Golf Ball Help

Dkolst · July 7

Hi Everyone,

Hoping to get some recommendations or ideas on what golf balls might work for me, as I feel like what I currently play (Callaway Chrome Soft) aren't a great fit, but after reading up for about 2 hours on different balls my head is spinning.

I'm currently a 17 handicap, started playing more seriously last year and have gone from shooting in the 100's to now at least trying to break 90 as the goal most rounds. Inconsistency is a killer!

On my drives, I usually have too much height with very little roll out, and used to have a slice but have now gotten it down to a nice left to right fade. Feel like I'm losing a lot of distance, maybe because my current ball is too soft? Driver swing speed is +/- 100.

On iron shots, my main issue and reason for looking into a new ball is I feel like I don't have enough stopping power on my shots, I would say I have mid flight trajectory but then rolls out way too much especially with my mid irons. 7i swing speed is around 80.

Also, have noticed that the Chrome Soft's are often having nicks or chips in them and find myself needing to change balls pretty frequently throughout the round if I'm not losing them.

Am I an idiot for thinking I need something firmer to help get more distance off the tee, but then wouldn't that have the opposite intention and give me less spin around the green?

Any help is appreciated.

Jdudley13 · July 8

At a 16 handicap and what you are describing leads me to believe launch conditions have a lot more to do with it than the ball. If you’re continuing to improve and want more spin around the green then a urethane ball is definitely the way to go. I think you could get away with an X ball but it might ramp up your spin more than you want to amplify some misses. Maxfli Tour, Vice pro/ pro plus or something in one of those price categories are probably a smart place to start. Great performance but at a lower price than some of the “top tier” balls that really aren’t going to change things for you enough to justify a higher price tag. I think the important thing is finding a ball that works for you and sticking with it so you know what to expect around the greens. Chrome soft is definitely not too soft to the point that it’s causing any issues, I would guess there are some guys around the boards with a higher swing speed that play/played it.

Edited July 8 by Jdudley13

ShortGolfer · July 8

Get some Titeleist Pro V1x balls. They are the most popular expensive balls I find around small New England greens.

If those don't help you may want to be fitted with irons that provide a higher descent angle.

I spent the money and now I can hit and hold greens with my 6iron from 130 yards out using cheap golf balls.

It took two years of self teaching to be able to do that from a fairway lie. I did not need a new fitting.

I start the season playing cheap balls and switch to the expensive ones once I become more confident with swing.

The other way to hold greens is to switch to high lofted fairway woods. It didn't quite reach, but I made a long Par 3 yesterday with a 7W.

Keeping the ball in the fairway will help avoid ball damage. Bouncing the ball off the cart path will scuff any ball.

Edited July 8 by ShortGolfer

Dkolst · July 8

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I did get fitted for new irons end of last season, so went back and looked at the Trackman data that I had for it. The launch angle data for the clubs I ended up going with had most swings between 18.4 to 20.6 (fitting was with 7i's), unfortunately the data I can see on the app doesn't have descent angle.

Will check out the MaxFli Tour, Vice and Pro v1's and see if any help. Realize it's difficult looking for a magical ball to reduce spin on drives and increase it on irons, but the search continues.

Jeff58 · July 8

1 hour ago, Dkolst said:

Realize it's difficult looking for a magical ball to reduce spin on drives and increase it on irons, but the search continues.

Every ball will have a spin/launch progression as loft and swing speed change. Your driver will naturally have lower launch and spin than your 7 iron, which has lower launch/spin than your pitching wedge, etc.

With some balls, this progression is very linear across the club set. Generally, better golfers prefer this, as it helps to create a more consistent distance progression. Some models, such as the AVX, have non-standard compression characteristics between layers that creates lower launch and spin from driver/woods/hybrids.

The AVX, Srixon Diamond, Maxfli Tour S, and Crome Tour TD are models with this configuration.

The most significant factor in trajectory is compression. The lower the compression, the higher the launch and lower the spin. Higher compression models reach their maximum height later in the flight. The higher your swing speed, the more you can take advantage of high compression balls, and the more that a low compression model, such as the Crome Soft, will tend to waste energy with too high and early peak.

That your current selection isn’t optimal is not reason to immediately move to the opposite extreme. That’s known as the Goldilocks syndrome. Try a standard high compression model such as the Maxfli Tour X before going further.

grochol17 · July 8

A few thoughts:

With a 100 mph swing speed, the difference in ball speed between firm and soft tour level balls probably isn't big... maybe 1-2 mph, so I don't think you're losing any distance with the Chrome Soft just because it is soft.

Because of the multi-layer construction of golf balls, typically a firmer feeling golf ball is going to spin more on all shots than a soft golf ball.

A golf ball rolling out or not can be due to a number of factors like launch angle, spin rate, and course conditions. So, for example, if you aren't getting enough distance with your driver it might be that you're launching it too high, spinning it too much, or the fairways you play on are normally soft/slow so the ball won't roll out. Or some combination of all three. Iron shots that roll out too much will obviously be due to the opposite set on conditions.

I would guess that hitting driver too high and irons too low is probably a swing issue or your clubs don't fit you well. Thus it is not likely to be something that you're going to fix with a ball change.

That being said, the best thing to do is to get some balls out on the course and test them to see how they work when you're the one hitting shots. An easy place to start would be to find a golf store that will sell you sleeves and buy some Pro V1, Pro V1x, and AVX as these three do a pretty good job of covering the range of performance differences in golf balls. If you don't want to go with Titleist, you can do a similar experiment with pretty much any manufacturer. Regardless, try to get out to a course for chipping and putting practice, then go out sometime when it is quiet so you can test the balls out on course, hitting the kinds of shots you would normally face.

A couple of final notes... if you want a specific ball recommendation, try the Wilson Staff Model (non-X version). I've found that to be a pretty good combination of somewhat low spin off the driver and high spin on my short irons based on my on-course observations. You also mention being disappointed with the cover on the Chrome Soft getting beat up quickly. I haven't played a ton of different balls recently, but I've found that the Titleist Pro V1x, left dash, Maxfli Tour, and Wilson Staff all hold up pretty well to a round of golf (or more). Where I find that any golf ball can get chewed up is when it is damp and sand sticks to the ball in the fairway (or I hit one a bit fat) and then the sand gets compressed into the cover of the ball on my iron/wedge shots, marking it up pretty easily.

edd13 · July 8

22 hours ago, Dkolst said:

Hi Everyone,

Hoping to get some recommendations or ideas on what golf balls might work for me, as I feel like what I currently play (Callaway Chrome Soft) aren't a great fit, but after reading up for about 2 hours on different balls my head is spinning.

I'm currently a 17 handicap, started playing more seriously last year and have gone from shooting in the 100's to now at least trying to break 90 as the goal most rounds. Inconsistency is a killer!

On my drives, I usually have too much height with very little roll out, and used to have a slice but have now gotten it down to a nice left to right fade. Feel like I'm losing a lot of distance, maybe because my current ball is too soft? Driver swing speed is +/- 100.

On iron shots, my main issue and reason for looking into a new ball is I feel like I don't have enough stopping power on my shots, I would say I have mid flight trajectory but then rolls out way too much especially with my mid irons. 7i swing speed is around 80.

Also, have noticed that the Chrome Soft's are often having nicks or chips in them and find myself needing to change balls pretty frequently throughout the round if I'm not losing them.

Am I an idiot for thinking I need something firmer to help get more distance off the tee, but then wouldn't that have the opposite intention and give me less spin around the green?

Any help is appreciated.

How many balls are you losing (or using up) per round?

What irons are you using?

Feelings on wedge shots?

LUMA · July 8

You need to take a look at the higher launching higher spinning balls. X balls will typically do this.

I always like to choose my ball based on spin for full wedge shots and iron shots into the greens, then I look at flight window, then feel.

I seriously recommend trying the NEW version of the Vice Pro Plus. It launches high and has great spin on approach shots. I regularly see my iron approach shots stop and back up a few feet with the Pro Plus. For me, it launched a tad higher than I like, but I tend to hit the ball pretty high. I think I will be moving into the Srixon Z-Star Diamond as it sits right between the regular Z-Star and the XV in regards to spin, flight window and feel.

Back on topic, the Pro Plus is also a cheaper option to just try out. The feel of the new Pro Plus balls is really nice as well. They have a nice light and springy feel.

One thing to note is be careful of that flight window being too high. It’s nice when the wind is down, but once you start getting any head wind over 10mph, they just ride the wind up and die way short so find a ball that has a nice launch, but still pushes through the wind rather than climbs.

Kmac · July 8

Id start with the Maxfli Tour or the Tour X balls, see which one works best for you. They are great balls in both performance and value, so losing them doesn't quite hurt as bad as the Prov1 or Chrome Tour.

Dkolst · July 8

1 hour ago, edd13 said:

How many balls are you losing (or using up) per round?

What irons are you using?

Feelings on wedge shots?

Thanks for all the feedback guys, too many to respond to each one individually, but will give a few of these a shot if I can get my hands on some sleeves and see if I notice any difference between them.

I get that switching to a new ball won't fix any mechanical issues I have that I'm still working on, just figure as I'm playing more and trying to sharpen up the game I should at least look into ball selection to see if there's something better out there given I couldn't even tell you why I went with Chrome Soft in the first place.

But to your question, I would say I lose 1-2 per round these days. Harder for me to quantify how many I "use up" as I've just started noticing/paying attention to this more recently. Typically I hadn't switched them out and would just keep playing until I lose them, but a lot of the guys I play with are saying if I'm trying to get better and more consistent I shouldn't be playing with balls damaged like that.

My irons are Titleist T350's that I was fitted for last August.

bluedot · July 9

Dkolst, what you are describing in your OP is an X ball.

You want more distance off the tee, and IN GENERAL, higher compression balls are longer than softer balls. How much longer is much too individual to the particular ball and swing to guess at. But I don’t think you’ll find the difference to be especially significant; a few yards is possible.

Spin off irons has essentially nothing to do with compression; it’s about the cover and the layers. There is a mountain of testing data that gives good info about spin rates for irons and wedges. Start there.

I don’t like the Chrome Soft, but it IS a premium ball with good distance and spin numbers. I doubt that changing golf balls is likely to be much of an answer for you. FWIW, I’d urge you to find a way to get on a launch monitor, perhaps as part of lesson, to figure out what’s really going on, because I doubt that much of what you are describing is primarily about the ball. Find out if you really are hitting your driver too high or not, and find out how much roll out you are really getting. Find out about spin rates off your irons and wedges, and see if you really need more or not. If a launch monitor isn’t possible, see if you can work a little bit with a good teaching pro; it’s possible that a few setup changes will work wonders.

You might find that some of this isn’t what you think, and can be mitigated by better course management. You don’t say where you are, but the type of green can really impact whether or not the ball is going to stop. If you’re playing on Bermuda greens in the South in July, it might be that the only distance that matters on a lot of holes is the front of the green, rather than the distance to the pin. Similarly, if you’re hitting approach shots out of the rough, spin will be greatly reduced.

Edited July 9 by bluedot

ScooterMcTavish · July 14

On 7/7/2025 at 1:20 PM, Dkolst said:

Hi Everyone,

Hoping to get some recommendations or ideas on what golf balls might work for me, as I feel like what I currently play (Callaway Chrome Soft) aren't a great fit, but after reading up for about 2 hours on different balls my head is spinning.

I'm currently a 17 handicap, started playing more seriously last year and have gone from shooting in the 100's to now at least trying to break 90 as the goal most rounds. Inconsistency is a killer!

On my drives, I usually have too much height with very little roll out, and used to have a slice but have now gotten it down to a nice left to right fade. Feel like I'm losing a lot of distance, maybe because my current ball is too soft? Driver swing speed is +/- 100.

On iron shots, my main issue and reason for looking into a new ball is I feel like I don't have enough stopping power on my shots, I would say I have mid flight trajectory but then rolls out way too much especially with my mid irons. 7i swing speed is around 80.

Also, have noticed that the Chrome Soft's are often having nicks or chips in them and find myself needing to change balls pretty frequently throughout the round if I'm not losing them.

Am I an idiot for thinking I need something firmer to help get more distance off the tee, but then wouldn't that have the opposite intention and give me less spin around the green?

Any help is appreciated.

Lots of good ideas in the thread here, and only felt I had to chime in as my game is very similar to yours. Driver SS is around 93, handicap is currently a 15.4 (was 10 in 2023), and I too struggle with high driver, low backspin/descent angle issues.

Did want to reinforce what @grochol17 said above - at our SS (and handicap), the loss of distance from a softer ball should be negligible, especially with inconsistent ball striking. In short, everything is on the table, so you can play pretty much any ball you like the look and/or feel of.

First thing I'm wondering about is your driver. Have you had your angle of attack (AoA) with driver measured? If you have a positive AoA (+3 to +5 is good for a slower SS), then the height and lack of distance could be due to the driver having too much loft, or a mismatch between you and the shaft. However, if you have a negative AoA, your loss of distance is due to backspin and your strike. If this is the correction needed (and it was in my case), I have yet to find any ball that will really help with this.

With your irons, your stated launch angle is pretty good - a bit higher than some recommend (50-60% of stated loft), but a higher launch benefits us slower swing speed players, unless we're killing the ball with lots of backspin. Based on your description, you are not hitting huge spin numbers. Makes me think the following:

- Your T350 are very loft-jacked player's distance irons. So if you expect your current 7i to fly like your old 7i, it won't (despite manufacturer's claims) - it's really a strong 6i. Although the manufacturers add weight low to improve the trajectory, if someone is already not hitting down hard (creating launch and backspin), they will hit these clubs flatter than their old ones (trust me, been there).

- Launch and spin are extremely dependent on the shaft. Were these considered when selecting a shaft?

- Conversely, was the fitting all about distance? If it was, then the shaft chosen was likely due to having a lower launch and lower spin.

- How'd you feel on the day you were fit? Stronger or more jacked than normal? Was your experience in the fitting different than what you see on course?

Sort of like with the driver, if your clubs are not optimized for launch, spin, and descent, there is no ball which will magically add height. Spin differences will be there, but these will be small differences, not game-changing.

Wow, not a lot of ball suggestions above. But if I was to suggest a few based on my own experience:

- If you want a tour ball, Srixon Z-Star has been my go to. XV is a good ball, but much harder feeling. And despite the Z-Star reportedly having a lower trajectory with more spin off irons, I hit it higher than the XV, mainly due to spin. Yellow is much better for durability as well.
- Keep playing Chrome Soft. Yes, they are expensive, and the covers scuff easy. But if money were no object, I'd have it as my regular gamer due to how well it handles the wind, and its lovely feel. Problem is Z-Stars go on BOGO twice a year.
- The Bridgestone B series offers lots of options. I'm thinking you may like the RXS, as it is less spinny off the driver, but launches high off irons.
- Try some "better" two piece soft balls. I'm currently posting about a "shootout" I'm having between 5 "premium" soft ball offerings in the forum, and I've found it a bit eye opening. One ball was a real stinker on a fast course, but I've been pleasantly surprised by two others so far.