Fit the Best Golf Ball for your Game

The number of golf balls on the market at the moment is staggering but there’s little information out there to help you pick the correct ball for their game. Most manufacturers will produce a distance ball or a spin/control ball and it’s down to the individual to decide what part of the game is most important to them. However, there’s more to a golf ball than just spin and distance.

Every golf ball has a compression rate, which means how much the ball will compress when it’s hit by a golf club. Compression rate is measured by a robot booming balls down a driving range at a swing speed of around 125mph (i.e Tour Pro swing speed). The compression is then measured and given a rating. That compression rating is a figure between 30 and 100 with 100 being the hardest ball to compress. The more popular tour balls like the Pro V1 and the TaylorMade Penta have a compression rating in the 90s and so we demand a high swing speed to get optimum compression.

So what difference is this going to make to your game?

Taking the Penta as an example, the ball has 5 layers:

• Urethane Cover — delivers a soft feel plus a combination of higher spin-rate and lower launch angle on wedge shots.
• Outer Mantle — spin off short-irons, as well as higher ball speed and increased distance.
• Middle Mantle — more control with mid-irons, and prevents up-shooting, ballooning and falling short of the green.
• Inner Mantle — high launch and low spin off the long-irons for exceptional distance plus a high, soft-landing flight.
• Core — promotes high launch/low spin off the driver for maximum carry and distance

All those features are great…if you can compress the ball properly with the right club. The best illustration I can offer is with the driver: if you don’t compress the ball enough, you will NOT get to the core of the ball to get that elusive distance. Instead what’s likely to happen is you’ll get to the inner or even middle mantle. IF you managed to get the club face square, you’ll be ok but lose distance. If you don’t square the club face, the ball will likely start to be allowed to move across the face and start that dreaded hook or slice. When the ball compress correctly, it pretty much can’t roll across the face so any potential side spin is reduced.

Bridgestone have made it their mission to educate golfers about this kind of thing and hold ball fitting days to match your swing to the correct ball. They have produced a range of balls that they think allows them to give any player the best ball for there swing characteristics and most of the golfers I’ve seen fitted have either been given a Bridgestone E6 or a Bridgestone B330 RX.

Don’t be one of those players who uses the same ball as the Pros, get fitted for the right ball for you and you’ll see a big difference in your game.