We all care so much about the clubs that hit that little white ball into a cup on a green all the way down at the end of each hole. Sometimes that little white ball gets neglected. Obviously playing the right golf ball is important but how important is it? Some times I hear players say they get whatever balls are on sale, or they picked up a bunch of lost balls over the years and play those, but how do those balls fit the player? Balls to some extent are like clubs and designed for certain levels and styles of players. We carry a lot of different Japanese spec balls here at Tourspecgolf.com and many times players just don’t know what to choose.

Golf Today recently released a survey they did on amateur golfers and their choice of golf balls. They headed over and spent a day interview golfers at Accordia Golf Garden here in Chiba and got data from 100 amateur golfers about their golf ball preferences. They also had several amateurs take part in some ball tests with launch monitors and several of the newest models in Japan. The test is rather extensive with lots of data so I’ll try and share what I found to be the most interesting information.

This time around I won’t make fancy charts like I did with the driver white paper as I’m a bit short on time. They first asked the 100 golfers about their level of play.

Golfer background and experience

How long have you been playing golf?
Less than a year: 4%
1 – 5 years: 20%
5 – 10 years: 26%
10 – 20 years: 34%
20-30 years: 10%
More than 30 years: 6%

What is your average score?
79 or better: 4%
89 and below: 45%
99 and below: 29%
109 and below: 9%
119 and below: 7%
120 or higher: 6%

The largest segment of golfers have been playing 10-20 years at 34% and if you add in 5-20 years the total would be 60% or 60 people since there were 100 players surveyed. As for average score 78% or 78 players all averaged under 99 with the majority falling very close into the average golfer and mid capper/improving golfer segment.

Golfer buying patterns…

Is there a specific model of golf ball you buy?
Yes: 74%
No: 26%

This I think was very reflective of the Japanese golfing market. Japanese golfers will be very loyal to a certain brand and model, many times regardless of cost and sometimes even if its not the right ball. 26% said no and would buy any ball.

What is the basic reason for buying the ball you use?
Feels soft at impact: 28%
Iron and approach spin: 26%
Driver Distance: 17%
Brand reputation: 12%
Control and stability: 5%
Price: 5%
Favorite Pro is using the ball: 4%
Other: 3%

Interestingly, driver distance is only the 3rd ranking reason for choosing a certain golf ball. The feel and spin of the ball  are more important meaning these golfers probably have a good understanding that the short game, approaches and touch around the green are of most important. Plus everyone seems to love that soft feel. Another interesting note is that price, which is usually a big factor for clubs only came out at 5% or 5 golfers. This is a bit surprising considering the high costs of Japanese market golf balls; some of those premium balls can cost well over 100.00 a case of 12 balls! The next question relates to price (I have converted the yen values to USD).

How much do you usually spend on a case of 12 balls?
$24.00: 6%
$36.00: 4%
$48.00: 16%
$60.00: 30%
$72.00: 28%
$84.00: 8%
$96.00 or more: 8%

74% typically spend $48.00 to $72.00 for 12 golf balls.  That’s 4.00 to $6.00 for each ball lost in the lake or woods but players are willing to pay for performance?

Can Amateur Golfers tell  the difference?

The asked 5 golfers that day to take part in a little test to see if amateur golfers could in fact tell the difference between many of the balls available today. All 5 of these golfers play the Titleist Pro V1 as their regular ball. Golf Today got 5 different model balls together and covered the brand and model of the balls.

Blue: Titleist Pro V1
Black: XXIO Super XD.
Pink: Titleist Pro V1x
Orange: Taylormade Five TP
Yellow: Srixon Z-Star X

The 5 players spent time hitting all 5 balls off the tee with their driver followed by approach shots around the greens. they were then asked to choose which ball was the Titleist Pro V1. Just a note about these 5 golfers. They ranged from one scratch golfer to one with an average score of 90. Player experience ranged from 4 to 15 years.

The results showed that players could distinguish a ball through feel and spin performance as 3 of the testers chose Blue which was in fact the Pro V1. The other 2 chose Pink which was the Pro V1x. I thought that was pretty good. So it seems like players can tell the difference after all.

On a side note, data was also provided for the respective tours:

US PGA Men’s Tour:
Pro V1/V1x: 63.4%
Other: 36.7%

Japan PGA Mens Tour:
Pro V1/V1x: 38.9%
Other: 61.1%

Average Golfer + Pro Model Ball = ?

For the next test they took 4 players who were considered average golfers with average swing speeds and had them hit the XXIO Super .XD which is a distance ball vs the Srixon Z-Star XV which is pro model ball with a focus on spin control. Below are the average results of the test using their own drivers.

AVERAGE OF 4 PLAYERS:

Distance
Z-Star XV: 235.2 yards
Super XD: 238.3 yards

Back Spin
Z-Star XV: 3648 rpm
Super XD: 3109 rpm

Launch Angle
Z-Star XV: 15.8*
Super XD: 16.8*

Ball Speeds
Z-Star XV: 136.68 mph
Super XD: 138.25 mph

Average swing speed:
Z-Star XV: 95.96 mph
Super XD: 95.30 mph

As you can see from the above results, even though the average swing speed was lower, the 4 amateur/average golfers had better results with the distance ball. To give a reference point on how the balls should actually perform, Golf Today also used a robot hitting machine which of course would always strike the ball dead center on the sweet spot to see what the optimal performance of each ball should be. I was actually surprised though that they set the robot swing speed at 40m/s or 89.5mph which gives a distinct advantage to the XXIO ball which is optimized for slower swing speeds. The design of the XV benefits the faster swing speeds ie over 10omph which bring out the best in that ball. Nevertheless, as you can see from the numbers below, when optimally struck right in the sweet spot like most pros would, the Pro Model Z-Star XV outperforms the distance ball and this is especially thanks to the higher ball speeds:

AVERAGE OF HITTING ROBOT:

Distance
Z-Star XV: 213.5 yards
Super XD: 210.0 yards

Back Spin
Z-Star XV: 3191 rpm
Super XD: 2861 rpm

Launch Angle
Z-Star XV: 12.9*
Super XD: 13.4*

Ball Speeds
Z-Star XV: 132.88mph
Super XD: 131.31 mph

Average swing speed:
Z-Star XV: 89.5 mph
Super XD: 89.5 mph

A lot of talk and emphasis is always placed on low spin but what it comes down to is optimal spin. You need that right amount of spin from a ball to get proper lift and carry but also run. At the same time you don’t want a ball that spins too high and balloons or worsens your bad shot off the tee. The concept for many of these average golfer distance balls are that they will spin low enough to help distance but also that the target audience can’t necessarily create enough spin with irons and approach shots any way so these distance balls naturally spin less around the greens. Is there such thing as a perfect ball or the longest ball or the best spinning ball? Probably not. So many factors come into play including the clubs used the players swing style and speed and even the conditions on a course. These tests are just to give a general idea of some of the trends and differences when it comes to golf balls. And yes there are definitely differences.

In part 2, I’ll look more at wedge and iron spin and performance around the greens and also look at an interesting test comparing new model balls to previous year model balls to see if there truly is a benefit with design changes and new technology.

In the meantime, what do you guys think of golf balls and what are your purchase trends? Take these Golf to Impress polls to find out.

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