Don’t choose your next golf ball based on an article you read, a celebrity TV ad, or what your best friend likes.
There are many different specifications and terms to understand when choosing the right golf ball. Comparison shop, test the balls, and buy the right one for your game.
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Playing the Best Golf Ball for Your Swing Can Lower Your Score
It’s important to know how golf balls are made for distance, accuracy, feel, trajectory, and how they affect your game. Here’s what you need to know about golf balls that will help you choose the right one for your swing and probably lower your score.
You’ll find this information on the back of any box of golf balls you’re considering buying:
- Golf Ball Material: Manufacturers first consider the level of the golfer who will be hitting the ball when they’re choosing the materials to make one that has a certain feel, distance, spin, or trajectory. Outer layer materials enhance velocity, distance, and spin, and manufacturers use different materials for this layer when making a ball for the novice versus the pro golfer.
- Golf Ball Construction: Balls are made from two to four pieces, and no two brands make them exactly the same way. When making a brand comparison, understand the manufacturer’s specifications about the core, cover, the layer beneath the cover (sometimes called the mantle), the dimples, and how the specs affect distance, accuracy, and control.
- Golf Ball Dimples: Those shallow indents on a golf ball are crucial to improving trajectory and enhancing greater carry, resulting in greater distance. It’s vital to understand your ball flight and how the dimples in the ball you’re playing affect its trajectory; a more shallow dimple increases the height of the trajectory while a deeper dimple reduces it. Want more or less trajectory? Consider the depth of the dimples on your golf ball and make the necessary change.
Test and Compare Golf Balls to Improve Your Game
The golf ball is the only piece of equipment you’ll use for every shot. Every single shot. That’s why the type of ball you play does make a difference in playing your best game and lowering your score – something all golfers strive for.
After you’ve done some comparative research on the brand balls you’re interested in, buy a sleeve of each and take them to the practice range at the golf course; it’s the only place you’re going to be able to choose the right one.
Most scoring is done from 30 to 100 yards in, so start your ball comparison and testing at the putting green and decide which ball has the feel you want and performs the best.
Next, move to the chipping area, then on to the pitching green to see what kind of accuracy and control the balls give you. When it’s time for your round, take the balls you’re testing to the tee box and let them rip.
Consider this practice/testing round, so don’t keep the score. Test the golf balls in this manner, and you’ll know which one is the best for you.
Play a Ball That Responds to Your Game
Once you’ve been bitten by the golf bug and are posting a good score at least one out of ten rounds, it’s time to take your equipment seriously. Just as you want the right clubs for your swing and body type, so too do you need the right ball.
And they’re easy to find once you understand your game and how the ball you hit flies. Technology has improved golf equipment to the extent that every golfer can have clubs and balls that fit their game.
Check out, Why Playing the Right Golf Ball Can Improve Your Game, which provides information on choosing the best golf ball for your game, and The Best Golf Balls for Novice, Bogey, and Scratch Golfers has golf ball buying tips that may help improve your game.
