We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Foam Practice Balls

ShotScope
alistaird

alistaird

Well-known member
Albatross 2024 Club
Joined
Sep 14, 2021
Messages
1,160
Reaction score
979
Location
UK
Handicap
Larger...
I have a 20m x 40m practice area that's a rubber on sand surface and use a small practice mat with 3 different surfaces mainly for chipping and 1/4 pitch swings.

Recently tried some of the foam practice balls to see whether that helps with a full swing and getting good contact with the ball. I find that you can see a thin feel a fat shot but wondered whether anyone else uses these?

Also - is the grouping of the foam balls any indication of consistency in the swing or is it a bit random? e.g. I hit 5 x 4W practice shots and they ended up within about 1 meter (yard) of each other.

Thanks

A
 
I think it was either @Luchnia or @chile that used foam practice balls for a bit. They said the balls would compress after a bit and would wind up going too far. I don't know about dispersion.
 
foam balls for me were a miss. one day my neighbor gave me some birdie balls and WOW!!!! but you need about 45 yards to hit a birdie ball with a 8i.
 
I use foam balls to practice hitting wedges and high lofted irons in my back yard. But I don't have enough room to take a full swing with a 9 iron.
 
Scorpion12 said:
I think it was either @Luchnia or @chile that used foam practice balls for a bit. They said the balls would compress after a bit and would wind up going too far. I don't know about dispersion.
Click to expand...

I tried them out for a bit but they quickly fell out of their usefulness for me. They did go a bit further than what I was prepared for. Entertaining but not what I wanted...
 
If they are all ending up within a yard, I'd say you're doing something right.

I bought some foam balls to practice chipping indoors (golf is a terrible addiction), and I didn't like them very much. You could tell when a hit was square vs bladed, but generally, everything just wants to launch off them regardless of how good the strike is.
 
I use the "Almost Golf Ball" to chip in the backyard. I also use Birdie Balls. Both are fun. The Almost Ball makes less noise when you hit a fence.:ROFLMAO: I use a mat off which to hit chips. When bored, I'll hit full LW wide open hoping the tree limbs stop the ball.
 
Foam balls seem to degrade very quickly in my own experience. I had some for a bit but didn't really find them all that useful.
 
TxAggie2018 said:
If they are all ending up within a yard, I'd say you're doing something right.

I bought some foam balls to practice chipping indoors (golf is a terrible addiction), and I didn't like them very much. You could tell when a hit was square vs bladed, but generally, everything just wants to launch off them regardless of how good the strike is.
Click to expand...
They spin like hell from what I’ve noticed
 
I have some, but haven't had the need to use them in quite a while.

I remember they were a great last resort practice ball.

The only problem I had was that since they were a limited distance ball, i kept wanting to swing faster than my normal swing speed. This actually defeated the purpose of using them.

If given the choice, I would use "Birdie Balls" over foam.
 
I've tried (I think in this order):
  • Limited-flight balls
  • Foam balls
  • Hollow plastic balls
  • Wiffle balls
  • Flatballs
  • Floppy balls
I didn't find the foam balls very interesting. They gave me neither feedback nor flight I found useful. (A couple of the cats like playing with them, though :D) The hollow plastic balls had the same problem, with the added disadvantage of denting or breaking quickly.

The wiffle balls fly better than the hollow balls, while still being very flight-limited, give somewhat better feedback, and don't die as quickly, but don't fly true (but more true than the hollow balls). I use these mostly for practicing chipping in the back yard, because they mostly sit nicely atop the grass. (It's fun doing this in the early evening, when the bats are out. Pop 'em up high and the bats briefly chase 'em :D)

The Jef World of Golf Limited-Flight balls give me decent feedback, and fly fairly true, but, once my swing improved, flew too far and I'd end-up losing them in the woods--even with a 9i. So now I just pitch lake balls into the woods and recover whatever I can in the fall.

I've never tried the floppy balls outdoors. I bought them to practice partial swings indoors. My impression is they give about the same feedback as the limited-flight balls and I suspect they'd fly more-or-less true. The neat thing, indoors, is they won't damage the walls and pretty-much drop dead after the first thing they hit.

If hitting them fat or thin is what you're trying to cure, you might try the Izzo Flatball. I've never tried them outdoors, but I have messed with them indoors. If you "hit" them fat or thin you usually won't make contact at all--you'll either miss it over the top entirely, or bounce over it. They're quite a bit bouncier than the floppy balls, though, so you might want to hit into a blanket or something, indoors.
 
I used Wiffle plastic balls. They gave me an exaggerated ball flight so I could practice working the ball in my back yard.
 
I've lost more of these than I care to admit in the parts warehouse at work. I'm sure the cleaning crew is throughly perplexed.

I put down one of the leftover rubber mats from the work gym and hit everything from hybrid to wedges.


MWard said:
They spin like hell from what I’ve noticed
Click to expand...
Yep, they start on a low trajectory then spin straight up into the metal rafters back there.
 
I use the foam ones, the dog loves to chase them. I need to retrieve them for her quickly before they are reduced to small pieces.
 
I find if I take a slow swing, I can practice with driver and long irons hitting dimpled foam balls. The spin is good because it make it easier to see good strokes.
I think taking slow swings improves my tempo so the practice should be useful until I lose my remaining stock of foam balls. I aim for a narrow patch of grass between a large rose garden and the understory at the back of the yard (mostly vines and other large weeds).

I saw a squirrel carry a green foam ball across the yard and up a tree.
 
After putting quite a few holes in walls and ceiling and nearly taking out my wife's windshield with "real" balls. Foam balls are pretty much all I use when hitting into the net in my garage.
 
I use them for wedge practice in the yard. I have about 75 feet to play with. I have a tree in the yard that I use like a field goal, and try and put the foam balls between the uprights. They go to far for use with long irons.
 
Never had luck with foam, they don’t last long. I use wiffle balls for chipping inside and birdie balls in the yard.
 
I bought some Callaway Foam balls and I use them as warm up balls into my Spornia net...once I get my swing grooved after 5-10, I then trust myself to hit the real ones!
 
I find the flight of the Callaway foam balls pretty accurate in terms of showing my fade or occasional slice. I can practice driver by hitting them off the canopy of a maple tree in the corner of the yard.
 
I use the "Almost Golf Balls" in my back yard for my lob wedge practice.
I hit off a mat to a floating target in the pool.
I think it's helped my short game tempo more than anything.
 
I use the thicker hard plastic SKIL balls. They fly short and pretty true to what I would expect on course
 
I have Callaway foam balls and some whiffle balls. I feel like they can help me with contact but don't feel like I can trust much on flight. They are fun to hit over the house though from the back yard to the front. LOL
 
I’m starting to see some benefits of foam balls off mat practice. Allows me to focus on contact and swing feel without too much concern for results. I can tell a good contact and a pretty good idea of direction.

Just trying the first ever hybrid out which was horrible to begin with but getting the feel of it after a few goes…

A


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I bought an inexpensive dual turf mat, so I can hit both real and foam balls with my wedges. The ball flights are pretty much the same.
I've been working on hitting high arcing shots that will stay on small greens with my 48* AW and 56* SW.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top