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Ball Compression

SuperStroke
JB said:
I am so so so so so so so so so on the other side of the spectrum. I dont think most golfers feel much. I think it is a commonly used as a validator to choices. Obviously outliers and THPers are definitely outliers.
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templeton80 said:
Feel is less important to me than other factors. Maybe the last box to check.
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Why do you think feel is not important? For me I want/need soft feel on the putter, that's where is means the most to me.
Are we assuming that most pros wouldn't take that into consideration?
 
Snickerdog said:
Why do you think feel is not important? For me I want/need soft feel on the putter, that's where is means the most to me.
Are we assuming that most pros wouldn't take that into consideration?
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it’s not that it is not important. Just the least important thing to me. Feel can change club to club, putter to putter etc..
 
templeton80 said:
it’s not that it is not important. Just the least important thing to me. Feel can change club to club, putter to putter etc..
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Well stop hoing clubs all the time!!! :ROFLMAO:
That makes perfect sense.
 
Mark_UK said:
That blows my mind. To me, feel is by far the most important thing in choosing a ball. Off the tee and long shots in, yep, balls feel pretty much the same to me. But as I close in to the green, feel becomes more important until I’m on the green when it’s super important to me. I’ve had a history of leaving putts short so a soft feeling ball kills me on the greens. I need a firmer feeling ball where I feel I get some pop off the putter face.
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The only feel I can “feel” — if that makes sense — is off the putter face. And even then it’s hard for me to pick up. I can certainly feel the difference between a Duo Soft (<40 compress) and a ProV1 (90 compress) off the putter. The former feels like mush. But between the ProV1, e12 contact, and Z-star which are between 20-25 compression points more or less I can’t tell you a thing between them.
 
Since I don't have access to a launch monitor, I don't have numbers to say whether softer or firmer balls are better suited to my game, but I much prefer the feel of softer balls. The ones I've played most over the last few years are the Callaway Supersoft, Srixon QST, Bridgestone e12 Contact and the occasional Chrome Soft.

It's my uneducated guess that feel off the putter has more to do with the cover of the ball than actual compression, but I can't stand any ball that feels clicky off the putter.
 
There seems to be a point in most golfers timeline of development when all of a sudden, when they stop losing balls, they start to pay attention to what ball they play.

Some will always gravitate to the cheapest ball they can find, and for them, the Costco Kirkland ball is perfect for them in spite of the fact that it's a spin machine and may adversely affect their swing.

Others will simply take the ball out of the equation and just go for a Titleist ball which appears to have solved the quality control that plagues so many ball OEM's. And, of course, Titleist has the entire spectrum of price range covered so if you just don't want to think about it, buy the one that fits your budget.

Then, there are the discerning golfers, who are trying to fine tune their performance and pay more attention to the ball than is probably warranted. Unfortunately, I fall into that category. That's not to say that the ball isn't that important, but it probably won't affect their score significantly. But, this is where "feel" enters the picture. If the ball won't make that difference in their scoring, then justification for changing / selecting a ball rests solely with "what feels the best".

Someone should do a test and see how much score is affected by playing the extremes of ball compression. In other words, would a slow swinger end up with a lower score just because they played a firmer ball? Would a high swing player score lower if he played a lower compression ball? I'd be interested in seeing this.
 
JB said:
Since the most sold ball is one of the most expensive balls on the market, I am not sure I agree.
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Oh for sure. I'm saying the most heard excuse I hear for not buying that ball is because of cost, not compression.
 
I have always gone to a softer ball in the winter months...40 deg or lower. Summer time her win Texas.....firm balls for me. Now that being said; As i get older i have been looking at trying more softer balls as I know my swing speed is not what it was 10 years ago....
 
Snickerdog said:
Why do you think feel is not important? For me I want/need soft feel on the putter, that's where is means the most to me.
Are we assuming that most pros wouldn't take that into consideration?
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I definitely didnt say feel was unimportant, but rather that most golfers either A, don't feel it or B, don't purchase based off of it because the data says so.
There is no rhyme or reason as to why balls sell as it pertains to feel because both soft and firm are mixed together across the board.

And to take it a step further, I dont think most golfers view anything about the putter as it pertains to choosing their ball.

With all of that said, people should choose how they want to of course. Whether that be fitting, performance, sound/feel, look, etc. I choose to go to the finite lengths in choosing my equipment and have been on the ball fitting "crusade" for close to 15 years. I think its one of the most important elements in the game and so vastly under utilized for perfecting performance for ones game.
 
See , i understand this....I have hit many a ball in the past that went far, but i have to be able to draw and fade it..

But if i don't like the way it feels off the putter in addition to the driver and irons, i won't play it. It has got to feel good off all the bag for me.....
 
I don't check ball comporession because I don't ever change balls so it wouldn't matter.

I played the original Spalding Top Flite, which was rock hard, throughout its entire production run.
I'll probably do the same with the Pro V1x, which, although I don't know its compression, doesn't feel nearly as hard.
Maybe it's just an illusion or faulty memory, I don't know.

Post script: I just checked and the ProV1x is 97 compression--pretty freakin' hard.
It doesn't feel as hard as I remember the Top Flite, but Spalding has been out of the golf business a long time now
and going by memory isn't reliable.
 
JB said:
I definitely didnt say feel was unimportant, but rather that most golfers either A, don't feel it or B, don't purchase based off of it because the data says so.
There is no rhyme or reason as to why balls sell as it pertains to feel because both soft and firm are mixed together across the board.

And to take it a step further, I dont think most golfers view anything about the putter as it pertains to choosing their ball.

With all of that said, people should choose how they want to of course. Whether that be fitting, performance, sound/feel, look, etc. I choose to go to the finite lengths in choosing my equipment and have been on the ball fitting "crusade" for close to 15 years. I think its one of the most important elements in the game and so vastly under utilized for perfecting performance for ones game.
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Feel for me is off the putter and the wedges. At the end of the day if the ball performs really well I don't really care what it "feels" like as long as I can get the ball do something consistently with that "feel"
 
I go by feel and performance. The compression number may be a starting point for me, but it ultimately comes down to the feel and performance of the ball.
 
Frank559 said:
The only feel I can “feel” — if that makes sense — is off the putter face. And even then it’s hard for me to pick up. I can certainly feel the difference between a Duo Soft (<40 compress) and a ProV1 (90 compress) off the putter. The former feels like mush. But between the ProV1, e12 contact, and Z-star which are between 20-25 compression points more or less I can’t tell you a thing between them.
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I used to think the same thing, but nowadays the difference between high/low compression balls is so drastic that I'd be very surprised if they felt the same to you.

Try chipping with an AVX versus a Pro V1. The AVX is way softer and comes off the wedge face much higher. With full swing irons/woods it is harder to tell though.
 
Frank559 said:
The only feel I can “feel” — if that makes sense — is off the putter face. And even then it’s hard for me to pick up. I can certainly feel the difference between a Duo Soft (<40 compress) and a ProV1 (90 compress) off the putter. The former feels like mush. But between the ProV1, e12 contact, and Z-star which are between 20-25 compression points more or less I can’t tell you a thing between them.
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One round last year I played a Z-Star XV as a "water ball" on a par 3 hole. It felt firmer than my usual ball off the tee with an iron, but nothing I couldn't deal with. When we got to the green and I putted it, I absolutely cringed at how it felt and sounded off the putter. Horrible. It's a totally subjective thing, but I couldn't get rid of that ball fast enough after that hole. I was going to toss it in the pond, but one of my partners (who plays almost all found balls) was happy to take it off my hands.
 
I'm in the feel matters camp. At one time I played the highest spinning tour ball I could find. My personal choice was a Bridgestone b330S. As I got older/old, I found I wasn't spinning the ball with my wedges any more. The groove rule was part of the change for sure. So I started going to the newer lower compression type of ball. I still play a urethane ball, but much softer now. Personal favorite is a Wilson Duo Professional. I couldn't play the ultra soft that feel like mush, but I do much prefer the softer feel. Also, I don't care what MGS's testing says, these balls go just as far as anything I've had on the tee.
 
I follow compression a lot chasing feel more than anything. I find balls at 60 are a magic number such as Soft Feel, TM Rocketballz, TM RBZ etc.
 
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