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how picky are you with ball wear and tear? When do you replace?

how picky are you with ball wear and tear? When do you replace?

  • at the slightest blemish

    Votes: 7 4.7%

  • when small scuffing is present

    Votes: 37 24.7%

  • when more moderate scuffing is present

    Votes: 69 46.0%

  • will play it untill large significant damage

    Votes: 37 24.7%
  • Total voters
    150
Uzumati said:
If it is rough to the hand it is rough to the air, if it doesn't feel smooth it goes into the shag bag.
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That's my general feeling too. probably a bit exaggerated I guess, but is it really? The aerodynamics are precisely designed so just how much do imperfections via scuffs, burs, etc affect those dynamics, who knows? I know one thing.....I wouldn't like to be flying at 35,000 ft and notice a chunk of wing gouged out or sticking up in the air :(
 
small scuffing and it's a shag ball. purely mental, but i just prefer to have the ball in good shape particularly if i'm having a good round.
 
Pickier than I used to be but I normally get a round or two out of a ball.
 
If there are a few scuff's, it's ok with me. Once it gets to the point where it doesn't matter how I turn the ball, I see a scuff, that's when I take it out of play. It then becomes a practice ball for me.
 
broktun said:
I play em until they end up in the woods, or a lake.

Balls today don't cut like balls of the late 80's into the 1990's.
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Haha... Yeah I remember in the early 90's playing Titleist Tour Balatas. I'd change balls out every few holes due to them becoming egg shaped after a few good strikes. Or getting a huge smiley face gash after a mishit iron.

Nowadays, it's pretty much play em til you lose em, or until they become so scuffed up that they fly funny.
 
I don't think I've ever replaced a ball because of the way it looked. I generally only replace a ball if I lose it. I have however switched brand/type of ball after a few holes if I don't like the way it feels or the way it's playing. I did this the last round out. I pulled some Taylormade Black something or other out and it just felt way too hard and I didn't like it, so I put them back and got out a different ball.
 
I'm a "it depends guy too". Practice rounds, I'm pretty tolerant but competitive rounds the ball gets changed pretty quick sometimes. I save them for the practice rounds!
 
theoverswinger said:
Actually, using new golf balls bothers me more. There's a "no fear" element to hitting old balls.
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I sometimes have that same thought with clubs, a brand new shiny club intimidates me, don't want to ruin it!
 
IceyShanks said:
I sometimes have that same thought with clubs, a brand new shiny club intimidates me, don't want to ruin it!
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Oh new clubs to me are fine, I don't mind hitting them. There's just something doubly tragic about hitting a new, pristine Pro-V into the water. I lose the ball, and there must be a penalty for hitting it there.
 
I usually play them until they are pretty beat up. I'm lucky to go an entire round without losing one so I usually lose them before they are beat up.
 
I dont think ive ever thrown a ball away from damage. Only if it has a cut in the cover would i consider it. I usually lose the ball before it has any damage
 
if it is just minor scufs from say like a tree and i can smooth it out with my hands i dont worry about it. but if stays rough or discolors i toss it in the shag bag.
 
I'll hit it until the paint wears off or gets roadrash from a cart path. Also if it gets nicked off a tree.
 
If just a scuff, I leave it in play. If very noticeable and rough, it get replaced. Aside from scuffs, I usually go 3 rounds before retiring a ball.
 
I hate scuffs. If the ball scuffs I'll probably throw it in the nearest pond or creek. I guess I'm more ocd than I thought
 
I'll play a scuffed ball for the duration of my round, and then retire it to a shag bag. I always start a new round with a fresh ball.
 
If I'm coming off a birdie I don't care if the ball is split in half. It's going another hole!
 
Not terribly picky. I don't hold with those who say that it can damage a clubface. That could only happen in there was sand embedded in the ball, and I've never seen that. A little road rash from bouncing off a cart path doesn't bother me unless it's really ragged. If the ball has a few miles on it already, then I might just decide that its time has come. This is one of those situations that I decide on a case by case basis.

I've had a different issue after hitting a spruce tree really hard - sticky tree sap on the ball that cannot be cleaned off with anything less than paint thinner. That will pick up dust and dirt and can actually affect how the ball plays. I've retired more than one ball for that.
 
rollin said:
That is pretty funny and very many of us do this imo. But I think because we know (or believe) the tee is somewhere right there in front of us on the tee box somewhere so it should be so very easily found. We do know (or think we know) exactly where our tee is or should be. But a lost ball some 200 yards (or whatever distance) away becomes much more the needle in a haystack scenario only because we are not really certain exactly where it is.
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I used to pick up every stray tee I found, yet I'd reject 3/4 of the balls I came across. Since I started using Epoch tees, I don't bother with any tee but my own now. And it really ticks me off when I play a course with really firm tee areas and I keep breaking my good tees. That's when I dig out my old wooden ones and put the plastic ones away for another day. I figure if I'm going to break them anyway, might as well be the several hundred that I've picked up after others left them behind.

I just got my brand new Ogio Grom stand/cart bag and transferred all my stuff to it. I had at least 300 wood tees in the old bag that are now in a zip lock bag in my golf duffel that I carry all of my extra stuff in. I was amazed at how much crap I'd accumulated in the bottoms of the pockets that I'd forgotten I even had. I swear, I hadn't seen some of that stuff for years.

Searching through the less used pockets I found about 10 rescued "good" balls, Pro V1, Callaway, even an old Nike One that's been there for a long time. I cleaned up all 11 of the balls from the "active" ball pocket and now I have a bunch of perfectly good TM Project (a)'s ready for my next outing. Not a scuff among them. Seems that sometimes I'm a bit too quick with the hook to take them out of service. They collect a little dirt and my ID mark wears off a bit and they look more used than they really are. A little wash, then some work with the Sharpie and they're ready to go again.
 
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Fourputt said:
I used to pick up every stray tee I found, yet I'd reject 3/4 of the balls I came across. Since I started using Epoch tees, I don't bother with any tee but my own now. And it really ticks me off when I play a course with really firm tee areas and I keep breaking my good tees. That's when I dig out my old wooden ones and put the plastic ones away for another day. I figure if I'm going to break them anyway, might as well be the several hundred that I've picked up after others left them behind.

I just got my brand new Ogio Grom stand/cart bag and transferred all my stuff to it. I had at least 300 wood tees in the old bag that are now in a zip lock bag in my golf duffel that I carry all of my extra stuff in. I was amazed at how much crap I'd accumulated in the bottoms of the pockets that I'd forgotten I even had. I swear, I hadn't seen some of that stuff for years.

Searching through the less used pockets I found about 10 rescued "good" balls, Pro V1, Callaway, even an old Nike One that's been there for a long time. I cleaned up all 11 of the balls from the "active" ball pocket and now I have a bunch of perfectly good TM Project (a)'s ready for my next outing. Not a scuff among them. Seems that sometimes I'm a bit too quick with the hook to take them out of service. They collect a little dirt and my ID mark wears off a bit and they look more used than they really are. A little wash, then some work with the Sharpie and they're ready to go again.
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Yea, its pretty amazing the stuff we have in our bags that we forget about. I usually do a general bag sweep at some point between seasons. But even that is not very thorough. When I got my new bag last year I had quite an amount of stuff I forgot I even had, thought I lost, or never knew I had.
 
Yesterday I played with a ball that had a very small scuff mark and I ended up playing the whole round with it. When I got home, I went and got my ball container where I keep balls I've played with that I felt weren't good enough to play with because of a scuff or two and found a dozen that would be considered 5A balls. Guess I'll put them back in the bag and save the money for another round.
 
I replace my ball when it affects play. Or I have lost it. If a ball gets a scuff that doesn't bother me. But if it gets a cut that would grab air and cause resistance then yep it goes in the junk ball bin.
 
It's very rare for me to scuff a ball badly enough to retire it before I lose it.
 
Not very and I often loose them before it's a concern.
 
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