golfrewind.com

My game and wallet have me purchasing balls in the "Value" category and over the past few months I have played a combination of the HX Hot, Bridgestone e6 and e5, Titleist NXT, Top Flight D2 and Nike Power Distance. The overwhelming winner for me is the Pinnacle Exception and I was even curious to try the Pinnacle CLR.

I was on the Pinnacle website today and found a press release for two new Flagship balls Platinum Feel and Platinum Distance, Pinnacle Golf
They say that the Platinum line is an improvement to the Exception which is very exciting to me.

The article says the balls would be available in mid Sept. but I have not been able to find them anywhere as of yet (I live in Nor Cal).

Has anyone played either ball and do you have any initial impressions?

I play the Pinnacle Gold Long Drive balls for scramble tourneys for the maximum distance, reduced spin from my usual ProV-1, and the fact that I can get tanked up, hit 10 of them into the woods and not even care because they're $12 for a 15-pack.

They're good balls for distance, nothing more. Forget about any sort of short game spin. Acushnet saves that attribute for Titleist.

Martini, have you ever tried the Exceptions? They are definitely not your typical Pinnacle ball. They are a good two-piece that actually do have some good spin and feel. I prefer Srixon's AD333 over them, but I did like the Exceptions when I bought a box.

I played practice rounds with the Exceptions I found (they're all over the woods at the courses near me) and I couldn't even compare them to NXT Tours... I love playing V1's for the simple fact that I can hit a low pitch that takes two hops and then slows to a trickle. I couldn't get that type of response out of any Pinnacle I've hit. For full shots, they're fine. The 75-yards-and-in performance just wasn't there for me. They were soft-feeling, but that's about it.

The AD333's are very good balls. There again, you don't get V1 control on pitch shots, but they are durable and long as could be. I think they're phasing them out for the new Tri-Speed if I'm not mistaken.