Does golf ball make a difference on Skytrak ?

[butette]

I typically only hit 7I, hybrid, 3W and driver on my Skytrak and I have found that it does not matter that much what kind of balls I use, the result is somewhat similar. I have tried Pro V1, Callaway Supersoft, Chrome Soft, Bridgestone E6, Taylor Made Lethal, TM Project (a), and 2 different brand new range balls, and not much difference in the result. I see bigger spin differences when hitting wedge between Pro V1, and 2 pieces ball and of course range ball, but for mid to longer clubs I will probably practice with range ball from now on. I also find that Skytrak does not like the Yellow-Black Truvis, especially on long clubs like driver, but Red-White Truvis works just fine. Is my experience with the various balls atypical or am I missing something?

[Tytow]

I was wondering the same thing. Just got my Skytrak and plan on testing it out with different balls. I have a daughter who plays and she loves her yellow Supersofts. I have a feeling she's going to have to get used to white when using the Skytrak. I'll let you know if I find anything interesting. Hope others will reply with their thoughts on this.

[zamundan]

Yellow supersofts work fine. Never had a problem. Just point the Callaway logo at the unit.

[shimonko]

Definitely different categories of balls will make a difference - but you might not see anything between the equivalent ball from different manufacturers. Limited flight balls will limit the flight by things like weight and CoR (bounciness) so they can still attempt to reproduce the right ball flight - so they're going to come off the club slower rather than lose distance in the air through friction, lift etc.

[shimonko]

I do think it's wrong in Tour events to use a distance ball off the tee and high spin ball around the greens, as I've seen some people do.

[nicklas]

I would say yes.
Even between the best balls. I hit with TM TP5, Titleist V1X and V1 and have a big difference in lenght all over the set. (also i n reality)

[SecondandGoal]

Somebody had mentioned in another thread about the Callaway TRUVIS balls that yellow balls will not work with SkyTrak. Not sure if that's coming from SkyTrak, or user experience.

[butette]

I was wondering the same thing. Just got my Skytrak and plan on testing it out with different balls. I have a daughter who plays and she loves her yellow Supersofts. I have a feeling she's going to have to get used to white when using the Skytrak. I'll let you know if I find anything interesting. Hope others will reply with their thoughts on this.

Entire yellow ball is fine, I have never had any problem with it, but that Yellow-Black Truvis does not work very well, mainly on driver/3W, I don't know why.

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Golf ball ABSOLUTELY makes a difference! I notice a ~1500 rpm back spin difference between a Pro-V1 and a Bridgestone E6 with my 6 iron. That has a huge impact on ball flight and roll out.

[BadEddieKit]

The Bridgestone E5's get spins close to Pro V's, thats my ball of choice these days!

[butette]

Seems like it should, but in my experience when I hit my 7I, 3W and driver, on a good hit, it does not seem to make that much difference to carry distance no matter what kind of ball I use, as long as it is a good/new ball. I always practice with fairway condition set to Soft (so roll-out is very small) since I do not trust the roll-out model used in any of these photometric launch monitor given that they have no correlation to course condition I play in.

[jut111]

Huge difference. Never realized how big a difference the type of ball makes until I started using skytrak. If you practice distance wedges with crap balls, then go play pro-v1's you're in line for a big surprise. Difference is their throughout the bag, but magnifies the more loft you have in your hand.

[butette]

I did say that there is a big difference in spin between balls when hitting wedges, full or partial, but from 7I to driver for me, it makes very little difference in carry distance on comparable good hits.

[Clevited]

I wouldn't imagine you would see a ton of difference with those particular balls 7i and up since in my book, those are all quality balls (I don't know the range balls you are using but even some of those are pretty good if in good shape). You would definitely see the most difference with 8i and under in terms of spin and launch height, maybe even ball speed. Its the really cheap hard covered balls that lower the spin a lot. You can even see it with a 7 iron I'd say. I have had 6700 or more spin with a prov and then 4k spin with a top flight. Its also surprising how much "glaze" gets on the golf ball and club, this makes the effect even worse.

[golfergreg582]

I am new to skytrak and never thought of ball making a big difference thanks

[Clevited]

Yes, it can make a very big difference. You will also see how much a dirty club or ball can change spin and even a mat

[Mr69vett]

I whole heartily agree about the club face! I was losing distance and the balls were new and couldn't figure out why! I though I read somewhere on here about club face, so I cleaned all my chubs, OMG they were filthy! some of the grooves were completely filled, got my distance and control back! made me a believer! As far as balls, I'm NOT the best ball striker in the room, in ANY room! I was using PROv1 then went to practive ProV1 now I'm hitting mid grade Titleist balls I don't see much difference. But I will tell you, you can sure tell when the ball is going to break! the distance goes in the pot! I bet I have 75 balls laying in the bottom of my cart that are split! and you can tell just before they do!

[golfergreg582]

I got I think that one figured out with a couple of dirty balls on a new screen just fine

[RAH5]

Popping this to the top after a search.

Somewhat by accident I grabbed a different ball yesterday and noticed quite different results with my 7 iron. It sent me down the rabbit hole of trying different balls that we have around. The results are below. I'm not a terribly consistent ball striker so keep that in mind but I was swinging the club well enough for this to be somewhat meaningful at least to me.

Marked differences in spin rates leading to wildly different results. I tend to put a fair amount of sidespin on it and the Callaway and Wilson really neutralized that. The Callaway still checked pretty quickly, though, with decent backspin rates while the Wilson rolled as much as 10 yards at times.

Really interesting. I would not have thought of doing this otherwise. Glad I fell upon it.

All 7-iron shots, Skytrak Practice Range - all balls new or nearso

Srixon Q-Star Tour
Ball Speed 106
Backspin 7528
Sidespin 1306
Carry 140
Roll 2

Titleist Pro V1
Ball Speed 106
Backspin 8499
Sidespin 1362
Carry 140
Roll 0 (including some that rolled back)

TaylorMade Tour Preferred X
Ball Speed 108
Backspin 7891
Sidespin 1114
Carry 142
Roll 1

Callaway Supersoft
Ball Speed 116
Backspin 6947
Sidespin -68
Carry 157
Roll 1

Wilson Pro Staff Straight Distance
Ball Speed 104
Backspin 3777
Sidespin -2
Carry 150
Roll 6

[wbond]

Were you hitting a different club with the callaway? 10mph faster than the next closest ball, doesn't seem right with the same club. I would definitely expect less spin from that ball.

[RAH5]

Same club. I think I may have hit it last though so the swing was much better. Whether that explains it fully is a good question but I was definitely hitting it much better.