Beginner golfers: five essential tips for finding the perfect golf ball

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If you are serious about your golf then balls can be an expensive business.

But there are simple ways to make the shopping process easier and more rational.

It's easy to get carried away by what your teammates are playing or what you see the pro using on TV but you want to find the right ball for your swing and your skills.

1. What is your price?

This will be the first consideration for most of us. The leading football manufacturer has balls from £50 a dozen (Pro V1/Pro V1x) to £26 a dozen (TruFeel). There will be other cheaper options so this depends on what you are looking for in a football. If you're a beginner your £50 will soon disappear as you'll be hitting wayward shots and missing a lot of balls. If you only play a dozen times a year then chances are golf is a fun hobby so look at the value option.

If you play every weekend and enter tournaments you will want to give yourself the best chance to do well and that means playing a ball that will suit your game. Most of us don't have the swing speed or we don't hit the ball well enough or hit our chip shots well enough to get a good amount of spin so we don't need a top ball – as our game improves, we can play a ball that matches our abilities.

Also, if you play a lot in the winter when there is not much running or you may lose a lot of balls as they are connected, then switch to a better value ball. It is a good opportunity to test the cheap version of the premium offering and you will not lose their benefits as the ball will not work as it should.

2. What are your best qualities?

This is a quick overview of the different types of football. Range balls usually have a large core and a thin cover to add yardage as the ball comes off the clubface quickly. On the other end of the spectrum a soft ball will spin less and not reach where it is designed to help reduce chunks and hooks. If you struggle with spin, ie a poor shot, you may want to consider a soft ball but you will lose distance. Then you have a premium ball e.g. The Pro V1, Chrome Tour and TaylorMade TP5 tick all the boxes and are therefore very expensive. The premium ball contains many layers – the TP5 has five – designed to provide the right distance, rotation and, most importantly, feel that, if you do not like the feel and sound of the ball, it will not stay in the bag for a very long time.

Balls can be two-piece or multi-layered with three, four or five layers. In addition, two-piece balls for high handicappers will benefit from some extra distance and, as soon as your swing speed, will increase all the layers down to the center. Needless to say we don't rotate at the same speed for every shot so a wedge shot, for example, only opens the outer layers to add spin to the image.

3 What is the best way to test balls?

There will be all sorts of promises in the sleeve of 'exceptional distance combined with premium feel' but the most practical way to get the best ball is off the course.

Titleist offers a handy guide on their website for when we don't have a knock-on launch monitor left.

– Start putting the green as this will give you a good chance to understand the feeling. Hit short three putts, long three putts and downhill three putts.

– Then hit three low pitches, three high pitches and three half wedges.

– Go to your favorite par 3 on your home course or a short 7-iron hole and hit shots and understand how it flies, carries and sounds.

– Finally, hit some drives as we all want to see how the ball works with our driver.

By the end of this you should have a good idea of ​​which ball will work best for you.

4. Have you considered football equity?

We hear a lot about driver irons and less about irons, wedges and putters. But very few of us have ever hit the ball which makes very little sense if it can make a big difference in our golf. If you like your current driver, the feel, weight, look and sound of it, you should be able to find the perfect ball for it. The same goes for your irons, wedges and putter. This will take less than an hour and will eliminate any doubts you may have when faced with a dozen offers of premium balls.

This could be a good use of your time in any preparations for the coming months. It's fair to say that the best websites offer a ball fitting tool where you can answer questions about your game and be informed which ball is right for you but the best course of action is to have a face-to-face match.

5. Does appearance matter?

If you go back ten years then you will probably be considered something of a maverick if you used the yellow ball. It was often thought that the yellow ball was bad from a quality point of view but this is no longer the case.

These days the shape of the golf ball has become a very interesting and visible thing and there are many benefits to be gained in terms of its increased visibility, being able to track and line up and hit your putts. Callaway offers a Triple Track alignment aid that adds a visual and functional feature with their Odyssey putters.

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