Our 2022 Hot List gets your search started
As much as it might feel like it, the search for the best golf ball for you is not quite like Tinder, Bumble or any other dating app. Yes, there are dozens of options to sift through – for our Hot List this year, we tested 89 balls to narrow our selections to the 26 winners and 40 models that earned our highest recommendations. Like any number of dating apps, you can plug in some of your characteristics or desired attributes and get an online “match”. However, as with the search for a soulmate, finding the perfect ball is very much a personal choice based on direct experience.
We pride ourselves on helping golfers winnow the universe of golf-ball choices, but you still need to carry the ball (literally) the rest of the way. Part of that process is learning about what individual ball models offer (their “profiles”, if you will). How do you do that? Well, a clubfitter is a great place to start. A quality fitter can provide you with launch-monitor numbers that might indicate differences in launch, trajectory and spin rate on long shots and short ones. In our research with the team at the premium clubfitting firm Cool Clubs and its swing robot, we again saw significant differences in how balls performed in the short game.
This is why we divide our list into two categories: Urethane Cover and Non-Urethane Cover. In simple terms, balls that have urethane covers (with a few notable exceptions) are generally the balls played on the professional tours. Non-urethane balls are all the rest, ranging from the softest two-piece balls designed for golfers with slower swing speeds to the pre-packaged 15-ball distance rocks to the latest experimental middle-ground offerings that feature a new, cheaper cover compound that is meant to grab and spin like urethane. (In our assessment, they haven’t quite found it yet.)
Our star ratings reflect three scores that comprise the total evaluation of each entry. Performance accounts for 65 percent of the score and is based on our panel of player evaluations. We judge Innovation (30 percent) based on technical documents submitted by manufacturers and our review with our Hot List technical panel of Ph.D. scientists. Finally, Demand (5 percent) reflects our review of the marketplace, tour use and general buzz. Feel is not a score but a rating based on our players’ input on the relative softness of each ball.
How you assess which dimpled sphere is right for you goes back to the qualities that you’re looking for. We’ve provided a baseline of what to expect with each of our selections on this year’s Hot List. Just like the perfect first date, though, ask enough questions. The right one will have all the answers.
