No Balls Lost

[NorwichBanana]

May be worthwhile considering the Wilson DX2 Optix balls which come in various "loud" colours and can be had for £15.99 a dozen, or £11.99 for the white DX2's.

This!

Lime and Orange are both very clear to see. The Yellow and Red aren't as easy to see when not on the fairway!

 

[pendodave]

I've been playing Nike volt coloured balls all winter and barely lost one. First medal yesterday, so swapped to posh white ones. Lost two in places I would normally expect to find them on the front nine, so switched back to yellow (is this allowed??) and normal service was resumed.

Would like to find some really good quality bright yellow balls for the rest of the season and will be looking to sell off a collection of pro_vs to mates to fund the switch.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

The trick is to find a landmark for your eye and try to hold on to it. Harder to do on some courses. I play on a parkland course and so I can pick the line of a tree or bush. You also need playing partners who are willing to help. Push yourself to get into the habit of picking the line, you may find it becomes easier after a while.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

A few things that might help:

- watch it intently and focus on a marker on the line (tree/stake etc)

- know how far you have for each shot before playing and get a feel for the distance you will have hit it, based upon strike/shape etc

- use a GPS if you have one to calculate estimate landing area

- park your bag in the centre of said area as a reference point (people end up wandering miles away from the probable area)

- if still no luck, fan out and search methodically in lines (think police searching for evidence) rather than going round in circles like many do

- don't get stressed by losing balls - EVERYONE has been there, done that

- if the likely area would give you a reasonable shot out then have a good search (up to 5 mins if in a comp) whilst calling the group behind through

- if it's likely to be deep in trouble with no real way of extricating yourself then don't bother searching too long and just use your provisional (assuming you've hit one)

HTH :thup:

All good hints - and on the 'put your trolley in the middle...' one - a thing I've found over the years is that - when you've hit your ball into the rough when you get to where you think it is roughly - it is easy to look much further off line / away from the fairway (wide) than you actually are.

This is especially the case when you have no marker in the rough - say a tree - that you can use to estimate that - say - you are roughly half way between the fairway and the tree. If you have no such marker my experience is that you end up looking MUCH further off-line than you will actually be - rather than focussing on 'how far'. Not sure I've made that very clear - but basically - I find that what can look miles off line from where you hit the ball is in fact - when you get there - not as far off line as you will end up looking - especially if you don;t find it straight away.

 

[Orikoru]

A few things that might help:

- watch it intently and focus on a marker on the line (tree/stake etc)

- know how far you have for each shot before playing and get a feel for the distance you will have hit it, based upon strike/shape etc

- use a GPS if you have one to calculate estimate landing area

- park your bag in the centre of said area as a reference point (people end up wandering miles away from the probable area)

- if still no luck, fan out and search methodically in lines (think police searching for evidence) rather than going round in circles like many do

- don't get stressed by losing balls - EVERYONE has been there, done that

- if the likely area would give you a reasonable shot out then have a good search (up to 5 mins if in a comp) whilst calling the group behind through

- if it's likely to be deep in trouble with no real way of extricating yourself then don't bother searching too long and just use your provisional (assuming you've hit one)

HTH :thup:

I'm so bad for this. As soon as I know it's going to be a bad shot the temptation is there to turn away in disgust, but then you've got no chance of seeing where it's gone. You really need to try and identify a bit of scenery that it's level with or near to - be it a particular tree, the 150 yard marker, a bunker on an adjacent hole, anything like that.

I'm using the bright orange Wilson Staff DX2 Optix at the moment, and they are great. They really do catch the eye nicely when you're in the rough. Don't get the yellow ones, they are absolutely terrible. I thought they would stand out but weirdly the yellow almost camouflages with the lighter greens of the grass. Orange ones are vastly better.

 

[Dornenglanz]

All great stuff thank you - exactly the sorts of hints I was hoping for. I shall put them into practice next round, and I shall have a go with the orange DX2 Optix too!

 

[GaryK]

I use the orange optix, and whilst I do still lose the odd one here and there, it is nowhere near the number of regular whites balls that I used to lose.
Given that they work out at just over £1.30 each, even if you do lose one or two, it's not going to be costly.