Conference 7.286::golf

    
    The numbers don't really signify anything, they are there just to 
    keep track of your ball.  I believe that in a real tournament (like
    the ones on TV) they have to use the same type of ball for the round,
    right down to the number on the ball.
    
    --Bob
    

    
    .1 is correct. Their only used in case someone else in your foursome is
    also using the same ball. 
    
    If you're a beginning golfer, get the cheapest balls you can find. It 
    won't make much of a difference. I like a ball that can stick a little
    to the green. Yet I don't want a soft cover ball because I keep putting
    smiley faces on them, and I can't afford 6 new golfballs every 18 holes
    of golf. Some people don't care about how they stick to the green, they
    just need the longest hitting ball. So it all depends upon your game, 
    and what you THINK will help your game.
    
    Mike

    To clarify .2.If you are playing a top flite 2 and partner 
    or opponent is playing a top flite 2,you had better change to
    a 3 or 5 etc.just in case you land in the same area.
    
    #'s identify your ball                    Rick

    I have started using the new Hogan 396ls in 90 compression and
    have been very pleased with the results !! This ball no longer
    feels like a marshmellow when you hit it and offers exceptional
    spin for a Lithium-Surlyn cover. It is also a 3-piece wound ball
    so it is not as long as your average Top-flite or Ultra but I will
    give up the 3-5 yards for the control. The cover is extremley tough
    and I didn't put any lumps on the ball during the normal course of
    play. It is offered in 90 or 100 compression and I'm trying the 90's
    as a relief from tendenitis (seems to be helping !!) Much better than
    the ball that Hogan produced last year !! I also get them cheap !!!!!
    
    Mad Hacker

    	I occasionally play with Top Flites (given as a present) but would
    never buy them on my own.  I find that when hitting short irons or
    wedges, and the shot is hit well, part of the cover gets "shaved" and I
    wind up with little bits of cover hanging off the ball.  Does anyone
    else have this problem?
    	By the way, this never happens when I play Pinnacles, which I
    prefer.
    
    -Tom
    

    Re .5 Tom, I notice it too and on Maxfli DDH (?) as well.
    
    Freebie,

     Me too, but I use "square groove" (Edge) irons.
    
    --Jack

    Funny, I was just thinking about that this weekend- was playing a
    TopFlite, and was idly looking at the ball waiting for my partner to 
    hole out. Saw the "shavings" and mentally noted that it seemed to me
    that the only brand that doesn't do that is Titleist (at least in my
    experience).

Someone in the senior open this past weekend accidentally hit the wrong ball
after ending up in some bushes. There was a 2 stroke penalty plus they had to
go back and hit their original ball. That can be quite significant in a four
day contest where the difference between winning and loosing is often as little
as one stroke. Also imagine the psychological barrier that creates after trying
to recover from a bad shot in the first place.

Rick

    
    If you don't mind playing any ball you find, then I suggest you walk
    along the edge of the woods while walking down the fairway, if the
    course is open (no other people for you to hold up), you may even walk
    in the woods a little, give your bag to a partner if you have one.
    
    NEVER do this sort of thing on a crowded course, it does slow you down.
    You may be amazed at the number of balls you can find.
    
    --Bob
    

    re: .0 The answer is "one".
    
    Big Mac

    My wife gave me a sleeve of Slazenger balls. They are 2 piece Surilyn
    (sp?) cover and I think 90 compression. 
    
    I really like this ball. It feels good off the club, although I don't
    generate 155mph clubhead speed, and they seem to stay in the fairway.
    BUT, the best thing is I've been spinning the ball on short irons.
    This never started until I used the Slazenger. 
    
    Try them sometime. I think you'll like them.
    
    Finally, I bought a sleeve of NITRO balls at the Senior's Classic. I'm
    going to use them in my clubs league tonight. Look for a report on 
    Thursday.
    
    Jim

    re: .4 just a nit but I think that's 392 not 396...
    
    re: .5/.6/.7
    
    	have noticed the same thing and thought it was my "u groves" on
    my edge irons but
    
    re: .8---have seen the same thing with titleist and have sent some
    back to them and am awaiting a reply as to "why"....
    
    my own feeling is that the blends they are using with this new lithumn
    added to the sylurn has not been tested enough to find the correct
    mix to give the cover both " a softer feel AND durability"....
    
    we'll see if I ever hear back from titleist...
    
    

	Re .5/.6/.7/.13/: Are the shavings part of the cover or part of the
paint?  I'm not sure if surlyn-covered balls are painted or if the color is
embedded in the cover, but if they are painted, there may be a problem with the
difference in flexibility between the cover and the paint.  If they're not
painted, then "Never mind..."

	Re .12:	I bought a sleeve of Nitro's at the Seniors tournament and found
that they played pretty well until I lost them.  The ball played well; I didn't.
They feel reasonably soft, seem to be workable for a surlyn ball, and carry
better than average.  Pinnacle gold's they're not, but they're not too bad
either.

	/elliot

    re .13
     Nit-Nit-Nit ! Your worse than my 13 year old. Don't you have anything 
    better to do than screen this notesfile for trivial errors ?? Everytime
    anyone makes one your right there to correct them. BIG DEAL 392-396
    WHO CARES
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    I have never shaved off an Ultra but it happens all the time with
    Top-flites and Maxfli's. I don't like Titelists because they get 
    lumpy after a very short time ( either Balata or L-S)
    
    Mad Hacker
    
    (Hey Gordon, please check my spelling and make sure I didn't
     screw up !)
    

	I always play with Topflight x-outs.  They are about 80 cents a ball
	and look the same as regular Topflights.  It's a lot cheaper this
	way.  I figure that what ever little thing is wrong with this ball
	my "game" is not going to notice anyway.

	Out of curiosity....deos anyone know what is ussually wrong with a ball
	that makes it a reject and have "XXXXXXXX" written across the name??

	Rich

    I have been going into Spag's and buying a dozen of re-cycled balls @
    $9.98.
    I most often get me choice of the greatest ball for me, the HOGAN 392!
    This ball is the best since the Dunlop Red Max of the early 1950s.
    Tom

    Re. Shavings  And come to think of it both of the brands in question
    were on sale when I purchased them.  Don't suppose their trying to
    unload a masive amount of stock vice pulling them from the shelves?
    I haven't paid that much attention to sales fliers, anyone else?
    
    Freebie, one who normally doesn't look for excusses for his game 8^)
             I got this bridge...

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                               -< The Good Game >-
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Note 1000.0            Golf ball Specs: What do they mean?               1 reply
DUGGAN::GREEN                                        13 lines   3-JUL-1990 15:46
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	What do golf ball specs mean:

	Compression: 90 or 100 (what's the difference?)

	Surlin cover: What's the benefit?

	Numbers: 384, etc. (dimples, not 1, 2, 3 which are id numbers)
		how does number of dimples effect the ball's flight?

	XL versus extra-extra-long, etc. are they just marketing? or
	is there a difference in the way the ball is built? 

                    <<< USER$1:[NOTES$LIBRARY]GOLF.NOTE;1 >>>
                               -< The Good Game >-
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Note 1000.1            Golf ball Specs: What do they mean?                1 of 1
RAYBOK::COOPER "MAD HACKER"                          16 lines   3-JUL-1990 17:15
                                 -< Ball info >-
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    re. -1
    
    1. Compression- not sure of exact definition but to me it is an
    indication of how hard a ball is. An 80 feels softer than a 90
    and a 90 feels softer than a 100. I have heard though that they
    only measure for 100's and if a ball doesn't make it then it is a 90.
    If it can't reach a 90 compression then it is an 80. Most balls
    designed specifically for women are 80's.
    
    2. Surlyn is a synthetic material that is very tough to cut or
    even mark so it makes for a more durable ball.
    
    3. Dimple arrangement is much more critical than number of dimples on
    the ball.
    
    4. Names like XL, DT, etc. are just marketing names.

    
    
      Question.
               The Spalding co.  They make a wide variety of balls.  What
    I'm curious to know is;  are all the solid balls, Top Flight,True
    Flight, Molitor etc. pretty much all the same?  What I'm getting at is
    if they are pretty much the same, why pay a few extra bucks for Top
    Flight when you can get the same results with the less expensive ones?
    
    
                                       Thanks in advance
                                            Dean

    
    I just read small blurb in todays Union Leader today at lunch. According
    to the article people are sending the golf balls out to have them
    bombartded with gamarays. The bombarding of gama rays is done on tires
    to make them last longer. The affect on golfballs is to make them go
    farther. They claim up to a 15% incresae in distance.
    
    Mike
    
    ps - Please don't shoot the messanger. I only know what I read in the
         newspapers.
    

    Comments...
    
    Square grooves can shave any ball.  That's cover shaving, not paint.
    
    X-outs are cosmetically imperfect... Playability is the same.  See
    the article in GD about three months ago.
    
    Rick
    
    P.S.  The new Maxfli ST is a nice ball, but nothing beats black
          Titleist's for all-round playability.
    

    The USGA sets standards on golf balls to try to ensure that one
    manufacturer's balls don't create an unfair advantage over the
    competitions', in line with the concept of keeping the gimmickry out
    of golf as much as possible (which is what created the square groove
    controversy). I don't have the specs in front of me, but I think any
    ball that has an initial velocity of more than 250 feet/second, and
    that travels further than 280 yards, when struck by Iron Byron set to
    a certain level of force, is considered illegal. Anyway, all the
    advertising about the "longest" ball is a lot of hooey, since any
    that were appreciably longer would be non-standard. This isn't to say
    that all balls are the same, however, but you really have to experi-
    ment till you find a brand (or two) that have the feel and action that
    suit you. A lot depends on cover material, dimple design/number, and
    intangibles (like some folks just feel better having a certain brand
    on the tee, and make a more confident swing, producing a good result,
    ad infinitum).
    
    I find that some Top-Flites [sic] feel too hard, even though they're
    the same compression as other balls; or that Staffs feel spongy (again,
    same compression). It's really a very individual thing. And, yes,
    X-outs perform just as well as "regular" balls of the same brand,
    having no structural defects (in fact, after comparing them to non
    X-outs, I suspect the only cosmetic blemishes are the XXX's that have
    been stamped onto them).
    
    	Frank

    
    
    Personally I go for the Maxfli Balata, and boy does it shave.  Every
    well hit ball takes a little more paint, BTW I use Tour Edition Irons
    with square grooves, so that I am sure has an effect on it.
    
    
    Jim

    
    I heard at one time, that the way that all golf balls, 90 vs. 100 are 
    initial made to the same compression, which someone allready stated.  
    An interesting fact that I had also heard from a friend who toured the
    Tietlest plant one time, is the way they seperate the balls.  After
    the balls are made, they are dropped, when they bounce, they land in 
    one of two bins, if they bounce high enough to land in the top bin,
    they are 100 compression balls, if they don't bounce high enough to 
    reach the top bin, they are 90 compression.  This would mean that any
    90 compression ball is actually in the range of 90-99 compression.
    
    Steve
    

    re: .15
    
    Kids are great that way...they know right away whether it's B.S. or
    not and they tell you "If you don't know what your talking about don't
    waste my time"

RE.23
	I can't find that article in Golf Digest that you mentioned.  Could
someone tell me what month's issue it was in?

    re. 27 
       Well then, you must do a lot of walking !!!
    
    Mad Hacker

    re: -1
    
    actually I do...I never take a cart unlessed forced to by the course
    I'm playing
    
    

    And, if you are like me, there are places that I choose to hit balls
    that carts cannot go! So, I walk even if the course demands a cart, 
    except maybe from clubhouse to 1st Tee and 9th Green to clubhouse and 
    out to 10th Tee and in from 18.
    Big Mac
    

	Early this year I bought a dozen Pinnacle Gold 100's, as they were
	on sale (I normally play Titleist DT's), as I was curious about
	the playability of Lithium-Surlyn.  During the course of wearing
	them out (I NEVER lose balls ;), I jokingly noted to my golf buddies
	that these balls were impossible to lose.

	I didn't seriously believe that the ball had anything to do with
	my new-found accuracy, since my ablility to fade and draw was about
	the same as with DT's.
	
	But now I'm starting to think these balls have a 'special' quality
	about them, most notably on mis-hits.  It really struck me this
	morning (I played 9 before work with my girlfriend).  I 'toed' my
	last drive badly (the ball mark was WAY out on the toe), yet the
	ball stayed perfectly straight, down the middle of the fairway about
	200 yds.  If I had to guess where the ball was going at impact, I
	would have said, 90 degrees right, about 25 yds into the woods.

	Has anyone else noticed this 'fairway-loving' characteristic of 
	the Lithium-Surlyn combination, or am I just starting to play
	better (finally)?

	Ron

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Note 1046.0                XXXXX out's and Best balls                 No replies
BREW11::SALMON                                       12 lines   6-AUG-1990 09:18
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    Beware of using XXXXX outs,I think you will find that the
    Rules of Golf state that a XXXX out is illegal and may not 
    be used in club competitions.
    
    	One of the best balls I have played with is the Tour Edition
    (by Spalding I believe).I was introduced to it by a 1 handicapper
    at Balcomie Links course at Crail near St Andrews this year during
    a very dry season when the greens were like marble.He was getting
    check on his shots whilst my Pinnacles were shooting through.
    
    All the best.
    Mike.

Sorry, its not the ball. You're just getting better. I found one in the 
woods and then lost it the next time out.                      

"... noted to my golf buddies that these balls were impossible to lose.

	But now I'm starting to think these balls have a 'special' quality
	about them, most notably on mis-hits.  It really struck me this
	morning (I played 9 before work with my girlfriend).  I 'toed' my
	last drive badly (the ball mark was WAY out on the toe), yet the
	ball stayed perfectly straight, down the middle of the fairway about
	200 yds.  If I had to guess where the ball was going at impact, I
	would have said, 90 degrees right, about 25 yds into the woods.

	Has anyone else noticed this 'fairway-loving' characteristic of 
	the Lithium-Surlyn combination, or am I just starting to play
	better (finally)? "

    			-<Re. Ball shaving>-
    
    I play in the same foresome weekly, I use Ping-Eye II (square grooves)
    and so does my neighbor.  We do not have the ball shaving problem,
    the other two players in our foursome use (square groove Ping
    look-alikes)and no matter which ball they use it shaves.  To correct
    the problem they used a tungsten tool to take the sharp edge off
    the square grooves, your local Golf shop should be able to help you.
    
    Good Golfing

    Has anyone tried Ping balls...They are supposed to be excellent for
    putting due to the uniformity ans consistency of their construction.
    Seeing as you use your putter more than any other single club it would
    seem to make sense to choose a ball that putts the best for you, they
    all get to the green sooner or later..Comments?
    
    Chris

    After about a 10 year layoff, I picked up the game again about the
    middle of the season last year. Now I'll be playing frequently this
    year. I'm trying to make up my mind which ball to play and am leaning
    towards a ballata ball mainly for the spinning action. I want to be
    able to "stick it" on the greens. Reading a bunch of notes in this
    conference, there seem to be a few balls out there that give good
    spinning action but have tougher covers. Hense, I'm a little confused
    as to what to try.
    
    A little about me. I have a nice full swing and generate an average
    club head speed of 93 with the driver. Average drive distance is about
    235/240 in the air. My 7 iron is my 150 yard marker club. When I can 
    keep the drive in play, I average 42/45 for 9 holes. I "usually" can 
    hit down and through the ball with my irons no problem, but the 
    Maxfli DDH's I've been using don't bite. Even a pitch with a wedge, 
    hitting down through the ball and taking a nice divot is more like
    a pitch and run.
    
    Any suggestions on what ball to use????
    
    
    Thanks,
    
    Steve

Steve,

I would recommend you to choose any high spin synthetic cover ball and 
don't waist your money on balatas. Balatas are not only expensive (price 
per ball), but last much less than synthetic cover balls.

In the past couple of years many two piece balls with softer cover, but 
durable, have been introduced and all advertise high spin rates. There is 
the HP2 tour, Topflite Zbalata, Precept extra spin, Titleist 2 piece 
wound just to name a few. Or if you want a near-balata ball (more 
durable but very expensive) try the new Topflite Strata or the Titleist 
Professional.

And by all means don't play the DDH, they are one of the hardest balls I 
have ever played. Even the regular topflites feel softer.

My 2 centavos
Tavo

    Thanks for the recommendation. I think I'll look at the HP2 tour or
    Zballata.
    
    Steve