My new golf ball (Wilson Staff FG Tour)

I'll make no secret that I really like the Taylor Made Penta TP golf ball, it putt's great, feels soft yet powerful, holds it's line well off the driver and checks up on the green fairly sharp'ish. It's downsides are that it's cover gets shredded fairly fast and it costs about £3 a ball.

There is no way I would pay that much out of principle, because I can full well imagine how much it actually costs to make a golf ball and the answer is not anywhere close to £3. Also as I still lose balls with regularity then it would hinder my game, call me tight but if there is a chance that I'm going to throw away £3 into the long cabbage then I get a little tentative which is wholly counter productive.

On the other hand I have started to subscribe to the theory that says you should play one type of ball so you know how it will react on the greens, rather than playing any old found ball that you pull out of the bag. I find that argument to be common sense.

So your left with a few options;

1) buy premium tour balls, take the cost on the chin because you know that your getting top performance around the green?

2) Buy a cheap ball that you don't mind loosing and put up with the niggle in the back of your mind that tells you that chip would have stopped at 4 feet from the pin rather than 6 if you had been playing a decent spinney ball?

3) Compromise between the two? (Usually the worst of all options in my mind)

I had pretty much decided to go with option 2 and fill my bag with Srixon AD333's, They feel softish and so putt ok, you don't mind losing the odd one or three and there even durable enough that you can play practice rounds with them as well. I could have got them for £1.03 per ball brand new.

Then I started to hear about a new urethane covered tour level ball that was a better value price. What first got my attention was the enthusiastic recommendations it got by people whose opinions I respected on Golf Magic forum. As I researched it further there was not very much negative to be said about the ball. Performance wise it was right up there with the ProV1, Z-Star, Penta type balls. As you would expect everyone had a different opinion about which of those balls was actually the very best. But the fact remained that the performance of the new ball was at that kind of level where it's accepted as one of the top performing balls.

Then I saw them on offer from a reputable Internet retailer meaning that I could get them at a price of £1.25/ball. After finally getting to try out a sleeve last night I am a convert and my order is placed. My ball of choice for the foreseeable future is the Wilson Staff FG Tour.

Why do I like it?

Well the tech stuff tells me it's a three piece ball with a durable urethane cover and traction control for more efficient interaction with the club face, but that is meaning less to me.

* I like the way it feels off my putter and the way it rolls towards the hole. It gives me confidence with the flat stick.
* I like the fact that it feels tacky out of the box giving you the impression of grip and spin.
* It feels soft yet substantial off the mid/long irons and sounds good when you hit it.
* It spins a lot off short irons/wedges and stops fast on the green.
On chips and short pitches you can throw it at the hole with a lofted wedge and it will check up, or run it in with less loft but be confident it's not going to shoot through the green.
* I love the way it launches higher off my woods and the fact that it does not seam to miss behave with too much draw spin. But then I am a low spin player with my woods and the higher launch got me noticeably better carry.
* Durability, I played only 11 holes last night but had multiple drives and multiple iron shots/pitches/chips on every hole, the three balls I played all look like new so far apart from some grass staining.

One thing is yet to be seen, how that higher launch performs into the wind?

Perception is everything with a golf ball, I felt confident with it so I probably swung better at it, consequently I got better driving distance, I putted well with it and just liked the ball. At £1.25 if I lose a few I'm not bothered and probably because of that I still have the three that I took out to play last night. For me it's as good as the Penta that is my yardstick for Tour level balls.

I feel like I got a bargain :D