7 Signs You're Using The Wrong Golf Ball

Are you fed up of hitting what you think are good golf shots but not getting the results

that you were hoping for? A lot of golfers will be quick to blame their swing or the

clubs but it could actually be your golf ball that's causing all your problems. So in this

video I'm going to highlight the seven signs that you're using the wrong golf ball and

give you some advice that could really help you choose the right type of golf ball for

your game that should help improve your results on the golf course. We're here at the amazing

La Hacienda Golf Links in Spain. Let's get into it. Sign number one would be not getting the amount of distance you were hoping for with your driver

We all know it's frustrating when you go out on the course with your buddies and you think

that you should be hitting it a similar distance to them, but when you get down to the fairway

it turns out they're hitting it 5, 10 yards longer and it's really frustrating. But it could be the golf ball that's at fault, and particularly the spin profile of it

We all know that golfers deliver the club in very different ways, in different speeds

and as a result there's no spin number that's going to be right for every type of golfer

But it's important that you get the right spin profile for you to see the optimum ball flight

because what a lot of golfers typically see would be a ball flight where the ball starts quite low and climbs

and that's an obvious sign that the golf ball is spinning too much for your driver

What you really want with your driver ball flight is one that sort of launches high and sort of pierces forward on a boring trajectory

Sort of that rainbow ball flight is something you really want to see with a driver. You don't want to see it start low and climb up too high because if you're hitting into the wind

that's going to really rob you of distance. You also don't want to see a trajectory where the ball

sort of falls out of the sky too early. That's a sign that your golf ball is not spinning enough

for you. So that trajectory is really important. So really observe the flight when you hit a driver

You want to see that sort of rainbow ball flight and that's going to give you the most amount of

distance potential for your driver. So hopefully I can sort of demonstrate that for you now. This

is the golf ball that's fully optimized for my particular swing. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with that one. That's the optimum ball flight for my particular

swing speed and delivery. So have a look at your ball flight, see if it's falling out

of the sky or climbing too much. Definitely a switch in the spin profile of the golf

ball is going to give you a little bit more distance. But do be careful if you are switching

for example, into a lower spinning golf ball, there's going to be a bit of trade-off in performance in terms of what you're experiencing into and around the green. So if you can sacrifice

a little bit of short gain control for an added distance off the tee, if you prioritise distance

you really want to out drive your friends, make that switch, it should give you the potential

to get further down the fairway and score a little bit lower

So another sign that you're using the wrong golf ball is a lack of control in the wind

So if you feel like you're hitting good shots but you feel like the wind is buffeting them too much, maybe you hit the ball a little bit too high and the wind is pushing it one way or the

other or maybe it's pushing it back towards you, you're losing a lot of distance. Or if you generally

play on quite exposed golf courses and you're using quite a high flying golf ball, that is

obviously not probably the best way to go. So there are some advantages in the rules of golf

you're able to tee up at any type of conforming golf ball at the start of any hole in the amateur

game. So that's definitely something you can take advantage of if you come to a hole where

it's maybe blowing into the wind and you need to keep the flight down, a change in golf

ball would really help. It's something I've talked about in other videos as well. So for example, I've got a Titleist Velocity here, which is one of the higher flying golf balls

in the Titleist range, which is fine when you're hitting downwind, but if you do play

in quite exposed golf courses that extra height is going to cause you a bit of a problem So let just hit one with the tight list and hopefully you can see how high the ball flight is

So that was a pretty good hit with the tight list, you see that's sort of right in those clouds there

you'll see from the shot tracer just how high that shot went. And so obviously within the rules of golf, you know there's a lot of options available to you

I've got here the Tightlist Pro V1 which is a considerably lower flying golf ball than the

the Titleist Velocity. In the Titleist range, you've got the Velocity, then you've got the Pro V1X, then you've got the Pro V1, and then if you wanted something even more extreme

than that, you might go for the AVX, which is a significantly lower-spinning, lower-flying

golf ball. Definitely worth trying. If you play a lot of Lynx golf, I'd 100% recommend

the AVX golf ball. It's a really good ball at keeping the flight down and getting a more

penetrating trajectory. But anyway, here's the Titleist Pro V1, which, by design, is a

lower-flying golf ball. And obviously, if there's wind around, generally, keeping the

flight down is going to mean you get a little bit more control it's not going to be buffeted as much

by that wind in all directions. You can see there it was a bit necky but that was noticeably lower

than the velocity and it's running a lot more when it lands so if you are playing in quite windy

conditions definitely consider switching golf ball into something that's going to fly lower

it should help you gain a little bit more control over where it's going. Now that is another sign that you might be using the wrong golf ball. If you struggle

from short range, in particular with your alignment and feeling comfortable over the ball that you're aiming in the right place, maybe a change of golf ball could really help

you out because there's lots of visual options on the golf ball market that will enhance your

awareness of where you're aiming the putter face. And there's a few options that I really

like and these are two ones in particular. So I've got the tailor-made TP5X stripe and

This is the Callaway Chrome Soft X Triple Track 360. Obviously, more recently, it's been the Chrome Tour 360

This is an older model. But you can see the visual impact this will have on

sort of highlighting exactly where the putter is aiming if you're able to align the sight lines on your putter

with where these lines and graphics are aiming. So it's really simple

You just stand behind the ball, get it lined up. I've got the Callaway one here

You can just check it, maybe just use the shaft of your putter just to check it

this is a pretty straight putt, so I'm pretty happy with that. And then all you have to do is make sure you get the sight lines on your putter

exactly aligned with where the lines on the ball are aiming. And as an added benefit of this, it will definitely help you

if your perception of where your putter is aiming is off. It will give you that visual feedback

So I know that I actually tend to aim right and pull my putts online. So as a result, even though I've got this strike pretty much aimed at the hole

actually looks like it's aiming a long way left of the hole. so that's going to really help your practice in ingraining a more neutral stroke and maybe ironing

out some of the faults in your putting stroke that should help you longer term. But anyway

all you do with this particular shot, get the sight line lined up with the line on the ball

and just focus on matching up when you swing the putter just like that and in it goes. So if you

struggle to hold out from short range, definitely try something on the ball. Obviously a line would

work just as well but these ones in particular are a little bit more vivid and they're going to give

give you really good visual feedback on your alignment, which should help you hold more short putts

Now, another sign that you might be using the wrong golf ball is that chip shots

release past the hole a lot more than you're expecting. I think a lot of golfers like playing

distance golf balls off the tee It gives them more yardage but around the greens can lose them a lot of control If you someone who likes to be quite aggressive with your landing spots likes to play the higher chip shots around the green you could really be sacrificing

that performance that's going to help you get up and down. So one option to definitely try would be to switch to a urethane-covered golf ball. On this sort of partial chip shot

you're not activating any other layer on the golf ball apart from the cover. So a urethane

cover is going to give you more friction with the club face and the groove is going to give

you more spin around the greens. You'll notice when you chip with a urethane cover golf ball

like I've got here, the ball flight is very different but more importantly how it reacts

when it lands on the second and third bounce is incredibly different. So you can see how much lower that flew, how much it stopped to attention quickly when it bounced

So it's very much down to personal preference. If you're someone that likes to play a lot of chip and run shots, you prioritise distance off the tee versus control around the green

maybe your short game's fairly one-dimensional and you're okay with that, then you can get away with

maybe a non-urethane covered golf ball, a more distance ball that's going to give you more

release around the greens, and accept that you might not get up and down a lot of the time if

you're short-sided. But if you're something that wants to be a bit more creative around the greens

and wants the opportunity to get up and down in more situations, especially from the rough when

you really need that spin to get the ball to stop, switching to a urethane covered golf ball is just

going to give you a few more options around the green. It's going to give you a little bit more control when you're chipping and it might cost you a few more pounds versus a

distance ball but in the long run I think it's probably going to save you a few shots

Now another sign you're using the wrong golf ball again relates to distance

especially off the tee but it specifically refers to the compression of your golf ball. A lot of golfers out there are very quick to choose a soft

feeling golf ball because they like the feel of it and maybe they think that

gives them a little bit more control into and around the greens but generally speaking a softer

golf ball is a slower golf ball so for most golfers you may well experience less distance

off the tee with us a low compression golf ball versus a higher compression golf ball it's going

to be a little bit firmer and give you a little bit more speed it's not an exact science and

compression of golf balls range from 30 or the way up to something in excess of over 100 so

there's a whole range of different spectrum of compressions you can choose. Slower swing speeds

could well benefit from actually having a little bit more compression in their golf ball where the

ball deforms and springs off the face a little bit more but that point of diminishing returns

comes pretty quickly as you move up the scale of compression. So my advice to you on this would be

to try out different compressions of golf ball normally it's listed on the box somewhere

there. Try a soft feeling golf ball, try a firm feeling golf ball, try something in the

middle and see exactly what your ball speed and your carry distance is like. But I'd say

generally speaking, a lot of golfers would be probably playing a ball that is a little

bit too soft for them. And if you want to hit the ball further, maybe switching into

a slightly firmer golf ball would be the way to go. Now some manufacturers obviously will offer ball fittings and some other manufacturers

will offer recommendations for golf ball based on driver swing speed. All I would say on

that is just be a little bit careful because obviously when you're hitting a golf ball, you're not just hitting it with driver, you're hitting with lots of different clubs where

you're delivering the club at lots of different speeds. So it's not an exact science to be

able to recommend a particular type of golf ball based on your driver swing speed, but

as a rough guide, it could well be helpful in terms of determining which compression

of golf ball would be right for your game. Yeah that another common mistake and a real sign that you using the wrong golf ball is if your iron shots are flying too high especially in this situation a lot of

trouble short, a little bit wind into, you really don't want to be hitting your iron shots too high and coming up short of the pin

And that often happens when you use a distance-oriented golf ball because you're not getting that

friction with the ball on the face like you typically would with a golf ball that has a

a urethane cover, a premium golf ball. You typically, with a firm golf ball, it would slide up the face

it'd be more launched, a little bit higher, and that's when you get those trajectories that go quite high

Obviously, you do get a slightly lower spin as well with a sort of firmer, maybe like a two-piece Serling golf ball

but generally speaking, if your iron shots are going too high, it's a sign that you might need to make a switch

into something that's going to give you a slightly lower trajectory, a bit more control

and maybe a urethane-covered golf ball where you spend a little bit more, you get a little bit more control over your ball flight

and that's going to help you find a few more greens and low risk scores. So another sign that you're using the wrong golf ball

is that if you struggle to really see it or track the trajectory of it

whether that's through the air or even when you get down to the hole, the fairway or more likely the rough

and you struggle to see where the ball's finished, it could be that a change in golf ball

actually helps you see the ball through the air or on the ground a little bit better

And there are plenty of options out there in terms of the visual tech available on golf

balls that might help you see golf balls a little bit clearly. So I've just brought a few here from home

This is the tailor-made TP5 Picks with its sort of triangle patterns on it

That's going to definitely make it easy to see. You can switch to a yellow golf ball. I've got the yellow Pro V1X here from Titleist again

Definitely going to help you pick out a golf ball. When you've got a, maybe not today, you can see here at La Hathienda, we've got a lovely

bright blue sky. If there's a white milky sky, white golf ball against a white sky

it's gonna be difficult to see. So yellow golf ball would definitely help. Or one thing I really like

which is the one I'm gonna sort of demonstrate for you now, is the Swixon, this is the Q-star tour divide

You can get Z-star divides as well. You can see this is a sort of split golf ball

with yellow on one side, red on the other. Great for alignment. You can use it on the golf course

It's conforming to the rules of golf. So great for alignment when you're putting. You can obviously peg it up like that

to help you with the alignment with the driving. But one thing you can do with this particular golf ball

if you do struggle to track where it goes through the air, maybe your eyesight's not as good as it used to be

If you tee up this way, so with the divide sort of pointing away from me

so perpendicular to the target, when you hit a drive, obviously the ball will spin backwards

It creates like a strobe effect. It's very easy to spot through the air

So definitely well worth trying if you struggle to see golf balls

So let's demonstrate with that for you now you can hopefully see how much easier it is to pick out

So we have it. You can definitely see that sort of strobe effect with the balls spinning and the different colours appearing as it was rotating, which definitely made it easier to see down that

hole. So if you are someone that struggles to see where your ball's going, let's face it, no one likes that person who constantly asks the other people, oh did you see that? Where did that

go? Maybe you're switching to any of these type of golf balls, but it's especially that divide

option from Srixion could help you see the ball a little bit better. So have you recognised any of

the signs that I've talked about in this video? Well in that case some new golf balls could well

be on the cards. Do your research, invest in maybe a sleeve of three, give them a try and see how they

compare to what you played before and hopefully with the advice that I've given you you should

be able to make a change for the better and it might even help you improve your scores

That's all from me here, a lajadienda, golf links in Spain. I'll see you next time