Golf Balls

Review: Caesar Golf Balls

Background

A golf ball without dimples? Crazy you say. Nope, The Caesar Golf Company has managed to remove said dimples and offer a completely smooth, billiard ball like apparatus for golfer to swing at.

If you are a serious, low handicap golfer, distance is all important. Now, for the rest of us, Caesar Golf Company has introduced a revolutionary new ball that helps golfers consistently hit straight shots. It has no dimples. The smooth surface on the Featherie eliminates hooks and slices.

“Dimples create lift at high velocities, increasing distance the ball will fly, but they are also responsible for side spin, a major cause of hooks and slices,” explains Vin Lee, founder, Caesar Golf Company. “This ball flies straight. It lets the golfer do strategic shot placement.”

Designed for Par 3 or 4 courses, private resort and executive courses, Caesar Golf’s new smooth surface ball gives golfers more control. It hits well off the tee with a high lofting wood or hybrid. It’s great for golfers with a slower swing. On a dog leg, it will keep the golfer out of the rough.

The premise is simple…makes sense…but how does it perform on the course?

The Caesar Golf Ball

Look

Imagine a golf ball sized cue ball. Stamp a roman style logo on the side, and there you have it, the Caesar Golf ball. The ball is definitely interesting looking. Play with it, and I guarantee people will ask questions about it almost immediately. If you are looking to make a statement with your golf ball…well you have limited choices. Go Paula Creamer style and play a Pink Precept or hit the toga party with a Caesar Golf ball. There really isn’t much else to it. It really is quite smooth, white…and yeah…that’s about it.

Feel

The Titleist snobs like to call Top-Flite golf balls ‘Top-Rocks’ because they think Top-Flite golf balls feel like a rock compared to the beloved ProV1. The obviously have not hit a Caesar Golf Ball. This thing hurts. Now mind you, it is a little chilly here, perhaps if it were 90 out, the ball would feel a little softer. But even in the 60s-70s here last week, this ball hurt.

Durability

Normally, I do not dedicate a section to this, but one of my first questions with this ball was…what happens when I hit it with some sharp Eidolon grooves? I fully expected this ball to get shredded/damaged/lose it’s smooth surface quickly. I was very surprised to find that this ball is remarkably durable. After numerous rounds of golf…countless lob wedge shots…even a few cart paths…this ball looks like new. Not sure how that works out, but definitely a positive feature of this ball.

Performance

Caesar Golf Ball on the Course

So, typically, people look at three major components of the game of golf: Full Swing, Short Game and Putting. They’re all different, and demand certain attributes from a golf ball. So let’s look at these components individually.

Full Swing

No dimples. On a full swing, you’re going to gain something and lose something with the Caesar ball. As they make abundantly clear in their literature, you will lose distance with the Caesar ball. I found I lost at least 2 club lengths with my irons. I never tried it with a driver, as I was concerned I would damage the driver head (see feel). So yeah I am sure some people can live with the loss of distance, if there is a dramatic improvement in accuracy.

So what do we gain? A little bit in the control department. No question, it is difficult to hook or slice this golf ball. You can still do it, but certainly not with ease. If you have a 50 yard banana slice now, perhaps you can do it…I wasn’t able to. However, what it will not fix is a push or a pull. If you start the ball left or right…they will still go that way…they just won’t slice or hook further off line as much!

My problem here is this, the target audience is high handicap players. If your swing is a mess, you are just as likely to pull or push your shots as you are to hook or slice it. (If you are not sure what a push or a pull is, have a read through this post, it will help you a lot.) Now, you will also be losing at least two clubs of length. So, instead of a high handicapper hitting a 7 iron into a green from 150 yards…they’re hitting a 5 iron. Smaller sweet spot, more difficult to get the ball up in the air, better chance to hit the ball off line. I don’t know, it seems to all cancel out in my book.

One last thing I’ll mention on full swing shots. The ball will take off on a much lower trajectory and, since there are no dimples, you will not have a ‘climbing’ effect of a traditional golf ball trajectory. So the ball comes in a lot flatter, and will roll out a lot further. This helps some with the lost distance, but does not help you if you need to get over something (trap/water/etc). Besides, if water is involved, you probably want to put your $10 ball in the bag, and hit something else!

Short Game

I had mixed results with this in the short game. One great thing about this ball (which I’ll mention more of in Putting) is that the ball rolls very true. So, bump and run shots, or little chips up onto the green, roll out very smooth on the green. Pitches, flew a little lower, but again, roll out nice on the green. If one put a lot of time into practicing with this ball, I am sure it would be fine around the greens. However, you can throw out any type of shot that involves spin…side..back…or otherwise. You always need to play for the roll out.

Going back to feel again, which is a huge component of the short game….it just isn’t there with this ball. It feels like a rock even when you are chipping.

Putting

If this ball shines in one area, it is putting. This thing does indeed roll like a billiard ball on a pool table. If you play on grainy or longer grass greens, you often notice that as the ball slows it is easily influenced by the grass, and will start to veer left or right. With this ball….even as it slows down it continues to roll true. I wish I could just replace my ball with this one whenever I got to the green, unfortunately that’s against the rules of golf.

One problem, again, with this is the feel. Putting with this ball feels very different than any other golf ball you may have used. It feels a lot harder. You will also need to adjust to the speed. Due to less resistance (I assume) the ball rolls much quicker than a dimple golf ball. A couple sessions on the practice green may help you here, but it is definitely a time investment.

Conclusion

For $30 a sleeve ($10 a ball), the Caesar Golf ball is no bargain. Though, given how durable they are, unless you try hitting them over water, I cannot imagine you would have to buy any more than 3 of them. Is it worth $30? If you have money burning a hole in your pocket, and want to mess around with an interesting concept, be my guest. If you are a retiree that plays a banana slice, is living off social security and expect this ball to make you into Tiger Woods…forget about it. Who knows, you may be able to make up for the loss of distance with more roll out. Perhaps the harsh feeling of the ball may not bother you. I do not know. Personally, I would rather buy 30 Top-Flite D2 balls.

It was fun to mess with, trying to hit a hook with it. It definitely was very fun to putt with…like I said earlier, wow..if I could always putt with this, golf would be a lot easier. I would say if you play a short par 3 often, and do not struggle with distance…but fight a big slice, it may be worth a shot. If nothing else, it will be something to talk about with your regular foursome.

Perhaps you can find them on eBay cheaper.

Note Cayman golf is having a sale on these, $20 for 3 balls. Thanks to Jason down in the comments for pointing this out.

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