Initial Impression -- I LOVE 'em! (Some of 'em.)
Are you an aging golfer with failing eye sight? I'm 75, with poor acuity in one eye and a pretty bad cataract in the other. One of my biggest challenges is keeping up with my golf ball, especially in bright, glary, or hazy conditions. Maybe, like me, you've wished for a golf ball that would light up when you hit it and when it lands, so you could find it. (Assuming, of course, that your ball isn't ALWAYS 300 yards in the middle of the fairway...or even if it IS!) Well, these golf balls just may be the answer to your prayers. I don't play TPC or Country Club courses, and my local course has LOTS of little daisies and dandelions all year long. Plus lots of un-mowed grass. I nearly always play bright, matte finish, yellow-green or yellow golf balls, or light colored pink ones at times when there are too many dandelions. I find that deeply colored balls are hard to track in the air and that they don't show up well in deep shade or deep grass. With my usual matte finish golf balls, I usually see the ball in the air (unless it's glary and hazy), but then I lose track of the ball when it hits the ground. I just tried the sample pack of these Chromax M5's, and I was able to track and find ALL of them in any conditions. I want to stress that this is an initial impression, and that I haven't played them in all kinds of light, but even with my poor eye sight I was able to track the ball in the air and on the ground, even in the rough. They really shine! To me, the M5 is just as if a tiny LED comes on when I hit the ball. I was able to track it in flight, and I could follow it when it landed, too. (It does lose it's luster in the shade, but at least you can track the shade it's headed into.) On the ground, it continues to beam out its location. I was even able to locate the blue one in a patch of deep daisies. The only one I nearly lost was the silver one, which I hit into a big mass of deep daisies. But even though I had to search a bit for it, the silver did finally stand out from the flowers, so I was able to locate it. I would NEVER have found a white ball in there! I was playing in bright overcast/broken cloudy conditions, so there was good light, but not full sun. Full sun should set these balls on fire! I haven't yet tried them in dark, overcast conditions, but if they should prove not to work in darker conditions, my matte balls of a bright and light (not deep) color tend to show up well for me in darker conditions. I can play my cheap reloads and save my $3.00 M5's for bright, glary days when it's harder for me to see. If you're a visually impaired golfer, don't be afraid to give these a try. Hopefully, they'll help you. To me, they seem miraculous. My spouse no longer HAS TO accompany me (though I'm happy when she does), just so I can find my golf balls. I've ordered another box of yellow M5's to try. I'll try to remember to add a follow-up review after I've had more experience with them. As for performance, I found that I actually hit these balls farther and truer than any other balls I routinely play -- which include plenty of decent Callaways and Titleists. I'm not sure if that's due to the ball or to my extra confidence, but the way I play, I'm giving the doubt to the ball. FOLLOWUP 2 WEEKS LATER... After more experience with these balls, I RAVE even more about them for golfers with poor or diminishing eye sight. I can now add a little more detail. They do shine less when they roll into deep shade, but (especially with certain colors -- more on that in a minute), the ambient light does still cause them to "glow" if you can locate the shade patch they're sitting in. They work best in brighter conditions (which is exactly when I have more trouble seeing my matte finish balls). I ordered some yellow ones, and I'm just a tad disappointed. They have a somewhat golden cast that makes them less visible than I expected. They do shine, but they can almost disappear among dandelions (of which there are many at the moment where I play most). So far, the most visible colors are pink and green -- believe me, they shine like Xmas lights! And the pink ones stand out in daisies or dandies. The orange ones are fairly good, too -- they shine pretty well (not quite like the green or pink ones), but their unique color makes them pretty easy to pick out from flowers or color variations in the grass. The green ones shine out on the darkest grass at my course (might be different where you play), while the yellow balls are slightly less visible where the grass is yellower -- still visible, just not quite as much as the green ones. I've played them in overcast conditions, but not seriously dark conditions (like, say, late evening or stormy conditions). Naturally, they shine brightly in the sunlight, too, but very bright light can actually compete with the "light" that shines from these golf balls. Still, they're easier for me to see in the air, especially when hitting against a bright hazy sky. Me, I'll be ordering more green and pink ones than the other colors, but I'd encourage you to order the assortment (you don't get all the colors, but enough), and see which ones work best for you. Read more
