How Do Recycled Golf Balls Perform? 
 

 

Numbers Don’t Lie! 

Since the beginning of the used golf ball industry there has been some controversy raised as to whether used golf balls retrieved from the water perform any different than new golf balls.

The questioning of the performance of recycled balls may have been relevant years ago when balls were made differently, but golf balls today are constructed completely different and are very resilient.

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So we decided to do some independent scientifically controlled testing And here’s what we found out:

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Outside of cosmetics (which really is what the grading is all about), the balls in all the various grades tested against new golf balls right out the package show only a very minimal loss, in fact a statistically insignificant loss of carry distance.

With a driver the maximum loss of carry over a drive of about 260 yards is about 5 yards with a grade B ball while the mint recycled and mint refinished balls show only a loss of 1 yard or less. Similar proportional results with both a wedge and 6 iron.

Since 99% of all golfers cannot swing with any consistency to attain these averages over many shots, this loss of carry distance form 1 -5 yards is absolutely minimal when you take into account all the other factors that come into play when you swing a club… plane of club, follow through, back swing, in/out or out/in, weight shift, lie etc.

The question then becomes is it worth it to pay 40% - 80% more for golf balls that you are going to lose anyway just to gain a yard or so under ideal swing conditions?

As for the difference between recycled and new balls, there is certainly no statistically significant difference in performance that any golfer I know would be able to detect.