Choosing A Ball That Fits Your Game

By Jack Moorehouse

Recreational golfers will go to great lengths to buy a set of clubs. They'll research manufacturers, compare models, and read reviews. They'll test clubs on the practice range or on the curse, if they can. They'll even go to professional clubmakers to be fitted for new sticks, if they think that will help. Their goal is to find the right set of clubs, one that will help them improve their games and lower their golf handicaps.

Unfortunately, these golfers won't spend anywhere near as much time and effort when it comes to choosing a golf ball to fit their game. Many simply wait for an off-season sale and then rush to the local sporting goods store to buy whatever is on sale. Others will scan the Internet looking for the cheapest deal on balls, new or used.

This isn't wrong, but it is missing a great opportunity to help your games. The right golf ball has as much of impact on your game as any other piece of equipment. In some cases, it has more. In fact, the right ball can shave at least as many strokes of your golf handicap as a dozen golf lessons or a new set of woods, and probably more.

Co-dependent Relationship
Some professional clubfitters believe that the ball and club set have a co-dependent relationship. These experts cite the law of the conservation of energy—energy can neither be created nor destroyed—to describe the effects of a club's impact on a golf ball. In more practical terms, this law means that if a ball change decreases spin, you will need an increase in speed and vice versa.

Given this inverse relationship, some experts are able to predict ball performance with relative certainty. Of course, technology, in the form of tools like launch monitors, computers, and special software, plays a large part in their determinations. But it does help. The result is a grouping of club specifications, such as loft, shaft flex, and weight, that optimize distance, dispersion, and trajectory.

Once you've determined these variables, it's a relatively straightforward process to choose the right golf ball based on the clubs you're using and how you hit the ball. Unfortunately, not everybody has the time, money, or inclination to visit a professional clubfitter to get fitted for a golf ball. So what can you do?

Step #1: Create Categories
Divide golf balls into three categories: High Spin/High Performance, Medium Spin/Recreational, and Low Spin/Low Compression. Some balls will overlap into two categories. If you have a low golf handicap, you could add a category: Very High Spin/High Performance.

Step #2: Categorize Balls
Research the balls you're considering and note their characteristics. Then place them in their respective categories. For example, the Titleist Pro V 1 falls in the Very High Spin/High Performance category. The Nike One Platinum falls in the High Spin/High Performance category. And so on.

Step #3: Assess Your Swing
Assess your swing. Be honest. Do you have a tendency to put excess sidespin on your drives (slicing or hooking)? Or, do you need to put more spin on the ball? While the need to reduce spin is common, some people actually need to add spin to their shots.

Step #4: Make Your Selections
Review the characteristics of the balls you are considering and match them to your swing. Make your selection carefully based on your swing. Choose two or three candidates for testing.  

Step #5: Test The Balls
Go to a practice range and test the balls. Use four clubs to test them: driver, strongest fairway wood, mid-iron, and a wedge (53-57 degrees). Select one ball as the winner and try playing with that. If you're not comfortable with that try another until you find the right one.

Keep in mind when conducting test that the right ball is one that satisfies every part of your game. But the characteristics that work for one club may not work for another. That's why you test them with four different clubs.

Keep in mind also that woman often need a low-compression ball that produces very high rates of spin. So do male senior golfers. These players have ball speed and launch conditions that are too low. They require special golf balls.

This five-step approach isn't as technology-driven as the first approach. But it provides a practical method for selecting the right ball for your game, one that will help you reduce your scores and cut strokes from your golf handicap. This method might not be as precise as a more scientific method, but in lieu of the resources needed to go to a clubfitter, it will help you choose a ball that will help reduce your golf handicap without even attending a golf instruction session.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book "How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros." He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.