Losing golf balls, the mental game

[Pstar1978]

I have a similar strategy. My gamer ball is a B330RX and I limit myself to 2 per round but there's a catch. If I lose one If I'm playing poorly or if I lose one late, then they stay in the bag. If I'm playing well and I lose one, then I'll put another in play. After I lose one or two, out come the bargain balls. By doing this I keep my costs down and I have enough balls for the season. I have enough balls for about 30 rounds every year and I always have some left over.

[new2g0lf]

As I stated in earlier post I've chosen golf balls where I don't care financially if I lose one but my goal at the beginning of every round is to finish the round with the same ball I started with. I think it's counterproductive to ones game when you swap in different balls when if lose one or two premium balls.

[Break81]

My problem is a mental one too. I may loose 1 a round... but .... I have to play a certain brand/model of a golf ball, and to make matters worse, it must be blemish free. If it bounces off a tree, rock, or cart path or the PIN and gets a scuff or mark on it no matter how small, it's history. I have hundreds of premium golf balls in 5 gallon buckets that probably anyone would be happy to play with... except me. Its a problem which I just cannot get over.

 

I may not be quite as hard core as yourself about "no matter how small" but yeah, same thing for me. I just don't like using a damaged/scuffed/bruised/nicked golf ball if I'm actually playing and keeping score. If it's enough of a mark t notice without squinting and peering closely, it is discarded or put in my practice-ball bag.

My issue is after a ball has taken a beating for 12-13 holes, I swear they no longer look round, or as perfectly round as a new ball. I know its more of the imperfections making me see it that way and it does make me feel less confident in the balls performance.

 

I have a healthy box of what would be considered AAA quality that I give to friends who will play anything. I do keep a few of those in my bag for provisional or drops just in case.

[North Butte]

The ProV1x seems to take a pretty good bit of use before it will show any damage. Generally it takes a cart path or hitting a tree really, really hard for me to mark one up. I can sometimes get 3-4 rounds or so out of one if I'm keeping it between the tree lines pretty well.

[golf_addict73]

Lost 3 balls in my round on Saturday (still shot 76)...not a care in the world about it either when I'm playing 2016 TPs that I get for $20 a dozen. lol.

 

Lost 1 ball in a bunker filled with water that was GUR and 2 balls in the hazard (both on Par 5s that are usually pretty easy birdies).

[JessWilder711]

Just play balls that show back up again!

[Need2golfalot]

I am familiar with this problem. My course has water in play on about 10 holes plus OB on several and is a tight course. Bad enough incurring a penalty stroke but something about losing a new ball that is so irritating. I believe the pre shot anxiety leads to coming up and out of the shot = errant shot = lost ball. The solution is better technique (mechanics and stay down) and stop swinging so hard.