What damage causes you to retire a ball and what do you do with old balls?

[2bGood]

I am sure I going to get lots of replies about how people lose balls before damage becomes an issue. So feel free to get in your one liners. For the rest of you, a serous questions:

 

I typically damage a ball well before I lose it. I am noticing the damage to the ball has more effect on ball flight than I would like. I happen to be playing 2015 Pro V1x's right now and I found they are not all the durable and I am rotating balls out of play after about 12 holes. Kicker is if I decide to step on a wedge, the ball has a rash on it. If I have a few hard wedge shots in the first few holes I end up retiring the ball. 

 

I am interested in how much damage is too much for you to keep playing a ball?

 

Second question, what do you do with your damaged balls? For some reason I have been collecting them in a bucket, but I must have a few hundred now. If I want to test some clubs with 'real balls' I pull some out at the range. But beyond that I not sure what best to use them for. (I give new balls that aren't my brand to Junior golf, but I dont think they want my used up balls)

[jol]

Hitting an asphalt golf path will usually leave a nasty mark. I’ll either dispose of it after a round or if not too bad, collect them for my son who can easily drive a ball over 300 yards, but not always where he intended to hit it.

[ChipNRun]

59 minutes ago, jol said:

Hitting an asphalt golf path will usually leave a nasty mark. I’ll either dispose of it after a round or if not too bad, collect them for my son who can easily drive a ball over 300 yards, but not always where he intended to hit it.

 

Golf ball "losses:" About 40% are actual lost balls, most of the rest are damaged by cart paths. 

[FormerDimer]

I try my best to be able to keep old worn out golf balls for my shag bag, but alas, many times I end up losing them before they can make it in. Inventory is growing slowly but surely... I will one day have a whole shag bag of beat up ProV1's. 

Edited September 10, 2020 by FormerDimer

[bigkidneys]

Cuts or serious scrapes from cart paths. Old ones are kept for serious water holes lol.

[ScottF]

My scuffed up, worn out, found balls wind up being the balls I use to hit into my net. I still have a VERY OLD bunch of balls in my shag bag from the 60’s and 70’s. I just can’t throw an old ball away. 

[76mpg]

Noticeable loss of the cover or a large scuff, but I usually lose them before that occurs. I have quite a few balls in my bag that are carry overs from last year of I know I have played multiple rounds and I dont really care.

 

All of the damaged balls above go into the shag bag for yard practice.

[LeoLeo99]

I have a metal mesh garbage can in my garage that they get tossed into.  Any ball damaged in the course of action or any dumpy old ball I find on the course go in the basket. When I'm really jonesing I take some balls out and hit them into the woods behind my house.  Or I'll hit some pitches around the house and invariably goose one a little and lose it in the woods.  Someday someone will clean up the woods and find a lot of dumpy old golf balls.  

 

I'm more at a loss with what to do with the brand new golf balls I acquire either from golf outings or impulse purchases that I don't want to play on the course.  

[jvincent]

My most frequent damage comes from a rock in a bunker getting caught between the club and ball. It usually takes a pretty big chunk out of the ball. I'll just toss it into the forest when that happens.

[Ivyguy]

Ok, if I look at my egg and the first thought is “Whoa, look at that” or “Wicked”... then it goes in the big pocket for short game practice (I have a cool burlap bag that is labeled “Tools of Ignorance” that I use as a shag bag). 
 

but I will play with a scuffed ball, not a cut one. 
 

I cut a bunch though... I am awful with anything more than 50 degrees.  I hit (thin) some incredibly long wedges lol

[2bGood]

39 minutes ago, LeoLeo99 said:

I have a metal mesh garbage can in my garage that they get tossed into.  Any ball damaged in the course of action or any dumpy old ball I find on the course go in the basket. When I'm really jonesing I take some balls out and hit them into the woods behind my house.  Or I'll hit some pitches around the house and invariably goose one a little and lose it in the woods.  Someday someone will clean up the woods and find a lot of dumpy old golf balls.  

 

I'm more at a loss with what to do with the brand new golf balls I acquire either from golf outings or impulse purchases that I don't want to play on the course.  

I have been really lucky with these over the years. I have a friend who is 4 or 5 times a week golfer but only break 100 once per year if he is lucky. He will play ANYTHING and feels guilty playing premium balls as he loses them fast. He plays in a bunch events like I do so when we see each other I give him all the balls I don't want in return for any ball he has that I do want. It typically turns into about 3 for 1 trade as most of the events give out lower end balls but I leave happy and he leaves happy. 

[theboypinoy]

Shag bag mostly. It's nice to have a stockpile of old golf balls there to practice short game

[nitram]

If 3 or more consecutive dimples are compromised by a cart path, rock, wedge, or whatever. They go into one of two shaggers. The better ones go into the "regular" bag while the others go into the bunker bag.

 

On another note, up until 2016 I used to change out balls (regardless of condition) at the turn. The modern ball has made this practice unnecessary. As a habit I start a new round with a fresh ball and often complete the round without a change. Back in June I kept track and played 72 holes with the same ball before I retired it to the good bag. It could've withstood more but I couldn't stand the pressure...

[Hawkeye77]

Yellow spot from hitting a tree, blemishes from whatever, a little scuff - off to the shag bag.  I like shiny and new looking balls!

[GolfTurkey]

Any damage that I think might affect the flight of the ball, then it goes into the short game practice bag. Unfortunately my course has thousands of trees and I'm very good at hitting them.

[RobotDoctor]

Any damage that caused abrasions to the cover (cart path or hard impact with tree or something solid).  Any damage that will affect spin in a way I cannot anticipate or control.  I have a shag bag with ProV1s (a few years old but good enough for the pitching green) so I do not need more shag balls.  I usually hit them at the range after a practice session so I can see the actual ball I game in flight.

[DallasSteve]

My kids want to know where all of my leftover featheries are from my youth.  Sorry kids, lost them all.

I've been teaching some young co-workers to play, so everything I find that isn't "new" and everything I scuff goes to those guys.

[goaliedad30]

Mine go in the short game shag bag, or onto the backyard putting green

[Phireside]

I toss them and any found usable ball in to a box. I run the company scramble and we always have newbies so I have a big box of balls for people to have at. 

[HappyGilmoresBoots]

I've got a destructive personality.  I do the ol' Rick Shiels/Reddit thing where I slice 'em in half with a PVC cutter and examine the core.

Much like another site, I've found multiple Callaways with off-center cores.  I've only found one Nitro that was off-center, but that one was WAY off center.  And, I found one first-gen Titleist DT So/Lo that had an off-center core.  Other than that, every single ball that I've sliced in half (after slicing into a rock or a cart path) has been perfect enough to my bare eyes, I haven't busted out a caliper or anything.

[Justsomeguy]

Play it til u lose it. It is every golf ball's destiny to be struck repeatedly until sunk in water, marooned in an impossibly high crook of a tree, or otherwise retired in nature. Think The Villages in FL.

Removing them from this life cycle to live in a bag or net or whatnot is unnatural. Destroying them on purpose is Jainist murder.

[Edsland]

Cart path or smack a tree, I have a shag bag for net practice 

[DMartini]

i use yellow balls, have just started using Pro V1s and am really amazed at the durability of the covers, i have smashed 'em into most of the trees at my local and they hold up quite well, when i find balls that i wouldnt use i put in my bag until i complete the round then go to the practice fairway that has a shag bag/old garbage bin that players can fish the old dogs out and smash 'em down the practice fairway (hopefully go get them and return them to the bin for other peeps to use of course).

[jmkenn0]

cart path, goes out after the hole.  I tend to scuff balls out of bunkers as well, so usually I have to change after 13 holes, if I haven't lost it by then.  They go to the putting green at my house to chip/putt with.

[cristphoto]

I keep all my cart path balls in a box throughout the year. Then when the Fall leaves come down I load my bag with them until the leaves are gone.  Then in the Spring I take the remainder and donate them to my clubs First Tee program.  Then the process starts all over again.  

[JohnKHawk]

Damaged golf balls end up being donated to range at my home course. The range has a mix of very old actual range balls & whatever other balls are retrieved from the woods surrounding the golf course. To be honest half the time I will lose a ball before it gets damaged.

[hammergolf]

I only take a ball out of play if its hit a cart path and scuffed badly. The balls go into my shag bag after my round. And I rotate the older balls out of my shag bag every month or so. The old ones taken out of my shag bag are in hit on the driving range.

[NoTalentLefty]

Tree bark , cart paths, and anything that won’t come off with a ball washing like a slight peel of the cover , even if it’s like a speck. I keep them in my bag until I clean it out. Put them in my garage and hit them out into the woods behind the house. Wonder what some archeologist going to think in 500 years??? 

[RainShadow]

Scuffs. Embedded debris like sand, tree bark, or here in the desert, cactus spines.

Out of round get tossed, but those are rare these days. 

They get tossed in a bucket and taken to the public range that has crappy balls.

 

 

Edited September 11, 2020 by RainShadow

[JDennis]

I lose enough balls, I don't worry about the damage. ?