Good beginners ball?

[Guest ShadowXOR]

I'm planning on going with the Pinnacle Exception balls. They sound really good, have great reviews on websites I check, and don't cost very much.

My fiance and I will be playing together, is it a problem to use the same ball (not literally sharing a ball but the same brand)? Do they sell ones with alternate markings, should we mark them? Is it even ever a problem (can you usually see and know where your ball goes)?

[bwinger79]

  ShadowXOR said:

I'm planning on going with the Pinnacle Exception balls. They sound really good, have great reviews on websites I check, and don't cost very much.

My girl and I play together all the time. She loves the Pinnacle Exceptions. I always mark my balls, but thats just me. If you guys are playing the same ball without markings, just use a different number ball, or grab a sharpie and go to town. I am sure the woman would enjoy drawing stuff on her ball anyway, or at least they usually seem to like to mark them up.

[King Cobra II]

I was in the same boat earlier this year. I just bought what was on sale, I'd get 24 balls for 20 bucks, or so. I tried out slazenger raw max distance, and they played OK. But if you're gonna spend 15 a dozen i'd go with callaway warbirds. I'm currently using Nike SFT 2's, which I got on sale for about a buck a ball (25/24)

[Guest ShadowXOR]

  bwinger79 said:

My girl and I play together all the time. She loves the Pinnacle Exceptions. I always mark my balls, but thats just me. If you guys are playing the same ball without markings, just use a different number ball, or grab a sharpie and go to town. I am sure the woman would enjoy drawing stuff on her ball anyway, or at least they usually seem to like to mark them up.

I didn't know balls were numbered...how does that work?

[SpaceRoach]

I would say the noodles and titleist DT-SOLO are the best bet out there for beginners. Great all around feel from tee to green.

[bwinger79]

  ShadowXOR said:

I didn't know balls were numbered...how does that work?

Golf balls have numbers on them. In your typical dozen you will get 4 sleeves, each containing 3 balls. One sleeve will be all #1, next sleeve all #2 and so on. Just look on the ball...... you will see a number under whatever manufacturer markings there are on the ball. Follow the link below and you will see what I am talking about.

http://www.geocities.com/golfballldy/NOneBlk.jpg

[ettsn]

One way to check out balls is by simply buying a few sleeves each, or better still sometimes you can pick up trial packs. For example, at Target they have a trial pack of Callaways that is two each of Warbirds, Big Berthas and HX Hots. Putt them around in your living room, chip around in the front yard, take them to the practice green, etc. You can absolutely feel the difference between some types of balls. Go with what feels (and sounds) good to you.

[Guest ShadowXOR]

  bwinger79 said:

Golf balls have numbers on them. In your typical dozen you will get 4 sleeves, each containing 3 balls. One sleeve will be all #1, next sleeve all #2 and so on. Just look on the ball...... you will see a number under whatever manufacturer markings there are on the ball. Follow the link below and you will see what I am talking about.

Well that is cool. That way my fiance and I can play the same balls. And I'm assuming the real purpose of that is for something I have heard about called a provisional?

[bwinger79]

  ShadowXOR said:

Well that is cool. That way my fiance and I can play the same balls. And I'm assuming the real purpose of that is for something I have heard about called a provisional?

Well.... I think they number them just for identification purposes. Once you start playing and get out on the course you will see. It alot easier to tell your playing partners that you are playing a Pinnacle 1 than having to say I am playing a Pinnacle Exception marked with so and so........you know what I mean? It also makes it easier for other groups to identify your ball if they were to come across it thinking it was theirs. I guess the easiest way is to get a sharpie if you really want to make your ball individual. I mark every ball I play with a sharpie.

[hurley9192]

ebay...you can get a few dozen for pretty cheap. I'm a decent player and I use the ProV1's I buy off of ebay and don't see much difference.

[grant_the_tank]

Pinnacle balls are on the cheap side and they're pretty good to me. You can also find some "expensive" balls on the cheap by looking for any logo overruns. Golfsmith usually has a few bins of overruns. I picked up a dozen Callaway warbird balls for $9.99/dozen.

[Guest ShadowXOR]

  grant_the_tank said:

Pinnacle balls are on the cheap side and they're pretty good to me. You can also find some "expensive" balls on the cheap by looking for any logo overruns. Golfsmith usually has a few bins of overruns. I picked up a dozen Callaway warbird balls for $9.99/dozen.

Sorry for my constant newbie questions but...what is "overrun"?

[mcecki]

  ShadowXOR said:

Sorry for my constant newbie questions but...what is "overrun"?

Balls that have a company or event logo on them, and were never used.

I'm pretty sure ...

[grant_the_tank]

http://golf.about.com/od/beginners/t...fornewbies.htm

  None said:

Logo Overrun Balls Another item common at online golf retailers, especially those focusing on golf balls. Companies often purchase custom orders of golf balls with their company logo stamped onto the ball. Logo overrun balls are such balls that the company has either returned or never took possession of. Often, they are top-of-the-line balls, almost always good, name-brand balls. Depending on brand, they can be more expensive than "value" balls, but always sell at a good discount to the same brand's new price.

[bwinger79]

  ShadowXOR said:

Sorry for my constant newbie questions but...what is "overrun"?

An overrun is when a company, say Mutual of Omaha, asks Titleist to print their logo on 1000 balls. They either make more, or the company doesnt buy them all, then they are left over with extra balls that have that companies name on them. They sell them cheap, because they are still brand new balls, but since they have another companies name on them they cant just package them up like normal and sell them.

You can also find X-outs. X-outs are usually top quality balls that have printing blemishes on them. They perform the same as a normal ball, just have some ink smudges or misprints. The link below shows you a box of Titleist X-outs. They are high quality balls, but usually about half the full retail price. http://www.austads.com/austads/asset...OALKABFEBN.jpg

[Guest ShadowXOR]

It seems the most positively reviewed inexpensive balls from here and elsewhere are:

Pinnacle Exception
Noodle: Long & Soft
Precept Laddie
Srixon AD333

Does anyone have opinions on which of these would be best for a beginner looking for a ball that does a little bit of everything and doesn't focus too much in one area? I want decent drives, nice green performance, etc. not just massive drives.

[BaronV]

I just saw some Titleist X-Outs at the Walmart for $10, thought it was going to be the junky HVC balls, but someone opened up some of the boxes and I saw that some were X-Outs of the NXT, NXT Tours, and some DT SoLos. Going to try that out once I used up my current balls.

[Guest ShadowXOR]

I see that they now only offer the Precept "Laddie X". Are those just as good as the original Laddie (or better)?