Entry 25.19

Early on in my golf career I was looking to be more of a fitter than a teacher. Rather than be a teacher who fits, I planned to be a fitter who teaches. I’ve always been into gear and technology. When I was a state trooper, my affinity for technology landed an Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) in my patrol vehicle. That was a decade ago and while it worked, it wasn’t great at precisely reading license plates, was slow so by the time it gave you an alert the vehicle was gone and often linked the wrong registration to the license plate it read. While I was in the Army, I was the guy who read the manuals for all the different gear and technology I had access to and found capabilities no one else was aware of. This eventually resulted in my being the lead armorer for the Sniper Arms Room. For those of you who haven’t been in the Army, being in charge of an Arms Room requires a ton of time and logistical organization. Most of the time that is your only job. In my case, I had to do it on top of my position as a Sniper Team Leader. Again, because I had to know and be familiar with every single piece of equipment in the arms room (I had over 10,000 different items on my hand receipt) I unlocked new options for the rest of my platoon. So, while I knew I wanted to do some teaching when I started my journey to becoming a PGA Professional, the logical path for me was to get involved in the equipment in the game. My boss at my first facility gave me a great opportunity to follow that path. I dove in head first. Many manufacturers have free education for their products. I did courses from True Temper, Fujikura, Golf Pride, KBS and more. I also took different fitting courses from Titleist, Callaway, TaylorMade and Mizuno. I spent my evenings pouring over EI bend profiles for different shafts and researching club building techniques to help players find the feel and ball flight (or roll) characteristics they wanted. My work experiences for Teaching and Coaching II changed my passion. I had to give a series of three lessons to a mid-handicap level player and that experience flipped the script for me. That’s when in my career I changed from a major in Fitting with a minor in Teaching and Coaching to a major in Teaching with a minor in Fitting (not an option at Methodist, that’s just how I view it in Tim’s Career University). I haven’t looked back. I still enjoy fitting and keeping up to date on equipment, I just don’t do it on the scale that I used to. Instead of taking more courses on fitting, I tend to just keep up with the new equipment as it comes out.

One of the most important pieces of equipment that doesn’t get enough fitting love is the golf ball. It is going to be a focus of mine over the next five years with the USGA and R&A starting the “ball rollback” that will be in effect for all players in 2030. I don’t agree with this decision. I get the idea that professionals are hitting the ball further than ever and that golf courses would need to expand to match the increased distance. Land isn’t cheap and there is only a limited amount of it. My trips to Scotland and Ireland have shown the validity to this perspective in certain locations around the world. The governing bodies have also stated that professionals will see their drives fly 13-15 yards shorter and amateurs will only see a 5 yard reduction. Pretty impressive for them to say since they don’t have a prototype they are using to prove these claims. Golf courses are already set up differently for professionals than the everyday amateur and they have plenty of Model Local Rules in place for professional events. So why not make this one of them? Why not grow the rough out more to place a premium on accuracy on the professionals in these events and punish them more for the “pound and gouge” idea? The rough Downback in 2020 could’ve gotten the job done. Both rough mowers broke that fall and because we were still dealing with Covid shortages, the rough grew and grew. If you were lucky enough to find your golf ball in the Bermuda jungle, getting it out and advancing it a substantial distance was a whole different matter. I don’t think anyone in the industry has an idea of where this drama is headed, so let’s focus on the golf balls we have now.

When I first started playing, all that mattered was that I had a golf ball to play with. I think this is fairly normal for new golfers. I didn’t care what brand it was, which model it was, what color it was or if there were small scuffs or scratches on it. In fact, when beginners ask me what golf ball they should be playing, I give them that advice. I’m in a different place in golf. Many golf professionals make a lot of money selling golf balls. I don’t. I’ve made zero dollars in my career selling golf balls. Would I like to make a few extra dollars here and there selling golf balls? Sure. Who wouldn’t? Like the good businessperson that I am, I don’t even have the foggiest idea of how much I would make on selling a dozen balls. While making money on selling golf balls doesn’t interest me in the slightest, you playing the right golf ball does. For beginners, don’t waste your money. Buy golf balls from bin that says “$1 per ball” found in many golf shops. Even better scour the woods for golf balls. More than likely, you will spend quite a bit of time stomping through the leaves anyway searching for the one you hit there. My goal was for every ball I hit in the woods, I would find mine and one more. I didn’t always find mine, but I was (and still am) pretty good at finding enough that my golf ball ledger was always in the black when I left the course after a round.

Why does the golf ball you play matter? Well, when you achieve the milestone of playing an entire round of golf without losing a golf ball, it’s time to start thinking about it. Well, when you start doing it consistently, it’s time. But how do you cut through all the marketing mumbo jumbo to determine what ball you should buy? With all the different kinds of covers, layers, and core compression to consider, where do you start? My suggestion is to start with the core. The core of the golf ball plays a vital role in the compression of the ball, energy transfer and initial velocity of the ball off the face. In essence, the core is the engine of the golf ball. The core also affects feel. But before we talk about that feel, we need to clear something up. Golf balls do not compress. They are constructed from incompressible materials. In reality, golf balls deform. It’s a simple misnomer that is prolific throughout the industry. I still use the term compress every day, but I still take the time to educate players when they are insistent that they need to compress the golf ball by hitting down on it and pinching it between the club face and the ground. Again, not how we “compress” the golf ball. But back to the core of the golf ball. Golf ball compression ratings range from 30 – 120. Softer cores tend to generate more spin than firm cores. Inspect the packaging on many golf balls aimed at newer players and you will see they have softer cores. This helps players hit the ball further but can reduce the potential distance gains due to the increased spin. Many beginners and novice players struggle with too much spin, so a soft core may actually not be what they need. But it all depends on how fast you are swinging. High swing speeds will be negatively affected by a softer core but slower speed players don’t need to worry about losing too much distance from the additional spin from a softer core. You start by determining how fast you are swinging the club (typically driver is the club used) so getting on a launch monitor is vital. Once we have the correct core chosen, we need to start looking at the next options typically found in golf balls today.

Should I be using a 2-layer, 3-layer, 4-layer, or 5-layer ball? Great question. What do all the different layers do? 2-layer balls consist of nothing by a core and a cover. These balls are typically designed for distance and durability. Great options for new golfers and high handicap players as they spin less and don’t scuff as easily (when bouncing off trees, cart paths, rocks or your cart. Yes, I’ve seen that happen). Your typical range ball is a 2-layer ball. 3-layer balls add a mantle between the core and the cover. Mantles usually have to do with the spin characteristics of the ball, typically with short irons or wedges. Once we hit 3-layer balls we start seeing a lot more options because by mixing cores, mantles and covers, different spin and launch characteristics can be created. 4-layer and 5-layer golf balls can get really complex because now you can have an inner core, an outer core, an inner mantle, an outer mantle and then the cover so the options increase greatly. While on the box, many golf balls may seem identical, coming off the face there can be massive differences. That’s why companies like Titleist and Callaway have so many different options. And what you see on the shelves at your local muni aren’t all of them. There are options that are only available to Tour players. If we think of the core for long shots, the mantles for mid range shots, the cover is for those short game shots. There are two main materials used: Surlyn (ionomer) and Urethane. Surlyn is tougher and will provide less short game spin while Urethane is softer, provides more spin around the green, but costs more. Unless you are below a ten handicap, you should be playing an ionomer cover in my opinion. Honestly just to save yourself a few bucks since you probably don’t have the skill to affect spin on command and typically use trajectory to control the ball around the green. Because Urethane is softer, one good wedge shot can cut the cover. Cuts and scuffs on the cover affect the flight of the golf balls due to Bernoulli’s Principle, the Magnus Effect and Newton’s Laws. Don’t worry about all the physics of it all. That’s why professionals change golf balls every few holes during a tournament. Now the big question, how do you determine the perfect ball for you?

Like every other piece of equipment in the bag, you need to get fit for your golf ball. Golf ball fittings are essential, yet hard to find. Golf professionals don’t want players to hit brand new balls into the range and then have to sort them out. Then comes the decision of who pays those golf balls. In my opinion, you must use brand new golf balls for every fitting to get correct results. I will tell you for me, the player is going to pay for them. I will try to get options at wholesale for you, however. Dollars are just as important to you as they are to me, and I want to keep as many as I can in your pocket. A ball fitting is a process. A long process. We gather a sleeve of all the different options first. Then we start with putting. You have to 100% love the feel of the ball off the face. We usually knock a few contenders out right then and there. Then we head to short game. Do you like the feel, can you control trajectory and if you are an advanced or elite player, does it provide the spin that you require? A few more options get cut. We then take a break while we get a dozen balls for all the remaining options. The nice thing is you now have a whole bunch of golf balls to use while we wait to find the perfect one. Once we have those dozens of golf balls, we move onto driver. A ball fitting for me follows the order of merit of practice: putting, short game, tee shots, then approach shots. I want to make sure that the spin and launch characteristics off the driver are perfect for you. No point in having an iron flight you love if it spins off the moon when we get to driver. After driver, we are usually down to a champion or just a couple of contenders. If a champion stands alone after driver, we just confirm that ball will work for your irons. If we have options, we whittle them down until we only have one remaining. Sounds like a lot of work and it is. But it’s worth it. Especially if you plan to play competitively. We often spend a ton of time getting all our club specs perfect and ignore the golf ball. It’s the one piece of equipment you use on every shot, so you should ensure it’s the right one for your game. Hopefully, this helps you wade through all the confusion in choosing.