Hello all. That old saying "you learn something new every day" certainly rang true for me this week.I took a day off in the middle of the week and decided to play 18 on a glorious fall day. The temp was 70 degrees, which is highly unusual for Massachusetts in November. As a single, I was paired with three other players, one of whom I found out during the course of the afternoon was a 73 year old retired police officer.I played well (78 and never missed a fairway) but this guy blew it by me all day long off the tee! He didn't hit his irons as well, and I'm not sure what his score was, but I was astounded with how far he hit the tee ball. I'm not a long hitter, but not a short one either. This guy was 9 years older than me, and was hitting it 20 yards further with a shorter swing! Obviously, his impact position was more than efficient but something else was up.
On the 14th hole, after watching him out drive me all day long,he hit out of a bunker and the ball landed right in my line, so I went up and marked his ball.I happen to look at it and was a Bridgestone "Lady". Then it dawned on me; it's a lower compression ball, meaning it actually enhances distance for slow swing speed players.We spoke about it walking down 15. He said he found one a couple years ago and put it in play just for laughs. He said he gained yardage immediately, and that the ball felt like it stayed on the club face forever. He's been playing low compression balls ever since. The more I though about it, the more sense it made.
50 years in and I'm still learning about this game.