How long do you use a golf ball?

[boogielicious]

  On 10/19/2016 at 9:32 PM, Ernest Jones said:

Depends what I'm using it for. 

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A garnish for poutine! 

[Lihu]

  On 10/16/2016 at 3:11 PM, Valleygolfer said:

I'm pretty particular about what brand of golf ball I'm using. However I play a lot of found balls. Sometimes I play a ball that's got random markings and some rather ugly marked up balls. I also will not clean my golf ball very often and we'll play a scuffed beat up ball until it is cut or lost. I don't lose golf balls as often anymore so some of my golf ball stay in rotation many rounds. I recently had a playing partner complaining about my golf ball and how ugly it was and it was making him crazy that I was using a reddish blotchy dirty Pro V1 for the whole round. It got to a point where I just kept using it to bust his chops anyway. I don't see any point in changing a ball that is performing decent even if it is scuffed up or has weird markings on it however this time of year a dirty ball is tough to see. Does anybody have any opinions on playing a scuffed up ball? I just don't see it matters much but I could be wrong. Is there any documentation on whether a scuffed up ball performs worse than a standard brand new ball?

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Range balls seem to be a good start as far as comparing scuffed/broken up ones versus a brand new one. It's easy enough to test. In my personal experience, there isn't really that much difference as you noted given the same ambient conditions.

Also, keep in mind that premium balls would hold up much better over time than range balls so you can even expect less of a variation in performance. In addition to holding up better, they seem to perform more consistently over a wider set of operating conditions.

One time, I decided to test this concept out and I didn't really see any difference in performance between a ProV1x with all the paint removed peeled off because it was a "used once" ball for $1 and possibly re-manufactured versus a brand new one I pulled out of my cache. Not very scientific, but they pretty much performed identically with all shots.

 

  On 10/17/2016 at 5:29 PM, rehmwa said:

I see no ones actually answered the real question - You can do the web search but I've come across a couple with conclusions:

1 - water balls - flight characteristics - no effect on flight shape/aerodynamics (no kidding - once you cleaned it completely).  Distance - MUCH better than they used to be, but still an effect.  Covers are much more indestructable than before, but they still have a permeability that's not been eliminated.  the longer they are soaking the more loss of distance - as much as 10-15 yards from a typical 250 yard drive for balls that have soaked for a LONG time - like a season.  (I don't know if I believe this, but it's been studied in a fairly controlled way.  So probably true).  I'd say if the ball isn't discolored much then it hasn't been soaking very long so the effect is tiny - and most of us won't be able to discern a 1-5 yard loss (on a drive - much less for scoring clubs of course) if it kicked us in the gut.

2 - scuffed - pretty obvious that the integrity of the core, etc is likely just fine.  So distance likely not an effect.  But the flight itself - distortion of even 5 or 6 dimples on a single side (a 'good' scuff) would likely be capable of pushing that 250 yard drive maybe 3- 5 yards off line.  The worse the defect the more off line potential.  I suspect that off line potential might be more dramatic (as a percentage of distance) for scoring clubs due to the much higher spin on the ball...but still likely talking about a yard or 2 at most for off line effect (if the scuff is hitting the flow in a meaningful way.)  But - one has to acknowledge that a scuff definitely has an aerodynamic effect (just like with ALL aero analysis, surface texture is a direct input) - so the question is whether that effect is a big deal or not vs everything else going on.

so... one has to decide how bad their hitting variance is to consider whether either of the effects is significant or just hidden in one's own shot dispersion.  for both soakers or scuffed balls (Frankly, I don't like stained or scuffed balls, but that's just because the bright shiny ones are easier to see.)

Probably a good thumb rule is if it "looks" new, it'll likely perform like new.  Even a brand new ball is used after the first hit....

more articles out there, I just read a handful - there's more

here's an example - http://www.franklygolf.com/thetruthaboutgolfballs.aspx

 

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There is a lot of data from range balls. Honestly, I don't see too much difference unless the ball is about to fall apart or it's really smooth.

 

  On 10/18/2016 at 2:17 PM, rehmwa said:

One more round, then maybe it'll go into the shag bag

 

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So, if you make an ace on a short part 3 with only half of it while the other half goes into the bunker. . .

[rehmwa]

  On 10/20/2016 at 1:19 PM, Lihu said:

So, if you make an ace on a short part 3 with only half of it while the other half goes into the bunker. . .

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I write down informal ace and buy everyone drinks.  I likely play the other half ball just for fun (cause that's how I roll).  I now have the best golf story EVER.

Once I finish the round and go home to eat dinner and am happy with the day - 17 people in the rules forum continue to trade comments for 3 weeks about this situation and it continues long after I've stopped accosting random strangers in the street to tell them what happened.  The real hardcores try to convince me that the ace doesn't count and I really need to take a couple penalty shots for it and that I was wearing cargo shorts at the time.

[Lihu]

  On 10/20/2016 at 1:53 PM, rehmwa said:

I write down informal ace and buy everyone drinks.  I likely play the other half ball just for fun (cause that's how I roll).  I now have the best golf story EVER.

Once I finish the round and go home to eat dinner and am happy with the day - 17 people in the rules forum continue to trade comments for 3 weeks about this situation and it continues long after I've stopped accosting random strangers in the street to tell them what happened.  The real hardcores try to convince me that the ace doesn't count and I really need to take a couple penalty shots for it and that I was wearing cargo shorts at the time.

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Ooooh, you rule breaker you. . .

BTW, are you sure it would be only 17? Remember the ones that dig up old threads years from now and start discussing it too. . .if I had to guess, the number is likely going to be closer to 42. . .

[IndianaDundee]

  On 10/18/2016 at 2:17 PM, rehmwa said:

One more round, then maybe it'll go into the shag bag

 

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Pretty sure I hit my longest drive ever with that ball as it sprouted wings and started flapping all the way past 400 yards.

[rehmwa]

  On 10/20/2016 at 2:57 PM, IndianaDundee said:

Pretty sure I hit my longest drive ever with that ball as it sprouted wings and started flapping all the way past 400 yards.

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Oh - you're the guy.....

 

[bkuehn1952]

  On 10/16/2016 at 3:11 PM, Valleygolfer said:

...Is there any documentation on whether a scuffed up ball performs worse than a standard brand new ball?

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An older "study" but likely still relevant. 

http://www.golfdigest.com/story/hotlist_howlong

[Duffer Waldorf]

As long as I can, so long as it's not severely damaged.  A minor scuff or two is tolerable.

[Strandly]

I've never had a ball wear out before I lost it.

[Valleygolfer]

These are the regulars. I can't seem to lose the Snell ball...

[Kalnoky]

The range I go to uses recycled balls they find on the course, every brand imaginable. Most of them are pretty beat up and water stained but they fly far and you can even draw them sometimes. I imagine some of these have been hit hundreds of times. Still okay for the average hack. 

[Lihu]

  On 10/20/2016 at 9:02 PM, Valleygolfer said:

These are the regulars. I can't seem to lose the Snell ball...

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I noticed the marking on the Snell is "My Tour Ball", so, you'll probably never lose it until you join the tour. . .

BTW, my bag has more or less the same motley assortment of balls except replace the Snell with a Taylormade Lethal. Also, mine have more tree marks than yours. I'd guess that you hit straighter.

[Valleygolfer]

  On 10/21/2016 at 3:31 PM, Lihu said:

I noticed the marking on the Snell is "My Tour Ball", so, you'll probably never lose it until you join the tour. . .

BTW, my bag has more or less the same motley assortment of balls except replace the Snell with a Taylormade Lethal. Also, mine have more tree marks than yours. I'd guess that you hit straighter.

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I was given the Snell ball to try and believe me I can hit me some trees....plenty...

[Vinny Cap]

I would say I usually loose it before it is ruined.  I have had a few that were tore up pretty good from my wedges.  Have also had some beat really bad from cart paths.

With 7 - 5 gallon buckets full of good ball and 3 paper ream boxes full of Titleist balls only, I could throw them away after one shot and still have golf balls for the next few years.

The best three are ones that I have played the whole round with and scored one of my lowest scores with.  Those are Keepers!!