I use an old Check-GO religiously. I have used the test you did, aligning the first line vertically, and spinning again. 5+ years ago the retest showed the balance line was returned. TODAY with my Pro-V1x balls the test shows about 75% will not return to the first line, meaning they are so in balance the line means nothing. But 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 are significantly out of balance enough that it does return to the original line. One other thing.... I use a yellow Sharpie to draw that equator line in the spinner. Later I use a black Sharpie and another tool to draw a straight line on top of the yellow line. This prevents too many ugly black lines all over my ball.
On your older version. I think I have the same one without the light indicator. How do you know when your ball is balanced and ok to mark? Do you just wait a while. Thank you
Maybe I'm being a bit too analytical...but. If we have two golf balls. (1) and (B). We test and re-spin ball #1 and get a consistent marked line. Does this not mean that Ball #1 is not perfectly balanced? Rather it has a heavy side that the spinner consistently identifies. However, if we spin Golf Ball B multiple times and have multiple center lines does this not mean that Golf Ball B is perfectly balanced? I'm happy for someone to point out the error of my logic (?) Fore Right!!
Have an older version. Used it for years. Just use a regular sharpie near the regular hole when the original pen dries up. Then use a regular line device along the spin line to add better alignment lines. Add a few adornments courtesy of tin cup and you have the perfect pro v 1….ripe for sailing into the woods.
On your older version. I think I have the same one without the light indicator. How do you know when your ball is balanced and ok to mark? Do you just wait a while. Thank you
I floated 50 balls 24 Kirkland yellow V3 and titleist pro v1 in salt water. They had the exact same fail rate 3 out of every 12 !!!!! I then tried to see if a bad ball would balance with the check and go. The machine found the bad ball fast , it spins up and the line is fat , spin it again and the line never return back to the same place. A floated ball that passed is fine , this product is worth the money, except the pens are speedy. I barely touch the ball, then use an alignment tool to put a nicer line on the ball. This makes the pens last longer . White balls seem to be better for some reason , I only had 10 or so but only 1 bad one , maybe. I will wear my glasses golfing and go back to a white ball. Great test Peter!
Not gonna lie, first, I'm a tradesman, there's a few trades that rely on balancing, I guess you could call me amateur engineer, I scored higher in sciences than math in school. I'm a golfer second, but I'm a sucker for golf gadgets, so one night I saw the check go pro on a golf channel infomercial, and got curious. Found one secondhand on ebay from a goodwill. It was half the price, said what the hell, bought it. Wish I could show pics on here. I did your test, I found my markers were dried out, and a standard sharpie won't fit, but dollar tree sharpies fit. So, I spooled it up once, and marked. A few, I marked with three different colors. I found a few that after 3 marks, and random starting alignment, it comes back to either a dead line, or if the ball is "different", it shows a slight wobble where it marks close to center but a few millimeters east or west. And it's PGA legal!
I have one about 8 years old. I put new batteries in and aligned some new balls I just received. My first 9 hole round I had 7 one putts and two 2 putts. My second nine holes I made five 1 putts in a row and then four 2 putts. Every miss was because I was an inch short (in the heart) or I lipped out. Never going to stop using it again.
I agree, John! I thought this was pretty gimmicky, but I think it's made a difference on my drives and my putts. I've probably underestimated the impact of small imperfections in golf balls for too long.
@@petervonpanda On earth we are constantly living with gravity, how can you make a perfect ball when weight is involved? Take a golf club and balance the shaft horizontal in the palm of one hand. With your other hand turn the shaft then let go, the club head will always point down to the floor because it has weight. But if you drop the golf club with the shaft horizontal, the club head will stay in any position that it is in when you let go. This happens because when the club is in free fall it has no weight. As long as there is weight involved you cannot make a perfect golf ball...Why not just find a liquid that the ball would float in, the heavy side will always be at the bottom? Then you mark the top with a dot. I think??? the spinner will also find the heavier side of the ball to be on the equator line, as it spins so fast the weight is now flying out not down??? Float the ball and see where the horizontal line ends up? My money says the line that was horizontal in the spinner will now be vertical when it floats? That experiment would make a great video. CHEERS ! BTW, you made a great video.
I've had the "old" Check-Go" since forever 😎not only those it balance yur ball, it gives you immediate feed back putting. If you use da line to aim yur ball, a good putt (contact) is a solid line while ball is rolling, there will be no wobble ☺
Have you done ProV1 or ProV1x golf balls yet? I tried it and got interesting results. I think the quality control is much higher on the balls because this tool could not find center on all the brand new balls I had. Maybe I’m wrong. I’d be curious to see what other results people were getting.
Made me want one so I ordered it. Used it on a bunch of balls first and then went back to make the lines more bold/darker and realized that that line you draw while it’s on the machine isn’t straight so standard line drawing tools cannot and will not match up because the lines are not straight.
I would've liked to see a new, current golf ball tested for balance (i.e; Titleist Pro V1, Callaway Chrome, Srixon Z-Star and TaylorMade TP5x). I would expect older golf balls to lack Quality Control but new balls QC should be better these days since they are all marking the balls with alignment aids. I've read that even though most balls today are well balanced, a few per dozen fail.
Just did a two dozen each of Z Stars and Z Star XVs balls, not one of them was in “balance”. I have some pro v’s/avx, TP5x/TP5, and some Bridgestones I plan on doing here in the next few days. I’d be surprised if they are any different.
I have used one of these for years, every ball I play with gets a spin job. I have almost never found the balance point aligning with the alignment mark. I believe the alignment marks from the factory are put on randomly with no regard to the balance point of the ball. Anyone else find this out?
@@mtn1824 Yes. The putting lines on most balls I've tested do not agree with a Check Go or a salt test. My experience is that Titleist makes so many golf balls that their quality control in some sleeves is lacking. They are the number one ball in golf because of paying players to use them, and in advertising to the hilt. I've found many Titleist ProV balls out of balance. The new Callaway balls are better balanced, in my experience with salt testing. The upper level Snell balls, MTB and the Prime series have all been perfect, even when testing them by the dozen. I expect it's because they don't sell as many and the quality is easier to control. Still that theory doesn't match Callaway! Callaway makes a heckuva lot of balls and a lot of pros are paid to play them, and the newer ones, Chrome Soft for instance, have all tested extremely well in the spin and salt tests I have done. I trust the salt test to give a more accurate result than my spin balancer, but they both most often agree well enough. Testing the ball for balance removes one variable which you can control and adds confidence to your shot - cull out the bad balls. The rest is up to us if we use a balanced ball. A bad shot is on our lack of ability, not on the balance of the ball. But do not trust the manufacturer's putting alignment marks!
Ok, please correct me if I'm not getting this right. Shouldn't you putt on the north-south line instead of the equator?? Thought the COG would then be in the middle but you don't know the weight distribution top to bottom so it could either hang at the lip or fall in the cup, atleast should roll straight! Idk, maybe im completely wrong!
I think youre right. If you mark a line using the check go, the cog of the ball is below the line or on the line. If you then use the line to put with , you're fine if the cog of the ball was on the line, but if it was below the line, the ball will pull to the direction of the cog still. With this test you're literally just testing one axis. Think most people fail to realise this. And well... the people who swear by it in reviews are either getting lucky with the cog being on the line (rather than below it) or having confirmation bias skew their putting results. The spinner is simply finding which side of the ball is heavier (on the x axis but not the y axis)! That's why De Chambeau doesn't use this. He uses a bucket of salt water to find which side of the ball is heavier. He marks a line from the opposite spot (not around the middle or equator like this gadget) and uses that to put along.
Don't know if any pros are specifically using this device, but pros for years have been doing the same thing by floating balls in a solution of water and epson salt to find out if one side of a ball is heavier than the other, IE. out of balance. This basically does the same thing.
Yes! I imagine the faster the ball goes in flight, the more you will see the effect of an out of balance ball. Perhaps when putting a long putt on a very fast green you may benefit. The main thing this does (I've had one in use for a decade or more) is to cull out severely out of balance balls. It also gives you confidence. Whether or not a slightly out of balance ball will have a detrimental effect on play is questionable, but confidence absolutely will affect your game.
Amazon or EBay . They work . You spin and balance the golf balls . When putting , watch the black line on the ball ... it stays straight all the way . Just figure in any breaks in the green and your speed . One example putting : I made 3 putts of 33 ' in a row , just had to figure a small left - to - right break . Voila !
Check and go = pet rock! The machine spins at 10,000 RPM. You only place the ball on the tee and to putt. Putting 50 RPM tops and high spin driver spins 3,000 RPM. Save your money.
But obsessing over this sorta stuff is FUN, man! Piddling with this is a fine way to pass the time on a rainy day. You'll spend more on a movie night out.
legend has it after you smash the ball once with your club head. a new geometry has been created. so you might have a use for it if you only putt with that special ball. but sorry to say smashing it with your 100+ club speed and launching it around the course has consequences. believing that all that smashing has no effect on said round ball maybe a Santa clause moment youngsters
I use the ball which has the Check Go line for putting. I am convinced that when my ball hits a tree and is whacked with a 120 mph club that something bad is bound to happen! A person oughta re-check a ball after it's been abused.
I use an old Check-GO religiously. I have used the test you did, aligning the first line vertically, and spinning again. 5+ years ago the retest showed the balance line was returned. TODAY with my Pro-V1x balls the test shows about 75% will not return to the first line, meaning they are so in balance the line means nothing. But 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 are significantly out of balance enough that it does return to the original line. One other thing.... I use a yellow Sharpie to draw that equator line in the spinner. Later I use a black Sharpie and another tool to draw a straight line on top of the yellow line. This prevents too many ugly black lines all over my ball.
Great tip! I like a nice sharp line myself, so I'm going to try it!
I wondered why some did not return to original. So those are the ‘good balls.”
I just went through two dozen balls, V1 and V1x. I had maybe 2 balls unbalanced or returned to the original line.
On your older version. I think I have the same one without the light indicator. How do you know when your ball is balanced and ok to mark? Do you just wait a while. Thank you
Maybe I'm being a bit too analytical...but. If we have two golf balls. (1) and (B). We test and re-spin ball #1 and get a consistent marked line. Does this not mean that Ball #1 is not perfectly balanced? Rather it has a heavy side that the spinner consistently identifies. However, if we spin Golf Ball B multiple times and have multiple center lines does this not mean that Golf Ball B is perfectly balanced? I'm happy for someone to point out the error of my logic (?) Fore Right!!
Have an older version. Used it for years. Just use a regular sharpie near the regular hole when the original pen dries up. Then use a regular line device along the spin line to add better alignment lines. Add a few adornments courtesy of tin cup and you have the perfect pro v 1….ripe for sailing into the woods.
On your older version. I think I have the same one without the light indicator. How do you know when your ball is balanced and ok to mark? Do you just wait a while. Thank you
I floated 50 balls 24 Kirkland yellow V3 and titleist pro v1 in salt water. They had the exact same fail rate 3 out of every 12 !!!!! I then tried to see if a bad ball would balance with the check and go. The machine found the bad ball fast , it spins up and the line is fat , spin it again and the line never return back to the same place. A floated ball that passed is fine , this product is worth the money, except the pens are speedy. I barely touch the ball, then use an alignment tool to put a nicer line on the ball. This makes the pens last longer . White balls seem to be better for some reason , I only had 10 or so but only 1 bad one , maybe. I will wear my glasses golfing and go back to a white ball. Great test Peter!
I spent some time a found that Milwaukee markers work, they come single or as a pack with red, blue, green and black.
Not gonna lie, first, I'm a tradesman, there's a few trades that rely on balancing, I guess you could call me amateur engineer, I scored higher in sciences than math in school. I'm a golfer second, but I'm a sucker for golf gadgets, so one night I saw the check go pro on a golf channel infomercial, and got curious. Found one secondhand on ebay from a goodwill. It was half the price, said what the hell, bought it. Wish I could show pics on here. I did your test, I found my markers were dried out, and a standard sharpie won't fit, but dollar tree sharpies fit. So, I spooled it up once, and marked. A few, I marked with three different colors. I found a few that after 3 marks, and random starting alignment, it comes back to either a dead line, or if the ball is "different", it shows a slight wobble where it marks close to center but a few millimeters east or west. And it's PGA legal!
I have one about 8 years old. I put new batteries in and aligned some new balls I just received. My first 9 hole round I had 7 one putts and two 2 putts. My second nine holes I made five 1 putts in a row and then four 2 putts. Every miss was because I was an inch short (in the heart) or I lipped out. Never going to stop using it again.
I agree, John! I thought this was pretty gimmicky, but I think it's made a difference on my drives and my putts. I've probably underestimated the impact of small imperfections in golf balls for too long.
You’re a great putter!!!
@@petervonpanda On earth we are constantly living with gravity, how can you make a perfect ball when weight is involved? Take a golf club and balance the shaft horizontal in the palm of one hand. With your other hand turn the shaft then let go, the club head will always point down to the floor because it has weight. But if you drop the golf club with the shaft horizontal, the club head will stay in any position that it is in when you let go. This happens because when the club is in free fall it has no weight. As long as there is weight involved you cannot make a perfect golf ball...Why not just find a liquid that the ball would float in, the heavy side will always be at the bottom? Then you mark the top with a dot. I think??? the spinner will also find the heavier side of the ball to be on the equator line, as it spins so fast the weight is now flying out not down??? Float the ball and see where the horizontal line ends up? My money says the line that was horizontal in the spinner will now be vertical when it floats? That experiment would make a great video. CHEERS ! BTW, you made a great video.
@@petervonpanda Check this out ruclips.net/video/_gmCzDfEw1c/видео.html
I've had the "old" Check-Go" since forever 😎not only those it balance yur ball, it gives you immediate feed back putting. If you use da line to aim yur ball, a good putt (contact) is a solid line while ball is rolling, there will be no wobble ☺
Have you done ProV1 or ProV1x golf balls yet? I tried it and got interesting results. I think the quality control is much higher on the balls because this tool could not find center on all the brand new balls I had. Maybe I’m wrong. I’d be curious to see what other results people were getting.
I have one and had stopped using it, but I think I'll break it back out. Thanks!
I figured it would be a total gimmick, John, but now I think there’s something to it!
Honestly so cool thanks for showing us this!
man this has improved my putting by 1-2 putts. been using it this year
No it hasn’t 😂
@chrisanderson4044 im being paid, so please stfu and help me out 🤣
Has actually. Its basic...find the point that wants to roll forward and keep it on that line. I dont see how that doesnt make sense 🤷🏻♂️
Made me want one so I ordered it. Used it on a bunch of balls first and then went back to make the lines more bold/darker and realized that that line you draw while it’s on the machine isn’t straight so standard line drawing tools cannot and will not match up because the lines are not straight.
I would've liked to see a new, current golf ball tested for balance (i.e; Titleist Pro V1, Callaway Chrome, Srixon Z-Star and TaylorMade TP5x). I would expect older golf balls to lack Quality Control but new balls QC should be better these days since they are all marking the balls with alignment aids. I've read that even though most balls today are well balanced, a few per dozen fail.
Good point, Andy! I'll try it with some new balls too.
Just did a two dozen each of Z Stars and Z Star XVs balls, not one of them was in “balance”. I have some pro v’s/avx, TP5x/TP5, and some Bridgestones I plan on doing here in the next few days. I’d be surprised if they are any different.
@@MCash7709 Have you noticed much since this?
I have used one of these for years, every ball I play with gets a spin job. I have almost never found the balance point aligning with the alignment mark. I believe the alignment marks from the factory are put on randomly with no regard to the balance point of the ball. Anyone else find this out?
@@mtn1824 Yes. The putting lines on most balls I've tested do not agree with a Check Go or a salt test. My experience is that Titleist makes so many golf balls that their quality control in some sleeves is lacking. They are the number one ball in golf because of paying players to use them, and in advertising to the hilt. I've found many Titleist ProV balls out of balance. The new Callaway balls are better balanced, in my experience with salt testing. The upper level Snell balls, MTB and the Prime series have all been perfect, even when testing them by the dozen. I expect it's because they don't sell as many and the quality is easier to control. Still that theory doesn't match Callaway! Callaway makes a heckuva lot of balls and a lot of pros are paid to play them, and the newer ones, Chrome Soft for instance, have all tested extremely well in the spin and salt tests I have done.
I trust the salt test to give a more accurate result than my spin balancer, but they both most often agree well enough.
Testing the ball for balance removes one variable which you can control and adds confidence to your shot - cull out the bad balls. The rest is up to us if we use a balanced ball. A bad shot is on our lack of ability, not on the balance of the ball. But do not trust the manufacturer's putting alignment marks!
Ok, please correct me if I'm not getting this right. Shouldn't you putt on the north-south line instead of the equator?? Thought the COG would then be in the middle but you don't know the weight distribution top to bottom so it could either hang at the lip or fall in the cup, atleast should roll straight! Idk, maybe im completely wrong!
I think youre right. If you mark a line using the check go, the cog of the ball is below the line or on the line. If you then use the line to put with , you're fine if the cog of the ball was on the line, but if it was below the line, the ball will pull to the direction of the cog still.
With this test you're literally just testing one axis. Think most people fail to realise this. And well... the people who swear by it in reviews are either getting lucky with the cog being on the line (rather than below it) or having confirmation bias skew their putting results.
The spinner is simply finding which side of the ball is heavier (on the x axis but not the y axis)!
That's why De Chambeau doesn't use this. He uses a bucket of salt water to find which side of the ball is heavier. He marks a line from the opposite spot (not around the middle or equator like this gadget) and uses that to put along.
I don't think that's how this works. It's more like a centrifuge.
At high RPM, the cog will move to the longest rotation... which is the equator.
The ultimate endorsement would be seeing all professionals using this device. Are they?
Don't know if any pros are specifically using this device, but pros for years have been doing the same thing by floating balls in a solution of water and epson salt to find out if one side of a ball is heavier than the other, IE. out of balance. This basically does the same thing.
Bryson has a similar line around his ball.
I like this I have one it works great
I've used this for 3 years and the ball rolls true using the line to putt.
Please!! You have to cut one open to see if you visually see any defects!
What's the difference between red and gold versions
Good review!👍🏼👍🏼
I have both versions of these and have used them for years, I will not play with a ball that is not balanced.
Do you then line up your tee shot with the line vertical or horizontal?
Yes! I imagine the faster the ball goes in flight, the more you will see the effect of an out of balance ball. Perhaps when putting a long putt on a very fast green you may benefit. The main thing this does (I've had one in use for a decade or more) is to cull out severely out of balance balls. It also gives you confidence. Whether or not a slightly out of balance ball will have a detrimental effect on play is questionable, but confidence absolutely will affect your game.
Does it fit a Callaway supersoft max, a slightly larger than standard golf ball
Pretty cool
Dont test it with a scuffed ball. That completely compromised the result
Where can a person find this machine for purchase
Amazon or EBay . They work . You spin and balance the golf balls . When putting , watch the black line on the ball ... it stays straight all the way . Just figure in any breaks in the green and your speed . One example putting : I made 3 putts of 33 ' in a row , just had to figure a small left - to - right break . Voila !
Nice videoooooooo
Check and go = pet rock! The machine spins at 10,000 RPM. You only place the ball on the tee and to putt. Putting 50 RPM tops and high spin driver spins 3,000 RPM. Save your money.
But obsessing over this sorta stuff is FUN, man! Piddling with this is a fine way to pass the time on a rainy day. You'll spend more on a movie night out.
legend has it after you smash the ball once with your club head. a new geometry has been created. so you might have a use for it if you only putt with that special ball. but sorry to say smashing it with your 100+ club speed and launching it around the course has consequences. believing that all that smashing has no effect on said round ball maybe a Santa clause moment youngsters
🤔
I'll try that out next time I go golfing, I don't believe this to be true.
I use the ball which has the Check Go line for putting. I am convinced that when my ball hits a tree and is whacked with a 120 mph club that something bad is bound to happen! A person oughta re-check a ball after it's been abused.