Moderate/Faster swings?

[Orikoru]

Flushing an iron and going long, especially a longer iron, is one of the most irritating things in golf!
I always assume I'm going to hit the ball properly. I'd never take an extra club on the basis I will mis-hit it, statistically it may be the right thing to do but it's planning to fail.

Being a not particularly good ball-striker, I tend to just club for the back of the green, so if I slightly duff it it might catch a piece at the front of it. Since I got my new irons end of last year though I have occasionally sent one through the back, purely because they are strong-lofted rocket launchers.

 

[Deleted member 31467]

All of those guys are long? At that level it's simply who is hot that week with their approach and putting.

It's pretty obvious for a club golfer the quickest way to lower your handicap is to get longer off the tee while still keeping it in play. 99% of all club golfers would drop their index by a huge chunk if they gained 20 yards off the tee while still keeping it in play, as those 20 yards would also carry through to irons and instead of hitting 5 or 6 irons into a mid range par 4 they would be hitting an 8 or 9 iron in.

It's like winter tees, it's no surprise I shoot loads of rounds in the +1 to +4 range while during the summer the vast majority of my counting round will be in the +5 to +7 range.

I'm currently a 3.7 index and I'd say 95% of the guys that I've played with that are lower than me are also longer off the tee than me. Shotscope has me at 270 performance with an average of 245 so not massively long but not short either but they are always hitting in less club and can also reach par 5's in 2 while most of the time I can't.

View attachment 46743

The highlighted bit is the key. Nobody is saying that distance is not an advantage, it is. But hitting it further into the rough IS NOT an advantage so those people that claim the best way to lower your handicap is to simply hit it longer are wrong. We can probably close this thread now

 

[Jason.H]

Flushing an iron and going long, especially a longer iron, is one of the most irritating things in golf!
I always assume I'm going to hit the ball properly. I'd never take an extra club on the basis I will mis-hit it, statistically it may be the right thing to do but it's planning to fail.

People fear going long when the stats show amateur golfers come up short most of the time. Personally if I pure /flush an iron and go long I’m happy I’ve hit it well but disappointed I’ve hit the wrong club if I’m more than 10 yards long

 

[Hobbit]

I’m reading golf ball reviews, a couple of which have been from the the GM guys.
Quite a lot of reviews mention ball X is more suited to moderate swing speeds and ball Y is better for faster swing speeds.
What does this mean exactly?
By this I mean what parameters are they using to differentiate between the two swing speeds?
For me a faster swing speed would be like a pro or low handicap player, moderate is the rest of us mere mortals lol.
What do you guys think? Would be interested to hear from the GM guys about this as well

Sorry Martyn I’m very late to the thread. My two pennies worth, very much from a layman. Swing speed and ball choice used to be about the ability to compress the ball. Compressing the ball has two benefits, one is spin and the other is a trampoline effect. Back spin gives more bite on landing and, with the aid of the dimples, gives more flight time. Trampoline effect is the ball’s ‘ability’ to spring from the face, adding to the distance.

There is an optimum compression for every ‘model’ of ball to give the best trampoline effect and spin. A fast swing speed player might choose a 100 compression ball. A not so fast player might choose a 90 compression ball. I think there was an 80 compression ball, and there was definitely a ball marketed as a “Lady” ball that had, I think, a 60 compression rating.

Compression rating seems to have disappeared from from the marketing blurb these days. The Pro V1x seems to correlate to the old 100 compression, and the Pro V1 being the 90 compression ball. Similarly Bridgestone have the RX & RXS.

There’s a lot more science behind it all nowadays but my simple mind sees it as above. It then comes down to personal choice/feel. I had a high swing speed but preferred the Pro-V1 over the Pro-V1x. Was I getting the optimal results? Who knows but I just preferred a softer feel for chipping around the greens.

 

[Bratty]

Sorry Martyn I’m very late to the thread. My two pennies worth, very much from a layman. Swing speed and ball choice used to be about the ability to compress the ball. Compressing the ball has two benefits, one is spin and the other is a trampoline effect. Back spin gives more bite on landing and, with the aid of the dimples, gives more flight time. Trampoline effect is the ball’s ‘ability’ to spring from the face, adding to the distance.

There is an optimum compression for every ‘model’ of ball to give the best trampoline effect and spin. A fast swing speed player might choose a 100 compression ball. A not so fast player might choose a 90 compression ball. I think there was an 80 compression ball, and there was definitely a ball marketed as a “Lady” ball that had, I think, a 60 compression rating.

Compression rating seems to have disappeared from from the marketing blurb these days. The Pro V1x seems to correlate to the old 100 compression, and the Pro V1 being the 90 compression ball. Similarly Bridgestone have the RX & RXS.

There’s a lot more science behind it all nowadays but my simple mind sees it as above. It then comes down to personal choice/feel. I had a high swing speed but preferred the Pro-V1 over the Pro-V1x. Was I getting the optimal results? Who knows but I just preferred a softer feel for chipping around the greens.

Congrats Hobbit. Post #84 is only the third or fourth post since #7 to answer Bezerk's question!!
Oh, and as an additional point, the "lady" compression ball was also known as the "@Oddsocks" ball.

 

[Hobbit]

Congrats Hobbit. Post #84 is only the third or fourth post since #7 to answer Bezerk's question!!
Oh, and as an additional point, the "lady" compression ball was also known as the "@Oddsocks" ball.

You’re a bad man! I’m sure @Oddsocks was fine playing off the forward tees.

 

[Oddsocks]

Can we keep this on topic please, given how @Bratty winged about topics wandering…….

 

[sunshine]

There’s a lot more science behind it all nowadays but my simple mind sees it as above. It then comes down to personal choice/feel. I had a high swing speed but preferred the Pro-V1 over the Pro-V1x. Was I getting the optimal results? Who knows but I just preferred a softer feel for chipping around the greens.

There are plenty of tour pros playing a pro V1 and not pro V1x. I don’t understand the science but there is a lot more to it than swing speed.

 

[Jason.H]

You can look on the Titleist website and do the ball fitting. Personally I like the higher flight of the Pro V1X. I do find some golf ball’s harder to launch high.