22 CHOOSE THE RIGHT BALL FOR YOUR GAME

We can easily fall into the trap of spending hundreds of dollars on new equipment and forget to ensure we’re playing the correct golf ball. Golf balls can feel firmer or softer, spin more or less and fly higher or lower. Selecting one that suits your game can be a sneakily eective way of saving shots this summer. Finding the right ball is a relatively straightforward process. I would recommend following these steps: 1 Start by analysing what type of ball you like the feel of. Do this from the green back to the tee; if you putt and chip better with a softfeeling, highspinning tourlevel ball like a TP5 or Pro V1, then improving that element of your game will probably save you more shots than a few extra yards from the tee. 2 Find your nearest PGA Professional with a launch monitor. Hit 1012 shots with a long, medium and short iron and measure the height and spin rates to determine you’re getting the correct spin, trajectory, and distance on your iron shots. 3 Finally hit 1012 shots using your driver, to measure launch angle and spin rates. Getting these two numbers correct can really help maximise your distance from the tee; we often find that by switching to a lowerspinning ball, golfers can gain eightto10 metres with exactly the same swing. This can also help reduce curvature for better accuracy o the tee.

Once you’ve found the correct ball for your game, only use that ball; it will help you develop some consistency with it, especially on and around the greens.

Steps two and three can sound a little bit daunting, but half an hour to an hour with the knowledge of your PGA Professional and their launch monitor data is all you need, and the rest is down to your personal feel in the short game.