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 "Off the driver, the balls tended to react the same," Roll said. "There wasn't that much of a difference. But where you could really tell the differences was in the irons and wedges." Now, when golfers tell Roll that they're interested in finding the right ball for their game, she doesn't send them to the driving range to pound balls to see if they can tap into their inner John Daly. She sends them to a short game area to get a real feel for what ball is best for their game. "If you really want to find the right ball for your game, you want to hit with shorter clubs, rather than drivers," Roll said. "That's where you'll really notice the difference in game improvements." Mitch Voges, the founder of Max Out Golf in Sherman Oaks, agrees that the search for the proper ball should start, and perhaps end, within 100 yards of the green. "Look, my dad is 83, has had a quadruple bypass and has a bad knee," said Voges, whose Internet site - golfballselector.com - lets users get information about what balls might be best for them. "He has a very difficult time reaching par 4s in two. The worst thing he could be doing is playing a rock-hard ball that doesn't respond well on short shorts. For the guys who can't reach the greens anyway, using a distance-oriented ball isn't going to help if they're always using their mid-irons and rescue clubs." If your game has reached relative consistency and you're hitting the fairway on most of your drives, there's no question that the type of ball you play is important. "The truth is there is more good equipment available for players than there ever has been," Voges said. "If you want to get better as a golfer, then finding the right ball is part of that." But there are so many brands and types of balls that finding the right one can be a Herculean effort. Balls perform, feel, sound and even look different. And a ball that performs well off the tee - one with a diamond-like surface and tight compression - might lack the control and feel needed for shots around the green. The first step in narrowing the golf ball field is to understand your game and know what you want. But don't rely on marketing claims to help. "The idea is to get past the Madison Avenue hype," Voges said. "Everybody claims to make the longest ball, but there's a lot more to choosing a ball than that. You can take the top 50 balls on the market and set up for the same 10-foot putt and there's going to be a 9-inch difference between how the balls are going to roll from one extreme to the other." It's not that one ball is better than the other, Voges said. It's just that they all have different properties that work for some players and not for others. "It's great to say this ball has the highest launch angle or will spin more or less, but it all depends on whether you need that or not," Voges said. "One ball that might be suited for one player's stroke may not be right for another's. And while a lot of people think they're not good enough to know the difference, the real question is, are they good enough to ignore the differences?" Knowing your game - either through self-analysis, taking a lesson or having a clubfitting session - can't be underestimated. And while the raw data - how much your ball spins, the launch angle off the tee and the speed of your swing - is important, personal preference also is key. "One guy might say touch and control is more important, while another guy might just want to smoke it off the tee, someone might like to control or work the ball or want a firmer feel, and someone else wants a softer feel," Voges said. "You have to factor those preferences into how the ball performs." And that's why there are so many balls on the market. Industry leader Titleist has five types, ranging from the tour-level Pro V1 to the DT Solo, which is geared for average swing speeds and designed to get the ball in the air quicker. The Pro V1 has a suggested price of $45.99 per dozen, while the DT Solo has a suggested price of $19.99 But think carefully before spending too much money on a top-of-the-line ball that might impress your partners but won't necessarily improve your game. More moderately priced balls might give you more bang for the buck. "You can find an awesome ball for less than $25 a dozen," Roll said, citing the Bridgestone e6 (about $20 a dozen) as a good example. "There are great balls out there for the money." One national golf publication recently gave gold rankings to 11 balls, with nearly half bearing a price of less than $25, including the Top Flite D2 Feel, which costs about $16 for a box of 15. Many golf balls also come in different versions, such as feel, distance and accuracy models. The distance has a harder cover, the feel has a softer, thinner cover designed for approach shots, and the accuracy version is designed to minimize sidespin and reduce the chance for hooks and slices. But none of it matters if your swing doesn't match up. "The key in golf ball flight is having enough lift to overcome drag," Voges said. "That's what keeps airplanes, birds, Frisbees and golf balls in the air. Take a look at most foursomes and you're likely going to see one player who hits it really high, but the ball doesn't climb, it just kind of comes down. It doesn't go very far against the wind, and if there's any cross wind, he's going to have real problems. It doesn't matter how much velocity is being generated. If the ball doesn't have enough lift in order to penetrate the air and turn over like a football when punted, the ball won't matter as much." |
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