Prazza Findable Golf Balls

[Solutions Etcetera]

A review of the lossless golf ball

Losing golf balls is a way of life for me. I play a mountain forest course, and two per round is my average; with bad days being as much as six. Perhaps that is why HipCheck asked me if I wanted to check out a new device designed to make lost golf balls a thing of the past. The device is called a Prazza, and was kindly provided by the great folks at InTheHoleGolf.com for the purpose of this review.

Overview
Looking a little like an iPhone on steroids, the Prazza is approximately 3 inches wide, 5 inches tall, and weighs in at about six and a half ounces. While it is only about three quarters of an inch thick, an additional three quarter inch protrusion at the front underside makes it a bit too large for me to consider it an easily pocketable device. That shouldn’t be a problem for most as looking for missing-in-action balls is hopefully only required a handful of times during a round.




The top face of the unit includes a very bright 1.5 inch circular color LCD display, and a lighted battery level meter just below it. It is clearly readable in sunlight, with either regular or even polarized sunglasses.

It is supplied in an almost presentation style plastic case that has two removable trays that stack nicely to hold the device and its accessories. These include an instruction guide, USB-to-Mini USB cable, a small charger brick that bares a striking resemblance to an Apple USB charger, and two specialized Prazza golf balls. I couldn’t help notice that the charger supplied with my sample did not quite fit the molded place holder designed for it in the bottom tray. I am guessing that Prazza sourced a different model of charger after the tray was finalized.

While everything fits nicely in the case and it certainly protects it during shipping, I don’t see its size and shape to be all that practical for use in a golf bag. I would have preferred seeing something like a small pouch that is more inline with the size of the unit for storing in your bag.



About the Golf Balls
Obviously, you must play a Prazza golf ball. What is special about the Prazza ball is that it contains an embedded RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip designed to return the transmitted signal of Prazza hand held, allowing it to home in on the ball. Prazza claims that, since their system uses an active RFID chip with its own power source, the golf ball can be picked up by the unit as far away as 100 yards. This also means the Prazza will only recognize the individual ball it is paired with.

The active chip actually means there is a small battery in the ball. The ball is activated when struck, and continues to be active for a period of 30 minutes. Prazza states on their web site (but not in the user guide) that this battery is rated for a minimum of 120 eighteen hole rounds. Unfortunately I have no way to confirm that statement within the confines of my testing.

The included balls appear to be a two piece distance type ball. When comparing to other two piece balls I have played recently (Noodle, D2, Neutron, Volvik Crystal) the Prazza balls are noticeably ‘clickier’ off the putter and wedges. This is definitely not a soft feeling ball. They also seem to be a few grams lighter than the rest of the balls in my bag. More on the balls a little later.

Operation
The instructions recommend an initial charging period of 24 hours (and then a typical re-charge time of 4 hours). After that it was time to pair the ball with the Prazza unit. To do this you bounce a ball on a hard surface to activate it (impact activates the ball for a period of thirty minutes). Then hold down the main button on the face of the unit until you see the concentric rings on its circular, 1.5 inch color LCD display, after which you hold the ball within a few inches of the unit it until lets out a long beep. At this point the display will indicate the level of the battery in the golf ball using 5 little icons, and the device will now track that ball. Note that you can check the power level of a paired ball at any time by just holding it within a couple of inches from the front of the unit.

The Prazza has two modes of operation; audio and vibrate. The documentation indicates pressing of a small silver button at the bottom of the unit next to the mini USB port toggles these two modes. However, initially my sample unit refused to enter silent mode when pressing this button. This turned out to be an issue with how I was turning the unit on. The main button on the face of the unit is not very positive. In fact, it is not really a button at all. It is some kind of momentary switch under a membrane that covers the face of the unit, including the display. When I initially pressed it nothing happened, so I just assumed you needed to press and hold until the unit powered up. This is not the case… for when the unit is powered up this way the audio/vibrate mode can not be changed. Instead a single, firm, momentary press of the button will power up the unit after a brief delay, and then the audio mode can be changed. I see this as a minor glitch which should be fixed or at least mentioned somewhere as I found it a bit frustrating until I stumbled on to the solution.

Another discovered feature not mentioned in the manual is that the unit will automatically turn itself off after 5 minutes of inactivity. I am assuming that means no relative position changes between a unit and an activated ball, and that was the case with my tests.

In testing if re-pairing the device with the second ball would indeed result in the unit ignoring the previously paired ball, the unit locked up with a blank screen with only the outer ring and battery meter lit up. Pressing the main button momentarily, or pressing and holding would not reset the unit. After examining the unit very closely I discovered a small hole in the back of the unit one can insert the end of a paper clip into to reset the device. Again if would have been helpful if this was mentioned in the manual.

Performance
We went out for 18 on Thursday, me and my regular playing partner, along with Paul Shorts, G.M. at Apple Mountain Golf Resort. Wouldn’t you know it, I had no need to look for my ball through the first 6 holes. On the 7th tee, I asked my buddy to hide my ball while I was not looking. He picked a spot up the hill from the tee box in very heavy vegetation.

Only knowing the ball was within 25 feet or so of the tee box, I whipped out the Prazza and turned it on. It started beeping immediately, and while following the arrow, I began homing in on my ball. The directional indicator was not quite the “James Bond” experience I was expecting. The arrow’s direction seemed ambiguous at times, although the beeping was more consistent.

I found it to be more effective to hold the unit out in front of me, moving it back and forth in an arc (not unlike searching for water with a divining rod), rather than immediately changing my walking direction based on the arrow. The arrow refreshes its position every second or two, and moving the unit this way gave me more samples to calculate the best direction to proceed. The end result was that I found my ball in approximately one minute, lying in tall grass under a small shrub. The bottom line here is that without the Prazza (or a large degree of luck), I seriously doubt I would have found my ball in any amount of time.

Feeling pretty confident at this point, I decided it was time to purposely hit one into the woods. I carved my driver off of the 8th tee, knowing it would land up the hill in the woods right of the fairway. Switching on the Prazza, it was now silent, with a blank screen. As I reached the fairway the unit sprang to life, showing me an arrow and a tiny golf ball. I proceeded to the general direction where I went out, got out of the cart, and started the process of homing in on the ball. While I did not know it at the time, I was practically 50 yds away. The Prazza still picked up the ball and about a minute later I was standing over my ball in heavy pine straw under some trees.

My second shot hit a nearby tree and was deflected further to the right. I had no idea where it landed but was now confident enough to just grab a wedge and start walking. Sure enough, the Prazza took me to my ball in easily under a minute... behind another tree.

During the rest of the round I had several opportunities to look for my ball and found it quickly with the Prazza. I didn’t lose one ball. Note that there were a couple of tees I didn’t play the Prazza ball. #14 for example, because if you are the slightest bit right, you can’t get down the heavily brushed ravine to recover it, even if you know exactly where it is.

I want to note here that my playing partner could have used this device as well on a couple of holes during the back nine. We knew his ball was close by, but just couldn’t find it. This brings up something I feel is a bit of a shortcoming of the Prazza. It will only pair with “one” ball at a time. It would have been nice to use it to find both mine and his ball.

During most of the back nine the course was backed up, giving us the opportunity to hit two balls off the tee and compare the distance of the Prazza ball with other balls in our bags. Off the tee and on approaches we all felt the distance was comparable to other balls we were playing. This included the Top Flight Gamer, Bridgestone RX, and NXT Tours. Note that the sound and feel off the clubs were decidedly different with the Prazza ball.

As a high handicapper, I am not a ball snob, and usually buy 6 dozen of whatever decent ball I get a good deal on, so this was not something that really mattered to me. The Prazza ball went where I hit it, just like the other balls in my bag. However, on the greens was a bit of another story. My distance seemed all over the place, with me mostly coming up short. I am sure that in time I would get used to them but their feel/feedback was decidedly different than the Gamer and a number of two piece balls I play (D2, Neutron, Noodle), and I had trouble adjusting to it.

So What’s Not to Like?
One reservation I have about the Prazza is the perceived build quality. While I mentioned earlier its similar look to that of an iPhone, the similarity ends there. For a device in this price class ($300), it feels a little cheap. As previously mentioned, the main button is not positive at all. It takes a good deal of pressure to actuate it, and I found myself fumbling with it a number of times.

The screen/face of the unit is covered by what feels to be an adhesive backed membrane that is soft and easily scratched, and the exposed USB port and the aforementioned reset switch lead me to feel that getting it wet is not a good idea. I think this is an issue as the size of the device makes pocketing it before taking your swing uncomfortable. In my case, I simply set the unit on the ground and thankfully it was dry out. Perhaps if Prazza offered some kind of skin type case for it I’d feel better about getting it wet.



I am not crazy about the golf balls themselves. Hopefully Prazza can improve on them in the future. It would also be nice to see if they can get the price down on these. Where I played, had I hit the Prazza ball off of every tee, three would have been unrecoverable and I would have been out forty bucks to replace them.

The documentation is a little sparse, being illustrative only. Even though the device and operation are simple, I think the non-tech-savvy user may be a little frustrated by the lack of info.

With all that said, the unit worked as described for me, and while I don’t know anything about the quality of the electronics inside, Prazza’s 2 year warranty seems to indicate they have confidence in the reliability of the device. Their customer support has been very responsive and I don’t think they had any idea I was reviewing their device.

Final Thoughts
The Prazza Golf Ball Finder is probably not for everyone. Clearly not the budget golfer as the unit and balls are not inexpensive. And for those that are religious about posting their rounds, you should know the Prazza is not USGA legal.

But I don’t keep an official handicap. And using the Prazza did make my round a lot more enjoyable. The course I play most often has a lot of places for a ball to hide... even if just a few yards off the fairway. I can’t tell you how many times I was pretty sure I was in the fairly only to find nothing, spending several minutes looking, coming up empty, and having to drop another ball. The total removal of that frustration really made a noticeable difference.
I’d like to see the USGA change their rules on this. The pros have the course lined with spotters; why shouldn’t amateurs have a similar advantage? Hell, if everyone played with one of these I am sure the average round would speed up by a half hour or more.

If Prazza could improve the feel of the golf balls a bit, and update the unit to find my partners’ balls as well, this would be a no-brainer for me. For now I have a couple of considerations, the most significant being that it’s not quite fair to be able to find only my ball.

[yihochin]

Thanks for the very thorough review.

[coozapalooza]

Thanks for the review, I had no idea such a thing even existed.

[herkyjerk]

Good review and I bet more and more of this is on the way. Let's see it pull them out of the drink though. Golf balls are meant to be lost. It's the punishment for a bad shot.

[albatrosser]

wouldn't you have to lose a LOT of golf balls to get any sort of return on your money at $300 ??

[Phireside]

I could knock 2 into the water pretty easy. Now what?

[Jasarii]

cool product, but won't be droping the $ on that. I guess if someone is losing 10 golf balls every round, then they dont need a high end ball and needs one of these.

[mrgo26]

Would this appeal to you if you didn't have to fork over the $200 for the receiver?

[chasd3]

I usually find 3 balls while looking for mine

[Awal]

I just don't think the economics work. If you're losing 6+ balls per round, then you're likely not playing ProV1s (or if you are, the price is obviously not an issue for you). You can get better quality balls, than what I assume the typical Prazza ball is, from Lost Golf Balls for less than $1/ball. Lose ten in a round, and you're out less than a Hamilton. Hit a couple of Prazza balls into the water, and you're out $27+.

I'm glad I'm not an investor in Prazza.

[SwingBlues]

I USE to play with a high handicapper, althought he has at least 8 to 10 dozen balls and he's partially blind until recently, he would ask I sight his ball. I do it most of the time but since hes had eye surgery he's got a whole ton of vision back. However, it's implicit I keep an eye on his ball but sometimes things don't happen that way especially when he's in a cart and I am walking and my ball is in the trees/rough - he gets SERIOUSLY MAD at me, to a point that I had enough and stopped playing with him. I like to keep up with the pace of play but he takes like 3 swipes before his ball comes anywhere near my drive ball...and then I have to start looking on my own - as a conseqeunce, you guess it, we are behind. When he loses his ball....I use to tell him, drop a ball, it's not a tournament we are playing in and he's not posting...but enough is enough with his anger at me just because I was walking and not stopping each time he hits his ball. I think he needs one of these...

Back to the OP, NIE REVIEW, gave u a like for the effort.

Its a great idea but needs some serious improvement for portability and toughness. Those balls need to come WAY down in price and if Prazza can partner up with say, Srixon and add in the RFID, they have a chance in the market. I would certainly use one if the price is right, the amount of times I have lost balls in the "Bermuda Triangle" on one hole is worth alleveating the frustration & cost.

[Hateto3Putt]

Hey my first PC was $3,000+ with a monochrome monitor and a 7 inch (?) floppy disk drive. (this was back when 3 grand was a ton of money!)

Like any other technology, the pricing (hopefully due to competition) on these will come down, while the performance will improve.

Give it a few weeks........

[KILLEDBYASHANKEDWEDGE]

I have used thechnology similar to this for positive identification of an instrument via the embedded RFID chip.

[Bad9]

[quote name='albatrosser' timestamp='1309615412' post='3358861']
wouldn't you have to lose a LOT of golf balls to get any sort of return on your money at $300 ??
[/quote]

That's what I was thinking. For the balls I play, Wilson Staff 50 Elite and now Duo's it would take years. Even playing high end at Canadian prices I would take 2yrs for sure.

[harold baines]

this is a silly idea, most of the time when you lose a ball... it's not somewhere you can just walk over to

they need to put this technology into golf tees, I always lose my tee's after my teeshot, and usually the tee is within a few yards but I just don't know where it is. I waste way too much money on tees because of this.

[Solutions Etcetera]

OP here... interesting to see this thread resurrected after so much time. The Prazza has a new home now; a very nice guy with impaired vision, and it has made a difference in his enjoyment of the game.

Aside from him, this unit is kinda a catch 22 situation. It is not USGA legal, but if it were... it would have serious impact on pace of play for anyone who is a stickler for the rules. Man, getting behind a group or two that are playing tournament golf can be brutal where I play. For me, I will never go back and re-tee on a lost ball. I just drop one and get on with it.

[Joebirds55]

I'm picturing Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men....

[AFatMonkey]

Good idea in concept, making it feasible is another issue. 300 bucks for a rock hard golf ball, doesn't seem that appealing. What happens if you hit it in water, super high grass, down a mountain, etc… yeah you'd know it's over that way, but still wouldn't be able to find it

[OneShoeMike]

Of course this is the future. The price of the balls will drop and the receiver will get smaller and better.

Your favorite golf ball manuacturer will offer them as well or else lose market share.

 

The balls will perform just as good. The implanted chip is small and the weight is insignificant.

 

The technology will blow you away. Just as the technology of cell phone advancement has.

 

The only nay sayers are the golf ball manufacturers who will lose sales.

 

These balls will just make golf more fun and reduce the time of play.

[Stuart_G]

The potential is certainly there but as long as the USGA and R+A deem the use of such devices illegal, I doubt the demand will increase to the point where that will happen.

[Shrapnac]

Five years, 19 posts later and still no one is using this technology.