Are low-spin balls straighter?

At a recent media launch for Titleist’s 2012 ball range, balls R&D head Bill Morgan answered questions and quashed common misconceptions and myths surrounding his pride and joy.

One of the topics he touched on was the thought that low-spin distance balls were straighter off the tee and therefore better for beginners.

“I’ve done a lot of research into this,” said Morgan.

“There is no doubting that lower spin does mean straighter shots, but the difference it will make realistically doesn’t make it worthwhile switching to a low-spin ball.”
You hit about 14 tee shots a round but hit many more chips and pitches. Is it really worth having a low spin ball and sacrifice greenside control? We were shown a chart that had data from different swing speeds and how spin reductions affected the flights. The chart showed that, to straighten a shot by 20 yards, you’d need up to 1,000rpm less spin, which is totally unrealistic (even for high spin players this represents nearly a third of total spin).

Morgan went on to explain that the most you could hope to straighten the ball by is 10 yards, and that he didn’t feel this was worth having to use a hard ball for all other shots.

“You hit about 14 tee shots a round but hit many more chips and pitches. Is it really worth having a low spin ball and sacrifice greenside control?”

I’ll let you make your own mind up.