Balancing Balls like Bryson?

[iacas]

I just watched a FlightScope webinar and they talked about Bryson’s balancing of balls, and Alex said that even Tour balls (Bridgestone?) don’t balance evenly.

So, maybe at his level, he’s actually on to something? Should we be balancing our golf balls?

[Vinsk]

 

1 minute ago, iacas said:

Should we be balancing our golf balls?

Out of boredom? 😁

[billchao]

8 minutes ago, iacas said:

I just watched a FlightScope webinar and they talked about Bryson’s balancing of balls, and Alex said that even Tour balls (Bridgestone?) don’t balance evenly.

So, maybe at his level, he’s actually on to something? Should we be balancing our golf balls?

You mean like weight from one ball to another or CoG isn’t quite in the center of the ball?

If it’s the latter, doesn’t that just end up making the ball spin in a particular orientation very shortly after impact anyway?

[iacas]

21 minutes ago, billchao said:

You mean like weight from one ball to another or CoG isn’t quite in the center of the ball?

If it’s the latter, doesn’t that just end up making the ball spin in a particular orientation very shortly after impact anyway?

Yeah, but it also costs distance. And I’d worry about putting a bit. 

[billchao]

7 minutes ago, iacas said:

Yeah, but it also costs distance. And I’d worry about putting a bit. 

I have one of those golf ball spinning things, I forget what they’re called now, but that was their logic behind using it. You spin the ball for like 30s then mark the horizontal axis of the ball and you’d know exactly where the ball’s balance point was where it spins. Then you’d tee the ball up with the line basically vertical so the ball starts spinning on the correct axis right away. You’d line up your putts the same way so the ball doesn’t oscillate from being off balance.

An additional advantage was you’d have an additional alignment line on the ball to use. The downside was you’d have an additional line on the ball. And obviously it took some time to prep your golf balls.

I stopped using it years ago because I wasn’t sure if I was seeing a difference in on course performance because I’m not a tour player and couldn’t justify the additional time I spent on marking my golf balls.

[iacas]

Bryson does the epsom salt thing, I think.

[Bonvivant]

When I saw the title I thought of this. I thought it was a surprising new hobby he had taken up but with golf balls.

[dennyjones]

Before my brother's neck injury, he use to always do the salt thing and has asked me many times why I didn't.  He swore it made a difference in putting.   

[Archie Bunker]

Hogan used to take a bunch of golf balls back to his hotel room before a round and "balanced" them with some method. Marked a spot on each ball that he believed was the "center of gravity". Might have just been some mojo that he believed in, and that would inspire confidence. But the old would golf balls back in his day probably were not as "balanced" as the precision manufactured balls we use today. May have actually had some benefit.

[billchao]

1 hour ago, Archie Bunker said:

Hogan used to take a bunch of golf balls back to his hotel room before a round and "balanced" them with some method. Marked a spot on each ball that he believed was the "center of gravity". Might have just been some mojo that he believed in, and that would inspire confidence. But the old would golf balls back in his day probably were not as "balanced" as the precision manufactured balls we use today. May have actually had some benefit.

I looked it up, according to Bryson he rejects about four balls per dozen. If there’s any validity to his testing, it doesn’t speak well towards today’s precision manufacturing or quality control.

https://www.usga.org/clubhouse/40ungatedcontent/dechambeauclubs1.html

Quote

“I don't want to say too much because I don't want to give out all my secrets, you know,” he said with a laugh. “But Epsom salts, they help me float a golf ball, and I'm actually able to find the center of gravity of a golf ball. Not every golf ball is perfectly manufactured, so there's going to be an error in the machine and the center of gravity will actually be off-center.”

He then went into great detail about the difference between how a golf ball spins in the water if its center of gravity was in the middle of the ball versus if the center of gravity is toward one side or the other, simultaneously befuddling and amusing the audience in the U.S. Amateur media center.

And what happens to the balls he deems too off-center for his liking? You guessed it. “There's usually four out of every dozen that I won't play,” he said.

 

[dennyjones]

45 minutes ago, billchao said:

I looked it up, according to Bryson he rejects about four balls per dozen. If there’s any validity to his testing, it doesn’t speak well towards today’s precision manufacturing or quality control.

https://www.usga.org/clubhouse/40ungatedcontent/dechambeauclubs1.html

 

Since you have the machine and Epsom salt, an analysis seems to be in order.   I look forward to your report...(jk)....

[billchao]

4 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

Since you have the machine and Epsom salt, an analysis seems to be in order.   I look forward to your report...(jk)....

Funny enough you should mention that, I was thinking about doing a pseudo-experiment.

I also have enough time and boredom, which are the most crucial requirements 😜

[iacas]

Test a bunch of Snells.

[Vinsk]

Obviously I think it’s all a bit of nonsense so I’m curious what significant findings you’ll get. Bryson’s ‘science’ regarding air density was all nonsense as stated by actual climatologists with degrees, unlike Bryson.

I’m not saying the COG concept is nonsense of course...I’m saying the significance of it is probably not worth what he thinks it is.

[iacas]

32 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

Obviously I think it’s all a bit of nonsense so I’m curious what significant findings you’ll get.

Why? Balls can be made off-center, imperfectly.

If I can find the time I may do a test like @billchao plans to do.

[billchao]

Just now, iacas said:

Why? Balls can be made off-center, imperfectly.

If I can find the time I may do a test like @billchao plans to do.

It’s going to be delayed a little bit. I underestimated the amount of salt I needed to add to the water and ran out of salt, so now I’m boiling the water and it has to cool and stuff.

I only have 15 Snells, so that’s going to have to do.

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, billchao said:

I only have 15 Snells, so that’s going to have to do.

Plus other balls. Titleist, Callaway, whatever.

[CarlSpackler]

I'm interested to see the outcome of this.