Buying golf balls: what should you look out for?

No two golf balls are quite the same. If you want to buy golf balls that genuinely suit you, there are a few things to keep in mind. This buying guide helps you choose.

Your level and game

Beginner and recreational players often benefit from a soft, forgiving ball with good value for money. Advanced players and low handicappers generally choose a tour ball with more control and spin, such as the Titleist Pro V1.

Feel, flight and spin

Pay attention to three things: the feel (soft or firm), the ball flight (low and penetrating or nice and high) and the spin around the green. A softer ball usually gives more feel; a firmer ball often more distance.

Budget and quantity

Decide on your budget per ball and how many you need. For larger quantities — for a club or company, for example — a Pinnacle is keenly priced, while Titleist is the premium choice.

Have them printed straight away

Buying for a company, club or as a gift? Then you can have your golf balls printed with your logo right away. Not sure which ball? Try the golf ball selector.

How a ball is built, and why you notice it

A golf ball consists of a core with one or more layers around it and an outer cover. On a two-piece ball, core and cover do almost all the work between them: that construction is aimed at distance and durability, and it is relatively forgiving of a strike that is not quite out of the middle. On a multi-layer ball there is further material between core and cover that only really comes into play at higher speeds.

The practical consequence has nothing to do with price. A multi-layer tour ball gives you more control around the green, but only if your clubhead speed and your strike genuinely engage those layers. A player who does not compress the ball will feel little benefit from the extra material. That makes comparing models more useful than sorting them into expensive and cheap; for the difference between two tour models, see Pro V1 against Pro V1x.

Compression and the weather we play in

Compression describes how far a ball deforms at impact. A lower-compression ball deforms more readily and feels softer, which is pleasant at lower speeds. A higher-compression ball asks for more speed before it does its job.

That becomes interesting as soon as the temperature drops. In cold conditions materials stiffen and every ball feels harder; a ball that plays nicely at twenty degrees can feel blunt at five. If you play through the year in the Netherlands and Belgium, there is nothing odd about choosing a softer ball for the winter season than you would in summer. Store your balls indoors rather than in the boot of the car, so they are up to temperature when you start.

Ball colour, visibility and printing

White is the standard, but not always the better choice. On a course covered in autumn leaves, in flat light or against a pale sky, a yellow or matt ball is simply easier to follow — both for you and for the playing partners helping you look for it. That saves searching time and lost balls, which for many players counts for more than a marginal difference in spin.

If you are having the balls printed as well, the colour of the ball becomes part of your design. Not every logo colour works equally well on a coloured ball, and a colour that reads clearly on white can wash out on yellow. Which models are available in which finishes varies and is confirmed on request; for what else is possible with colour, see personalised golf balls.

New, original, and where you buy from

There is a considerable difference between new original balls, second-hand balls and refurbished or relacquered ones. Those last two categories can be perfectly good for a practice bucket, but their properties are no longer guaranteed: a ball that has spent a long time in water plays differently from the same ball out of the box, and a fresh coat of lacquer changes behaviour around the green.

If you want to know what you are buying, read the description carefully. Terms such as lake ball, refinished or X-out mean something other than new. At MrGolfbal.nl it is always original new balls from Titleist and Pinnacle, including when you take them unprinted. What you get without a print is described under plain golf balls.

Quantities, stock and delivery

Anyone playing seriously would rather not keep switching model. Your feel for distance and for how the ball behaves around the green builds up with one ball; every switch sets that back a little. Building a stock of the same model is therefore more practical than buying whatever happens to be on the shelf that week. Balls keep well in sealed packaging, provided you store them dry and at room temperature.

Larger purchases follow different rules from a single box. The minimum order for printed balls is 144, and larger quantities are better value per ball; prices are on request, because they depend on model, quantity and specification. Delivery goes to the Netherlands and Belgium, and what that means in practice is set out under shipping and delivery.