Since the beginning of the Recycled golf ball industry there has been some controversy as to whether recycled golf balls retrieved from the water perform any different than new golf balls. The questioning of the performance of recycled balls may have been relevant years ago when balls were made differently, but golf balls today are constructed completely different and are very resilient.

So here is the test:

We took golf balls we recover and recycle right off of our shelves to an independent golf ball testing facility (Advanced Golf Solutions) that tests new balls for many of the top manufacturers. We tested all the grades of balls we sell except for those that are structurally damaged or too old which we do not sell. We do not have the capability to repair a damaged ball either through recycling or refinishing and these are discarded. We hoped to once and for all put an end to this hearsay controversy of “water balls” and do some scientifically controlled testing, not subjective anecdotal testing that has been the mainstay of the common thought on this topic.

And here’s what we found out:

Outside of cosmetics (which really is what the grading is all about), the balls in all the various grades tested against new golf balls right out the package show only a very minimal loss of carry distance. In fact with a driver the maximum loss of carry over a drive of about 260 yards is about 5 yards with a grade B ball while the mint recycled and refinished balls show only a loss of 1 yard or less. We showed similar proportional results with both a wedge and 6 iron as indicated in the graphs below.

Is this significant loss of distance?

Since 99% of all golfers cannot swing with any consistency to attain these averages over many shots, this loss of carry distance form 1 -5 yards is absolutely minimal when you take into account all the other factors that come into play when you swing a club… plane of club, follow through, back swing, in/out or out/in, weight shift, lie etc.

The question then becomes is it worth it to pay 40% - 80% more for golf balls you are going to lose anyways just to gain a yard or so under ideal swing conditions?

You be the judge… and if you decide to continue purchasing new balls after seeing this we and all of our 200,000 customers thank you as you are now one of our suppliers.