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Kiel Christianson   Kiel Christianson
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New golf balls aren't for everyone

Saturday February 18, 2006 | 13:00:53 365 words, 2262 views
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This final installment of my trilogy of rants about golf balls. I promise.

My claim throughout has been that just because a dozen balls costs more than a steak dinner doesn’t mean that that ball is the best choice for your game. As further (and final) support for this contention, I offer the following two examples.

On the rare occasions when I’m striking the ball well, especially with the Eidolon wedges I reviewed a couple of years ago, I absolutely rip the cover off the ball. I’ve skinned Pinnacles, for Pete’s sake. So when I play really soft, expensive balls, they’re toast after a couple of holes.

Now, for the pros this is no problem. They get money for nothing and their balls for free (thank you Dire Straits). They often switch out balls after every few holes for this very reason. For me, well, it’s just damned irritating. My frugal side keeps me playing that frayed ball until I can’t even read the name on it any more. This is one reason I like a little harder – and a little cheaper – ball.

As a second bit of evidence that you should try to find the right ball for your game, take this quote by Scott Verplank from the current issue of Golf Magazine. When asked about the change in the loft of his driver over the last few years, he said, “It’s stayed the same. A lot of guys have gone to more loft and less spin, but I don’t get the same benefit out of the new balls because I don’t swing fast enough.”

If a PGA Tour player, who ranked 25th on the money list last year, cannot benefit from the ultra-expensive, low-compression, low-spin balls, do you really think you can? You might indeed, but it is far from guaranteed.

OK. I’m off my soapbox (for now). I’ll be reviewing some balls come spring, but it will be no easy job. Often, the only insight I can offer is something like this: “Ball X appeared to sink a little less quickly than Ball Y, and Ball Z skipped all the way across the pond.”

Comments:

Comment from: Ron Mon [Member] Email
Try ebay for the floater; it won't sink at all. Eidolon does make some fine wedges, huh? I have a new set in my bag this year, from a local lifestyle company called Bad Ass Golf (I kid you not.) They have been stellar in the dome this winter.
Permalink 02/18/06 @ 14:58
Comment from: jon [Visitor]
Costco usually has a good deal on decent titleist golf balls: $30 for 2 dozen.
Permalink 02/19/06 @ 13:22
Comment from: jon [Visitor]
P.S. Mr. Christianson. Is nothing sacred to you? In the Dire Straits song you bastadized, it is "money for nothing and sex for free." I shudder to think that you are equating sex with golf balls. LOL
Permalink 02/19/06 @ 13:38
Comment from: Kiel Christianson [Member] Email · http://www.travelgolf.com/departments/authorarchives/christianson.htm
Jon--

The actual line is: "...money for nothing and your chicks for free."

It's obviously a song about poultry. Poultry lay eggs. Eggs are white and semi-round. The connection to golf balls is obvious.
Permalink 02/19/06 @ 13:45
Comment from: Mike [Visitor]
Try knetgolf.com
there was an article on here a few weeks back about them.
Permalink 02/19/06 @ 14:57
Comment from: jon [Visitor]
I stand corrected. It's been years since I listened to that song. A very catchy line. Agreed that it was about poultry eggs.
Permalink 02/19/06 @ 15:07
Comment from: Leon [Visitor]
Ahem ... those of you old enuf to remember the debut of the now-wildy-popular genre, the "music video", and the cable TV explosion that enabled it's birth, on the then-radically different channel MTV, will possibly recall that song's computerized animation ... and the shots of actual camera footage of real musicians playing on the tv while the delivery hunks earned their pay ... nothing in there about poultry ... it was groupies boinking the bandmembers' members backstage during the obligatory 15-minute "bathroom" breaks for all but one guy, who had his nightly solo onstage in the meanwhile ... then a couple songs later another guy would stay while the rest went back for another undressing room romp, having had time to recharge the libido batteries ...
Permalink 02/21/06 @ 16:56
Comment from: Kiel Christianson [Member] Email · http://www.travelgolf.com/departments/authorarchives/christianson.htm
Leon--

And the video usually played right after "Money For Nothing" was for Black Sabbath's song titled "I Am Irony Man."

Too funny...!

Permalink 02/21/06 @ 18:40

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