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Practicing with free balls

• micklen 221 Posts

  Fri, Apr 16 2010 8:45 AM

  Hi all.  My one lickle gripe here is having to pay for better balls.  I therefore tend to practice with the free ones.  I just wondered what others thought about it.  My fave balls are the GI-SD's but they are also the most expensive.   Now I understand that it's not a lot but there are times, particularly towards the end of the month, when the coffers are bare  :-(((

  Having now played with the free balls with my upgraded equipment I am finding my scores aren't falling too much, if at all.  Yes I do understand that is because I am fairly s**t at the game so far, but I thought the scores would drop off quite a bit

  So what about it.  Practicing and even maybe playing with upgraded kit but the free balls

  Mick

• VanHalenLover 1,422 Posts

  Fri, Apr 16 2010 8:55 AM

  I'm tinkering with this thought too, Mick,

  I recently lost a ball on St A's and without realizing it was my last, was forced back to the starter balls. This was right after a very frustrating round where I couldn't dial in my new master tier drvr or my new wedges, and was having a hard time gauging distances on those wedges. I'm not jumping ship on the upgraded balls just yet, but I can tell you that I saw an immediate difference in my accuracy with that driver and all those wedges, and it went up considerably.

  The drawback is easy. Less spin to stop the ball on those downhill / downwind approach shots, and reduced length off of the tee. The tee length especially hurts on those long but eagle-feasible (new WGT term?) holes, and for that reason alone I will stay with the upgraded balls and give myself a chance at reaching the par 5 in two regularly.

• micklen 221 Posts

  Fri, Apr 16 2010 10:23 AM

  VanHalenLover:

  The drawback is easy. Less spin to stop the ball on those downhill / downwind approach shots, and reduced length off of the tee. The tee length especially hurts on those long but eagle-feasible (new WGT term?) holes, and for that reason alone I will stay with the upgraded balls and give myself a chance at reaching the par 5 in two regularly.

  Yeah that is a huge drawback losing the spin I agree.  I don't think I am losing THAT much distance though.  I think about 10 yards on the fly but with a bit extra roll I am not far short of my normal drive.  I think the spin could be a problem at BPB though

  I will keep experimenting

  Mick

  P.S.  Love Van Halen but getting in to Black Label Society after following Wylde playing for Ozzy

  P.P.S.  Just thought about the slightly faster swing speed as well.  That can give a few more offline shots I guess.  We shall see

• birdwell 561 Posts

  Fri, Apr 16 2010 7:50 PM

  The B-XD and B-ES ball at 10 cr per 3  are great for practice. Keep In mind that a while back that was all we had! And there were plenty of 30's and 60's posted.

  . Heck i've switched to the B-XD ball for STA permanently (for now) Spin not really needed to get it close - just accuracy. and the XD balls last a very long time.

• marioh 1,055 Posts

  Fri, Apr 16 2010 8:28 PM

  I used to play all the time with the freebies.   You really need to be on with your timing, but it's doable.   The big negative is a hiccup in the meter is usually a disaster.   It's tough to avoid clicking for accuracy when you're really geared up for the fast meter.

• AlaCowboy 1,321 Posts

  Sat, Apr 17 2010 11:37 AM

  micklen:

  Hi all.  My one lickle gripe here is having to pay for better balls.  I therefore tend to practice with the free ones.  I just wondered what others thought about it.  My fave balls are the GI-SD's but they are also the most expensive.   Now I understand that it's not a lot but there are times, particularly towards the end of the month, when the coffers are bare  :-(((

  Having now played with the free balls with my upgraded equipment I am finding my scores aren't falling too much, if at all.  Yes I do understand that is because I am fairly s**t at the game so far, but I thought the scores would drop off quite a bit

  So what about it.  Practicing and even maybe playing with upgraded kit but the free balls

  Mick

  I use purchased balls to give me a bit more spin on the green when I play multi-player rounds, but use the free starter balls for solo rounds or CTTH rounds. CTTH doesn't matter since they are Random Draw.

• griffygriff 597 Posts

  Fri, Apr 30 2010 6:51 AM

  The other day i ran out of purchased balls so i played the rest of the round with the free ones. To my amazement the free balls were much easier to putt with. Here's why, the distance was easier to control which in turned made reading the break easier, i really enjoyed putting with them. So i was wondering if anyone else had noticed that to.                        All pompous sarcastic comments welcome

• blackbeard 288 Posts

  Fri, Apr 30 2010 7:31 AM

  When I first reached Master, the bought balls helped a lot to get the proper rhythm for the new drivers. But because of my generally wonky meter, I've had to accept that upgrading balls all the time would be a waste of time and money. My biggest battle is hitting the sweet spot on the blue line - no time to worry about spin etc atm

• neildiamond11790 1,115 Posts

  Fri, Apr 30 2010 7:36 AM

  WGT, can we get some X-outs at half price for just practice rounds, that cant be used in ranked games?

• AvatarLee 1,644 Posts

  Fri, Apr 30 2010 8:11 AM

  Yeah, just go steal them from the driving range.... Oh wait.... no, can't do that!