Golf Ball Buyers Guide
For any beginner golfers, it’s important for you to remember that you will use your golf balls every time you take a shot unlike a driver or putter. This is why it is extremely important that you buy the best ones to suit your playing style. With a myriad of golf balls available on the market, targeting a whole range of abilities, deciding on the best option for you can often take some time. The Sports Techie community blog readers and followers possess a wide assortment of skill levels per sport, golfing is no exception. Seasoned and new golfers alike that take advantage of the newest sports tech enhanced products usually perform and score better than past performances as a whole. Golf balls are designed and assembled with so much advanced technology nowadays, players a hundred years ago would mostly be clueless about dimples while at the same time being amazed at how much control and added power each ball rendition supplies rookie players.
To help give you a head start, we’ve pulled together six things you need to know about golf balls and one factor that may be the real difference maker, or not.
Construction
There are five different types of golf ball construction, each of which are specifically designed for a different style of play.
First up we have the one piece, which is typically used on crazy golf courses and driving ranges. This type of golf ball is made from a sold sphere of Surlyn and has moulded dimples. These balls are inexpensive and will not travel as far as other balls. The two-piece is a popular combination of both distance and durability. A three-piece ball has a solid rubber core that is encased in a synthetic plastic cover. This enables advanced golfers to impart more spin on the ball. The five-piece ball is relatively new, and its five-layer design is meant to optimize performance in key playing areas.
Dimples
The dimples on golf balls are designed to create lift and reduce drag by creating a thin layer of air that clings to the surface of the ball and makes it travel further. The vast majority of golf balls will have from 250-500 dimples.
Compression
Compression is a measure of how much your ball will compress against the clubface when it is hit. The amount of deformation that occurs will have a significant impact on the energy transfer from your club to the ball. The more a golf ball is compressed, the further it will travel.
Feel
The overall feel of a golf ball is directly influenced by its construction. Some balls will feel firm, whereas others will feel soft when hit off your clubface. The most durable balls are often two-piece balls, as these have a solid rubber core. Typically, these will reach greater distances.
Spin
Your golf ball is designed with either low, mid or high spin. This refers to the backspin that comes from the loft of your golf club. A low spin ball will best suit golfers who struggle to find distance. A mid spin ball is aimed at the widest range of golfers. This ball is suitable to use in all conditions. Lastly, a high spin ball is designed to create a longer carry. This ball offers added control.
When it comes to choosing the right golf ball for you, factors like price and how many you are likely to lose will come into play. If you have a bigger budget and know you aren’t likely going to lose to many of your golf balls, you can even order your own personalized golf balls online.
We definitely recommend testing out a few different brands to see which option you like to use on the course and some brands will even give you the option of ordering personalized golf balls.
Sports Techie, spring is in the air, golf season has arrived and Tiger Woods is making another comeback attempt. His persistence shows me his love of the game, emotions shares by millions of fellow human beings. Tiger also showed me the way to possibly better golf scores by screaming at his ball.
My brother and I followed Tiger early in the day on Thursday during the 1998 PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club and he literally talked to his golf ball, I kid you not. This was a three par hole and most of the professionals were laying up to the water hazard but not Woods. He went for the green in one stroke. As the ball left the tee he yelled emphatically, “get up there” as if it would help the ball perform better than expected. The ball did exactly as Tiger willed clearing the pond and sticking on the green nearby the hole.
Was it Tiger’s skills, his verbal shout out, or the club and ball technologies that delivered the shot, or perhaps was it a combination of all three? I wouldn’t argue with fans that feel Tiger yelling at his ball was the key difference maker but I tend to lean on his perhaps GOAT skill level, his caddy’s advice, the clubs he used that day and of course, the ball selection, all impacting his score more than saying a word out loud.
That same tournament, I found Fred Couples ball hit off a tree into the rough. Maybe if he had yelled at the ball and told it to avoid the tree, it would have found the green as Tiger’s shot did.
Just sayin’.
Turns out, they are not alone on the PGA Tour.
Players talking to their golf ball
I am happy to learn in this PGA Tour video that my favorite golfer, Jordan Spieth, try’s not to but still talks to his ball.
When you search for the right golf balls as a beginner understand it is the nature of the sport to lose balls. Save your customized ones until your skill level is good enough to drive, chip and putt without sending your balls into a neighborhood window, trees, long grass, or water hazards.
Because as of right now, golf balls can’t hear what you are saying however the future of sports technology may change that so all you have to do to affect ball flight, shot shape and putt speeds is the utterance of a few choice words like, “left,” go” and “sit,” or even “get up there!”
Watch the upcoming Masters tournament to see what brands and types of balls are in play while listening to the ball talkers.
Enjoy your new sport, golf treats every level of golfer the same no matter the dimples.
See ya later sportstechie in Seattle, Atlanta and around the world!
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