The Best Buy in Golf? It's low-price balls. Here's why

Golf Digest, July, 2002 by Mike Stachura

As proof of how far two-piece balls have come, go back to Greg Norman's win at the British Open in 1986 with the two-piece Tour Edition ball. The new Top-Flite XL 3000 balls are even softer than Norman's winning ball--and is longer to boot, according to Mike Ferris, executive director of golf balls for Spalding. "The XL 3000 is technologically superior and softer feeling than any ball we made in the 1980s under two-piece technology," he says. "A Top-Flite XL 3000 could be played on tour today."

Even so, more golfers have chosen high-price balls over the low end. In the past two years, the market share of golf balls that sell for more than $35 a dozen has increased 60 percent, or nearly four times the rate of growth for balls selling for less than $25 a dozen, according to Golf Datatech, a research firm that tracks sales at on- and off-course golf shops. Titleist's Pro V1 dominates the market, even though it is the most expensive ball on the shelf.

So, are the Pro V1 and its high-end rivals worth it? Or is the $25-a-dozen ball really the best buy in golf?

"That depends on the consumer," says Titleist's Sine. "Certainly for the average player, that could be true. For the more accomplished player, that's an overstatement."

It all has to do with perception, says Talmun Lardmie, a golf retailer in Knoxville, Tenn. By choosing a high-end ball over a value ball, "The guy is saying he wants to get every advantage, perceived or otherwise, and he's willing to pay for it."

What it comes down to is choice, says Ferris of Spalding, which also markets the higher-end line of Strata balls. With the premium ball, "You're paying for new technologies, more complex performance benefits," he says. "You're going to have to ask yourself, 'Is low spin off the driver and high spin around the greens meaningful to me?' Can you even tell?"

You may not be able to tell how golf balls affect your play. But the effect on your wallet is clear. Eric Hamilton won the Alabama Mid-Amateur using a $20-a-dozen ball and celebrated his victory by trading in seven boxes of the tour-caliber balls he had in his locker for 14 dozen of his winning model.

Even so, Hamilton has switched back to an expensive ball. His feeling now? "Most people would spend whatever they could spend if they felt like it contributed to lower scores.

"But those two-piece balls do fly farther and straighter."