2006 Golf Ball Review
Top Flite Straight
by Chuck Quinton

The first test round I played was with this ball, the Top Flite Straight. During the testing process, this ball scored very low for performance and feel and I didn't expect much out of my playing round with the ball. But, as with all things in golf, things are not always as they appear.

While I ranked this ball pretty much dead last overall, I shot a 68 with 5 birdies and 1 bogey on my home course which has a rating of 73.1 and slope of 137. The ball performed just fine in the real world, although it definitely has a unique feel to it. It's sort of a muted dead feeling on full shots and like putting with a steel ball bearing on short putts. Interestingly enough, this actually worked to my advantage as our greens were rolling fairly slow, about an 8 or 9 because of the transition from rye to bermuda grass.

Off the driver the ball played perfectly fine. It didn't feel that great when I hit it well but it still went a good distance and straight, my longest drive coming in at 315 yards. My iron shots did fly about 3-5 yards further than my normal ball (Pro V1x) and didn't spin as much, but still spun plenty on full shots. Every full shot I struck landed and backed up a couple feet, but every half shot I hit released more than I cared for. This makes sense for this ball. What it lacks on half shots it makes up for on a full shots, however. It was surprisingly easy to hit very controlled fades and draws with the ball without fear of one getting away from me. I did hit one ball in the hazard that was a draw with a three wood that the wind hurt helped push left. It moves more than the Pinnacle on most shots, but still doesn't bite you terribly when you overcook one a little.

On and around the green the ball was a rock. It feels very firm and won't spin much on chip shots or half wedges. The ball makes a high pitched "ping" sound off the face of the putter and comes off the face hot. I used a Scotty Cameron Pro Platinum putter and didn't have much feel with it and was afraid of putts going down hill getting away from me. I imagine, however, with a putter with a softer face insert, the ball could play much friendlier on the putting surface. On chip shots, you just have to allow for the ball to release more than with a high end golf ball.

One last note that I found surprising. On shots with as little as a 9 iron or pitching wedge, I scuffed the cover of the ball with the grooves on my irons. For such a firm cover ball, you hate to see it get torn up on short iron shots and not spin more on half wedges. The abrasions were enough to warrant taking the ball out of play twice and this caused me to lower my rating on cover durabilty for the ball.

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copyright 2006 Quinton Holdings