David K

Than either I'm much better at adjusting to green/ball speeds than I thought or there was just no difference between the golf balls . Most of them were within 6in of each other distance wise and from the longest ball to the shortest was about 1ft over the span of a 30ft putt. To me thats exactly the same distance between the different golf balls. The slight difference in distance was more than likely my putting stroke. So I was wrong with my first post by saying there probably is a difference. I agree a robot is the only way to get truly accurate results but if its only going to be a few inches than what does it matter? The OP wanted to know if putting with a different ball is going to effect the speed of his putt. It seems to me there isn't a big enough difference to be concerned about.

Congratulations! I've had a few eagle opportunities but they were all long putts and I haven't sunk one yet. Most of them I was able 2 putt and make birdie on. The 1st hole on a course I play often is a par 5 and its pretty easy to get on the green in 2 shots. The fairway is wide and the green is probably about 40ft down hill which makes it a lot easier to reach with your 2nd shot.

Well I didn't notice any difference what so ever no matter what ball I used besides the fact some felt harder than others at impact. This green is 13 on the stimpmeter and I measured out 30ft for the putt. For the first putts I hit all three of each manufacture first and then went to the next manufacture. They all ended up within two feet of each other. I used 3 of each of these golf balls: Tour I(s), ProV1, TF XL, TF Gamer, and the TF Super Range balls. For the last putts I just put them in a large pile, picked at random, and took one swing after another without stopping. I didn't look at where they ended up until after I hit all of them and made sure my swing as perfectly consistent every time. They all ended up in basically the exact same spot 1ft short of the hole. Some of them ran into each other but not enough of them to think any specific ball was stopped short by hitting another. On a fast green the difference should have been exaggerated especially with a 30ft putt but they all ended up at just about the exact same distance. So if your putting longer with a specific golf ball its most likely all in your head.

Well I'm leaving to try it now. Besides the callaway ball with the hex dimples I can cover the name on the golf ball and I wont know which ones they are. A thin piece of scotch tape and a black sharpie would take care of it. On this green my distance control has been excellent so I should be able to tell the difference if there is one at all. I'm curious to see if there is a difference.

Well the worn out Dave Pelz practice green at my local driving range rolls extremely fast but since I've had so much practice on it I can consistently get the ball to roll within 12in of where want it. I'll go there today and hit three 20ft putts with my Tour I(s) and three with my Top Flite XLs to see if theres a difference. I've done it before and it did seem different but I wasn't really paying attention to it at the time (my putting wasn't all that great either). I guess the only way to do this accurately would be to have a machine making the putts though. If my speed is consistent today I'll see what my ProV1s and TF Gamers do as well. I think adjusting to the green speed is going to have a much more significant effect on your putting speed than the ball, however, if you practice on the same putting green all the time you'll probably see a difference.

Thanks, thats good to know. Both courses are pretty short but there are some severe dog legs on some holes. The course I play most often has very few bunkers and 90% of them aren't in play for my yardages so I usually end up with mid to low 80s there. The other course has quite a few bunkers/water in play for me which is always worth a few extra strokes per round. There is another course I like to play but I usually end up throwing those score cards out . If you hit your ball more than 15ft off the fairway its in 3ft deep grass and I guarantee you'll never find the ball. If I played that course more often my handicap would be a bit higher.

No offense taken, I'd like to figure out what my actual handicap is as well at the moment . Well after typing in my last 15 score cards on this site http://golf.about.com/od/handicaps/l...dicapincal.htm . It told me I'm a 14 handicap... I don't know what else to tell you. My 18 hole scores usually end up in the mid 80s pretty consistently. Most of my rounds played are on a par 70 course but that site uses the USGA course and slope ratings so I guess it doesn't matter what the course calls par. The two courses I've been playing most are rated 66.4/114 slope and 68.5/121 slope I do count penalties but I can usually find my drives and punch out from the trees which always results in bogey or worse (rarely worse than double). I hardly ever lose my iron shots and my short game is what saves my scores most of the time. I practice short game shots for fun at home quite a bit where I have a 5 acre backyard so I've gotten pretty accurate from 50 yards and in.

My bag has 14 separate dividers. If your looking at the bag from the top it goes in this order. Driver, 5W(3W), 3H 4,5,6,7 8,9,PW,GW Putter,60°,54° I like to have my stuff organized .

I play with the Callaway Tour I(s) and the Top Flite XLs when I don't feel like losing a $4 ball. I've practiced with both on the practice green and the Top Flites definitely come off the putter a little faster so they roll a little further. These two golf balls are on two complete opposite ends of the spectrum but the difference still might only be two feet in putting distance at the worst. So if you were using two similar balls (like switching from the Tour I to the ProV1) you probably wont notice the difference at all. If you use a putter with a soft insert like the Odyssey XG putters it will probably be even less of a difference because the putter face is absorbing some of the impact. The smooth metal face on my Ping putter is going to make the difference in the balls cover more noticeable. The XLs feel more like I'm hitting rocks compared to a softer feel of the Tour ball.

I do that and use a swing sock as well. http://www.golfswingsock.com/ If you try to have a quick tempo with a weighted club the swing gets very jerky. It forces you to slow the tempo down and lets you get the feel for a smooth transition from backswing to downswing.

I've kept my last 15 score cards and the average of the 18 hole scores came out to 12 over par. From what I understand that would be my handicap wouldn't it? Besides that when I signed up to the web site it basically said... if you don't know your handicap than take your best guess. It might go up or it might go down from where it is now, only time will tell. If I hit a 90+ next time I play I'll probably bump the handicap up. After reading another thread just now I guess there is more to calculating your handicap that just finding the average. I never asked anyone how a handicap is calculated before and figured the simple and common sense way would just use a simple average. I'll look into it more and adjust it accordingly . After using this site: http://golf.about.com/od/handicaps/l...dicapincal.htm My handicap is 14.

Well along with having a teaching pro as a friend I'd say I'm pretty far behind where my handicap should be . There are few people who have gotten to be scratch golfers within the first year of playing. There was an African America pro that the golf channel had on playing lessons that said he was a scratch golfer after his first year of playing.

Around here it ranges anywhere from $25 to $150 for 18 holes. There is a very clear difference in course quality as the price goes up.

I've been playing golf for three years and play about 10 rounds per year (nowhere near enough!!!). It wasn't until this year that my handicap started to drop mostly because I now work at a driving range and get to practice for free! My swing has gotten MUCH better within the past few months but I haven't had a chance to go play golf recently to see how it has effected my game.

I hit the ball slightly on the upswing with my driver. As long as the loft of the club is greater than the upward club head motion you wont get a top spin. I might have been wrong with what I said before about not getting the club released. Especially if you have a low lofted driver like an 8° I think you can still put top spin on it even if you get the club released. Sometimes its hard to tell whats really going on when your swinging 100%. Try swinging at 50% and get an impact position thats similar to your setup. For you just try to hit down on the ball and keep your hands slightly in front of the club head. If you swing slow it should be pretty easy to feel and see whats going on. If you can get your swing tapped somehow with a head on view that will tell you everything. The only way your going to put top spin on a ball is if the club head is moving upward at a severe angle at impact. So do whatever you need to do in order to reverse that. Just try not to plow your club head into the ground at 120mph!!!