how important is it to compress a golf ball these days?

[scotte]

I am wondering about pro v1x

I used to think that you had to compress a ball to get the distance control that you wanted, is that still important with todays balls. I was thinking that I didn't compress the v1x enough, and them I see on tv, some lpga women hitting the v1x, and so I started to watch them play and based on the short distances they must not be compressing it either.

So can slow swing speed players play the v1x?

Thank you in advance for any help!

[Shaitan]

You can, but you won't get everything out of the ball that a pro does in terms of juice. You really do have to compress those balls for them to spin enough and take off right. I'd say LPGA players use them as they don't spin as much and launch lower, but who knows...

[TDPearl]

Yes, the faster the swing speed, the more you can compress the ball, the farther it will travel. However, I think lower compression golf balls help out with this. Such as the Precept Lady/Laddie ect.

 

With that being said: I recently went to golf galaxy and bought some premium Taylormade TP Reds. In the checkout an older guy said that he had been playing different balls his whole life and that the Taylormade Red is about 10 yards longer than anything else he has tried. He said his swing speed was around 80mph. He can't compress the ball that much, but the dimple pattern (Lift), as well as overall characteristics must work for him. I have about 108 mph and am going to give them a try. I have heard these balls are very long. Hope this helps.

[Kyle M]

Isn't the compression on the LDP balls somewhere around 80?

[TDPearl]

It must be around 80 if he is getting that much more distance. The thing that is interesting is how higher swing speed players are also hitting these balls further. However, it isn't as much, but further needless to say.

[sk373]

there isn't *that* much difference in distance among most of the golf balls currently on the market for people with swing speeds less than 100 mph. Dean Snell of TaylorMade has said as much in his recent GolfWRX interview:

 

If you take a Noodle, or Burner or TP Black, TP Red, or Burner TP and you go on a launch monitor and you hit those, I would challenge somebody to try to find a difference in spin. Now high launch, low spin that’s where your maximum distance comes in, so that is what we have worked hard to do on the driver side. Now the biggest difference in golf balls today is on the short game side. If you are really looking to find where balls are different that should happen from about 100 yards and in and they’ll notice differences. So the players who go out there and try to choose a ball with a launch monitor and a driver, just hitting driver shots is not the way to do it anymore. You’re fooling yourself to try to pick a ball that’s going to be right for you by using a driver. You want to do that, maybe we can get into that a little later on how to fit and work with the golf ball, but there’s the big difference on balls today is tour balls and two piece distance have the same spin with the driver and the same launch, they pretty much go the same distance. If you take a look at the short game and the short iron that’s where the big difference in balls are today.

 

in other words, LPGA golfers who play the ProV1-x play it because they like its ball flight and greenside manners. compressing a golf ball isn't really a big issue for most of us when it comes to modern golf balls, especially since nearly all modern golf balls use low compression cores. it becomes an issue for ppl who have driver swing speeds in excess of 100 mph, and the higher the swing speed, the more difference there will be among various models. ppl who have driver swing speeds 115 mph or higher--especially higher swing speeds like Tiger's (120-125 mph or more) really see a big difference in distance among different balls (i.e., see Nike One Black vs Nike One Platinum). there's a reason why the average player still drives the ball 194 yds today (pretty much the same as it was 10-15 yrs. ago, while tour players have gained substantial distance increases over that same time period.

 

The thing that is interesting is how higher swing speed players are also hitting these balls further. However, it isn't as much, but further needless to say.

 

this is incorrect. higher swing speed players are benefiting the *most* in terms of distance gains from modern golf balls.

[cristphoto]

TM Red - 111

TM Black 117

Data from Golf magazine ball test.