Graham Averill is turning 50 this year and he’s crazy. Instead of buying a motorcycle or getting a tattoo, he’s decided to try to get really, really good at golf. He started this project in March as a 13-year-old handicapper, trying to get to zero in a year. He is now 11.2. Welcome to his midlife crisis.
I’m not allowed to have nice things. They never were. Buy me something nice and I’ll just break it or lose it. My parents told me as much when I was young and the lesson has stuck with me as an adult, especially when it comes to golf. Since starting the game a few years ago, I estimate that I have sent approximately 2,000 balls into the woods at various courses around the country. Luckily, I followed my parents’ advice and stocked up on the absolute cheapest balls I could find: Ball Flite XL Distance. Sure, golfers scoff at Top Flite (not so lovingly referred to as “Rock Flite”), but at less than $20 for a pack of 15 (buy two boxes for $30!) and promises of “maximum distance,” how could I pass up that kind of deal?
One of the happy side effects of getting better at golf is missing fewer balls. Most days I will play the same round with a single ball. This new phenomenon makes me wonder if I finally, maybe, deserve an upgrade.
MyGolfSpy does amazing golf ball analysis, but what does all this data mean to an 11-year-old handicapper who just wants to hit more fairways and hit more greens? Does the ball really matter when I’m still working on some core elements of my game?
I decided to find out so over the past few weeks, I’ve included a variety of balls that did very well in our annual ball tests. It was painful to spend $60 on a dozen Titleist Pro V1s when right down the line they were basically giving away shiny new ones Ball Talks but I did it for the sake of journalism. I also tracked down a jumbo box of Kirkland Performance+ and some misc Mold options. And during a recent trip to Florida, I hit Deputy Pro almost exclusively.
I’m not really concerned with maximizing my distance right now. Sure, it would be nice to get another 10 yards off my drives, but I’m more focused on hitting more greens. Or, I should say, I’m more focused climbing more greens. I’m tired of watching my ball land in the center of a green and then wander 20 yards off the backswing. So I want a ball with more spin so I can start trying to stop it near where it lands.
of Top Flite XL I have been using has not done it even in annual wide The ball test from MyGolfSpy, but I know the TF has an ionomer cover and there was not a single ionomer ball that performed well on the green in the most recent MGS ball test. Ionomer balls are usually the most budget-friendly compared to the urethane cover of more expensive options, but, according to Ball Lab data, they don’t roll as well.
I know hitting a ball has a lot to do with the golfer’s swing and even the club they’re using, but I’m looking for any advantage I can get out of my equipment, so I want to see if the ball I’m playing will help.
Anecdotally, the answer is “yes.” Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen these “high-end” balls stick to more greens. For example, during my last nine-hole midweek round, I hit five of the nine greens in regulation and landed an average of four feet closer to the pin on approaches than a scratch golfer. I still gave up two shots on long approaches, but that’s a big improvement from previous rounds.
But is this improvement because of the ball I’m using? Or am I hitting more greens because I’m getting better at approach shots in general? Maybe a bit of both. But to get really scientific about it, I went through my course at home last night and did some ball experiments.
I walked the course and hit a new one Top Flite XL and a brand new one Titleist Pro V1 on the greens from a variety of different spots. Instead of just using the ball’s final resting place for testing, I brought a small launch monitor with me to get hard spin data for each ball.
For example, there’s a 135-yard par-3 that bothers me. I often hit the green but then watch the ball roll into the distance. Tonight, I tracked both aperture wedge shots with the launch monitor, looking for spin inconsistencies. Same club, same hole, same swing. Would the spin rates be different?
In a word, yes. With the gap wedge, I held Titleist Pro V1 126 yards and I saw it check and roll back three or four feet. Then I hit Top Spray 129 yards and watched it land and spin a few feet short of the pin. According to the launch monitor, the Titleist had a backspin of 5,307 rpm, while the Top Flite had a backspin of 3,675 rpm.
These numbers told me that the ball matters, but only so much. I’m still not getting the ideal spin from these balls with my wedges. The lack of spin in my shots is likely due to some dirt in my shot. But even with that less-than-perfect swing, I’m getting more spin off the better ball, and that better ball is hitting more greens.
I swing my irons in the high 90s and my driver in the low 100s, which puts me in the mid-swing speed – too fast to spin the ball, assuming I hit it well.
I still have some work to do before I find the Goldilocks ball that is perfect for my swing speed and overall game. In theory, I should take this experiment further and try to match the ball to my swing speed – but the ball experiments I’ve done have been enlightening and encouraging. Although I still have a mountain to climb in terms of the technical aspects of my swing, the ball I play absolutely makes a difference. And it’s clear to me that I don’t have to wait for that work to be done to improve the ball.
It turns out my parents were wrong; The can there are beautiful things.
Dig deeper into one golfer’s struggle to get better at golf in middle age and read last week’s Scratch By 50, where Graham details his hour-long practice plan.
