Golf Ball Fitting l Find the Right Ball for your Game

Don’t you just buy the ones that are not too dear, not too cheap and popular with the masses? That’s been my approach over the years.

A conversation with my dad while we were walking down the 9^th the other day got me thinking a bit differently about golf balls. He had recently discovered that a two piece distance ball would suit his game (high handicap, short distance, consistent slice).

For many years he had been using a three piece, medium spin ball, which didn’t do anything to get more distance or control on his slice.

Online Ball Fitting

Anyway, I decided to look into this further to see if I could find any online tools that could help find the right ball for my game. This is what I found:

Bridgestone Online Ball Fitting

This site isn’t bad. You’re asked a handful of questions, including average score and driving distance. Based on the information you provide, a Bridgestone ball is recommended. In my case, I should be using the e6.

I can then take a closer look at the e6. Looks about right for my game.

Pretty basic functionality and limited to Bridgestone balls. I think you’d need to provide a bit more information about your game to get a really good ball fit. All in all, not bad though.

Bridgestone also offers what they call the Ball Fitting Challenge. This involves attending a scheduled ball fitting session at a specific location. I assume it’s free, and could be worthwhile if you happen to be in the area and have some time on your hands.

Golf Ball Selector

For US$19.95 you get a one-time ball fitting session, completed online. This tool is much more comprehensive than the Bridgestone one, and will ask you for your clubhead speed, launch angle and spin rate, amongst other things. You’ll then be given a list of ‘best fit’ balls.

The assessment looks to be pretty comprehensive and you’re not limited to a specific brand of golf ball. However, I’m not sure how many people would know their clubhead speed, let alone the ball spin rate!

For $29.95 you get access to the ball fitting tool as well as other resources for 1 year. New balls are added all the time, so I can see the benefit in having ongoing access to this system.