Golf Balls Take Center Stage At Ryder Cup

Although we're unlikely to see many major gear changes headed into this year's Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, there is still one piece of equipment that will be used on every shot during the event that will need to be taken into account in a big way: golf balls.

The reason golf balls are so important is that during the alternate shot portion of the event, aka foursomes, the teams of two have the opportunity to choose between each player’s golf ball to play during each hole, but it wasn’t always this way.

Before 2006, Ryder Cup rules mandated that during the foursomes format, teams had to use one golf ball model for the entire match, meaning pairings needed to factor in golf ball models to pair teammates, but not anymore. Now, they choose the ball of the player who will be hitting the approach shot since distance control into the greens is way more important than a few extra yards off the tee.

Why prioritize the approach shot?

With less variation between golf ball models when talking about off-the-tee performance—yes there is a difference, but less that you might think—focus on the approach shots is critical. Not only that, but thanks to modern launch monitors, if a player wants to test something else they can quickly get reliable data to help them make any small adjustments.

The two major wildcards belong to team USA, with Ben Griffin being the only player to use a Maxfli ball, and Cameron Young and Bryson DeChambeau both recently switching to the a Titleist CPO (custom performance option) tour-only Double Left Dot Pro V1x.

Considering how particular Bryson is known to be with his gear, and the fact that Cameron Young switched to the Double Left Dot Pro V1x the same week he won at Wyndham, I would expect to see these two paired together at some point during the event.

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Team USA and Europe Golf Ball Models

Team USA

Sam Burns – Callaway Chrome Tour X

Patrick Cantlay – Titleist ProV1x

Bryson DeChambeau – Titleist ProV1X (double left dot)

Harris English - Titleist Pro V1

Ben Griffin - Maxfli Tour X

Russell Henley - Titleist Pro V1x

Collin Morikawa – TaylorMade TP5

Xander Schauffele – Callaway Chrome Tour X

JJ Spaun - Srixon Z-Star Diamond

Scottie Scheffler – Titleist ProV1

Justin Thomas – Titleist ProV1x

Cameron Young - Titleist ProV1x (double left dot)

Team Europe

Ludvig Aberg – Titleist ProV1x

Matt Fitzpatrick – Titleist ProV1x

Tommy Fleetwood – TaylorMade TP5x

Tyrrell Hatton – Titleist ProV1x

Rasmus Hojgaard – Callaway Chrome Tour X

Viktor Hovland – Titleist Pro V1

Shane Lowry – Srixon Z-Star XV

Robert MacIntyre – Titleist ProV1

Rory McIlroy – TaylorMade TP5

Jon Rahm – Callaway Chrome Tour X

Justin Rose – Titleist ProV1x

Sepp Straka – Srixon Z-Star XV

Brands Total Usage

Titleist - 13

TaylorMade - 3

Callaway - 4

Srixon - 3

Maxfli - 1