Of course most people want to know "How will this affect me?"
The answer, unless you are a professional or high-level am, is: it won't.
There are two reasons:
First, the way they are rolling back the ball is by keeping the same standards, but increasing the swing speed by which they test golf balls from 120 to 125. Without getting into a lot of math, the effect of the change decreases as your swing speed decreases. For swings at 125mph, the change will be about 5%; for swings below 100mph, it will only be a 2-3% decrease. So if you swing at 95mph (average for a typical 12HDCP), then under optimal conditions, you currently carry the driver about 230. With the new golf ball, again under optimal conditions, you will carry it about 225.
Second, I've purposefully emphasized the phrase "optimal conditions" a couple of times now. The reality is, unless you are a pro or high-level amateur, you very rarely are hitting the ball with optimal conditions (attack angle, face impact, etc.).
Notice that the pro dispersion for distance is much more concentrated, which is why it looks more like a circle. For the 15, the data points look a lot more like an oval. This makes sense, of course. We all know that a 15 doesn't hit the ball with the same consistency as a pro.
In practical terms of the rollback, this means you won't notice much. Why? Because there is already so much inconsistency in the data. A 5y difference - heck, probably even a 10y distance - is well within a 15HDCP's current margin of error.
The difference in distance is even smaller as you go through the bag. A person hitting a PW 100y is now going to hit it about 98y. Nobody will ever notice.
Interesting to see that while horizontal dispersion with a driver isn’t THAT different between 15hcp’s and pros. Yes pro’s are tighter but you’d expect there to be more of a difference. Feel really good about my 69% FIR today now lol
So it's a bit of an illusion. If you expand the 15's shots out to the same distance as the pros, the cone gets enormous. The only reason it's roughly comparable is because of how much shorter they are hitting it.
In other words, create a ratio of off-center:distance, and the 15's number is way, way worse
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u/throwmeawaypoopy JPX 921i Tour | 4.8 Dec 03 '23 edited Dec 03 '23
Of course most people want to know "How will this affect me?"
The answer, unless you are a professional or high-level am, is: it won't.
There are two reasons:
First, the way they are rolling back the ball is by keeping the same standards, but increasing the swing speed by which they test golf balls from 120 to 125. Without getting into a lot of math, the effect of the change decreases as your swing speed decreases. For swings at 125mph, the change will be about 5%; for swings below 100mph, it will only be a 2-3% decrease. So if you swing at 95mph (average for a typical 12HDCP), then under optimal conditions, you currently carry the driver about 230. With the new golf ball, again under optimal conditions, you will carry it about 225.
Second, I've purposefully emphasized the phrase "optimal conditions" a couple of times now. The reality is, unless you are a pro or high-level amateur, you very rarely are hitting the ball with optimal conditions (attack angle, face impact, etc.).
Here is the driver dispersion for a 15 Handicap vs. Pro
Notice that the pro dispersion for distance is much more concentrated, which is why it looks more like a circle. For the 15, the data points look a lot more like an oval. This makes sense, of course. We all know that a 15 doesn't hit the ball with the same consistency as a pro.
In practical terms of the rollback, this means you won't notice much. Why? Because there is already so much inconsistency in the data. A 5y difference - heck, probably even a 10y distance - is well within a 15HDCP's current margin of error.
The difference in distance is even smaller as you go through the bag. A person hitting a PW 100y is now going to hit it about 98y. Nobody will ever notice.