Best practice balls to used with SkyTrak (or GC2 or other LMs)

[doublebogey]

Read some of the other threads on this but many are quite old now.

Any thoughts/views on what is the best practice ball to used w ST (or GC2 or other LMs) in terms of accuracy and feel vs using real balls? I know nothing can really substitute feel and accuracy of using real balls, but if must use practice balls once in a while (for safety reasons, noise, etc.), which would be the #1 choice? Thanks.

[Dax]

The best practice ball will always be the one you play with. However, through all my reading I believe most seem to prefer the Almost golf Ball.

[doublebogey]

Yeah seems like AlmostGolf most preferred - just wanted to see if there are differing opinions or other new practice balls that might be better. Thanks.

[GmanJeff]

I use Almost Golf balls, and they are still hard enough that they can put a bit of a dent in your wall...!

[doublebogey]

Seems like my AlmostGolf balls deforms (i.e., no longer round but a little bit oval) after hitting them a few times esp if using driver or woods. Others seeing the same with their AlmostGolf balls? Thanks.

[GmanJeff]

No issues so far with roundness, but they do seem to be delaminating a bit onto the clubs - a bit of film seems to transfer to my driver from time to time, which appears to be a very thin veneer of the Almost Golf ball's surface. This only happens when I hit a poor shot (I'm a a beginner), and the ball skims off part of the clubhead other than purely the face.

[Godfather]

Qolf limited flight balls have been mentioned in other threads.

[doublebogey]

Yeah looked at Qolf balls (heard they might also deform as well?). But can SkyTrak pick it up properly and consistently given it has no logo or anything printed on the balls? And will SkyTrak pick up the orange, red or blue ones? Or only the yellow ones? Thanks.

[m3w]

Yup. Skytrak picks them up no problem. Shoot shape seems fine, even without a line or logo on them. It's just ball speed and overall spin that's slightly off. But way closer than almost golf balls.

They're solid plastic. So they don't deform at all!

[doublebogey]

Ok gonna try to pick up some Qolf balls and try. Looks like they're only available on Amazon?

[luv2golf]

Why not just use the balls you play with? I've been a PRO V1 user for years and since I've gotten more into sim this year I ordered 2 dozen PROV1x's to see if there was a difference. Well for me, I had less driver spin and more carry with the x vs the regular prov1. Great way to test golf balls.

To me using an almost golf ball defeats the purpose of having a golf sim.

[doublebogey]

I use the balls I play with 90+% of the time. These are just for those times when 1) a beginner like my father-in-law wants to smack 'em using his driver and my ST, and I'm afraid he might make a few holes in my walls or break a window or 2) when I wanna practice (esp w driver) quietly or safely in house.

[luv2golf]

That makes sense doublebogey.

[delboy]

I just got one of these skytraks. I tried the callaway hard foam balls and was hitting them from the living room into my conservatory and the skytrak showed the flight!

Not sure how accurate it would be but it seemed to be what I would expect. It was fun anyway

I didn't expect it to work. I've got a net outside to hit real balls but just wanted to see if it would work with rubber balls.

[Jeff Tilley]

I’ve used Qolf balls for several years and can say they’re really accurate up to my 6-iron. Haven’t really tried them on anything longer yet, but getting ready to this week as my setup is complete. I have noticed that ball spin is slightly less vs real balls, and launch angles are slightly lower. They weigh roughly half the weight of a real ball. I use the yellow ones, which the Skytrak has no problem picking up. I have tried the Callaway practice balls along with others similar, but have gotten some pretty lousy results.

[RAH5]

Another poster turned me on to Point Fives. I had not heard of them but they work pretty well. Somewhat less spin than a real ball but distance is good. I’ve tested them against real balls with very similar results overall.

https://www.pointfivegolf.com/store/p1/Pro-Play_MD_Hybrid_Golf_Balls_%28per_dozen%29.html

[EazyE]

Another poster turned me on to Point Fives. I had not heard of them but they work pretty well. Somewhat less spin than a real ball but distance is good. I’ve tested them against real balls with very similar results overall.

https://www.pointfivegolf.com/store/..._dozen%29.html

Interesting - do you use these with Skytrak? Is the outside of the ball a same firmness to a normal golf ball, but the core is different and reduces the overall speed/distance and potential force impact to a screen?

[RAH5]

I use them for drives and 60-100 yard wedge shots (I have a Net Return and wedges can fly over it so I put up some loose netting that easily collects these). Everything else I use real balls but I’ve tested these with every club and friends who come over generally prefer to use these. I recommend them. The logos are fading on mine so I’ll need to find a solution for that.

[RAH5]

And generally yes - similar firmness with lighter core. The feel isn’t as good as with a real ball and I think off center hits are more forgiving. But if you hit a bad shot it shows up as a bad shot. You just don’t feel it on the face as much.

[EazyE]

right on, thanks for the info

[jdang307]

Anyone have opinions on noise for these practice balls? I'll be using sim a lot for just practicing. Not necessarily caring about accuracy of distance, spin. Looking at HX foam (last choice though), Almost, Qolf, 5 point? Are they much quieter than a real ball?

[CP36]

I was surprised how quiet srixon soft feel balls are. Minimal noise with short irons using an archery baffle net.

[CAPDAK]

Seems like my AlmostGolf balls deforms (i.e., no longer round but a little bit oval) after hitting them a few times esp if using driver or woods. Others seeing the same with their AlmostGolf balls? Thanks.

I have definitely seen deformity after using almost golf balls for dozens of hits. I haven’t used them for awhile, so I don’t know if the deformity was temporary.