Can premium balls be a dissadvantage?

[palindromicbob]

When it comes to the short game,its more to do with ball striking than swing speed.A properly struck premium ball will check/spin with even the most gentle of swings if its struck correctly.Cheaper balls always feel hard off the face of clubs,spring off the face of the putter,and regardless to what they promise in the ads,they don't spin enough to control on the greens.Some of the older guys i've played competitions with,use cheap balls,and are used to how they play.They will run the ball into greens,instead of hitting high shots,but what happens when you have a bunker between you and the pin ?
I have a pretty poorly paid job,have a mortgage,wife and kids to support,so i don't have much spare cash,but i'd still only use a premium ball.I'd rather play with a stone than a cheap ball.
Two things that never cease to amaze me......
Why do some high handicappers spend hours trying to hit there driver and long irons on the range when,they'd knock 5 shots off there handicap in no time by learning to hit there wedge's ?
Why will some golfers spend £300 on a driver that they can't hit properly,but scoff and guffaw at the thought of spending more than £20 on a dozen balls ??????

Agreed. A good analogy is that of the fly fisherman who will happily spend £400 on a rod, £300 on waders, X amount on all the gear, and then spend 40p on a fly to fish with that'll fall apart in 5 minutes.

There are a lot of parallels between the sports- you should work back the way to rank things in terms of importance. Most important is the ball,putter, then wedges, then irons, then fairways/hybrids and LASTLY the driver (fly, line, rod)

Put it this way, if yu had to take one club out of the bag what would it be? Driver alwayd for me. You can get by without it, and it can actually be a hinderence to some players who refuse to admit it (me included )

I agree to a point but it's not simple enough to reduce to individual components. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole. And no matter what gear you have if the cast is poor then the results will be as well. Unfortunately although I can make my own flies I can't make my balls.

I am one to play a ball I feel happy hitting. I don't do premium balls justice and the annoyance of losing them can make me nervous over them.

I don't like the lower end distance balls either though. I find that although I may drive better with them I don't like the feel of them around the greens.

I compromised by adopting Nike PD soft. I pay £15 per dozen (I get them branded with my logo so they are little more than they should be). I find they play well for me and I like the softer feel off the putter (they still feel like a rock beside a z-star or a pro v though!).