Golf Ball Fitting: The Next Big Thing?

In our Golf Talk Podcast coming up this Wednesday, you’ll get a chance to hear Erik J. Barzeski and I interview George Sine, Titleist’s Vice President of Golf Ball Marketing Worldwide, about the new Pro V1 and Pro V1x.

Without giving too much away (be sure to listen – there’s a lot of interesting stuff), one of the things he touches on is how Titleist is turning its attention to better identifying and matching golf ball performance characteristics to individual players.

While ball comparisons have popped up on some of Titleist’s competitor’s websites, they are very broad and not all that meaningful. For most of us, choosing a ball remains a largely subjective exercise.

Our discussion with George led me to investigate the world of golf ball fitting. I found news of a new software solution that may lead the way to true custom ball fitting.

Ball Fit Factors
Optimum launch angle and spin rates for a given clubhead speed are well documented. But, obviously, more than just the club contributes to achieving the best possible shot outcome. There’s that thing that gets in its way of the club head… the little white ball.

When you think of a ball and all the properties inherent in its design and construction – spin, compression, and aerodynamics being chief among them – it’s obvious that the right ball is crucial for optimal performance. There is no doubt that those characteristics are different from ball to ball.

And that’s a good thing because we golfers have so many swing speeds, launch angles, and degrees of proficiency. Off the driver, pros and accomplished amateurs are generally looking for low spin for control and high trajectory for maximum carry.

More mortal golfers may need more spin to achieve the longest carry possible, or they may need low spin to minimize slices and hooks. Clearly balls like the Pro V1 and Pro V1x are maximized for better players, but in some circumstances they could also be the right balls for mid-range golfers.

The new Pro V1 and Pro V1x may be the best ever, but Titleist still feels the golf ball industry still has a long way to go towards personalized ball fitting.

Because there are more than a hundred different models of golf balls among the dozen or so leading manufacturers, choosing the right one can get complicated.

Barriers to Ball Fitting
It seems to me that a launch monitor session is the first step in assessing the right ball. Your launch angle, club head speed, ball speed, and spin can all be measured precisely. The same factors that go into choosing the right loft and shaft are the basis for choosing the right ball.

The problem so far in any wide spread move to scientific fitting is logistics. Few club fitters can stock the 100 or so possible ball candidates in sufficient quantities for testing. Few golfers have the strength, stamina, or patience for a session that would run the gamut of the all the balls available.

While a lot of fitting is done hitting into a net, I’m not a fan. I think hitting on a range produces a different and more realistic dynamic in your swing and allows you to assess ball flight and roll more critically. My club fitter agrees. But when it comes to ball fitting, that means all the pills you drill into the range have to be collected, separated from the range balls, and sorted again by brand and type. And that’s not very realistic.

A Software Solution
A company called Advanced Golf Solutions is now teaming up with GolfWorks to offer ball fitting software that may take some of the guesswork out of choosing a ball.

What they’ve done over several years now is collect data on every make and model of golf ball on the market. They’ve used both air cannons and robotic testing to determine the accuracy of each ball. Each ball is balanced and marked in six different locations, hit on those locations, and then flight data is collected using multiple phased array radar systems.

It appears the testing is exhaustive and state of the art. This ball database, then, provides the basis for the fitting software.

After a launch monitor session, the club fitter inputs the player’s current ball brand, the brand used in the session, the club used, spin and launch data, and the player’s preference for accuracy vs. distance. For instance, the player may weight the search 100% distance, 0% accuracy, 50% distance vs. 50% accuracy, or any other ratio.

The program then delivers projected carry, total distance, dispersion, ball speed, launch angle, and spin for all the balls in the database ranked best to worst with the player’s current ball highlighted in the list. Results also include a display in graph format.

When drivers are tested, the club fitter is asked to enter up to six different driver models and the software will determine how each performs with all the balls in the database.

Iron and putter performance can also be tested. With a putter, the analysis will predict how each ball will roll in distance and accuracy when struck by a standard putter on a surface equivalent to a green speed of 10.5 on the Stimpmeter.

Advanced Golf Systems promises to update the software with current balls every year. I’m not sure that’s frequent enough to keep up with the fairly rapid introduction of new models by manufacturers, but it’s probably the most realistic approach.

There are two versions of the software. The full version, aimed at club makers and fitters, is priced at $425.95 and, naturally, requires a launch monitor. There is also a “Home Edition” priced at $12.95 that doesn’t require a launch monitor and relies instead on inputting perceived trajectory and distance data along with the current ball used. I’m sure both versions are Windows-based.

Unfortunately, there’s not yet a lot of information on the GolfWorks website on these programs… not even legible screen shots. Thus, if really interested, it would probably be best to call them.

In the End…
Getting fit for a golf ball is clearly in the future for every serious player. The GolfWorks offering may be an imperfect start, but it’s a start and I expect manufacturers like Titleist will come up with their own systems to match a ball to your game soon. With hundreds of balls to choose from, choice is good. Making the right choice is even better.