Cracking Titleists in Half

[Range44]

I have never cracked a golf ball in half in my 28 years of playing golf, but now that I have my Flightscope setup, I have had two Titleist NXT Tour S crack on me in the last month, both swings were below 95 mph, one with a 7 iron and one with a 4hybrid. I rotate between 6-10 golf balls with a mix of ProV1 and the Tour S. I have the silver sticker pointed to the screen each time, could hitting the same side of the ball be causing this? Has anyone else experienced this? I haven’t cracked a ProV1 for what that’s worth.

[StanMI]

I cracked a Srixon about month after I finished my set up. Might have something to do with being hit by the club and slamming into the screen doubling the normal impacts on the ball. It sure isn't because of my swing speed being so high. I get near 100 but not over.

[bob chung]

hitting the balls in cold garage, I cracked over 30 pro v1s over 3years.
now, I try to use warm balls, frozen ball will crack soon.

[Point280]

I’ll bite... tour balls aren’t designed to withstand the hundreds of full swing hits that a sim user will put on em. Let’s be realistic. Range balls are solid & durable for a reason. And it’s those very reasons we don’t play range balls on the course. If you ponder the life of even a range ball, they don’t get struck over and over. They take a hit, land on the range, get sucked up by the equivalent of a golf Zamboni, and at some point get hit again. A tour ball might last us a round or more before it gets lost or retired due to scuffs, etc., but how many full swings does a ball take during a round of golf? Exactly. I might pound a single ball with my driver on my sim for hours—shot after shot. It’s all relative my friends.

Golf balls are not immortal. Premium balls? Even less so.

[Dax]

Agree, in terms of the metallic dot, I rotate it so that with my wedges I have it point down and my driver and woods I have it pointed up and then with my irons pointed to screen. I also replace them once they start getting even just a little fury.

[kalcormier]

I haven't cracked any in half. But I have cracked 4 Callaway Chrome Softs in the 6 months I've had my sim setup. Before that the only time I would see a cut open golf ball it was from being struck by a lawn mower.

[Dax]

I think it is because we all hit the ball with 120 mph swing speeds 🙄

[msg]

I've cracked a few golf balls playing indoor golf. My swing is at a max of 90 - 95 mph with the driver. I use my golf balls on my sim and on the sim we play outside my house, until they are beat up, so they will surely crack because in real life, we don't get that chance because they get lost in the woods or water.

[Range44]

I appreciate the responses. I guess I never really thought about Stan’s double impact point, and didn’t think I had a hard enough swing similar to msg to actually crack one, but Points driving range ball analogy hit home with me.

Dax, I will have to test out moving the dot around, to see if it makes a significant difference to the Flightscope.

I think I might also increase my rotation of golf balls to 2-3 dozen so I can spread it around a little more. I will have to find decent 24 pack deal or something.

[Tommyseb]

i cracked tons of my gamer Chromesofts, but since i switched to Titleist NXT Tours i haven't cracked one, and i give it some beans... my titleist NXT tours feel like they'll wear out the covers before they would crack..

[wbond]

I've found soft compression balls crack more than others and as stated, you are hitting a ball with ball speeds over 100mph which then comes to a complete stop within about 10'. For the most part, this does not happen IRL.

[BGCurtis2nd]

Using the ES-16 you have to face the logo to the unit, so you wind up hitting the ball in the same spot over and over which will split the balls big time. I have split Callaway Chrome, ProV1, Titlest, Srixon, OnCore. and so on. My grandsons thought it was great and thought it was from me hitting them to hard, almost hated to tell them the truth.

[wbond]

Its the same with ST if you want "improved" accuracy. I will hit it with both the line vertically and horizontally to try and not hit the ball in the same spot as much.

[Ronsc1985]

I have never cracked a golf ball in half in my 28 years of playing golf, but now that I have my Flightscope setup, I have had two Titleist NXT Tour S crack on me in the last month, both swings were below 95 mph, one with a 7 iron and one with a 4hybrid. I rotate between 6-10 golf balls with a mix of ProV1 and the Tour S. I have the silver sticker pointed to the screen each time, could hitting the same side of the ball be causing this? Has anyone else experienced this? I haven’t cracked a ProV1 for what that’s worth.

Yes it's a common problem with any LM that requires a specific ball orientation.

You have two possible solutions 1. buy more golf balls 2. Get a LM like a Foresight that doesn't require any ball orientation.

BTW this happens even with moderate swing speeds. I used to go through a couple of balls every week or two when i had a Vector Pro. Now with a GC2 I haven't cracked a ball in a long time and usuallyI just discard them when there is no longer any ink left in the ball logo's..

[Deuce]

I have a GC2 and I've cracked at least half a dozen golf balls of varying brands over the last year, some of which were quite expensive, so I don't think that the orientation has much to do with it. Apparently golf balls aren't meant for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hits.