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NOVEMBER 17, 2003
Judging a Golf Ball By Its Cover and Core Although there are many factors that affect the performance of a golf ball, two of the most important are cover hardness and overall compression. In essence, the hardness of a cover (measured by an industry standard called the "Shore D" rating scale) influences how much spin a ball will have: The softer the cover, the more it will spin. (Some high-end balls have two covers -- an inner cover or mantel and a very thin outer cover. Each of these outer layers has its own properties and in combination further affect the overall performance, depending on how hard the ball is struck.) Compression -- how "squeezable" a ball is -- influences feel and plays a role in generating distance. The firmer the core, the higher the initial ball speed. A soft-core, low-compression ball will generate lower spin and improve feel. Golfers with slower swings may find they can optimize their distance with a lower-compression ball; fast swingers can benefit from lower-compression balls as well as higher-compression models. Below is a guide to the cover hardness and overall compression of some popular models, based on data about the balls' construction provided by the companies that manufacture them.  By Scott Smith Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | |
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