The way golf is played can vary dramatically from location to location. With that in mind, the ball you pick should match up with where you are playing your golf, and the conditions you are likely to face. For instance, someone living and golfing in the desert will likely want to use a different ball than someone living and playing in a cold, damp climate. If you fail to use a ball that suits the conditions at hand, you will be making the game harder than it needs to be.

Much of this point comes down to the firmness of the turf during an average round in your area. Are your local courses usually rather firm and fast, or is the turf soft from regular rains? On firm courses, you are going to want a golf ball which offers plenty of spin. The course isn’t going to help you stop your shots, so you need to use spin to do the job. The story is just the opposite when you typically play on a soft course. Since the course is going to make it easy to stop your shots quickly, you can set that concern to the side and focus instead on distance. With a lower-spin distance ball, you can add yardage to your shots while hitting the ball straighter at the same time. Take a moment to think about the prevailing conditions in your area and take that into consideration when you make your choice.

Of course, the conditions of your local golf courses probably aren’t going to stay the same all year long. If the seasonal climates of your area mean you face dramatically different conditions in winter than in summer, you can get around this issue by having two go-to ball options. Think of this as having a ‘summer ball’ and a ‘winter ball’. Rather than trying to make a single ball work all year long, you can simply make two selections and then use the right ball for the right conditions.

In addition to thinking about course conditions, you can also think about the style of courses that you usually play. Are you frequently playing on links courses where you hit the ball low to the ground? Or do you play more golf on parkland-style courses which required forced carries? It would be a mistake to use a ball which doesn’t offer characteristics that suit your home course. This point shouldn’t be a major deciding factor in which ball you select, but you can think of it as a tie-breaker. If you aren’t sure which of your finalists to pick, go with the one that makes the most sense for the courses you play regularly.