It’s totally illegal to play a golf tournament with the Polara Golf Ball. The manufacturer is the first to say so. It’s printed right on the outside of the packaging!

A couple of months ago I received a few sample sleeves of The Polara Ultimate Straight and passed them on to some of my golfing friends to try, to test and to review.

These balls are guaranteed to be the straightest ball in golf. If you’ve been losing your golf ball into the woods, the lake or the deep rough and you are ready to just chuck the whole game, this golf ball might just be the rescue you are looking for.

From their website: The Polara Ultimate Straight is the first self-correcting golf ball, reducing slices and hooks by up to 75%. It’s all in the dimples! Check out their website for more specifics.

The manufacturer gave me their best advice for testing the balls and I passed that on to our reviewers. If you buy a sleeve, use this advice to test your own performance:

The key to testing the Polara golf ball on a golf course is knowing what your regular ball will normally do when you hit a certain shot, and then observing what a different ball does on the same shot.

• Do a two ball test. Choose a standard golf ball to compare against the Polara. Use a golf ball you are already familiar with.
• Play at least 9 holes before drawing any conclusions. Use two golf balls on as many shots as you can so you can directly compare the performance between the Polara and the standard ball for each shot.
• Take notes. Try to keep track of what happened with each shot, also note which club you used.
• For each shot type look for differences in performance between the two balls, i.e. high or low flight, how far the ball goes left or right of your intended target, sound, feel and green stopping power on short shots.
• After 9 holes, continue playing only with the Polara

We gave each of our reviewers a sleeve of Polara Golf Balls and this list of testing tips and sent them off to play. Here’s what our golfers had to say:

“I’ve been playing with the Polara golf ball for a couple of weeks. It really seemed to reduce the slice I normally have. However, the ball didn’t seem to make any difference on the putting green, —but I’m a terrible putter anyway. Would I buy Polara Golf Balls? I play in a lot of tournaments, so would probably not buy them for myself, but I would recommend them to others, especially those who are having trouble with the game and no longer having any fun. I contemplated giving one to my husband to try out, as his shots go everywhere, but I didn’t want him to lose one!”

“I didn’t notice any change in my long game or approaching the green when I used the Polara. But, when I was putting, the ball went very straight and appeared to ignore the contours of the green!”

“I gave one of the balls to my boyfriend who has a very low handicap and we played a round of golf together, each of us playing with one standard ball and a Polara. There was some improvement in my long game, and my putting was a little more accurate. But my guy always hits the golf ball straight so he didn’t notice any major difference in his game.”

The Bottom Line: If you are a recreational golfer who plays for fun, but you are having trouble keeping your ball in the fairway and you want to see improvement in your game, the Polara Golf Ball may be just what you need to get your game back on track. It does help straighten out your drives and will improve your short game. And when your ball goes straight, the game is always more fun.

However, if you play in a lot of tournaments and take the game a little more seriously, you might occasionally practice with the balls but not use them on the course. The problem is that they actually deliver on what they promise— even the USGA says the Polara golf ball gives golfers an advantage. For this reason the ball is not allowed in tournament play.

We give Polara Golf Balls 3 1/2 Tees.