When do you replace the ball - Page 2

I start each new round with a new ball.  After the round, it's retired to the shag bag.  I keep a dozen or so very clean "one round" balls in my bag.  If I lose a ball during the round or damage it somehow, I'll replace it with a clean used ball for the remainder of that round.

I tend to play a golf ball for 1 round max, if that.  ProV1's are great golf balls but have a tendency to have terrible covers on them.  Once the cover gets scuffed I use a new ball.

With sled dog teams in the Arctic, when a dog was acting up and misbehaving the musher would take the dog out and shoot it in plain sight of the other dogs, and the other dogs would immediately react and follow orders.     Very harsh, but I suppose when your life in the middle of an Arctic wilderness depends on it, one does what one has to do.   

 

I use the same philosophy with my golf balls.  It is important to clearly establish the master/ball relationship and ensure the ball is acting in your best interest.   As long as the ball is doing what I want and listening to me when I talk to it in flight, I don't care how ratty it looks.   A well behaved ball is a good ball.     But the moment that it starts mocking me or otherwise acting like it forgets who is the boss, it is toast.   Even if it looks shiny and new, it will be viciously sacrificed, and I make sure the rest of the balls in the bag know of this action.    It usually works for a while, and then a new ball may start acting uppity and independent as it feels its freedom, but it too will suffer the same fate.  

 

Exactly why I keep full round, used balls in my bag.  They've proven themselves to be of noble character and of a trustworthy nature and will also provide a good role model to the newer, as of yet untested balls.  I never play a "found" ball that belonged to someone else and will never hawk balls out of the water.  Balls that willingly hide from their golfers or have a demonstrated affinity for water simply have character flaws that go too deep to risk on my game!  

 

Probably the best advise that can be given for any golfer.    Regardless of the swing or the clubs, it is really up to the ball and the only way to play well is with balls that have demonstrated they know what to do.

Only after the ball gets scuffed.  Which happens basically every time I hit a full wedge shot.

Explain this to the used ball crowd - they wonder how we dare pay more for balls that behave.

In my experience, I've found there is no more loyal a ball than one that is rescued from a cruel previous owner.
 

 

Ahhhh, but there's the problem.  You don't know the previous owner.  All you know is that the ball is hiding from him.....  Without knowing the character of the previous owner, you cannot judge the character of the ball itself.  This game is simply too important to take a risk like that!

 

I agree. You have no idea where these previous balls have been. Imo, when a ball wants to be lost I let it stay lost. It seems everytime I find my OB ball, it will go OB on the next hole as well.

 

I replace a ball when I decide that it needs it.  It may have an ugly scuff, or just a ragged spot, hard to define exactly.  I don't retire one just because it played "x" number of holes.  Modern balls are nearly indestructible, so I play them as long as they are still in my possession. 

 

I have a vague recollection of reading that Nicklaus used to rotate 3 balls during a round, changing on each hole.  The theory was that with the balls of the time it took some "rest" for the ball to take another pounding.

I'm guessing that a lot of these "I use a ball for a full round" or "two full rounds" are the golf-ball equivalent of the 300-yard drive threads.  Either that or y'all are all hitting consistent 200 yard tee shots on courses that have no hazards or rough.

I dont find it all that unrealistic.

It's probably more like we play a round or two with the same ball and then donate 3-6 in each of the next couple of rounds.

I play on a course with a decent amount of hazards, and with rough that varies with the seasons - we go months where it is almost better to miss the fairway and months where it is not easy to find a ball if you miss.

Bottom line, when my game is on, it's on, when it is off - the cart girl makes some extra $$$

 

I've recorded at least 4 rounds on the same ball more than once, and my course has hazards AND deep native rough (see below).  I've also lost as many as 4 balls in a single round.  So what's your point?

 

 

My point is that Shorty and SeanMiller have been absent of late, so someone needs to call people out just for the sake of it.  

 

I'd say I complete 18 holes without losing a ball around half the time.  (I almost never play 18 on a single ball because they tend to get pretty scuffed up after a couple wedge shots.)  I've probably completed 36 consecutive holes without losing a ball no more than 5 times in my life.  Playing once a week, it would take me an entire year to accumulate a dozen balls which have been played for 18 consecutive holes.  I guess y'all are all much better golfers than I am.

 

You're replacing scuffed balls.  A lot of the people who have responded here clearly don't.....or at least their definition of scuffed likely differs from yours.  I'll bet you put a lot more than a dozen scuffed balls a year into the shag bag....

 

Now, having said that, I gotta say, I seem to lose more balls than than what seems to be the norm here too.