Golf Galaxy Ball Fitting Experiences?

[jjpnyc]

Curious if anyone has used Golf Galaxy for a ball fitting recently and what your experience was like.

Where I'm at (Cleveland), Golf Galaxy is the only place that does ball fittings.  But the nearest location is an hour away from me.   So before I invest 3 hours of my time (hour there, hour fitting, hour back), want to know if its worth it.  

Did a ball fitting at Golf Galaxy back in like 2008 and remember then that they had you hit a baseline ball only and then your ideal ball was predicated based off of the numbers you were generating from that to give you your recommendation.   So you actually never hit your ideal ball until you were on the course.  

FWIW, currently playing Snell MTBs and MTB-X (depending on course conditions) and have had absolutely no issues with them.   But I'm also the type that wants to know I'm playing the most optimized set-up for me...hence the ball fitting.

 

[RickyBobby_PR]

I would never do a ball fitting at a big box store and probably not one indoors even at a place like TXG. Unless I was just looking to compare numbers between balls and nothing else. 
 

I want to see how a ball reacts outdoors in the course in wind, in cold, in warm weather. Different closures conditions and green speeds. Can’t get any of that in door. I would rathe spend the money to buy several balls I’m interested in and go play them on the course and practice greens. 

[Thin2win]

This is a can of worms that has been discussed a bit over the last week over in the 2021 ball test thread:

 

MTB and MTB-X are both good balls. You aren't really leaving anything on the table by playing them, but if you wanted to find out if they are optimal an in store fitting has some limitations. Since whatever LM they are using can only watch the first 10-20' of ball flight the data you are getting is going to be calculated after that. And while that is pretty accurate, it doesn't capture how the balls actually fly. It looks at ball speed, launch angle and spin and works the math. But it works the math the same regardless of the brand and dimple pattern tech. So the results end up being very similar for balls that might actually be a bit different. 

I grabbed this from the actual ball test, looking at 100mph driver shots. 

if you look at ball speed, and launch angles, there really isn't much difference between this group, only a 300rpm difference in the whole group and if you exclude the Z-star, only 200 rpm difference.  But just comparing your MTB Black to a ProV1 above, almost identical ball speed and launch, ProV1 spins a bit less, but has a trajectory that is about 6 yards lower. 

If you just look at the Maxfli Tour and the ProV1, they are basically identical on speed, launch and spin. But probably due to dimple patterns the Maxfli flies higher, reaches that height further down range which results in a few more yards of ball distance. But on a Launch monitor in a store, that only looks at ball speed, spin and launch angle you would not get that. They would both show as being identical. Which, while they aren't drastically different, they are different. 

So if you like the flight of the Snell, keep them, if you want something that flys lower, there are options to look at, if you want something that carries further but rolls out less, there are options. Same data for irons is also available. 

 

 

But as you can see, Snell's are very much comparable to everything out on the market, and at a very nice price point.