Straightest "tour" ball is....?

[RobotDoctor]

4 minutes ago, ShowMe said:

For my golf swing, I have found some balls to have less left/right dispersion than others.  Same thing with the clubs and shafts.

 

It is not to say there are not balls that will not draw/fade as much as others or clubs that will not help a slice.  Certainly there are balls and clubs that will help.  But anyone looking for a ball that will go completely straight none exists.  Ultimately a good swing, good move through the ball and good impact will straighten out the ball.  I believe there is nothing that will ever substitute old fashioned good golf swing and fundamentals, practice and hard work.

[ShowMe]

12 minutes ago, RobotDoctor said:

 

It is not to say there are not balls that will not draw/fade as much as others or clubs that will not help a slice.  Certainly there are balls and clubs that will help.  But anyone looking for a ball that will go completely straight none exists.  Ultimately a good swing, good move through the ball and good impact will straighten out the ball.  I believe there is nothing that will ever substitute old fashioned good golf swing and fundamentals, practice and hard work.

Agreed.  In my case, it's more of an occasional hard draw / hook that I'm trying to minimize.  The good news is that my swing is repeatable and takes the right side out of play, so I don't spend too much time trying to totally straighten it out.  I do find that certain balls, clubs, and shafts help to minimize the damage, though, when I do hit a bad shot.

[swagee]

On 11/12/2020 at 5:25 AM, bogey69 said:

What ball is a tour level ball, or damn close, that just wants to go straight? 

 

I'm not too concerned about the longest, from what I see, the longer balls are only a yard or two (or maybe 3) ahead of the shorter and softer ball.  I think the 8 yards in the spy test was an outlier.  I don't see that.   

 

2021 for me will be about eliminating mistakes and penalties. So what goes the straightest????

 

105 driver swing speed.

 

I don't think there is such a thing as the "straightest" ball, or balls that just want to go straight.

A ball is sphere shaped, and that shape itself promotes curving trajectory instead of straight line trajectory (think a bullet or arrow), it's just science. 

So any even weight distributed (doesn't matter how u slice a ball in half, both halves weight the same) golf balls are designed to curve in the direction of the club face + club path at impact. 

Most tour balls out there are quality balls with strict quality assurance (I presume), so they should go as straight (curve as little) as ur ability to do so. 

That's why u see ball manufacturers often  market theirs as the longest, softest, highest spin rates as desirable traits, as opposed to being the "straightest" ball. 

I hope u can sleep well tonight (or lose sleep 🤣 🤣) knowing that ur current tour ball is probably the straightest already. 

Cheers

Edited December 4, 2020 by swagee

[RobotDoctor]

On 11/12/2020 at 6:25 AM, bogey69 said:

What ball is a tour level ball, or damn close, that just wants to go straight? 

 

I'm not too concerned about the longest, from what I see, the longer balls are only a yard or two (or maybe 3) ahead of the shorter and softer ball.  I think the 8 yards in the spy test was an outlier.  I don't see that.   

 

2021 for me will be about eliminating mistakes and penalties. So what goes the straightest????

 

105 driver swing speed.

 

 I play the 2016 Taylormade Tour Preferred ball, a definite tour ball.  It tends to pretty straight at times for me.  At times it does not.  To make it go fairly straight depends on the swing I put on it and how that swing is honed.  The more I practice with a purpose with solid fundamentals the straighter the ball goes.  That is unless I intentionally put a draw or fade on the ball.  I do get the occasional overcooked hard draw or hook.  That is because of a swing flaw, generally tempo.

🙂

[A.Princey]

Tour BRX

[lvphil702]

For me and my slow, crappy swing surprisingly it's the ProV1x.  Longer and straighter than the ProV, for me that is.  

[jds101086]

The one that spins less, hence the existence of the AVX. A ball isn't going to spin more on one axis or the other, spin is spin. Find the lowest spinning ball you can tolerate into greens and use it. The only issue would be is if you had too low of spin off your driver, which shouldn't be the case if you're looking for a straight ball(aka you're spinning it too much in one direction or the other).

[arbeck]

On 12/11/2020 at 8:39 PM, jds101086 said:

The one that spins less, hence the existence of the AVX. A ball isn't going to spin more on one axis or the other, spin is spin. Find the lowest spinning ball you can tolerate into greens and use it. The only issue would be is if you had too low of spin off your driver, which shouldn't be the case if you're looking for a straight ball(aka you're spinning it too much in one direction or the other).

The amount of curvature difference between a low spin and high spin ball is basically nothing. Under worst case conditions you might curve a ball 2 or 3 yards more because of the ball. 

[bogey69]

I can buy this, but sometimes that's the difference between being in trouble it not...I like to stack the deck in my favor.  I'll take it. 

[jds101086]

1 hour ago, arbeck said:

The amount of curvature difference between a low spin and high spin ball is basically nothing. Under worst case conditions you might curve a ball 2 or 3 yards more because of the ball. 

I apologize, but every article I've ever read disagrees with you. This would absolutely be true using an Iron Byron with perfect strikes. Unfortunately that's not what the OP is asking about. Put a slice swing on the ball and which one is going to move more? The one that spins more on average(however a ball change isn't going to fix a slice or hook).

[arbeck]

1 minute ago, jds101086 said:

I apologize, but every article I've ever read disagrees with you. This would absolutely be true using an Iron Byron with perfect strikes. Unfortunately that's not what the OP is asking about. Put a slice swing on the ball and which one is going to move more? The one that spins more on average(however a ball change isn't going to fix a slice or hook).

The difference in total spin between a high spin ball and a low spin ball on a driver is a few hundred RPM's.

 

You can test this by putting launch conditions into flightscope's trajectory optimizer. Choose a ball speed of 150MPH, a vertical launch angle of 15*, a horizontal launch angle of 0*, at 0 elevation. Put in 2000RPM of spin with 0 spin axis for one shot, and 2000RPM of spin with 45* of spin axis for the next. You'll see the first shot going perfectly straight and the second shot going offline. Now change the spin of the second shot to 4000RPM. It does go a little further offline than the 2000RPM shot, but the difference is much less than difference between shot 1 and 2. And that's with 2000RPM of extra spin. Make that spin difference 500RPM and you probably couldn't see the difference with the naked eye. 

 

If we were talking about a high spin ball being 5000RPM off the driver and a low spin ball being 2000RPM off the driver, you could make the case that the low spin ball would be straighter. But the difference between the highest spinning and lowest spinning balls off the driver are usually going to be max 500RPM, which simply isn't going to affect the direction of flight much at all. In the real world (where a lower spinning ball will be affected by crosswind more) you'll ever notice a straightness difference.

[jwb10]

Fred Funks ?

[Moby]

TP5X

[Flyers99]

Another vote for the Bridgestones. I don’t worry about what the data says I look at my real world results. On good swings, yes, it may be minimal. But as stated in golf even a few yards can make the difference especially off the tee. I also know playing golf for many years that when I put on a not so great swing there is a major difference in balls going offline. I am talking like 10-15 yards at least. The bad swings put more spin on the balls and penalize me a fair amount more.  I have noticed this trend for years between balls. So I guess depends on your swing and consistency but I know I usually have a few loose driver swings a round so a straighter ball is important for me. 

[bluedot]

On 12/17/2020 at 8:00 AM, Flyers99 said:

Another vote for the Bridgestones. I don’t worry about what the data says I look at my real world results. On good swings, yes, it may be minimal. But as stated in golf even a few yards can make the difference especially off the tee. I also know playing golf for many years that when I put on a not so great swing there is a major difference in balls going offline. I am talking like 10-15 yards at least. The bad swings put more spin on the balls and penalize me a fair amount more.  I have noticed this trend for years between balls. So I guess depends on your swing and consistency but I know I usually have a few loose driver swings a round so a straighter ball is important for me. 

 

Go back are reread Arbeck's post three posts above yours, and keep in mind that ALL golf ball manufacturers are working under the same two sets of rules; physics and the USGA.  Because of this, the launch angles and spin rates, at least off the driver, have become pretty much the same across the board.

 

But the key point is that those bad swings that you are talking about can't affect one ball differently than another, except very marginally.  And we can even put aside the question of whether you are actually adding spin, or simply tilting the spin axis more when you make that bad swing, though it is an important question in understanding how golf balls behave when struck by a human instead of a machine.  Even off a wedge, where the spin differences are greatest, the same bad swing that adds spin to the higher spinning ball is going to add the same percentage of spin rate to the lower spinning ball; bad swings don't make one ball go crazy but another ball react less to or be unaffected by the exact same swing.

 

None of this, of course, means that the Bridgestones aren't great golf balls (they are!) or that they aren't the best golf ball for you (they may well be!).  But if those things are both true, it isn't because they forgive your bad swings by spinning less and curving less relative to other golf balls.  It's just physics, not magic.

 

[Flyers99]

Well bluedot I understand the science in all this but I can only go by the results that I see when I play. I don’t agree that all balls are virtually the same launch angles and spin rates across the board with the driver.  This is not the case for me. May not be a great difference but I have seen a difference in balls in spin and dispersion clearly. It doesn’t take much to move a ball 10 yards and I have some balls for me, move a little more than others. So I prefer to play the balls that seem to behave better for me. Your result may vary. 

[arbeck]

16 hours ago, Flyers99 said:

Well bluedot I understand the science in all this but I can only go by the results that I see when I play. I don’t agree that all balls are virtually the same launch angles and spin rates across the board with the driver.  This is not the case for me. May not be a great difference but I have seen a difference in balls in spin and dispersion clearly. It doesn’t take much to move a ball 10 yards and I have some balls for me, move a little more than others. So I prefer to play the balls that seem to behave better for me. Your result may vary. 

Anecdotal evidence for dispersion is almost worse than no evidence. The physics say that you need 1000's of RPMs to move a ball significantly off line. The spin generated by all modern balls with a driver is within a few hundred RPMs of each other. There's simply no way for one ball to be straighter than the other (save wind characteristics).

[Flyers99]

19 hours ago, arbeck said:

Anecdotal evidence for dispersion is almost worse than no evidence. The physics say that you need 1000's of RPMs to move a ball significantly off line. The spin generated by all modern balls with a driver is within a few hundred RPMs of each other. There's simply no way for one ball to be straighter than the other (save wind characteristics).

Again I guess we will disagree on this. I go with my eyes and results.  I use electronics as a start. Also, there are many ball tests that show dispersion differences for balls. So, to say there is no way for a ball design to go straighter I simply don’t believe. Again a few yards better in dispersion may be huge. So yes it may not be 20 yards but 5-10 yards less offline is very relevant. 

[bluedot]

22 hours ago, Flyers99 said:

Again I guess we will disagree on this. I go with my eyes and results.  I use electronics as a start. Also, there are many ball tests that show dispersion differences for balls. So, to say there is no way for a ball design to go straighter I simply don’t believe. Again a few yards better in dispersion may be huge. So yes it may not be 20 yards but 5-10 yards less offline is very relevant. 

 

I don't think anyone has, or would, claim that there aren't dispersion differences among golf balls; there are.  But those differences are NOT about spin rates; the same ball can have a higher spin AND tighter dispersion than another ball.  MGS attributes dispersion differences off the driver primarily to manufacturing inconsistencies.

 

But what is NOT true is that two balls will somehow react in differing proportions to a bad swing.  If you make a bad swing that adds effective loft at impact AND tilts the spin axis, you'll add spin and curve to the ball.  But you'll add the same proportion of spin and curve regardless of what ball you just struck with that bad swing. 

 

The weird thing about this debate and others like it (and it happens all the time here) is that, in effect, it is being claimed that a premium ball somehow becomes worse on a bad strike, while a less expensive, "non-premium" ball somehow is less affected.  And that just ain't happening.