Golf ball color / number, rapport?

[wantobegolfer]

Just wondering if the color of the number on golf balls represent anything? ie: Blue 90 compression, Red 100 compression or Green=three piece ball, Black=two piece. Anyone know? Any web related sites to explain this?

[wantobegolfer]

Just wondering if the color of the number on golf balls represent anything? ie: Blue 90 compression, Red 100 compression or Green=three piece ball, Black=two piece. Anyone know? Any web related sites to explain this?

I'm guessing no one knows...lol.

[Ty Webb]

I thought the colours were for the female golfers.

[wantobegolfer]

I thought the colours were for the female golfers.

Not the color of the ball itself Ty, the number on the ball.

[Kilroy]

I think the colour is meaningless other than to help you ID your ball.

[BullDog]

A while back (and this may still be the case) some manufacturers did use number colour to distinguish compression differences.

Titleist with a red number would have been a 90 compression. If you found/bought them with a black number, it was a 100. I don't know if that still holds true.

FWIW, most golf balls I play that are from other manufacturers are more and more black numbers, regardless of model within a brand. And Top-Flite has some balls with green numbers but I don't think that means anything at the moment...

[LobWedge]

You can throw the compression stuff right out the window. Manufacturers don't use it anymore. 99% of modern high and mid-performance balls now fall somewhere in what would have been the 70-80 compression range (around the old "ladies" ball standard). With the advent of multi-layer design ,more exotic core and cover materials, and more aerodynamic dimple patterns, the emphasis is on "best-fitting" a particular ball to a particular swing speed/ball flight. IMO this is the next big frontier in the golf equipment industry. We're already seeing it with the likes of Woods and Mickelson being in on the design phases with their ball manufacturers to produce an exact fit for them.

As mmason31 said, Titleist used to differentiate between compressions with black and red numbers. With the exception of two that come to mind (Pro V1 - black numbers, Pro V1x - red numbers, and Hogan Apex Tour Red & Black - red and black numbers respectively), number colours are just a cosmetic feature.

The most comprehensive ball listing I have found is the USGA's Conforming Ball List. It's available in pdf form on the USGA website. It is a list of every rules conforming golf ball available, with information on construction (2,3,4+ layers), general spin info for driver/short iron shots (the USGA will not provide specific spin/performance data because manufacturers asked them not to), exact pole and seam markings for a particular model (you'd be surprised how many small variations there can be in some models), model name, manufacturer name and country of origin.

The list is revised and published monthly. If a ball isn't on the list, it either doesn't exist yet, is outdated (I tried to find a particular model of Slazenger from 2003 that is already gone), or is illegal for handicap/tournament play.

[Sakuraba]

Anybody superstitious about the # on their ball? I know some guys who only want low #s on their balls, 1s 2s and 3s.

I had a great weekend of golf with a Titleist 8.