How important is a ball fitting.

[Tashyboy]

Reason I ask is I am following the " which ball would you play thread".
In essence distance over control.

Can I go back a year.
I got fitted at Ping for some new bats and had 20 mins with the fitter looking at my tour shaft against a reg shaft that was in my driver. with my swing speed the tour shaft was the better. However we were using the ad333 balls. As it happens, more through trial and error it is my preferred ball. But and this is a massive but, is it the ideal ball for me? How do I know?

I was following the thread and someone mentioned they play with X ball because it flies higher. But according to said Ping fitter the ideal ball flight is between two arcs. So would this higher flight ball kill distance. Which ironically is a big selling point of said new drivers when released.

Everyones swing and swing speed is differant, so how do you choose your ball and is it the correct ball.

For the sake of say £30 how important is having a ball fitting that may improve both distance and control?

finally how many on here have actually had a ball fitting ?

 

[bigslice]

Uve all ready worked out what suits u. I also play add333 and also prov 1 s. Trial and errror for me also. So i wud say not important.

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

If you hit the ball consistently then it is a worthwhile thing to do but if every shot is different then it's not going to make much difference. However all the ball fittings I've seen have been from a single manufacturer so you'll only find the best ball for you from their range.

 

[Jamesbrown]

There is balls that are soft, there are balls that are harder. Some spin a lot. Some spin marginally less. Pick what you like the feel of.
Height is mainly determined by the loft and speed at impact. A spinnier ball may flight fractionally higher but is really strike dependant.

I like soft little white balls.

 

[Backsticks]

Its critical to achieve your golfing potential. How people play without getting fitted by a professional ball fitter beats me. You see guys out bashing it around who cant even play to 20, and you can see right away the ball is at fault. If they just got it sorted with ball fitter who knows his onions (and has the requisite high tech analysis gear), they could be enjoying they game off 10 or better.
Ever play with blokes, who just pull ball after ball out of their bag as they lose them through a a round, or just play whatever they found when looking for the last one ? Never dawns on them that the reason they keep losing balls is that the ball is the wrong type in the first place. Its just a sad, comical, self perpetuating downward spiral.
To be properly fitted, takes the guts of a season though, weekly visits to begin with, and monthly thereafter. A year later though, and you should have the right ball narrowed down to half a dozen possibilities.

The other option is just to wear boxers.

 

[Deleted member 1740]

For the everyday golfer, not very.

For the better ball strikers, quite.

For the Pro’s very.

 

[bluewolf]

For you- not at all
For the manufacturer - very

 

[chrisd]

Its critical to achieve your golfing potential. How people play without getting fitted by a professional ball fitter beats me. You see guys out bashing it around who cant even play to 20, and you can see right away the ball is at fault. If they just got it sorted with ball fitter who knows his onions (and has the requisite high tech analysis gear), they could be enjoying they game off 10 or better.
Ever play with blokes, who just pull ball after ball out of their bag as they lose them through a a round, or just play whatever they found when looking for the last one ? Never dawns on them that the reason they keep losing balls is that the ball is the wrong type in the first place. Its just a sad, comical, self perpetuating downward spiral.
To be properly fitted, takes the guts of a season though, weekly visits to begin with, and monthly thereafter. A year later though, and you should have the right ball narrowed down to half a dozen possibilities.

The other option is just to wear boxers.

If it were possible to halve a handicap by changing your ball make then I'm sure we'd all know about it 🤐

 

[shortgame]

👆👆👆 sarcasm (I hope)🤔

 

[jim8flog]

My mate and I both play a similar ball but I would say I hit mine 30% higher than him but we take the same club (relative to loft of the club) on a par 3.

I get better drop and stop from the height whereas he gets a little bit more run on landing.

We both have the same handicap.

Both of us have come to our ball choice simply by trying the majority of premium balls.


Driver distance comes down to how well either of us hits the shot but he is marginally longer than me.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I've been to a few. Unsurprisingly I always seem to come out at their premium offering. Personally as a short hitter I prefer a 3 piece as I feel it gives me a few extra yards without compromising spin too much and so prefer through trial and error the AD333 tour as my ball of choice. At me level it's not important to be fitted and I'd disagree with Backsticks and suggest the reason these golfers are losing balls, isn't because they are using the wrong ball but have some serious and inherent swing faults

 

[bluewolf]

Sarcasm function must be switched off tonight eh??

 

[Deleted member 15344]

For you- not at all
For the manufacturer - very

Sums it up 👍

For us mere mortals a ball fitting will make minimal is any difference. At our level 99% of us just don’t have the consistent ball striking - I suspect most of not all would perform the same with most of the balls from the main manufacturers - people just end up using what they find happiness with.

 

[shortgame]

Did a ball fitting when the AG tour truck came to town

They reckoned a couple hundred rpm's spin difference between balls

Not convinced it makes much difference at our level

Mostly they seemed to be pushing Wilson Staff balls, which I've just never liked

 

[garyinderry]

Never in my life have a noticed one ball that flies higher than another.


For those that have done ball fittings? did you just hit into a net or did someone watch how to chip and pitch etc to see how you actually play?

 

[3565]

I've always used premier balls, Titleist Balata, Rexstar which were great, Precept Double Cover, Maxfli Revolutions, then Titleist Professionals then onto Pro V. But I did my own ball fitting some years ago when the Pro V just hit a ridiculous price structure and thought sod that. I then found the Bridgestone 330 series and played them for a long time until recently when they pulled out of UK (I bought quiet a few dozen which I'm ploughing through still) and now I'm alternating between 330 and Vice. One things for sure, I'm never going to buy Pro V again.

 

[PJ87]

Picked up a 24 pack of Dunlop tour softs for £10 to use over the winter

Going out tomorrow to panshanger with a long hitting 13 handicapper.. a consistent 11 handicapper .. a 20 handicapper and myself ....

I'm gonna make everyone try one and see if it makes any difference

Real world testing right there

 

[patricks148]

I remember GM doing a Titleist ball fitting questionnaire at the Castle Stuart meet a while ago. either the Prov1 or NXT...

i don't remember anyone getting the NXT:rofl::rofl::rofl:

 

[Orikoru]

Ball fitting is vital - I can't concentrate on my golf if I'm constantly adjusting my underwear.

 

[Green Man]

When I recently had a fitting for new irons the fitter asked if I had been fitted for a ball. Keeping my laugh in I told him no I just use whatever decent ball I have. Sensing my scepticism he said we would do a ball fitting after we had found the irons.

Anyway once we had found the correct iron setup for me we then proceeded to go through balls. I tried all the ranges from Calloway, Srixon, Bridgestone and Taylormade. All the results were on the flight monitor and the differences were noticeable regarding distance, spin rates, flight shape etc. Eventually settled on the TP5 which out performed the others according to the stats.

So after initially thinking it would hardly make a difference I was quite surprised at the differences between all the balls I tried.