Do clean balls make a difference?

Golf Digest, May, 2005

Ever wonder how much that cartpath scuff mark affects the performance of your golf ball? Or if cleaning a grass-stained ball will improve its flight? We asked Gene Parente, president of Golf Laboratories Inc., in San Diego, to test several balls with a launch monitor and his computer-controlled robot.

The robot used a 10-degree Callaway driver and Titleist NXT golf balls. Overall the new ball performed the best, but not by much. The straight dirt? Mud affected ball flight the most. Here are the results:

             NEW     RANGE   SCUFFED   GRASS   MUD     ONE ROUND

CARRY        225.0   223.7     219.3   221.3   218.8       223.1
The yardage the ball flew in the air.

TOTAL        250.3   251.8     244.5   250.3   246.3       250.6
The carry and roll yardage on a fairway.

DISPERSION     4.6     6.3       2.7     7.9    10.8         4.9
The yardage off-line, left or right of the target, the ball traveled.