Our quick pick: Srixon Soft Feel Golf Ball
It’s hard to look past the Srixon Soft Feel golf ball when considering the overall best golf ball for beginners. This is a ball that’s very affordable, offers excellent control around the greens and plenty of distance. The Soft Feel is suited to the majority of amateur golfers and it makes an excellent choice for beginner golfers to game consistently.
Beginner golf balls overview
When I was a beginner thankfully I was too young to worry about which ball I played.
I see some beginners who probably spend more money on golf balls each round than they do in the bar.
A beginner from my group plays Titleist Pro V1 golf balls; considered the best premium ball in golf. As far as golf balls for beginners go, using them is crazy!
At their premium price, he could easily be losing $20 every round from lost balls if not more.
So what’s the takeaway? I’m not saying all beginners should avoid the top golf balls. Heck, I think the Pro V1 is an awesome ball! If you manage to keep it in play there’s no reason you can’t game a premium ball.
However, most beginners struggle to keep it in play meaning they’ll lose a ton of balls and money.
This round-up is designed to help show you that you can get great quality golf balls without breaking the bank every round.
️
- Do golf balls make a difference for beginners?
Yes, using the right golf ball does make a difference for beginners. The number of layers and coating has a large impact on spin and softness. Using a consistent golf ball is beneficial for beginners as it will allow them to develop a solid sense of feel for their game.
️
- Should you use soft or hard golf balls?
Soft balls will provide a better feel around the greens and are more susceptible to creating spin. This helps players with low swing speeds to get the ball launching. Harder golf balls are generally suited towards players with a higher swing speed. Hard balls provide less feel around the greens but offer more distance off the tee.
Best golf balls for beginners
When coming up with my list of beginner golf balls, I considered a variety of factors when making my recommendations. This included personal experience with golf balls I’ve played, asking beginner buddies what they want from a ball, and asking my club’s pro for his thoughts.
Price is obviously a massive factor to consider, and something that the beginner golfers I spoke to felt very strongly about. Another factor that was heavily considered was the feel of the ball. Some balls are designed to be soft (great for around the greens) while other balls are designed to help you pick up distance and are generally harder.
With all this considered and after plenty of research, I’m excited to bring you a list of balls that I know has something for every beginner golfer out there.
For more great golf ball reviews like this, make sure you check out our golf ball review section.
1. Srixon Soft Feel Golf Balls
This is a ball that I can personally vouch for, I gamed them for the season last year. They are in my opinion the perfect balance of feel, quality, and price for the majority of recreational golfers.
Read Our Full Review
2. Callaway ERC Soft Triple Track
If you struggle with lining your putts up, Callaway’s Triple Track technology might just be the missing piece of your puzzle.
Read Our Full Review
3. Wilson Staff Duo Soft+
The Wilson Staff Duo Soft+ is an amazing ball. It provides distance and feel at a great price and is in my option very underrated. Wilson Staff balls get a bad rep based on some of the old balls that came out under the Wilson name. Wilson Staff is the golf division of Wilson, and makes great golf gear. Don’t get them confused with the rock-hard Wilson balls you find buried in the rough from the 1980’s.
Read Our Full Review
4. Callaway Supersoft Golf Ball
This ball carries all of the characteristics a beginner golfer would want from a golf ball. It's got a great combination of softness and distance off the tee.
Read Our Full Review
5. Srixon Q Star Golf Ball
I didn’t feel like my list would be complete if I didn’t include a truly premium golf ball. The Srixon Q Star is a 3 piece tour-level golf ball that comes with an amazingly soft feel at impact.
Read Our Full ReviewSrixon Soft Feel Golf Balls
This is a ball that I can personally vouch for, I gamed them for the season last year. They are in my opinion the perfect balance of feel, quality, and price for the majority of recreational golfers.
From tee to green these balls are outstanding. They feel great off the face of your club and offer a ton of distance. When it comes to approach shots, I love their accuracy and control (especially when chipping from around the green). The 338 dimples are designed with speed in mind, helping to reduce drag and especially when you’re trying to stop the wind carrying your shots.
Srixon has a solid reputation for their golf balls, and the Soft Feel definitely delivers. Even as a lower handicap player, some days I lose plenty of balls. Their reasonable price point allows you to play as aggressively or as conservatively as you like. The Soft Feel is a fantastic ball for beginners who are learning the ropes of golf.
I LIKE
- Reasonable price
- Excellent around the greens
- Produces good distance
I DONT
- N/A
Callaway ERC Soft Triple Track
If you struggle with lining your putts up, Callaway’s Triple Track technology might just be the missing piece of your puzzle.
If you’re wondering how it works, you’ll notice that on the balls there are three alignment lines. These lines can be used to line your ball up to the hole when on the putting green. Some beginners might think this is cheating, but fear not even tour pros make use of this tip.
If you read our round-up of the best mallet putters, you’ll know that Callaway also makes putters with matching alignment aids for even better calibration.
You might be wondering what the balls are like aside from their excellent alignment. Well, this is one of Callaway’s longest balls and it’s got an excellent soft feel to it which helps with short game shots. If you’re looking for a ball that offers distance, feels superb around the greens and helps with alignment you’ve found the ball for you.
I LIKE
- Awesome alignment aid
- Soft feel
- Great distance
I DONT
- A little more expensive than other balls on the list
- A Callaway putter with triple track alignment is required to fully utilize the technology
Wilson Staff Duo Soft+
The Wilson Staff Duo Soft+ is an amazing ball. It provides distance and feel at a great price and is in my option very underrated. Wilson Staff balls get a bad rep based on some of the old balls that came out under the Wilson name. Wilson Staff is the golf division of Wilson, and makes great golf gear. Don’t get them confused with the rock-hard Wilson balls you find buried in the rough from the 1980’s.
According to my pro, amongst beginners these are the best-selling golf ball at the golf club; there’s a reason they are so popular. Often you get a ball that’s designed with either softness or distance in mind. Usually, it’s only premium balls (with high price tags) that are designed to be long as well as soft. The Duo Soft+ screams softness, it's in the name. What’s also impressive is that Wilson Staff called it the longest premium 2-piece golf ball around.
The 318 dimple pattern helps to provide a penetrating ball flight that’s great for windy weather. If you’re looking for a golf ball that’s plenty long and gives you a receptive feel around the greens, look no further than the Staff Duo Soft+.
I LIKE
- Very affordable
- Designed with both length and softness in mind
- Also available in high visibility colors
I DONT
- Carries a bad rep from previous Wilson balls.
Callaway Supersoft Golf Ball
This ball carries all of the characteristics a beginner golfer would want from a golf ball. It's got a great combination of softness and distance off the tee.
Callaway are known for their innovative technology, the HEX Aerodynamics used in this ball helps reduce drag and promotes lift which can only lead to distance. It’s a low compression ball, which helps produce high ball speeds; perfect for those of you who struggle with distance.
They have included a softer Trionomer cover, which provides plenty of feel. You also get an amazing amount of spin around the greens, not something that’s common amongst non-premium golf balls.
On the whole, the Callaway Supersoft does what its name tells you. It’s a very soft ball with a beautiful feel around the greens and it definitely doesn’t lack in distance thanks to the technology. All in all this is an awesome ball and one we’d recommend to anyone looking for more spin with their chips and pitches.
I LIKE
- Fantastic spin
- Offers good distance
I DONT
- Some golfers didn’t like the colored versions of this ball
Srixon Q Star Golf Ball
I didn’t feel like my list would be complete if I didn’t include a truly premium golf ball. The Srixon Q Star is a 3 piece tour-level golf ball that comes with an amazingly soft feel at impact.
The issue I have with advising beginners to use premium tour-level balls is usually the price. After all, as a beginner golfer you’re going to be losing a lot of golf balls. This can prove expensive if you’re paying $50 per dozen. However, the reason that I decided to include the Q Star in the list was that it’s so reasonably priced.
So what about the quality? Thanks to the FastLayer technology employed by Srixon, you get a ball that just flies off the face and produces fantastic distance. The SeRM urethane cover helps you to get a beautiful feel as well as control around the greens. These balls are topped off with printed side alignment aids, that give you extra confidence over those pressure putts.
I LIKE
- Affordable considering the quality
- Amazing spin and feel
- Fantastic distance from the tee to green
- Built-in alignment aid
- Tour standard golf ball
I DONT
- A little more expensive than some of the other balls on the list
Buying a Golf Ball for Beginners
Now that I’ve given you a few examples of great golf balls for beginners, I’m going to dive a little deeper. In this section of the article, I’m going to be exploring what you should look for in a golf ball as a beginner golfer.
Value for money
Rather than starting this section with a technical feature, I think we should address the elephant in the room; price. If you’re new to golf it’s likely that you’ve already spent a fair amount of money. Perhaps you’ve just bought a new set of clubs and a golf membership. The last thing you need to worry about is breaking the bank for golf balls.
Ultimately, consider what feels worth it to you. We’re all working with different budgets, but understand as a beginner you’re going to lose a lot of balls. It’s just a part of learning to play the beautiful game (especially if you don’t know when to keep your driver in the bag). So, consider which ball and price tag feel “worth it” to you, pick a ball you like, and play it consistently. Consistency is the name of the game in golf whatever your level is. By choosing a ball that’s right for your game and sticking with it you’re on the right track.
Hard VS Soft Golf Balls
This is something that people often get confused over. Typically, “distance” and “soft feel” balls have been two different things in years gone by.
A good example of a hard ball is the Srixon Distance balls shown below which I tested out for my round-up. These balls are solid, not quite as hard as some of the old balls you find around your course but they’re definitely a “firm” feeling golf ball.
This results in them coming off super hot when you hit them hard, giving you plenty of distance. Unfortunately, this doesn’t really help with chipping around the green. There’s not much feel off the clubface and that’s why they didn’t make list of top five balls.
On the flip side, you’ve got soft feel golf balls. Many of these are designed to promote “feel” around the greens as well as spin. This is great for those of you who are looking to become short-game masters but be careful. If you’re already spinning the ball a lot from the tee (as many slicers do) playing a ball that encourages spin could increase this even more.
I know that most beginners don’t know their own games very well so might struggle to choose between hard and soft balls. In my round-up, I made sure that I included golf balls that were designed to be soft as well as provide distance.
Golf balls piece construction
You might hear people refer to golf balls as a two-piece, three-piece or maybe even a four-piece ball. As a beginner, you don’t need to know too much about ball construction, but I’ll highlight a few key points for you.
Firstly, most recreational golfers use a two-piece golf ball. It’s made out of a solid core (usually hard plastic) and is enclosed in an exterior cover. So, the balls are made up of two elements and therefore we refer to them as two-piece golf balls. Two-piece golf balls are cheaper than three-piece balls and are great for those of you looking for distance.
Three-piece golf balls have an additional layer that is made up of liquid rubber. This is placed in between the central core and the exterior casing. The exterior part of the ball is typically softer on three-piece balls and alters the feel at impact. This is why three-piece golf balls offer much better control of the ball in terms of spin and shot shape.
I’ve personally found that 2 piece golf balls are more durable than some 3 piece balls I’ve used, due to their firmer casing. This is why you’ll see the majority of the balls mentioned in my round-up are two-piece. They’re going to last you longer, be cheaper and encourage distance which are all favorable characteristics when starting the game.
Feel
Feel is more of an art than a science, and dictates how receptive you are to a certain type of golf ball. This is very much down to the individual. A ball that you think feels great might be another golfer’s pet peeve. The important thing for beginner golfers is to start developing a feel for the game.
This could be in relation to the way the ball feels off your putter face or understanding how big of a backswing to make for a specific chip. Developing a feel is kind of like building an instruction manual for playing your golf shots. The more you play golf the better your feel becomes for certain shots. Changing balls frequently can make this tough, as you’ll need to recalibrate your feel each time you play a new ball.
Alignment lines
If you’re a beginner alignment is probably a word you’re hearing a lot. Alignment refers to where you’re aiming, typically if a player has alignment issues they’re not aiming correctly.
Alignment is as important in putting as it is in your long game, you need to make sure that once you’ve read the line of your putt, you start the ball on that line. Alignment aids come built into some golf balls such as the Srixon Q Star or the Callaway Triple Track golf balls. These help you make sure you’ve correctly set up your putts target line. First, mark your ball with a coin or ball marker, choose the line your putt needs to follow then aim the alignment aid on the ball towards the line.
This is completely optional but in my opinion, it’s helped with my putting confidence tremendously. It’s worth noting that if you choose a ball that doesn’t come with alignment aids it’s not the end of the world. You can buy alignment markers for golf balls that come with a pen and make the markings yourself. Beware; this can get a little time-consuming if you lose a lot of balls!
Important: play the same golf ball consistently
A mistake I see plenty of beginners making is they find themselves playing whichever ball finds its way into their bag. This means that balls are often in poor condition and also inconsistently weighted. I carried out a study last year and found that used balls in poor condition can have over 3 grams of weight variance.
Firstly, a ball in poor condition will give you awful feedback around the green, but the difference in their weight means huge inconsistencies. That’s why it’s essential you pick a golf ball you like and use it all the time. I don’t care if you’re a beginner golfer or play off scratch, if you’re hitting different golf balls every time you play golf you aren’t going to see the consistent results you could be seeing.
Here are a few of the benefits you get from playing the same golf ball on a consistent basis:
- Confidence: when standing over the same golf ball shot after shot, your confidence in the ball will allow you to play the shot with maximum commitment.
- Consistency: using the same golf ball over and over allows you to gain a feel for playing that particular ball, hugely important when chipping and pitching as these shots require “feel”.
- Lower scores: this point is a byproduct of the previous two. By giving yourself the maximum confidence over your shots, and developing a consistent feel from putting to chipping you will see lower scores on your card.
