Playing equipment fit to you leads to more fun-and lower scores. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and be custom-fit for a new golf ball. It’s fast and easy to do. Here are tips to maximize your experience.
Begin with understanding your greenside control needs. If control around the greens is critical to your game then consider a 3-piece urethane covered ball. After warming up, hit a dozen or so drives with one of the available 3-piece urethane covered balls on the market.
If greenside control is not critical to you then ask yourself ‘what is?’ Perhaps spin with full irons is important to you, or perhaps a soft feel, or then again perhaps all you care about is obtaining the greatest distance off of the driver. If spin with full irons is important, look for a golf ball with a medium to low cover hardness. There are many golf balls that provide very good distance with soft feel, but don’t confuse soft feel with control around the greens. A ball that feels soft due to low core compression can still have a relatively hard cover that does not grip the more highly loft clubs. The improvements in core technology over the last decade have resulted in many good choices in the feel-distance golf ball category.
If all you care about is maximum distance you don’t necessarily have to play a hard golf ball, but the cover hardness will tend to be relatively high in order to obtain low driver spin and the core compression will be selected to provide a balance between high speed and low spin.
“It’s best to be fit on a launch monitor at the Peak Performance Centre.”
Often, ball fitting is not considered a part of the custom fitting process. But the ball must compliment all aspects of a golfer’s game.
You need to get fit for a ball at 15m and 215 meters. At 215 meters the launch monitor is critical to get proper spin, launch and velocity. Next, you need to know how you want the ball to perform from 100 meters and in. Lastly, some practical considerations are needed. The premium balls are great. But if you play a course that “claims” 4-5 of your balls each round you may want to find a middle-ground product that makes your wallet happy at the end of the day.
Play the ball that works/feels best with your irons and putter. A great drive is worthless if the approach or chip shot doesn’t hold. With multi-core and multi-mantle balls, you are no longer sacrificing distance off the tee for feel around the green.