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Golf Balls – Which is Best for My Experience Level & Swing (Club Head) Speed?
When it comes to selecting the best golf ball for your game many factors come into play. I will go over these factors and inject my OPINION on how best to decide whether you want to play will a $50/box Titleist PRO V1 or a $25/box Bridgestone golf ball. There is tons of money spent on advertising golf balls and trying to convince you why one ball is better than another. We feel it is important to keep in mind that most golf balls that are $25 per dozen or more are of a adequate quality for most golfers. With that being said, we will present our opinion on which balls may be best for your swing speed, golf game, and mindset.
Golf is a very finicky game. The best way to improve your next shot is to, in some way, be confident in the shot. This means you need to be confident in the clubs your are using, the club you selected for the shot, and you have selected the right golf ball. Confidence is king when it comes to golf! If you are a beginner golfer or a weekend warrior and are playing with very expensive golf balls you may be hitting scared… concentrating as much on not loosing another ball as you are trying to hit a great shot. For a beginning golfer or a golfer that is a high handicapper, maybe selecting one of the less expensive balls makes more sense. I fall in this category and I play $25/box balls because I do not worry about loosing a couple per round. Unless the money does not bother you we feel that price, compared with skill level, is and important factor when selecting the best golf ball for your next round.
The science… in addition to confidence in the ball and a price you are comfortable with, there is a lot of science that goes into selecting the best golf ball for your swing. Are you looking for long drives, spin around the green, more forgiveness, or a combination of all of these? Probably the most important thing to consider is you swing speed. That is, how fast is you driver moving when it comes into contact with the golf ball. For an exact measurement, CLICK HERE to take a look at the Speed Swing Radar by Sports Sensors. This is a great product for really nailing down how fast you are swinging your golf club. In the absence of a swing speed measuring device, there is a pretty accurate calculation you can make. Next time you are on the driving range hit about 00 drives and calculate the average distance you are driving the golf ball. DO NOT only count your best drives! Throw out any miss hits but count all the balls that you made good contact with. Divide your average drive distance by 2.3. The result will be an estimate of your club head speed. Below is an example of how to calculate your golf club head speed (swing speed) that is based on my data.
Ok, so now that you have calculated your golf club head speed let’s look at which golf balls may match up best with your swing and golf game. Two of the main components or factors to consider on a golf ball is the cover type and the hardness or softness of the core. It is important to understand what club head speed is required to adequately compress the core of the golf ball. If you are not compressing the golf ball you are hitting the wrong one. To get the most distance out of selected golf ball you need to be compressing the ball. Most beginning or intermediate golfers are hitting balls that they cannot compress. I was one of those and once I switched to a lower compression rate ball, even though it was half the price, I was hitting it measurably farther.
Below we will present our ALI’s top picks for each range of golf club head speed. When considering these recommendations, and the features that each of these golf balls offer, do not forget the considerations that we started off with… confidence and price (how many golf balls do you typically lose and are you comfortable with the price point). We hope that this article will provide you with additional confidence in the ball you select. Remember in golf that confidence is king!