Do All Golf Balls Go the Same Distance? 

Oh the joy of playing with used balls, you play quicker and with much less anxiety knowing you're not losing a 5 dollar golf ball. Always look for them on the first fairway, they're usually hit once. Lol

While working at a golf course and finding hundreds of balls I did comparison testing against each other hitting straight, fade and draw shots. It is when shaping shots the difference between the urethane cover and less expensive balls becomes very obvious. I’d progressively open and close stance then adjust face to curve the ball back to center. The urethane cover balls curved more with the same inputs and could put into more extreme curved ball flight than the less expensive ones when making extreme stance/face adjustments. To paraphrase Trevino, “You can talk to a ProV but a Pinnacle just won’t listen.

The distance a ball travels is the relation between the ball compression & clubhead speed. A slower swing speed requires a softer ball to increase compression. That's why you must play a ball that matches your speed.

one was of testing accuratly the softness or hardness would be to drop the ball from 334 ft on a flat hard surface and see how high it bounces up. Dropping the ball from 334 ft, it will hit the ground at 100MPH.( assuming no air resistance). Or drop it from 213 ft for it to reach 80MPH when it hits the ground. Or 120 ft for 60MPH.

One thing that wasn’t mentioned is how balls can sometimes come from the factory with a slight imbalance. This can actually have a big effect on your Drives and Putts. You can test it yourself by placing a ball in a bowl of salt water. Spin the floating ball to see if it returns to the same spot every time. If so, it’s bad… so give that one to your playing partner 🙂

Great video! Thanks.

Great video!

This was an excellent video. The only thing I thought that didn't make a lot of sense was during one portion of the video you got Rory Mcllroy saying distance is the most important thing so pick a ball that gives you the most distance. Then at the end of the video is says pick a ball from green going backwards based of feel...etc. Two totally conflicting statements. Still the best video I've seen explaining golf balls, and I've watched a tooooon of them.

Great video.

Thank you!

I have spent a great deal of time trying to understand this concept and the biggest problem I faced in doing so was all the contradicting information that exists. So, after MONTHS and months of reading and researching I have come up with the best possible way to explain how this works, at least I think I have. Imagine instead of golf, we were talking about how far we can throw a ball. Some people would claim that they can throw a baseball the furthest, while others might say a tennis ball and still others might say a softball. And the truth is, they might all be right. It would depend on each person's specific stats, their height and length of their arms and their strength. It's just not possible for the same ball to go the same distance for 50 different golfers from across the range of skills, ages and all the other variables. Imagine the throwing the ball example and the first person we examine is a 14 year old girl. We can have her throw all the different balls we have and end up seeing that indeed the tennis ball went the furthest for her. On the other end of the scale, we have a 22 year old male who plays college baseball, he throws the baseball the furthest. You have to think of the golf ball distance scale as a three dimensional "x", not just a simple graph, where some balls are "stronger" than others because it's much more complex than that. Just look at the frame of this video at 3:04. Different clubhead speeds cause different amounts of ball compression and therefore those balls will NOT all travel the same distance. The key is to take the time and do the work to find the best ball for your game and most of us also have to check our ego's at the door. For example, I am a 51 year old male, who happens to lift weights as s hobby. I'm fit and strong but I am not a very good golfer and I don't swing very fast. I've found that the best ball for me is the Callaway SuperSoft with a VERY low compression of 35 or 36. Some guys just don't want to accept that they should hit a soft golf ball. But you know what? I can drive the ball in the neighborhood of 240 with that ball, so I'm very happy with that! I hope more of us golfers who play for fun take the time to find the right ball for our game and stick with it!

If you have enough speed, 100 mph+ harder ball will flex a driver face more and therefore go further. Lower driver speeds will benefit from flex of the golf ball surface to achieve some trampolining effect, so the question is what "flex" can you achieve.

I'm 68 and my guys call me Big Hitter, and want me to play one tee box back, LOL. I found a Maxfly Black Dot and Holly cow it went far, but the price I can not afford,, then I found a Warbird ,Callaway $17. at Walmart, I gained 20 to 30 yards with this ball, I can afford this ball, my Adv was 270 off the tee, now I'm hitting 300. NICE..........now I do hafta move back,

Distance is also effected by weather conditions. Rain and soft ground can inhibit while temperature is a factor as well.

Very interesting video but what about the myth of positioning the ball on the tee with the black line perpedicular to the target? Is it true that there is an area of the ball that when hit compresses more and flies further?

when folks talk about "swing speeds" does that relate to using the Driver only?

Yup I have about 800 Of them ,Go out about 180 and turn right ,Copious amounts in the Bush! Have an few Thousand ,Different Brands ,wash them all and put them with their Relatives ,Give to my Friends and Family .

One point I would like to make is that a premium urethane ball is ultimately better for all players because it affords more control on approach shots and short game shots. Just like most things, you get what you pay for.

Do you mean the inside of the ball.? A pro v is way softer on the outside that a velocity... I swing at 92mph.i find prov 1 goes furthest for me and all my best scores are with Pro v1.

This states that if you slice , you would benefit from a softer ball ..but if you hook you would benefit from a harder ball. Doesn’t make sense to me as spin is produced in both cases and spin would seem reduced by the same solution.

It’s not the swing speed that matters but the ball speed. The ball speed depends on the smash factor whis is more or less the angle of attack and where you hit the ball on the club face. A guy who has a 100mph swing spin but a 20% smash factor will get 120 mph ball speed. When a guy having a 90mph swing speed and a 40% smash factor will get a 126mph ball speed and therefore a couple of yards more. 2/3 of the amateurs, if not more, have a smash factor below 25%. The pro v1 is probably the best golf ball but if you don’t have a minimum of 30-35% smash factor whatever your speed swing may be then it’s useless and there is no need to spend so much money.

Core, dimple pattern, cover, spin characteristics, club characteristics etc. it was proven the longest ball for fast swing and slow swing was the same by My Golf Spy!

I don’t completely buy the over simplification of compression matching swing speed. Why does Tom Watson say seniors “should play the hardest ball they can find.” Ball Lab guys say soft means short-plain and simple.

Distance is highly over-rated. Which ball gives you the best control.

How could you be .6 grams off the limit that is a huge amount

Don't tell people to leave old balls in the trees unless you're also comfortable with them dropping other litter.

Hard further in the heat. Soft further in the cold.

An older golfer with arthritic fingers will benefit from using a soft ball.

I kind of lost interest too much detail, i still don’t know

THIS IS NOT FARE ANYMORE , THE ABOVE WILL NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN 7 YEARS WE WILL ALL BE PLAYING WITH SAME BALL OR WILL WE ?? Well lets say srixon make the chosen ball , then the other companies taylormade callaway bridgestone etc will they all go bust or have to close that side down , then what one company makes all the irons one company all the drivers one company all the wedges .

Could be a yes or no, right? 14 minutes of blah blah is time wasted. 😂

Titleist pro-V1’s go furthest for me Period. 👍