Difference between range balls and game balls?

[Chilidipper]

As far as consistency and distance what's the difference? If my drives carry 210 or there about how far would they go with a regular ball? Or if there is a rule of thumb how far would they go?

Just curious to see if there was a difference. Thanks

[hawkeye]

it really depends on the balls - i hear a lot of people saying that range balls are useless and not worth going ot the range for.


the balls at the 3 ranges i go to are pretty good but i don't really care about how far they're going. i focus on striking the ball - rather than the distance.


some ranges "cheap out" on balls - the main one i go to has Pinnacles which are mint condition. They go the same as any normal non-range ball - i've hit them on a golf course so i know.

[geezer]

Pinnacles! Whoa! The range I go to uses rocks, disguised as balls. Usually if I wanted a more realistic dictance, I would add on about 1/4 of the distance. Others say 1/3, but meh... As in, drive 200, then It actually would be about 250 ish.

[Chilidipper]

Pinnacles! Whoa! The range I go to uses rocks, disguised as balls. Usually if I wanted a more realistic dictance, I would add on about 1/4 of the distance. Others say 1/3, but meh... As in, drive 200, then It actually would be about 250 ish.

They're pretty scuffed up and they are top flites. My drives usually carry 210-220 3 wood is 200-210 and 7 wood around 190-200 with range balls. But I've played a hole on a course with my tour platinums and have carried 215 with 7 wood on this long par 3. Then again that was one time I usually don't play that course. In my head I could of just caught it pure so.......... Well, thanks for the insight. I was thinking you might lose 10% of the total distance. 1/4 seems kind of steep, but then again what do I know.

[lamebums]

Purpose marked range balls - they usually say "range" or "practice" on them - suck. There's no other way to put it. They are glorified rocks with yellow paint and dimples on them. They're designed for one purpose - durability. They're going to hold together no matter how many times they're whacked, run into trees, gobbled up by the cart, hit by lawnmowers, run over by tanks...whatever.

Their flight isn't very good, not as easy to work the ball with, doesn't fly as far, and most certainly has no bite.

Most painful feeling: Ding a 1 iron muscleback off the toe with a range ball. On a cold day. (I've done it, and believe me, it isn't fun.)

The range I usually play at however uses old balls - real balls that you might find in a shag bag at the store. They get more and more banged up over time, but by and large it's the best balls you'll find at any range short of new Titleist balls. (The range itself is so broken down it isn't funny... but it's a great place to hit balls and it's certainly raking in the money.)

[Hmbre97]

I went to a range last week that uses Callaway Big Bertha blues. Surprised the hell out of me. My home course uses Precept EV's but most of them are pretty rough.

[Chilidipper]

Purpose marked range balls - they usually say "range" or "practice" on them - suck. There's no other way to put it. They are glorified rocks with yellow paint and dimples on them. They're designed for one purpose - durability. They're going to hold together no matter how many times they're whacked, run into trees, gobbled up by the cart, hit by lawnmowers, run over by tanks...whatever.

Yeah these say practice and have the big black strip running down them.

[neudi]

There are different kinds of range balls, they make 75 Percent range balls which obviously go only 75 percent of a normal range ball, but with the amount of times the range balls are hit they are def. not as far as a normal ball because they lose shape and crack.

[golf_junkie27]

Two factors that determine how far the balls will go: the condition and whether you hit off a mat or not.

Remember, the club will slide through a mat. It will not do this if you are hitting off grass.

From experience, there is no difference between new range balls and new golf balls. None. However, once these range balls go through their usual beating, you will see a drop of about 5 to 7, yards.

I've hit with guys that were easily 250-260 off the tee. On the course, it was not much more.

[AndrewDew]

Well, i went to a driving range in malaysia while visiting my mums parents, and they actually use used golf balls the clubs around malaysia provide.

The golf balls range from nike balls to taylor made balls and even Callaway.

Sometimes it depends on the driving range itself, it shudnt really be categorised into driving range balls and game balls.

ANyway, back on topic, i think normal range balls are pretty worthless cuase its cheap and not much effort has been put in to creating a golf ball. This is of course because of the large amount of balls ranges have to buy.

Personally, i use the driving range to improve my swing tecnique instead of testing my distance.

Hope this helped :)

[michaeljames92]

the public range i work at use crappy srixon range balls that they buy like 10 000 at like 20c each. at my private club they use actual real balls and have all sorts like titleist dt solo, prostaffs, srixon and even pro v1 x!(they sometimes find their way into my bag!)

[AndrewDew]

You know srixon balls arent that bad,if you compare to golf balls that are made, but then DISGUISED as balls. an the free pro v's is a bonus XD

[Golf Yokel]

Here's my experience with range balls so far...

(The ranges I go to use Srixon at one, and Max-Fli's at the other)

I cannot for the life of me get a reliable draw shot to happen with those damned Srixon range balls... but the Max-Fli's are fine.

Distance is actually pretty close to my course balls (Noodles or NXT overruns). The only time that there is a noticable difference is when you hit a ball that you can tell has been compressed 100 times or more. I think the amount of times the range balls get compressed factors alot into the loss of distance. The only reason that I say the distances seem close for me, is that I am a fairly short driver as of right now (236y still being my longest), so the slight loss of yardage just probably isn't as noticable to me.

[brgolf]

I am looking for peoples personal experiences regarding using different golf balls to compare typical range balls, lake balls and premium balls with regards to distance. I hope these few questions, sum up my query.

1/ Supposing i replace your ball of choice with a range ball, how many yards do you lose off your average drive distance?

2/ If you use lake balls during practice rounds, do they tend to be much inferior to the same brand or other premium brand balls losing you 5,10,20 yards?

3/ Amongst your new/premium balls is there some makes which you have tried which go substantially further than others but perhaps at the expense of control?

This information would help me immensely because I seem to strike the ball solid, accurate and straight but I worry that driving range balls are not indicative of length. I don't play competitively so i've tended towards lake balls on the course which whilst an acceptable idea i want to improve on a 12 handicap.

[Knockglock]

I've heard its anywhere from 10%-20% further with a quality ball as opposed to a range ball. Not sure about the validity of this but that's what i've been told a couple of times from both teaching pros and other golfers.

[alf174]

Search the site because this has been discussed several times before.

[brgolf]

Unfortunately using the words driving, range, ball and distance in a search doesn't help much here.

[alf174]

Unfortunately using the words driving, range, ball and distance in a search doesn't help much here.

Try the advance search and "Show results as posts" option.