used balls from water hazard

[B.K. golfer]

I just ordered a couple dozen Pro V's from lostgolfballs.com after seeing the site mentioned on the site. Got 2 dozen 3 out of 5 star for less than $30 with shipping. A guy I golfed with the other day said balls taken from water hazrds were no good, he said you can feel the difference when you hit them. A golf ball doesn't seem porus so what could affect performance. If these are decent they have 4 star(appear to have been played for 3 holes) for $14 a dozen for ProV's. Any info would be appreciated.

[Harry Longshanks]

I remember reading a study somewhere that tested water balls versus other balls and there was no discernable difference.

Also, everything I have heard about the quality of balls from lostgolfballs.com has been very good.

I wouldn't worry.

[bigphil]

here is a thread about the water issue http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12509

i personally will never use balls I find it the water...shag bag only, but if I come across a good ball that was in the woods, i'll play it.

[GaijinGolfer]

Ive been told that the performance of recycled/refurbished golf balls isnt as good as new golf balls. Supposedly being in water harms them and they just dont perform as well.
Some of the balls might be fine and others might not be any good.

[Harry Longshanks]

The study in that thread was published in 1996. I could be talking out of my arse here, but I think there was a more recent one that tested today's surlyn/urethance cover, solid core balls, which were more resilient.

But since I can't remember where I read it (or even if I'm just hallucinating), I admit that I could be mistaken. Also, I wonder if (in that study), what club they used to obtain the 6 yard loss result. I can't imagine that it was a uniform 6 yard loss across all clubs. And let's not forget that the OEMs have a vested interest in stopping the "recycling" of balls, so propaganda could be a factor. The last sentence in the article linked in the other thread makes me wonder:

A Massachusetts-based company Performance Indicator, however, could be about to upset the golf cart, by introducing a chemical into golf balls that is activated after the ball has been in water for a period of time, causing it to discolor, and making it impossible for companies such as Nitro to recycle.

Note: the article appears to be dated 2000, so that was 8 years ago. Guess the "color changing" technology didn't go over so well.

[odstore]

I remember an article coming out around 2 years ago (I think it was by golf digest but I'm not positive) where a study was done showing that balls do become water logged and show a noticeable decrease in performance as a result. It wasn't all that long ago and they weren't using wound balls or anything so I'm pretty sure it still applies.