Should you care about the cover that’s on the golf ball that you’re playing around the course? Simple answer is yes, absolutely. The cover is the most important part of the golf ball in terms of what the golfer can feel when they’re hitting and how the club interacts with the golf ball.
Couple of issues with the cover. Generally, we’re talking abut whether it’s hard or whether it’s soft. Now, if you are using a hard-covered golf ball, you get a couple of positives out of this. You get a little bit more durability from a hard-covered golf ball. So, if price and cost and value for money is important, a hard-covered golf ball is generally going to last longer as long as you don’t use – as long as you don’t lose it.
Also, a hard-covered golf ball spins a little bit less. Now, often, people think spinning less is a bad thing. But spinning is not just back-spinning when it lands on the green. It’s also side-spinning, particularly side-spinning when you’re hitting your tee shot. So, the ball could be spinning backwards on a slight axis which is going to give it that curving look. And we’ve always termed that as side-spinning, not actually spinning sideways, it’s just backspin on a tilt. But as you hit it with a driver, if you’re curving the ball to one side using a hard-covered golf ball that spins less would hit your ball a bit straighter, maybe also a little bit further.
But, if you’re accurate and straight off the tee and what you really desire is more touch and feel and spin around the green, then a softer covered golf ball might be for you. So, when you get near the green, you clip it off the surface and it feels nice on the clubface. It spins a little bit on the green. And when you’re rolling the ball with a putter, it feels a little bit soft. It gives you a bit more feedback. That would be a softer covered golf ball. Generally, a lit bit more expensive and generally, they don’t – they’re not as durable, they don’t wear as well. So, if cost isn’t really an issue, then maybe invest in some softer covered golf balls.
The other consideration here will be time of year. If you’re playing in the summer when the greens are very hard and you want the ball to spin nicely, a softer covered golf ball will be better for you. But if you’re playing through the winter time when the greens are the soft and any ball is going to spin on the green, then a harder covered golf ball might be right for you as well. But consider which type of cover on the golf ball is going to be best for you. Make that decision and try and stick with that decision certainly for the winter period or the summer period because the consistency of the cover is really important to the consistency of your golf.