The weather is getting colder in the northeast and although the driving range nearby is heated, sometimes I just don’t want to go to the range.  The stalls may be heated but hitting range balls becomes like hitting ice cubes.

I brought my birdie balls with me to practice over the thanksgiving weekend up in Albany, New York.  The first thing you notice when you pick up a birdie ball is that it looks like a napkin ring.

BirdieBall 12 Ball Box, PGA's "Best New Product"

And you think to yourself, how are these napkin rings going to help my game?

According to the birdieball website:

BirdieBall® by Birdie Ball Inc. is the best golf training aid invented this century! That’s a bold statement, but golf coaches and PGA golf instructors around the world agree, and have voted it the PGA, Product of the Year in Orlando! It is a limited flight practice golf ball without limited feel. True feel with a long hang time, golf ball-like, trajectory! But it only flies 40 yards, so you have your own backyard driving range. Take a full swing. Draw it Fade it. Grab a buddy, get 40 yards apart and hit them back and forth. You wont believe the turbine sound created by the high rate of reverse spin. It’s very durable, in fact Pro Series Birdie Balls won’t break like perforated practice balls or wiffleballs.

Let’s see how their claims hold up.

My father in law had just laid down some new grass and I didn’t want to tear it up, so I used the StrikePad that comes with the birdie balls.

Club Swing Path, StrikePad. Visual Reinforcement

This is a thick, flexible plastic pad that is great for beginners to use, and can be used even off concrete.  It has a spot to place the birdie, and provides a visual reference of the ideal swing path (from the inside).

I wanted to use the birdie balls because of their limited flight.  Although my inlaws have enough land to hit real golf balls, there are some problems doing that, the main one being that retrieving the balls after hitting them is a real pain in the neck.  You have to remember where you hit them, then hopefully you can find them among some lumpy grass.  I’ve lost a fair number of golf balls in their field.

So I went to the backyard, setup the strike pad, picked my target about 60 yards out, and got down to business.

So how do they feel.  They feel like hitting a good quality golf ball.  The manufacturer claims they feel like hitting a ProV1.  I think it’s close.  The beauty is that you can fade or draw them.  I started out hitting some big hooks, but I was able to get into a groove, and a few shots later I was able to straighten out those hooks and hit some nice controlled draws.  You will be surprised at how high the birdie balls do fly.  It really seems like the they take the same flight that a golf ball would take, only in a smaller space.  The 6 iron was hitting was easily reaching 3/4 of the height of the tall trees around me.

That 6 iron was also a blade, and I could really feel the difference between flush shots and mishits.  Overall the feedback was the same as I would be getting on a driving range.  You can hit driver as well with the optional driver tee.

BirdieBall Long Drive, Velocity Tees & Ball. LONG!
BirdieBall Long Drive, Velocity Tees & Ball.
These tees give you the appropriate height for the driver.

Another advantage to birdieballs is that they are so easy to retrieve.  They do sell a shag tube, but for me I’ve found the easiest thing to do is to walk to where they are with my club upside down, so that I’m holding it just below the club head.  Then I stick the grip end into the birdie ball, flick the club up, and the birdieball slides down the shaft of the club.  It is really quick and easy to pick up a dozen birdie balls this way and it saves your back.

I will say the the StrikePad is not the best surface to hit off of.  It is fine if you are a beginner and need the extra forgiveness, and it does remind you of the right swing path, however, it really is too forgiving.  You can hit way behind the birdie and still pull off a good shot.  I was aware of this when practicing, so I didn’t really count any shots that I hit fat.  I focused on hitting the birdie ball first and then the strikepad.  I think the most realistic birdieball practice comes from either hitting them off quality turf, or something like the Country Club Elite Golf Mats I’ve already reviewed.

In my opinion, getting and practicing with birdieballs is a no brainer.  They offer real feedback and their limited flight makes them ideal for practice.  Obviously you can’t use birdieballs to know the distances that you hit your clubs.  Frankly I prefer to get that from the golf course anyway as I find range balls don’t really match the distance I hit my clubs when I’m actually playing.

My wife’s uncle came out to hit some birdieballs with me and decided that “one way or another, I’m going to have these under my Christmas tree this year”.  He decided to tell a few of his golf buddies and now they want them as well.  BirdieBalls live up their claims and I really enjoy practicing with them.

You can order direct from the BirdieBall website or from golf retailers like Golfsmith.

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