitting.
The results were pretty interesting. You get a lot of options to set up the analysis. One of the many differentiating factors were the ability to select where you play. Because the effects of humidity and altitude are a factor in ball flight this is a nice feature.
One of the other great factors is their social media. They are tweeting fascinating insights into the effect of wind for example.
These influences are highlighted in the results you receive. My results can up with a bit of a shock. My ball of choice faired reasonably well but the suggested ball for me was a Bridgestone B X. Whilst the brand is not a surprise, Titleist was always in the mix, it was the fact that it is quite a hard ball, compared to TaylorMade Tour Response that I normally use, and more surprisingly having done some prior research into compression and best fit, the Bridgestone is supposedly aimed at players with a swing speed of 105mph or higher. That is not me.
Overall, it was a good experience. Will I change my ball based on these results? Maybe: if I can find the ball in yellow 😀
I made a short video covering the experience. Check it out and tell me what you think of the process. I have you tried Ballnamic out already? What was your experience? Did you change your ball based on the results or did it already match your current ball?