Finding The Right Golf Ball For Your Game (Video) - by Pete Styles
Finding The Right Golf Ball For Your Game (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now as a golfer we’ve talked a lot about different types of clubs and the equipment that we use. But the one bud of equipment often gets overlooked by the golfer is the golf ball and it’s particularly relevant and important for most of the shots that you hit. But particularly shots where you’re trying to work the ball; working the ball left to right, right to left, higher or lower because the work on the ball, the curvature on the golf ball is created by the spin.

Now every time you hit a golf ball it will have some spin on it but then you can have more and less spin. You can also have two different types of spin. You can have back spin and then what we call side spin which is going this way and actually we get a combination of the two. So nearly every time you hit a golf ball you’ve got bags and bags of back spin. And then when we get some side spin the ball actually rotates on an axis like this. So it doesn’t rotate round like this, it’s back spinning and then it’s got some axis tilt and we class that as having some side spin but it’s not going completely round in circles. Now when you read the packaging of the golf ball in the pro shop they’ll often talk about distance and spin or spin and distance. Every ball claims to do a bit of everything. But the ones that lay heavy claims to spin are quite often the ones that attractive – balls are attractive to better players. Better player thinks, ‘Oh I want to land the ball on the green, I want it to spin back towards the flag like I’ve seen the pros do on the TV,” and that’s fine. Loads and loads of back spin, ball stops on the green nicely. But surely if a ball is back spinning very heavily, it could also be side spinning very heavily. And that’s the nature of the beat because the ball tends to be – a softer ball tends to be a higher spinning ball. So if I’m spinning the ball sideways or backwards it’s going to curve more in the air. So if I’ve got a big slice with my driver let’s say, I try to set up straight but every time I hit the ball it curves violently from left to right and then I use a high spin ball, that ball is not going to curve more. So I’ve certainly made the game harder for myself, more difficult for myself because I’ve got a curving fault and I’ve just made that fault worse. Using a lower spin ball, a harder ball a more distance orientated ball I’m actually going to find that ball flying a little bit straighter particularly on those shots that I didn’t want to curve. But then when it comes to an opportunity to work the ball and I want to try and draw it or fade it on demand, the harder ball is more difficult to curve, the softer ball is easier to curve. So generally speaking if you’re a straight hitter, you’re naturally straight, you don’t use too many golf balls, I would encourage you to use a softer ball. More grip around the green, more feel around the green, better for putting. But if you struggle with the ball off the tee and it’s always curving and slicing offline too much, use a harder ball. It’s going to spin offline less, it’s going to go a little bit further when you do hit it down the middle, but you will find that ball a bit more difficult to work when you’re trying to draw or fade the ball on command. 2016-08-24

Now as a golfer we’ve talked a lot about different types of clubs and the equipment that we use. But the one bud of equipment often gets overlooked by the golfer is the golf ball and it’s particularly relevant and important for most of the shots that you hit. But particularly shots where you’re trying to work the ball; working the ball left to right, right to left, higher or lower because the work on the ball, the curvature on the golf ball is created by the spin.

Now every time you hit a golf ball it will have some spin on it but then you can have more and less spin. You can also have two different types of spin. You can have back spin and then what we call side spin which is going this way and actually we get a combination of the two. So nearly every time you hit a golf ball you’ve got bags and bags of back spin. And then when we get some side spin the ball actually rotates on an axis like this.

So it doesn’t rotate round like this, it’s back spinning and then it’s got some axis tilt and we class that as having some side spin but it’s not going completely round in circles. Now when you read the packaging of the golf ball in the pro shop they’ll often talk about distance and spin or spin and distance. Every ball claims to do a bit of everything. But the ones that lay heavy claims to spin are quite often the ones that attractive – balls are attractive to better players.

Better player thinks, ‘Oh I want to land the ball on the green, I want it to spin back towards the flag like I’ve seen the pros do on the TV,” and that’s fine. Loads and loads of back spin, ball stops on the green nicely. But surely if a ball is back spinning very heavily, it could also be side spinning very heavily. And that’s the nature of the beat because the ball tends to be – a softer ball tends to be a higher spinning ball. So if I’m spinning the ball sideways or backwards it’s going to curve more in the air.

So if I’ve got a big slice with my driver let’s say, I try to set up straight but every time I hit the ball it curves violently from left to right and then I use a high spin ball, that ball is not going to curve more. So I’ve certainly made the game harder for myself, more difficult for myself because I’ve got a curving fault and I’ve just made that fault worse. Using a lower spin ball, a harder ball a more distance orientated ball I’m actually going to find that ball flying a little bit straighter particularly on those shots that I didn’t want to curve.

But then when it comes to an opportunity to work the ball and I want to try and draw it or fade it on demand, the harder ball is more difficult to curve, the softer ball is easier to curve. So generally speaking if you’re a straight hitter, you’re naturally straight, you don’t use too many golf balls, I would encourage you to use a softer ball. More grip around the green, more feel around the green, better for putting. But if you struggle with the ball off the tee and it’s always curving and slicing offline too much, use a harder ball.

It’s going to spin offline less, it’s going to go a little bit further when you do hit it down the middle, but you will find that ball a bit more difficult to work when you’re trying to draw or fade the ball on command.