New Balls vs Lake Balls

eoghan104

I have always had a fear of buying like balls as I just think if they are in a lake for a long time they go a bit dead but that could be all in my head.

Prov's are just too dear now and I'm looking to try a few lake balls to test the waters. Anyone use them? Any decent offers you know of?

Cheers in advance

Ronney

Its huge Business in the USA. Companys acquire the contract to gather lake balls at courses.

Generally sold in different Grades Pearl/A/B with price reflecting. In the likes of Mcguirks you get a dozen pro V's for about €20.

http://www.golfballs.ie/ Haven't used this crown but look pretty good for prices

charlieIRL

With the price half decent balls are now new, I’d never bother with lake balls.

Then again, as a high handicap player, once they are round and not scuffed they’ll do me fine.

Russman

charlieIRL wrote: »

With the price half decent balls are now new, I’d never bother with lake balls.

I’d agree. You can almost always find a very good deal on a premium ball somewhere, be it online, McGuirks, etc. Granted it might be say, Srixon Z Star this month, and maybe Chrome Softs in a couple of months time, or last years Taylor Made offering. Deals on Pro V1 are fairly rare, but performance wise, at my level, most, if not all, of the better balls perform similarly.
Even the next level of ball below the premium ones perform very close to the top model imho.

Fann Linn

Ronney wrote: »

Its huge Business in the USA. Companys acquire the contract to gather lake balls at courses.

Generally sold in different Grades Pearl/A/B with price reflecting. In the likes of Mcguirks you get a dozen pro V's for about €20.

http://www.golfballs.ie/ Haven't used this crown but look pretty good for prices

I used that crowd a few years back. I think they went under a different name then. I purchased a mixed bag of 100 Callaway balls and all arrived in good condition, no scuffs or tears. Paid approx €70 inclusive of delivery if I'm not mistaken.

mike12

Problem with lake balls is the batches being sold are often models from years ago.
Plus a lot are washed in bleach to whiten them.
Better use a guy that finds them few guys on adverts selling them.
Maybe try the seed balls if u want close to premium at half price. Same price as good quality pro v 1s

eoghan104

Thanks for the info. Maybe I will try some new non-premium balls and see how I get on.

sydneygolfdude

eoghan104 wrote: »

Thanks for the info. Maybe I will try some new non-premium balls and see how I get on.

I play with non premium balls, I don't have the club head speed to compress and get the best out of golf balls such as pro-v 1's and the likes so they are a complete waste of money on someone like myself.

Depending on what you like or preference is, my recommend Titilest DT's, Callaway Super Soft's or Wilson DX2's. I like soft feel golf balls, go that bit further off the driver and I just like the softer feel when putting/chipping. You would pay anywhere between €19 - $23 for a dozen of these new.

charlieIRL

I've been using the Seed balls (SD-01) for the last 3 rounds. no problems with them at all. Even the SD-15 which I think are perfect for the everyday golfer are only €10 per dozen.

gonko

The Seed SD-15 are 10EUR for a dozen and are a very good ball for the entry level. Nice flight and a surprisingly softish feel. Most balls in this bracket feel like rocks and don't have any stopping power on the greens.

eoghan104

I bought the taylormade project a in the end and I like them. Not cheap either though, I think I'll try the seed balls next.

davegilly

I've always wondered why golf ball manufacturers haven't done comparison tests between lake balls and new balls if lake balls are supposed to be so bad?

It's very difficult to find any proper comparison anywhere between them which leads me to believe the differences between new and lake balls is a lot smaller than manufacturers would like us to know.

First Up

Too much variation in lake balls for such tests to mean anything. A ball in a lake for an hour will have far less deterioration than one there for a week and there is no way of knowing when it went in.

davegilly

First Up wrote: »

Too much variation in lake balls for such tests to mean anything. A ball in a lake for an hour will have far less deterioration than one there for a week and there is no way of knowing when it went in.

But is there? It's all hearsay with no hard evidence to back anything up. I genuinely think if there was any significant deterioration in lake balls, be they in the water for a day or 6 months, then the manufacturers would be all over it like a rash. It would be very easy for them to do this, just throw a few dozen balls in water for a day, a month, a year etc and test them.

thecomedian

This might be of interest to some here.

https://golfballdivers.com/pages/why-pre-played-balls

davegilly

thecomedian wrote: »

This might be of interest to some here.

https://golfballdivers.com/pages/why-pre-played-balls

I saw that before - again it's done by sellers of lake balls so can you believe them? However they have used an outside agency and university to do the tests so I suppose there is some kind of credibility there.

FAE4EVA

Very interesting article.. as you said they got third parties to complete study so probably have credibility surely.. I used the golfballs.ie crowd and find no definable difference anyway. I actually over bought and am selling some at moment but wouldn't hesitate to recommend. Big savings for the weekend golfers amongst us

First Up

Yes very interesting and re-assuring as I'm sure the balls I rescue from lakes and streams have not been there for a month!

I have never made a systematic comparison of lake/new balls. When I fish them out, I see how well they look (colour, scuffs) and then decide if they go in the bag, the shag bag or back in the water!

bailey99

What are these SD seed balls you mentioned???

charlieIRL

http://seedgolf.com/balls/

here you go!