We talk a lot about golf balls and golf ball layers. And there are a lot of different golf balls to talk about that do different things.
Two-piece, three-piece, four-piece, five-piece, low compression, high compression, soft feel, low spin, longer distance and so on.
It possibly the trickiest piece of golf equipment for the club golfer to understand. Yet in our humble opinion it is the most important because you use it for every shot.
You’ll use a driver 14 times at the most but the ball is used for 70-100 depending on your ability level.
When we talk about two-piece and three-piece balls we are essentially talking about golf ball layers. So what do each of those layers do to change the performance characteristics?
In this week’s Tech Talk, we caught up Jeff Brunksi, head of R&D at Srixon – who make the best-selling two-piece ball the AD333, the three-piece Z-Star and four-piece Z-Star XV.
With Jeff’s help we’re trying to make choosing the right golf ball not such a daunting task…
Let’s get right to it. What do the different golf ball layers do?
How much time do you have?
Plenty.
Well, in short, the core is the largest part of the ball and has the biggest effect on full shots. It will have a major effect on ball speed, but also contributes to launch and spin – again, especially on longer, full shots.
The cover contacts the face of the club, the cover’s largest role is in generating spin on iron and wedge shots. The cover plays less of a role on shots hit with a driver.
Mid-layers are a little more complex. Mostly, the mid-layer helps the other layers do their jobs.
It provides a hard backstop behind the soft cover, allowing the super soft cover to deform and create spin on shorter shots. On full shots, the mid-layer works in tandem with the core to produce high ball speed.