A new ball has been designed in America, called the Polara ball, which has what it calls self-correcting technology and it ensure that it goes straight, after you have hit it. Naturally, it’s illegal, and you can’t use it in tournament play, but it was still interesting enough for me to try and give it a go and see how it worked.

Essentially, unless you point a green arrow on the ball in the direction of the target, it will behave like any normal ball, and if you miss it, it will slice or hook all over the place. If you point the arrow at the target though, and then try and hit it, as hard as you can, off-line or skew, it will correct its course, and end up flying straight. In other words, the world’s worst golfer could overnight become the world’s straightest hitter of the ball. It really does live up to its advertising, but what they don’t advertise is that in removing quite a few of the dimples that allow the ball to fly through the air, the ball really doesn’t go anywhere near as far as a normal golf ball and it has an extremely awkward flight through the air. I found it extremely off-putting, and I think only a very poor golfer is actually going to enjoy using them, and even then it will be obvious to everybody that he or she is using such a ball, not only because of the distinctive markings on the ball, but the strange way it flies in the air.