Grasping The Concept Of Golf Ball Compression (Video) - by Peter Finch
Grasping The Concept Of Golf Ball Compression (Video) - by Peter Finch

Grasping the concept behind different compressions of balls can take a little bit of time, but generally once you get the gist of what is happening, it’s quite easy to go through your head why, what might be a good ball for you and your game.

Now first of all, let’s start off at the high-end of the spectrum. So high compression golf balls. So most balls, when they are very, very high compression go to a 100%, now what this means is they are already in a tightly compressed sphere. So when you strike this ball, it will morph less. So if you had a very, very slow motion image of a high compression ball striking a drive a club face for example, the amount of morphing that that ball will go through at the point of impact will be a lot, lot less than a very low compression golf ball. Now when that occurs, the ball flies away, it has less spin but it feels harder. It’s not true, it won’t have less spin, this is one of the big debate and this is why it gets a little bit confusing. But it will feel further off the club face. And what manufacturers will say is that a higher compression ball a 100% compression ball when struck hard will go further than a lower compression ball that is because the lower compression balls have more room to morph. So what this means again if you let that slow motion image of a low compression ball, when that ball hits the actual club face, it will morph more and compress more than the high compression ball. Now what this is supposed to do for a low swing speed, it should get more distance, but what some manufacturers say is that it will not give more distance, but it will give a softer golf ball feel. And this is something where there is no definitive answer. You can do tests and it can be slighted in one way or the other depending on what your opinion is, but generally speaking the lower compression balls will feel softer, the higher compression balls will feel harder and then there is this argument between if these high compression balls will go further is struck with the same clubhead speed as the softer balls. That this is where testing comes into play and this is where after you grasp the concept you need to go out and try all these different balls to see which one works for you.
2016-10-10

Grasping the concept behind different compressions of balls can take a little bit of time, but generally once you get the gist of what is happening, it’s quite easy to go through your head why, what might be a good ball for you and your game.

Now first of all, let’s start off at the high-end of the spectrum. So high compression golf balls. So most balls, when they are very, very high compression go to a 100%, now what this means is they are already in a tightly compressed sphere. So when you strike this ball, it will morph less. So if you had a very, very slow motion image of a high compression ball striking a drive a club face for example, the amount of morphing that that ball will go through at the point of impact will be a lot, lot less than a very low compression golf ball. Now when that occurs, the ball flies away, it has less spin but it feels harder. It’s not true, it won’t have less spin, this is one of the big debate and this is why it gets a little bit confusing. But it will feel further off the club face. And what manufacturers will say is that a higher compression ball a 100% compression ball when struck hard will go further than a lower compression ball that is because the lower compression balls have more room to morph.

So what this means again if you let that slow motion image of a low compression ball, when that ball hits the actual club face, it will morph more and compress more than the high compression ball. Now what this is supposed to do for a low swing speed, it should get more distance, but what some manufacturers say is that it will not give more distance, but it will give a softer golf ball feel. And this is something where there is no definitive answer. You can do tests and it can be slighted in one way or the other depending on what your opinion is, but generally speaking the lower compression balls will feel softer, the higher compression balls will feel harder and then there is this argument between if these high compression balls will go further is struck with the same clubhead speed as the softer balls. That this is where testing comes into play and this is where after you grasp the concept you need to go out and try all these different balls to see which one works for you.