Do you balance your golf balls? - Page 4

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

Ditto. What's the old saying: "The fight is so bitter because the stakes are so small."

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

And people wonder why I argue so vehemently in the driving distance thread! 246 is a huge driving distance for an amatuer, and it's only gotten higher, now I am up to around 260 on a good day. That's just 25 yards short of the average tour pro! I'm damn proud of my driving distance, and I will continue to be honest about it. The average male amatuer golfer drives the ball 208 yards or so. From the drives I've measured of my playing partners, many of whom are in their 20s and very fit, that's about right. They think they hit it much farther, of course, and the markers on the course may even make them believe it.

But not me. I'm not going to be a fool who pretends he hits it farther than he does, and come up short of every damn green, and land in every bunker I thought I could carry. I had my driver and shaft fitted for me, and it's been tweaked to meet my specifications to keep up with my swing. It was the recommendation of others. I was told a stiff was too weak, and 9.5° was a good loft with the lower spin head. I launch this thing about 15° as it is. When I hit it squarely, it goes about 285 yards in still wind. That's very, very long. Unlike most amatuer golfers who brag they hit the ball far, I actually do.

The real difference is, I'm honest about how far mine go, and honest about what average is. Whenever I talk to a PGA pro, I always mention that I'm a long, but honest driver. They sort of grit their teeth and say, "oh, yeah?" I laugh and say, "yeah, I bomb it... like 250-260..." Almost always, they tell me that most of their students believe they hit it much farther than they do, and they're amazed that I'm honest about it. The last pro at the course I'm at was kind of a dick, and he didn't like that many people, but he would always tell me, "I like you, cause at least you're honest. Every other fool out here thinks he bombs it 300, and is just a few strokes away from playing on tour."

But you have to be honest if you want to get better. If I top a drive, and it goes 20 yards, that's part of my average. I did, in fact, shank a drive a while back. Of course, I could pretend like it never happened, and just forget it, but that'd make me like the rest of the amatuer golfers who are delusional. No, my bad drives will stay a part of my average, because I'm not a lying fool.

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

You posted some driving stats. They were interesting - 246 seemed about right. endhijack/

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

@ Shanks A Million


I should clarify the comment above. What I mean is, it is definitely not an overestimate. Just reread the original post in the current "Driving Distance" thread - a 250 to 280 yard average drive with a push fade - oh my goodness.

I needed a reminder why you're annoyed that people choose the term "driving average" over the perfectly acceptable alternative, "typical good drive". The more I read it, the more I find it annoying too - you're winning me over.

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

I've said it before, and since it's off-topic in this thread, I'll say it again... the driving average is not a particularly useful statistic. There's no reason to include the shanked, topped, or otherwise completely flubbed drives in your average. Discard those and compute the average of what's left, or use a statistic like the median that is robust against outliers. Maybe use it if you want to quote the true average for simplicity, but it's useless for game planning. Why? Suppose you top your 3I 10% of the time and it goes 20 yards, and you hit it 200 yards the other 90%. Do you really want to call it your 182-yard club and miss 18 yards long 90% of the time?

So I agree, use "typical good drive" or some other useful statistic.

On topic... I don't bother with balancing, and I think the argument that you'll "accidentally" make some putts you should have missed is correct. Every putting line that will be caused to miss because the ball turns due to imbalance will be offset by a line that "should" have missed but which is corrected by the imbalance. In the real world this won't be exactly true for every putt, depending on the contours and the speed of the putts, there may be some situations where you're more or less likely to sink the putt, but it's going to be close to true. This will not show up in a robot-based test where you're perfectly aligning every putt identically. You'd have to vary the aim and run a lot of putts (maybe they did this, I haven't watched all the videos).

To decide whether it's worthwhile, we need to know how often the golfer actually lines up correctly to begin with. If you're good enough, and you play courses with smooth enough greens that the uncertainty due to grass/bumps/dead bugs is smaller than the imbalanced ball effect, then balancing could be worthwhile. My strong suspicion is that most of us aren't that good at aiming, so the net result will be that we occasionally miss a putt we should have made or make one we should have missed. I also doubt whether most people play perfect enough greens for this to actually be the dominant random effect.... So I won't bother. If you do, well, I won't laugh but I might look at you a little funny.

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It is. So let's leave it in the other topic.

Four or five posts removed as they all talked about DD and not balancing balls.

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An excuse is "oh i was tired", as my coach would say in ball, 'can you play? are you hurt or are you injured?'. reconstructive shoulder surgery including 3 pins and a plate will change things, it's not an excuse as much as it is fact. My swing is without a doubt different than it was due to the fact i physically can't do what i used to. You've never seen my swing. the op asked if i balanced my balls and i was backing my OPINION as to why i wouldn't bother wasting my time. No, i'm not immature, i was stating my case for my opinion, apologies for it coming across as it did. lets be completely honest, is it a benefit to having perfectly balanced balls? yes. is the typical jo schmo with a swing that isn't as precise as a robot going to tell the difference on a putt that it was the ball and not him? no. is it going to cost you 25-30 yards off the tee? no. is it going to mean you're going to have justification and sleep better at night that you sank an extra putt b/c it was 'b/c of the ball'...that's ur call. Just sayin. /end

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

Hey Spoiled,

To answer your original question, yes, I do balance my golf balls. Do I notice a difference? I can't say that I do, but when I step up to hit a drive or stroke a putt, I at least have that extra bit of confidence that it's balanced and aligned properly even if my swing isn't. It's kind of like all the other name-brand stuff other golfers put in their arsenal. As for whether or not this takes up too much of the OP's "time better spent practicing", it's fairly easy to do this at 9pm while watching CNN after a little putting practice in the living room. Take the answers for what they are worth, but don't let anyone ever talk you off of what works for you. Great conversation piece & just b/c others think it's a waste of their time doesn't mean it's a waste of yours. -LBB

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

Ive never heard of this how the hell do u balance a golf ball?

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

Check page 2 or 3 of this thread--there's a video on how it's done. -LBB

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

The idea is that most golf balls have a center of gravity that is slightly different than the geometrical center of the golf ball. When the line between these points is not in line with the putt, this can prevent the ball from rolling true. I have not read much about how this ball imperfection affects fully airborne shots. If, however, the line between the two points is on the plane of rotation of the ball, then this effect can be minimized.

There are ball spinners you can buy to help you mark them (e.g. http://www.technasonic.com/). You can also drop your ball in water and add salt until a small spot of it penetrates the surface (the heavy side will be pointing down (see http://www.thegolfchannel.com/golf-l...all-balancing/). On long, slow putts (fast greens) where the ball is perfectly misaligned, the misalignment could be the difference between the ball dropping in the center of the cup and missing the cup. That is to say, when all the stars are (mis)aligned a balanced ball could make a difference. Some may point out that this will help as much as it will hurt. That is actually not true. If you miss most putts then misalignment would help to sink more putts by moving the ball off the wrong line (but make some of your misses worse of course). If you make most putts, then misalignment would hurt more than help. Another thing to think about is that improvement is much faster accurate feedback--you can see the results of your actions, rather than think the ball's imperfect movement had something to do with your stroke.

All this of course is very technical, and I would be very surprised if anybody could tell the difference while playing. However, it can make a difference, albeit small and only when misaligned. My thought is that if you're playing for fun and it makes the game more fun, then go for it. When I personally tried it I found it distracting, so I don't do it. However, I might try it again at some point in the future.

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I was just reading Ray Floyd's elements of scoring, where he claims that the pros average about 50% on putts of 6 feet, so presumably they're worse than that for longer putts. If that's true, and still accurate, I'm going to lean toward balancing being a waste of time. If the effect of balancing is small but measurable at 10 feet, I think you're going to have to be hitting a lot more than half your putts before your aiming consistency is good enough that a slight deviation due to the roll is enough to cut into your accuracy.

Note that if it makes you more confident, then by all means go ahead, I have no issue with "superstitions" as the mental effect can be very real. But I don't believe that any of us will benefit, mechanically speaking, from the balancing.

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

They only hit 50% of those putts in his era... Because the balls were notoriously imbalanced! Wound core balata balls didn't putt well at all. Don't quote me on that though...

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

So far in 2010, there are 190 people listed on this page: http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/info/?34 which is putts made from 6 feet. Since there is no average, I will use median, which is James Nitties at 68.89%.

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

You may make more putts, but some of your misses will be amplified. All putts can be effected (even close ones that you usually make), just some less than others. The feedback you get on the practice green won't be as good, which I imagine would be the biggest problem. Compared to everything else a golfer can do to lower his or her score, this may be at the bottom of a very very long list. However, it shouldn't hurt your score and may actually help your score.

I agree with the confidence sentiments. If it makes you feel more confident then go for it.

Re: Do you balance your golf balls?

I'd never really thought about that. Pelz's data on putting also supports the 50% figure from six feet for tour players. Drops to 20% from twelve. Says it was one of his big revelations when he first started following pros around recording all their shots back in the day. No idea if he's kept the numbers current, or if he's too busy counting all his money.