Review of Bridgestone e6 Straight Distance Golf Balls

It wasn’t long ago that the Bridgestone team brought out the e6 Straight Flight golf balls with their softer cover and core.  Today, they released the e6 Straight Distance, a new series of balls with some different (and highly desired) features.  After receipt of both the e6 Soft and e6 Speed, I instantly put them in the ring against the most popular ball in golf: the Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x.

Bridgestone launched their first e6 line in 2013, and they were able to create a layer between the ball’s core and the cover which reduces side spin and ultimately results in straighter shots.  These balls are coated in surlyn, which is hard to believe since the material normally isn’t found in softer balls.  In fact, the most popular “softest ball in golf,” Callaway Chrome Soft, has a urethane cover which is softer and allows more spin when chipping and approaching targets.

I wanted to thoroughly test these balls out and clearly fate was in my favor as they landed on my front porch on a rate 65 degree fall weekend afternoon.  After putting these balls through the “Home Test” I went to my local practice facility to get a better feeling of performance.  Then I moved to the course for my final test which allowed me to get a full feel on all of the terrain, elevations, lies, etc.

Over the years, golf ball manufacturers have produced many balls that offer both distance and accuracy.  Traditionally “distance balls” offered players more length off the tee but ultimately proved to be less forgiving, thus leading to some long but quite errant shots.   However, Bridgestone’s “Straight Distance” finally provides players with a way to have their cake and eat it too.

The Home Test

When I review golf balls I like to do my own research on weight, bounce, and feel.  To an amateur golfer, it may seemline like two golf balls from different manufactures feel and weigh the exact same in your hands but that is most likely not the case.

From a ‘feel’ standpoint, the Soft e6 balls feel lighter (as they should) next to the Speed version but after putting them on the scale you can quickly see how much lighter they truly are (I used my highly-accurate kitchen food scale for this test).  Compared to the Pro V1 and Pro V1X, the Speed weighs a ‘hair’ less and the Soft is significantly lighter.

I also like to gauge how a ball bounces from a short height (waist high) on a hard surface.  Bounce is a crucial element that contributes to compressing the golf ball for a solid golf shot.  Bridgestone has always been known to have mid to high levels of compression on their golf balls (from various statistics researched).  A better conclusion of compression and bounce would come later when I take these balls out on the course for a full round of 18 (see below).

Although it may not be the “cool” thing to do, I personally feel playing a yellow ball will be and should be on your list of things to try.  I was skeptical at first when  I took it out of the box, but not only is the ball sleek, it was super easy to find on a fall day with fallen leaves as far as the eye could see—and they looked pretty cool rolling into the cup from 10-15 feet out!

The Practice Facility

I was excited to get these balls out on the chipping and putting facilities at my local course and compare them against the balls I have been playing.  With a good friend of mine shagging my e6s at the other end of the range in place, I gave a sleeve of both the Soft and the Speed balls a ride.  All six shots essentially worked out the same except for one I sliced due to a bad outside-in swing.  Needless to say, I absolutely crushed the Speed e6 balls and put two of of them 7-10 yard past my average distance (according to my range finder).  Most importantly, I noticed the side spin was virtually non-existent with the e6 Straight Distance balls.  I see more fairways in my future!

I knocked around a few variations of golf balls as well to see the difference.  I really liked how the Speed balls jumped off the club head and was impressed at the distance.  I normally don’t play soft golf balls as they are not fit for my game, but despite my own preferences I still found that I hit them fairly straight but not as accurate or long as the Speed balls.

Next I moved on to chipping and putting.  Both balls had tremendous roll, and the Optic Yellow balls rolled a little better in my opinion and I’m sure that was all mental—does my eye secretly prefer yellow?   There was something about rolling the yellow ball over the white that I enjoyed more; perhaps the sleek material creates more of a smooth roll.  I don’t know exactly what it is for sure, but I know that I love putting with those e6 Optic Yellow balls!

I tried my best to determine spin control on the chipping green.  I’m not a huge spinner of the ball by any means, but I am able to see a true difference with spin around the greens.

Hitting and putting the e6 Straight Distance balls proved to be a fantastic experience, but my own tests seem to indicate that you may sacrifice a little spin around the greens.  Given my game and handicap I’m all about sacrificing a little spin for the increased level of accuracy I achieved when playing with these e6 balls.

For what it’s worth I did notice these balls stopping a little quicker than my usual ball when hitting a average speed green.  That leads me to conclude that backspin is definitely attainable from wedge and high iron shots.

On The Course

Finally, I took the balls out onto the course for a full round and wanted to review my experience of both the Soft and the Speed e6 balls.  My simple solution was to use one type on the front nine and then the other coming in from the back 9.

For both balls I noticed that shot shaping wasn’t easy since the suryln layered balls don’t overly allow the ball to spin that much.  But that’s okay because I much prefer to focus hitting straight shots so I can land more greens and make more putts.  Of course if you mishit the e6 (like I did on that one shot at the range) or attempt to cut or draw a ball REALLY aggressively, you still can apply side spin to it.

So here’s my take after playing nine holes with each of the two ball types:

The Soft Balls – I never normally play a soft ball; as I said, it simply does not fit my game.  I started my round using them but was ultimately happy to switch to the heavier Speed balls.  After three holes of using the Soft, I noticed my feel around the greens was really good and I was putting shots closer to within ‘gimme’ range more often.  I naturally have a high swing speed so I wanted to stick with a heavier ball going forward.

The Speed Balls – After making the switch, I noticed a huge difference.  I went back and forth with a Pro v1 and the e6 Speed and I noticed less of a side spin on my drives which proved to me that the “Straight Distance” factor was working.  I sent the Pro V1 onto another fairway twice and kept my e6 Speed balls more in play so increased accuracy with the e6 ball was the first plus.

The second benefit of making the switch was the added distance I gained.  My normal drive (when I get all of it) maxes out around 280-295.  I managed to send the e6 Speed ball 307, 312, and 305 on three incredible drives that I measured with both my GPS watch and range finder.  Those are BOOM drives for me!

My Conclusion

From what I’ve gathered in all of my tests I can say with certainty that this is a fantastic golf ball for an amateur golfer.  It is definitely true that some balls are more forgiving than others and Bridgestone really hit the mark here for anyone who struggles with hitting the ball straight.  I applaud Bridgestone for creating golf balls tailored towards the skill level of every golfer.  I played pretty darn well that day and I owe a lot of it to my great tempo and the golf balls from Bridgestone that I was playing.  Bravo!

So when you’re ready to try them for yourself you can score these new Bridgestone e6 Straight Distance golf balls at any major golf outlet store or order them on Amazon.  I did a quick search  myself and found that you can grab three dozen of these balls on Amazon for $54.99, which is the cost of just one box of Pro V1s!  That should turn a few heads.