Most people will tell you about the types of golf balls to help you pick the best golf ball for you. I think you need to first choose whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced player. Within those categories you answer the second two questions. Then you can start your golf ball testing and comparison and that will lead you to the best golf ball for you.

Best Golf Ball for the Beginner

The best golf ball for you if you are a beginner is the cheapest golf ball possible. You do not need to answer the next two questions until your game starts moving towards the intermediate status. Because, how you play is probably badly and what you want from your ball is not to get lost. When you are first starting out, be prepared to lose a lot of golf balls. So, spending too much on your golf balls just adds to the price of your round. Until you start losing less than three or so balls a round, you need to be looking at wholesale, used, recycled, experienced, or bulk golf balls.

When you are only losing a couple three golf balls per round your game is starting to move towards intermediate status. You are not there yet, but, now you can answer the next two questions and you will probably find that you want a ball with less spin to lessen a hook or slice, a high launch for greater ball flight, hard covers so they last and of course still don't break the bank. The best golf ball for you now would be a Two Piece Distance ball such as the Callaway Warbird, Top Flite XL or Wilson Ultra.

Best Golf Ball for the Intermediate Player

An intermediate player's game has come around to the point where the answers to the second and third questions can really help you pick the best golf ball for you. Performance aspects of different golf balls can actually improve your play. The ball choice will be based less on price because you now occasionally finish a round with the same ball that you started with.

The best golf ball for you will be a Two Piece Low Compression ball such as the Maxfli Noodle, Precept Laddie Extreme, or the Titleist DT Solo. These balls can help with distance for moderate and slower swing speeds. Some have low spin for accuracy and softer covers for feel.

As your game improves the best golf ball for you will be a Two Piece Performance golf ball such as the Bridgestone e5, Titleist NXT or NXT Tour . These balls have a larger core for more distance yet still do not have the spin or feel of a multilayer ball for short shots around the green.

Best Golf Ball for the Advanced Player

Now that you are shooting par or better almost every time out the best golf ball for you is a golf ball with Multilayer Construction such as the Bridgestone Golf Tour B330, Callaway Golf HX Tour, Nike One Platinum , or Titleist Pro V1 or Pro V1x . The different layers of these types of balls enhance some aspect of performance. Soft covers for feel, a firm mantle to increase energy transfer to the core for distance, and urethane covers for more spin on short shots.

The downside of these types of balls is price and some are designed for high swing speeds. If you are a good enough player to land in the advanced category, then squeezing every last bit of performance out of your equipment is worth the premium price and makes a Multilayer ball the best golf ball for you.

Reviews of Golf Balls

Steve Ogg, senior category director-customization, Callaway Golf:

"Begin with understanding your greenside control needs. If control around the greens is critical to your game then consider a 3-piece urethane covered ball. After warming up, hit a dozen or so drives with one of the available 3-piece urethane covered balls on the market. If your spin average after throwing out 'bad' shots is less than 2500 rpm and you are playing a 10-degree or 10.5-degree driver (or higher loft), then opt for one of the high-spinning urethane covered balls. If you are playing a 9.5-degree driver (or lower loft), then consider playing a higher-lofted driver for increased launch angle and distance. If your spin is 3000+ rpm then consider a lower-lofted driver and urethane covered ball that provide lower driver spin. Find a loft/ball combination that provides a spin as close to the range of 2200 and 2600 rpm as possible with as high a launch angle (12+ degrees) as possible. It is typically more important to be in the right spin range than to focus on increasing launch angle.

If greenside control is not critical to you then ask yourself 'what is?' Perhaps spin with full irons is important to you, or perhaps a soft feel, or then again perhaps all you care about is obtaining the greatest distance off of the driver. If spin with full irons is important, look for a golf ball with a medium to low cover hardness. There are many golf balls that provide very good distance with soft feel, but don't confuse soft feel with control around the greens. A ball that feels soft due to low core compression can still have a relatively hard cover that does not grip the more highly loft clubs. The improvements in core technology over the last decade have resulted in many good choices in the feel-distance golf ball category.

If all you care about is maximum distance you don't necessarily have to play a hard golf ball, but the cover hardness will tend to be relatively high in order to obtain low driver spin and the core compression will be selected to provide a balance between high speed and low spin."

Tom Preece, director of global consumer connection, Cobra Golf:

"It's best to be fit on a launch monitor by a company rep."

Dr. Tom Mase, EVP of R&D and Innovation at Hot Stix Golf and John German, supervisor fitting operations, Hot Stix Golf:

"Often, ball fitting is not considered a part of the custom fitting process. But the ball must compliment all aspects of a golfer's game.

You need to get fit for a ball at 25 and 250 yards. At 250 yards the launch monitor is critical to get proper spin, launch and velocity. Next, you need to know how you want the ball to perform from 120 yards and in. Lastly, some practical considerations are needed. The premium balls are great. But if you play a course that "claims" 4-5 of your balls each round you may want to find a middle-ground product that makes your wallet happy at the end of the day."

Bill Iseri, manager of custom fitting, Ping Golf:

"Play the ball that works/feels best with your irons and putter. A great drive is worthless if the approach or chip shot doesn't hold. With multi-core and multi-mantle balls, you are no longer sacrificing distance off the tee for feel around the green."

Tom Wishon, president, Tom Wishon Golf Technology:

"Unless you are a Tour player or very low single digit handicap player, put a new grip on your ball retriever and only play those balls you fish out with a bright, clean, unscarred cover. If you are a very skilled player, choose a lower spin ball if your natural trajectory is high and a higher spin ball if your natural trajectory is low."