Sandwedge

to answer the first question - I hit 3 drives with the soft nike balls - and then went back to my srixons.

to answer the second thread. I am not thinking about softer balls - I just tire them out for fun and out of curiousity. My short game is good. I can usually get up and down in 3 from 100 yards out barring mis hits - which do happen to all of us. this thread was merely to address the distance question with the softer balls. Fair question though. Also important to note that i disagree with your distance assement of drives and that 265 is perfect for most par 5's. granted - 265 yards is certainly a healthy drive in my book and probably most peoples - but I am working hard to get my drives to 300 and am only about 20 yard short on average (this will hopefully change when I go to a 9.5 loft from my current 10.5)
One reason for this is that I play once a week and Bethpage
(2004 US open course)
on the red course (second only to the black course which is even harder and longer) there are 2 par 4's that are over 470 yards - the par 5's are 530 and 565 - so 300+ yards for driving is very helpful to me.
Just my two cents