Carver Golf Ball Review

While you can pick and choose when to upgrade and invest in other equipment-related areas, if you’re running out of golf balls you’ll need to buy more. Carver is a brand that offers golfers the chance to buy its 3-piece, urethane-covered balls either as a one-off online purchase or through a monthly subscription. The idea is to offer golfers a product that performs to a high level but that doesn’t come with a premium price-tag. 

I wanted to see for myself whether this Carver offering is among the best mid price golf balls worthy of consideration so I tested them both on the golf course and using a GCQuad launch monitor up against my usual golf ball - the more expensive, Tour-played Titleist Pro V1x. 

Let’s begin with the short game. If you are thinking of investing in urethane-covered golf balls, you’ll want good levels of control when hitting into the green. As I played with the Carver ball on the course I could see the spin control was good. The ball was checking up promptly even in firm, fast summer conditions. The launch monitor data backed this up. I hit a series of 50-yard shots with both balls and it was the Carver that delivered more backspin: 8107 rpm versus 7089 rpm.

The feel of the Carver ball was also neatly balanced. Soft enough to feel responsive without being too hot off the face and lacking control. For me, the feel is always an important part of the mix when it comes to choosing a golf ball and the Carver option felt like it would be playable throughout different conditions through the year. It was similar in terms of feel to the 2022 version of the Titleist Tour Speed golf ball.

The high spin performance was again evident during my 7-iron testing, where the spin rate was again over 8000 rpm. This is certainly higher than I’m used to seeing from the best golf balls with my 7-iron and as a result the carry distance was 8-yards shorter on average than with the Pro V1x. The Titleist ball too flew slightly higher.

It was a similar story off the tee as well. An ideal driver spin rate for me is around 2000 rpm. During my testing session the Titleist Pro V1x came out at 1986 rpm and delivered an average carry distance of 291 yards. This is superb distance for me. The Carver spun at 2896 rpm and delivered an average carry distance of 264 yards. It is worth pointing out here that I’m a relatively high swing speed player (my driver clubhead speed is around 112 mph). It would be fair to say that I struggled for distance with the Carver ball off the tee but that it is possible the same might not be true for slower swing speed players.

This brings me back to the on course performance. I used the Carver ball in a handicap-counting round and was pleased with how I played (I finished two shots over my handicap of 3). My Arccos data showed that my Strokes Gained stats actually improved in the long game versus recent trends but that I struggled with the putter. How much of all of this was down to the ball is hard to tell. What I would say however is that I don’t think my score was adversely affected by using a less expensive urethane-covered ball. 

My final comment is on durability. One thing that Titleist has clearly worked hard on over the years is ensuring that its flagship ball is better able to cope with the stress of normal play. For instance, rarely does a Pro V1 scuff up badly after a well struck wedge shot. As the image above shows, the Carver doesn’t offer quite the same level of durability. How much this affects performance I’m not sure but for those who like their golf balls to look pristine for longer, this is an aspect worth considering.