When do you stop playing a ball for wear?

[Zeph]

How is the ball dead?

[tazman7]

Im usually done with mine once they go into the weeds or water. Which is fairly often.. haha

[twinke masta]

I give up when the cover is completely gone

[Proof21]

Im usually done with mine once they go into the weeds or water. Which is fairly often.. haha

Same with me

I rarely get the oppurtunity to retire a ball any other way.

[retexan599]

I started using Nike Power Distance Soft balls recently. A couple of them have lasted a whole round and were showing some amount of scuffing and one had a modest nick. I showed them to a local pro and he advised that they would not fly properly with that much scuffing. He also said the typical pro golf uses a new ball every three holes, and generally before each par three. Guess I need to take a photo of my scuffing, but not sure I can capture it well. In times past I would not have retired the ball for this much scuffing, but will see how it goes with using 'less scuffed' PD Softs.

[DJDuran]

as soon as a ball shows scuffs it goes into a side pocket and i end up marking it as a practice ball after the round. on an average, assuming i dont stray into a cart path or hit a tree, i go through one ball on the front 9 and one on the back 9.

[Yukari]

Usually start a round with a brand new ball and use it until I lose it. If I lose, I will replace with another new one. At the end of the round, the ball I'm using goes in the practice bag.

Don't mean to dis you or anything like that, but with 36 handicap I would have thought you would be using any golfball not a new one to begin each round.

I have 12.9 handicap and I don't use a new golfball during a casual round.

[Cussin hacker]

After a direct hit on a cart path. I hate playing a scuffed ball. It's still playable I'm sure but it messes with my pea golfing brain!

[Golfaway]

I don't usually throw the ball away until I have lost it. I've played all kinds of balls, including balls thay were physically deformed.

[Doynish]

When I'm in a tournament I usually put a new ball in play when the other is scuffed from a wedge. When I'm out just shooting around, I play the balls I scuff up in tournaments.

[SubPar]

I've read pros break out a new ball every three holes or so. Their thinking is once you've hit a ball hard a few times it can't be "perfect". They don't pay for them so it makes sense.

I really should not play more than one round with a ball, but I'm too cheap to do that. I can tell the diffference in the performance of a new ball over one that has been used a couple of weekends, but I've got bigger issues to resolve in my game, so I only use new balls in tournaments.

SubPar

[30Handicap]

Have a golf ball related question slightly different than the original in this thread, but I'm not able to start my own thread yet, so I'm asking it here.

I've just recently started playing golf consistently (as evidenced by my handle). I have been using golf balls bought off of ebay (maxfli noodles) touted as "AAAA/AAA+" because I lose a lot of balls during a round. My question is whether it would actually benefit me to use new latestet and greatest golf balls (i.e. Pro V1's)?

Thanks in advance.

[Greg]

bad scuffs or a cut. I hit a ball at the range yesterday that im sure had a cut in it, it sounded horrible when i hit it, sounded like a whiffle ball after impact.

[SpacklersEdge]

I've read pros break out a new ball every three holes or so. Their thinking is once you've hit a ball hard a few times it can't be "perfect". They don't pay for them so it makes sense.

Are you sure about that? You are telling me a ball's performance is degraded after roughly 3 rounds of golf? That would be less than 100 hard shots, taking out chips and putts. I think I read someplace that the modern ball can be hit 100's of times over and not lose the shape or bounce of it.

[jaragon126]

Like many here, I replace a ball if it has a deep cut in it (such as when the ball hits a cart path/tree/rock). Deep enough that I can pick at it with a fingernail. If the ball gets scuffs on it I'll still play it. As long as it can still roll good on the putting surface then it's good enough for me.

[SubPar]

Are you sure about that? You are telling me a ball's performance is degraded after roughly 3 rounds of golf? That would be less than 100 hard shots, taking out chips and putts. I think I read someplace that the modern ball can be hit 100's of times over and not lose the shape or bounce of it.

That may depend on the specific ball. If you play a ball like a ProV1 and you hit it hard a few times, it may be reasonable to assume it may no longer perfectly round or perfectly balanced. I don't hit a ball with 120+ club head speed, but when I play the Callaway iX I can tell the outer layer has lost its softness after one or two rounds. It does not seem to fly as far or spin as much as a new one.

BTW. Ernie Els says "there is only one birdie in every ball". After each birdie he throws out the ball and breaks out a new one. The pros do change balls often and maybe this is a carry over from the days of wound balls which would really degrade quickly. For most of us a slight loss of ball performance is not a big factor. On the other hand, if you are going to spend $35.00-$100.00 to play a round of golf, why not play a fresh $3-$4 golf ball? SubPar

[SpacklersEdge]

That may depend on the specific ball. If you play a ball like a ProV1 and you hit it hard a few times, it may be reasonable to assume it may no longer perfectly round or perfectly balanced. I don't hit a ball with 120+ club head speed, but when I play the Callaway iX I can tell the outer layer has lost its softness after one or two rounds. It does not seem to fly as far or spin as much as a new one.

Well, don't get me wrong, if I were getting boxes and boxes of ProV's for free, I would be changing every single hole. I play ProV's but I would never take it out of play if it still looked good, just because I had hit it a bunch of times. I have never noticed a loss of feel for as long as I have played a ball.

[jaragon126]

I've just recently started playing golf consistently (as evidenced by my handle). I have been using golf balls bought off of ebay (maxfli noodles) touted as "AAAA/AAA+" because I lose a lot of balls during a round. My question is whether it would actually benefit me to use new latestet and greatest golf balls (i.e. Pro V1's)?

My thoughts: since you are still a high handicapper, it might be best to not spend a ton of money on balls IF you lose them alot. If you aren't losing balls, then it should be ok to buy good balls.

I am a mid handicapper and I still buy used balls (5 star quality from lostgolfballs.com). I don't have the budget to pay $40-$50 for brand new ProV1 ... so I buy them used and I haven't had any problems with them. One thing that you might consider is to pick a ball & stick with it. If you play a ball consistently then you'll learn how it feels & how it plays. If you constantly play different balls then you won't get a consistent feel for them. In a GolfDigest magazine a month or so ago, they had a "Hot List" of new equipment for the year ... and there was a good article on balls. They divided the balls into 3 categories, high price, mid price, low price ... and they rated balls in each category. If you don't want to spend money on the high price balls, there are sure to be some good ones at the mid & low price range that you can consider.