Ball Spin

[Longdriver295]

Does more ball Spin say off irons cause the ball to hang in air longer (more distance) or other way around? 

[North Butte]

Entirely context dependent. For any given speed and direction a ball is flying through the air, there's a certain amount of spin that will maximize the time it hangs in the air. Too much or too little, compared to the optimium amount, will result in it landing sooner.

 

And the amount of spin changes (decreases) during the flight of the ball. As does the speed and direction, which are constantly changing throughout the flight. So it's a complicated multi-dimensional optimization question.

 

That's the long answer. Short answer is, "It depends". 

[Rosey31]

You also have to look at ball flight. For example, I play the Pro V1 and it has a good high ball flight that is more of a straight line trajectory. When I hit the Pro V1x it has more spin and tends to balloon up on me. 

 

This is a rough showing of how the two compare with my swing.  You should always pick a ball based on what works best for you and your game. Hope this helps. 

[Longdriver295]

9 minutes ago, mantismike said:

You also have to look at ball flight. For example, I play the Pro V1 and it has a good high ball flight that is more of a straight line trajectory. When I hit the Pro V1x it has more spin and tends to balloon up on me. 

 

This is a rough showing of how the two compare with my swing.  You should always pick a ball based on what works best for you and your game. Hope this helps. 

I have a fairly low SS (92 driver) so I really don't have the balloon problem with any ball or I haven't noticed it at least. I can't really compress the ball enough to spin it that much even though I can stop them on the Green and check them up on chips and pitches. That's why I pick muly ball from the green back, but I don't know what benefits more with my iron play as far as my distances go, more Spin or less spin 

[North Butte]

30 minutes ago, Longdriver295 said:

I have a fairly low SS (92 driver) so I really don't have the balloon problem with any ball or I haven't noticed it at least. I can't really compress the ball enough to spin it that much even though I can stop them on the Green and check them up on chips and pitches.

Actually, the more you compress a modern ball the less it spins, all else being equal. 

[North Butte]

46 minutes ago, mantismike said:

You also have to look at ball flight. For example, I play the Pro V1 and it has a good high ball flight that is more of a straight line trajectory. When I hit the Pro V1x it has more spin and tends to balloon up on me. 

 

This is a rough showing of how the two compare with my swing.  You should always pick a ball based on what works best for you and your game. Hope this helps. 

Most of that is due to the high trajectory dimple design of ProV1x. That ball is a somewhat unique combination of being the highest spin ball in Titleist’s range, but also outfitted with high trajectory dimples. Most OEM’s are not trying to do that particular combination. 
 

Off the longer clubs especially, the very slight difference in spin in between Pro V1 and Pro V1x would not be enough to make the considerable difference in trajectory you’re seeing.

[grochol17]

1 hour ago, Longdriver295 said:

I have a fairly low SS (92 driver) so I really don't have the balloon problem with any ball or I haven't noticed it at least. I can't really compress the ball enough to spin it that much even though I can stop them on the Green and check them up on chips and pitches. That's why I pick muly ball from the green back, but I don't know what benefits more with my iron play as far as my distances go, more Spin or less spin 

 

You're really going to need to get on a launch monitor or do some side-by-side on course testing to answer that question.  For example, if you hit the ball low with low spin, then you'll probably get more carry and better stopping power out of a high spin ball, but exactly how much that matters (if at all) will depend on the specifics of your launch conditions.

 

For what it is worth, in my opinion, irons are not about total distance, but rather finding a good balance of distance and stopping power.  So, I think the first question you should answer is, "what are the pros and cons of your current iron shots into the greens?" 

[Longdriver295]

1 minute ago, grochol17 said:

 

You're really going to need to get on a launch monitor or do some side-by-side on course testing to answer that question.  For example, if you hit the ball low with low spin, then you'll probably get more carry and better stopping power out of a high spin ball, but exactly how much that matters (if at all) will depend on the specifics of your launch conditions.

 

For what it is worth, in my opinion, irons are not about total distance, but rather finding a good balance of distance and stopping power.  So, I think the first question you should answer is, "what are the pros and cons of your current iron shots into the greens?" 

I have a mid ball flight with my mid irons and they do tend to roll out a bit more than I would like. I done the ballnamic and it highly recommends the CS x ls. But then I changed up just a bit but still stayed close to what I previously put in and it recommended the AVX that's seems kinda of crazy to me. Just trying to narrow down 2 or 3 that's gonna give me that balance of distance plus stopping power

[grochol17]

6 minutes ago, Longdriver295 said:

I have a mid ball flight with my mid irons and they do tend to roll out a bit more than I would like. I done the ballnamic and it highly recommends the CS x ls. But then I changed up just a bit but still stayed close to what I previously put in and it recommended the AVX that's seems kinda of crazy to me. Just trying to narrow down 2 or 3 that's gonna give me that balance of distance plus stopping power

 

I think this answers your question... if you want more stopping power, go for a ball that spins more than whatever you're playing now and see how it goes.  You may have to adjust your iron distances, but, if you have more control on approach shots I think that is worth potentially having to re-learn your iron distances.

[Longdriver295]

13 minutes ago, grochol17 said:

 

I think this answers your question... if you want more stopping power, go for a ball that spins more than whatever you're playing now and see how it goes.  You may have to adjust your iron distances, but, if you have more control on approach shots I think that is worth potentially having to re-learn your iron distances.

I've been playing some with the Diamond but I thought it was already a high spin ball off the mid irons. Are there one that spins more than it?

[grochol17]

1 hour ago, Longdriver295 said:

I've been playing some with the Diamond but I thought it was already a high spin ball off the mid irons. Are there one that spins more than it?

Here's a link to the results from the My Golf Spy ball testing they did a couple of years ago:

 

https://public.tableau.com/shared/QKRFMP79B?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link&:embed=y

 

the link should take you to the table set for slow swing speed with an 8i and sorted by spin rate.  The diamond isn't in there, but the XV is, and assuming the diamond is higher spin on the 8i, then you're right that you might not be able to get much more spin out of a different ball.  The next thing to look at would then be the descent angle.  Taking spin and descent into account, a few main stream balls that look interesting are:

 

Maxfli Tour X

Pro V1x left dash

Chrome Soft X

Bridgestone B XS

 

Are all pretty high up on their list of balls with high spin and steep descent angles, with the Chrome Soft X being the "best" of those three.

 

Note that the Mizuno RB Tour X and the Pro V1x would both get you a few more RPMs spin, but a slightly flatter landing angle.

 

I saw in a previous post that you used the Ballnamic and weren't sure about the results... I've listened to PING discuss what they went through to test all balls on an even footing (like testing at 3am to make sure that conditions in AZ were as stable as possible and as similar from one day to the next), and generally I'd put more weight into their data than the MGS, so it might be worth trying to contact PING to see if they can help you out with explaining why you got the results you did (like the AVX, which is supposed to have a pretty flat ball flight and doesn't sound like what you really want). 

[Longdriver295]

43 minutes ago, grochol17 said:

Here's a link to the results from the My Golf Spy ball testing they did a couple of years ago:

 

https://public.tableau.com/shared/QKRFMP79B?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link&:embed=y

 

the link should take you to the table set for slow swing speed with an 8i and sorted by spin rate.  The diamond isn't in there, but the XV is, and assuming the diamond is higher spin on the 8i, then you're right that you might not be able to get much more spin out of a different ball.  The next thing to look at would then be the descent angle.  Taking spin and descent into account, a few main stream balls that look interesting are:

 

Maxfli Tour X

Pro V1x left dash

Chrome Soft X

Bridgestone B XS

 

Are all pretty high up on their list of balls with high spin and steep descent angles, with the Chrome Soft X being the "best" of those three.

 

Note that the Mizuno RB Tour X and the Pro V1x would both get you a few more RPMs spin, but a slightly flatter landing angle.

 

I saw in a previous post that you used the Ballnamic and weren't sure about the results... I've listened to PING discuss what they went through to test all balls on an even footing (like testing at 3am to make sure that conditions in AZ were as stable as possible and as similar from one day to the next), and generally I'd put more weight into their data than the MGS, so it might be worth trying to contact PING to see if they can help you out with explaining why you got the results you did (like the AVX, which is supposed to have a pretty flat ball flight and doesn't sound like what you really want). 

Yeah I've done ballnamic a couple of times and switched up but stayed within my parameters (cause it doesn't help you go a ways off from how you hit it) and it seems to always throw up the Chrome soft X within the top 2 balls. When I swayed away from my parameters is when it throwec up the AVX so that I don't Trust. The Pro V1x shows up in there a lot for me as well. I was playing XV and switched to the Diamond which was a much better ball for me. I've read somewhere on here where the Diamond was very similar to the V1X. If that's the case I may not find a ball that performs any better 

Edited August 4, 2023 by Longdriver295