Buy These Golf Balls If You Want To Hit More Fairways
With the amount of technological “breakthroughs” and advances in Drivers the last decade, it’s somewhat surprising the golf ball hasnt really seen anything significant since the Pro V1. Until now that is. The fella’s at Polara Golf have come up with the world’s first anti-slice golf ball and much to our testers’ surprise, it actually works!
First, an introduction to our two Guinea Pigs. Wilson Chan is a Hong Kong native and plays off a 24 handicap and plays golf way too much, like 3-4 times a week minimum. Like most hackers, and let’s be clear, he’s a hacker, he hits a 40 yard pull slice that goes about 200 yards. When he does manage to get it straight he can get it out to about 230 yards. Derek Clements is nicknamed the Scottish Sensation, but we think he just made that up himself. He plays off a 15 and hits the ball long and crooked. Much to his displeasure and his playing partners’ wallets pleasure, currently he has a two way miss going, so both players were keen to test a ball that I said would make their balls go straighter.
Our testers played four rounds of golf using all four of Polara’s self correcting golf ball series – the Ultimate Straight, the Ultimate Straight XS, both of which boast up to 75% correction on hooks and slices, as well as the EDS (Extra Distance and Spin) and XD (Extra Distance), with 50% self correcting properties. The course is Kai Sai Chau East Course, Hong Kong’s only public golf course and one of the more difficult courses we’ve played (miss the fairway you lose your ball type thing).
Polara has used all the fancy technology to prove their balls go straight but we wanted to use real golfers just like you, and see how they did. To begin with, here’s the first two comments we got from Wilson and Derek. “F$&*in unbelievable!” and “Are these things legal?!”.
Let’s get the con’s out of the way. These balls are not legal and have been banned by the USGA but hey, any golfer thinking about putting these balls in their bag isn’t going to be teeing it up in a USGA event anytime soon and the guys at Polaris full realise this, which we think could get a lot of people on their side. They’re not trying to be something they’re not and whilst they might have more eloquent words of putting it, they’re basically giving the USGA the bird and saying, “up yours, let’s let the average golfer decide”. For this, (and for other reasons following) we applaud them.
Next, there is a noticeble but not deal-breaking difference in distance particularly with the Polara US. How much we’re not quite sure, but regardless, for both of our testers, the loss in distance wasn’t enough for them to give these balls a bad rating. For those who find themselves searching for their ball or taking a penalty drop from a lateral every other hole, the answer is clear. To shoot lower scores you’ve got to stay out of trouble and avoid penalty shots and Polara golf balls will help you do this.
Lastly, and this was the biggest con for both our testers, in order to get the anti-hook/slice advantages, you need to have the side stamp pointed in the direction of the target, so unless you play lift, clean and cheat, the advantages can only be experienced from the tee box, or if your ball happens to end up with the side stamp aiming at the target. For our testers at least, they’re happy to use a non-conforming product, but they want to play the ball as it lies. Still, for a very large percentage of the high handicap golf population, the tee shot remains one of the most important and both our testers said although it was a factor, the benefits still outweighed the cons.
Speaking of benefits, there’s really ony two words that sum up the Polara Golf balls – “they work”. Both testers say they experienced “dramatic” and “noticeable” improvements in terms of the straightness of their shots. I’m too much of a golf snob to play a whole round with the balls but I teed up 3 and tried to hook the living crap out of them and the most I got was a slight draw.
The Ultra Straight XS was the pick of the bunch for both testers and despite Polara recommending a 3 wood off the tee because of the lower ball flight, both our testers found the balls playable with their driver despite the slightly lower ball flight.
Featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Fox News, Wired, The Golf Channel, ABC’s Good Morning America, ESPN The Magazine, Yahoo Sports and numerous other reputable media channels, the golf balls have been making some noise and with a product that does what it promises (go straighter), Polara Golf appear to have found themselves a nice niche in the highly competitive golf equipment business.
As for the technology, go to Polaragolf.com for an explanation of how they work. The Polara self correcting golf balls can also be bought at polaragolf.com and we definitely recommend trying them for at least one round to see the difference.
We also recommend checking out Win McMurray having a chat to Polar Golf in this video
http://www.golfchannel.com/media/pga-show-012512-polara-golf-balls/
Polara Golf are also currently offering a six ball trial pack for just USD$9.95 with money-back guarantee – impressive stuff.
This ball might not sell millions in the Asian golf industry as most Asian golfers like to use what the Pro’s use (even if it’s to their detriment, which it is the vast majority of time) but there will still be a lot of players wanting to at least give it a try and why not, these golf balls make golf easier.
Check out the Polara Golf Website – polaragolf.com
And find them on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter
http://www.youtube.com/user/PolaraGolf?feature=watch
http://www.facebook.com/PolaraGolf