How do you decide on your ball?

jdtox

Lord Tox
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Typically I'm a guy who plays whatever is in the bag. I always play tour type balls, urethane covers, 3 piece, etc. but its usually a mix mash of different brands. This year I want to do something different and play the same ball for a whole year. So how do you decide what ball to play? Is it a price thing? Feel? Scoring? etc. Let me know.
 
First and foremost, feel off the putter. I don't like "clicky" so it has to be relatively soft off the putter. I like a ball designed for a piercing trajectory... not a high ball flight. I can hit it high on my own. Right now, the Triple Track CSx is working wonders for me.
 
I did the same thing as you last year, and after playing various balls, I sought to find one that I could stick with. The selection process begins with price, which narrows it down quite a bit for me. I got a great deal on the Srixon Z-stars during a BOGO sale. I also tried some Snell, both the Black and X. I found that I like a softer feel on shorter shots. So the Black and Z-star both worked well for me in that regard. Since I've not been fit for a ball, those are my determining factors right now. Price and feel off the face for shots 150 and in.
 
Most important factor to me as a budget-friendly golfer is price. After that I look for the spin and feel of a ball around and on the greens and tend to prefer tour-quality urethane balls. I’m not a fan at all of the feel of non-urethane balls off the face of my wedges or putter. Final step is to try and find the ball that reduced spin a bit off driver to assist with keeping ball straight as possible. Last year ended up having my decision down to both Srixon Z-Star balls and went with standard Z-Star because of driver spin. Both at the time of of purchase were less than $20 a dozen (BOGO sale) and were the most recent generation of the ball (believe they had only been in retail for a couple months at that point).
 
Price is a big consideration of course, so I’ve got a few different balls, then it’s a matter of short game performance followed by feel from the longer clubs.

After all that....I buy whatever I feel like that sounds like it’ll be fun to play with. :ROFLMAO:
 
it's usually a combination of a lot of things...but I always go with feel around the greens and putting. I used to put to much thought into distance - and if I'm playing a charity event or something then that's what I'll go with, but lately I find the ball that feels best on and around the greens and go with that.
 
Feel, price, then performance. Logic being if I dont like hitting it, thats a deal breaker. Price... it's always a deal breaker.
 
Performance vs price! How much bang for my buck can I get! Srixon Q-star Tour gives me the best performance per dollar!
 
Being a pretty low spin player I look for a ball that spins well off the irons and wedges and also one that feels good. After that it's going to be a price thing.
 
I always try and figure out what ball I like testing with some sleeves and then wait for the buy 2 get one free or buy 3 get one free. Feel in the short game is also a big consideration for me. Has to feel good and approach and putting.
 
It is a combination of feel, performance and price for me, and at the moment, the CSx TT works well. I did like the TP5x as well, but where I am, it is more expensive so I will stick with the Callaway ball
 
Great question. Feel is biggest. Now that I have access to flight data, I am starting to look at flight and spin across different clubs with different balls. At this point I think it is more important for me to pick a ball and stick with it than scratch my head over relatively small differences across the balls I tend to like.
 
Used to be play anything, but I want to make sure I can be as consistent as possible this year for the rounds I'm able to get in, so I am going to stick with one ball. Spin and flight with my irons is priority #1, and then distance with driver/FW's off the tee is #2. Spin around the greens I can adapt to and just want it to be adequate, but for me and how I play, that's not as important as my iron play.
 
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Used to be play anything, but I want to make sure I can be as consistent as possible this year for the rounds I'm able to get in, so I am going to stick with one ball. Spin and flight with my irons is priority #1, and then distance with driver/FW's off the tee is #2. Spin around the greens I can adapt to and just want it to be adequate, but for me and how I play, that's not as important as my iron play.
Is spin/flight something you are doing visually or getting numbers for?
 
Is spin/flight something you are doing visually or getting numbers for?
I've done the bridgestone fittings before, so I have a general idea, but mostly just visual on course. I know the spin is down for me when the flight comes down, and it's enough to be noticeable with certain options. A full ball fitting would be pretty eye opening, but I've tried enough on course to know that most play very similar, with a few options better than others for me.
 
Urethane first and foremost. Then I work my way from the green back to the tee. I need something that will work into and around the greens and feel soft but firm.
Off the tee I’m looking for something that helps reduce spin.
 
As the course I play is fairly soft, I usually play QStar Tour. If I play a course with former greens, the TP5 or similar. Reaction around the greens on chips biggest factor for me. Distance off driver and irons very similar between all I’ve tried.


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Price and comfort / confidence are the biggest factors for me. I have been playing the various versions of the Bridgestone RX ball as my main gamer since they were originally introduced so the comfort / confidence piece with that ball is well ingrained. No, it doesn't spin the most on shots into greens, but it provides enough spin for me and I fully know what to expect so I am very confident with it. I am more concerned with a lower score than a bigger wow factor.
 
Price is usually a good starting point for me, but not the first factor. Since I tend to lose a few balls during the round, whether OB or just lost in the trees that are in bounds, :geek:, I will lose it before the ball gets marked up badly so it's rare I even have to look at a ball and go "yea time to replace that one". From there I go from green back to tee, working on feel off the putter first, then how it reacts to chips, I tend to like something that rolls out a bit from chips. I rotated through a few balls last year just to have variety, but this year I am going to start out with the Yellow ERC Soft since I love TT and want to give yellow another go. Maybe I won't lose as many!! :cool:
 
Feel, performance, price, in that order. Normally on a good round, I don't lose any balls. On a bad round I might lose one or two. On a horrific round, 2-4. :) So from a price perspective, I am less sensitive as I can make a dozen last a good 8 rounds or so.

I look for a ball that feels good off the putter, off a wedge and off the driver face. Then I look for how it works on a green/approach shots and then driver.

I've bounced between ProV and TP5 for last 2 years. This year, I think my play will be Tour BX with ProV as my backup ball. The BX Feels a little stiffer on the putter face than the other to but still good, but spin seems to be as good as ProV and better than TP5. Distance seems to be better off the long irons/woods as well. Tough to get exact numbers without time on a sim to compare so my feelings on them are all anectdotal off 3 windy rounds. I need to get about 6 rounds under my belt to see the trends.
 
This is something I need to look into a bit more. I had for the longest time played ProV1's but that was when I was a bachelor/living at my parents where I would just grab a handful out of my dads golf bag. Now with price being a bigger concern and the feeling that a ball doesn't effect my play as I'm not good enough to notice a real difference. With my eyesight being absolutely horrendous I have actually switched to colored balls where I prefer red the most and have started playing the Volvik VividXT. I do like the feel off the clubface but I'm not exactly loving putting with them. They seem to not roll as well as a standard ball. Not sure if it is the matte finish or just the ball itself.
 
I want urethane, I want lots of spin around the green on chips and pitches. I want a softer feeling ball of the putter.
 
Performance the ProV1 has saved me multiple times on the greens. Spin baby spin.

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I'm really looking at 3 balls this year. Srixon Z-star, Bridgestone Tour B (Vfit recommended X but I'm thinking RX maybe) and Callaway Chrome Soft I think
 
Performance divided by the price multiplied by the number of balls projected to purchase over the year equals my choice of ball.
 
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