Switching Ball for Colder Weather?

[Marks23]

I tried a titleist pro v1 today because of the colder weather and definitely felt I could compress it better. Teed off below 40*. Curious if any others play a different ball during colder temperatures and if so, what do you play?

[Fourmyle of Ceres]

I can't see it. Compression has nothing to do with the distance a ball flies to start with. And any ball goes shorter when its cold or when it's hot. I just stick to whatever ball I'd play on a 90F day in July. If I knew of a longer ball to play in the summer I'd play it, there's no way to regain the lost performance when it's 40F in December.

[gvogel]

I play a different ball in colder weather, because colder weather where I play is generally accompanied by softer conditions since rain accompanies colder weather in the Northeast, and the sun isn't strong enough to dry the greens.

Heck, where I play a Pinnacle Gold would work just fine in November, or a Titleist Velocity. Or a DT Solo.

I played the NXT Tour and NXT Tour S in the late fall and enjoyed them. Did they go farther than a Pro V1? Maybe against the wind.

[Doc420]

I tried some Volvik balls a couple of weeks ago and they might be the best cold weather ball I have played. You don't drop much distance at all off your woods, and off your irons they are better than my normal ball. Plus with all the wild color options you will never lose your ball, unless you jack it in the water.

[Sean2]

If you keep your golf balls in the house before you take them to the course I would think you would be okay.

[obsessed_golfer]

I am a Pro V1X player but switched to the NXT Tour S for the fall and winter...the yellow color helps then too!

[richard t]

I play 'found' balls from now until spring. Why? Like Vogle said, in the Northeast ground is mushy, conditions damp to wet, even perfect drives/shots may cause a 'lost' ball from plugging, traps are wet, standing water= lost ball, leaves and more leaves. Just not worth it to loose any good balls. Come the winds of March its back to the regular ones.

[jimb6golf]

According to the manufacturers, cold weather drastically effects the golf ball and its performance. First the balls get cold and hard and don't compress as much off the club face and second the cold air is more dense than during warmer days - both effecting the balls performance and resulting in lost distance and potentially control. You want to play a softer compression ball during colder days, particularly days below 50 degrees. Although you're going to lose distance regardless in the cold using a low compression ball limits the loss and allows you to get better feel and control. I'd recommend Bridgestone E6, Wilson Duo or Fifty balls. You'll really feel the difference. And don't forget to keep the clubs and balls inside a warm house when not playing too.

[Fourmyle of Ceres]

[quote name='jimb6golf' timestamp='1387200273' post='8306883']
According to the manufacturers, cold weather drastically effects the golf ball and its performance. First the balls get cold and hard and don't compress as much off the club face and second the cold air is more dense than during warmer days - both effecting the balls performance and resulting in lost distance and potentially control.[/quote]

Absolutely correct. As verified by anyone who has ever played golf on a 40F fall morning after playing with temps in the 70's and 80's all summer.

[quote]You want to play a softer compression ball during colder days, particularly days below 50 degrees. Although you're going to lose distance regardless in the cold using a low compression ball limits the loss and allows you to get better feel and control. I'd recommend Bridgestone E6, Wilson Duo or Fifty balls. You'll really feel the difference.[/quote]

Purely your personal preference. YOU want to play a softer compression ball when it's cold. So do a lot of other people, quite inexplicably to me. There's no evidence that a lower compression ball produces more distance than a high compression one or better "control". No matter what the temperature.

If you like the way a different ball feels in cold weather, go for it. But I'm not sure why you wouldn't just play that better-feeling ball on warm days too. You can't make up for loss of distance in cold weather by using a different ball. If a different ball is longer in the cold then it would have been longer in the warm weather too.

For my part, it's already a challenge making the adjustment from warm weather to cold weather. I sure don't want to compound that with an additional challenge of playing with a ball I'm not familiar with.

[quote]And don't forget to keep the clubs and balls inside a warm house when not playing too.[/quote]

Good advice. I can't believe it when I see guys I play with retrieving their golf bags from the (unheated) storage shed in back of the clubhouse and pulling out a golf ball that's been sitting there for a week in freezing temps. They'd gain themselves a full club of distance on the first hole if they teed off with a ball they brought from home.

[richard t]

Called Ping once. Asked about temps affecting clubs, driver especially. Guy says, "where do you keep the clubs?" I say, " In the basement rec room. (Heated). Guy says," Good to go, but NEVER leave them in a shed, garage, the trunk etc" Same as summer in reverse. Epoxy heats up, cools down or vice versa and soon you're chasing a head down the fairway.
If it's really cold, 30 or so, and I really want to play I have an old, old, set that you'd find in Replay or Play It Again. Hit a green the other day from about 135 out. Took one hop, as in GIANT hop and went somewhere in the bushes behind the green. Gotta go, gotta play, just very low expectations. lol.

[GroverC]

I'm up in Minnesota and for the last month of the season I played about 5 rounds with temps in the mid 40's alternating between 3 balls, DT Solo, Wilson Duo, and Callaway Hex Chrome. Due to soft fairways and greens didn't get much roll at all and because of that the Duo and Hex Chrome performed and felt almost exactly the same. What was surprising to me is that while the DT Solo felt firmer than both of them I did get probably more distance from the DT Solo than the other two balls.

And this was pretty much an apples to apples comparison. I was playing as a single for much of the time and had all three balls staying warm in my pocket and would play whatever I pulled out, many times playing all three on a single hole.

[jay65]

Just revive an old thread a minute here. But does anyone know if any research has been done on the resulting spin rates of a ball played at cold temperatures, and the same ball played at higher temperatures?

[Hidalgo]

[quote name='jimb6golf' timestamp='1387200273' post='8306883']
You want to play a softer compression ball during colder days, particularly days below 50 degrees. Although you're going to lose distance regardless in the cold using a low compression ball limits the loss and allows you to get better feel and control. I'd recommend Bridgestone E6, Wilson Duo or Fifty balls. You'll really feel the difference. And don't forget to keep the clubs and balls inside a warm house when not playing too.
[/quote]

Compression has nothing to do with distance. Nothing. It's a factor of feel. All of these marketing commercials that you see are hogwash. Bridgestone says YES, Titleist says NO. In reality compression effects distance so minutely that you'd have to be a touring pro to see the change.

Also, it is definitely a fact that you lose distance when the ball is cold. But have you ever read the fine print to see how MUCH that distance is? You might want to find that info and decide if it is worth losing spin, control, and the other benefits of a premium ball just to gain that minute amount of distance. If this were an issue at all, the professionals at the British Open would all be playing softer balls because of the cold temps. But it isn't. (Phil Mickelson did change to a different model ball in 2011 because of the weather, for what that might be worth) Frank Thomas once did a test to see how much yardage was lost with temperature of the ball. It equated to [u]2 yards for every 10 degrees[/u]. The test started with balls that were at 72 degrees. If a loss of 6 yards off the tee in 40 degree weather with your driver concerns you enough to make you change balls, I would only have to assume that you hit the ball exactly in the center of the driver face to warrant this concern. Six yards off the tee doesn't concern me in the least. I would much rather have the familiarity of my regular golf ball when hitting the second shot to a tight pin or a short pitch. Honestly, unless a person has every other facet of their game down to perfection a ball change due to temperature is an extremely minor concern.

And to be perfectly clear, that test only involved BALL temperature. AIR temperature wasn't in the equation. When you factor the air temperature into the mix, that will also cause a reduction in distance due to the denser air. I saw the results of that test but can't locate it right now. It was also less than you would initially think. Somewhere around the same drop as the ball temp. You could multiply the ball stats by 2 and be very close. So even if you figure 10-12 yards of lost distance from the tee, the loss with the irons would be even less because of the shorter distance involved. Even at that, it isn't significant enough to warrant a ball change that would inevitably cause problems in the short game.

Our golf-playing temps here in Tennessee vary from 90s in the summer to 40s in the winter, and I only see a drop with my irons of 5 yards or so, and even less with anything under a 7 iron. I haven't noticed any significant difference off the tee although I am certain there is some.