Find the best ball for you
Published:
Golfers may think they have a special affinity with their golf ball. After all, it’s the one piece of equipment they are sure to talk to during a round with impassioned cries of “get up!”, “sit!” or “bite!”. But the majority of us know very little about the ball that we play. A recent survey among regular players discovered that 70% of golfers across Europe who use one of the 10 most popular balls did not know whether it was two, three or four-piece. The number is smaller in the UK, but around 40% of golfers don’t know if it’s a one-piece or multi-layer ball.
This suggests that many golfers are not as familiar with ball technology as they are with other equipment, so over the next seven pages –in association with Bridgestone Golf – we’ll explain the benefits of different types of ball, and reveal how you can choose the best one for your game.
Fascinating ball facts
From Bridgestone Golf’s Modern Golf Ball Report
Balls represent a significant global business with an estimated 650 million sold annually across the world.
According to the survey, brand name awareness remains the biggest influence on trying out a new ball (45%), followed by price (13%) and club pro recommendations (10%).
Almost one in four UK golfers (24%) claim to have changed their golf ball in the past six months, against 29% of golfers in the US over the last year.
Most golfers expect to purchase between two and three dozen balls a year (38%), while nearly a third (29%) anticipate buying less than two dozen. One in five (21%) see themselves purchasing between four-five dozen balls and 7% expect a higher number of between 6-7 dozen over the next 12 months.
These same golfers plan to spend an average of £24.11 for a dozen balls, with half looking to pay no more than £25 per dozen. Low handicappers anticipate paying an average of £29.43 per dozen for high-performance balls with 40% spending more than £36.
Weekend golfers can lose an average of four golf balls during each 18-hole round.
Golf ball sales in the USA – by far the world’s largest golfing market –were estimated at 42 million dozen in 2011, with a retail value of $1.25bn (nearly £800m). In the UK, the figure was around 4.4 million dozen balls valued at £66.3 million.
>> Click here to discover the science of your golf ball
