Best Golf Balls for Mid Handicappers 2024

Last updated: 28 October 2024

Click below to find out more about Today's Golfer's golf ball testing process.

At Today’s Golfer, we take it upon ourselves to carry out golf ball robot tests to ensure you’re well enough informed to make a sound decision as to which golf ball you should play.

We have always been about the club golfer here at TG, so it’s vital to us to test each golf ball at different swing speeds to show how each model will perform for you. So, no matter what your speed, you’ll find plenty of useful information within this test tailored to your own game.

Our driver shots were hit at speeds of 85, 100, and 115 mph (moderate, mid, and fast). For 7-iron we used a mid-80 mph speed. The pitching wedge was hit at 74 mph. To ensure our results reflect real-world golfers we also used the Ping clubs most suited to these speeds.

A 9° Ping G430 LST driver (with X flex Tour 2.0 Chrome shaft) at 115 mph. A 10.5° Ping G430 Max driver (with S flex Tour 2.0 Chrome shaft) at 100 mph. And a 12° Ping G430 Max (with R flex Alta CB Black) at 85 mph. We took the same approach for irons and wedges using the Ping Blueprint S 7-iron and pitching wedge (with S flex Dynamic Gold 120 shafts).

James Hogg, one of our Equipment Writers, is responsible for much of the on-course testing of golf balls where he applies his skills and knowledge from working in the golf industry since 16-years-old.

Click here to find out more about how we test golf balls.

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Whether you are an amateur golfer who continuously plays to a decent level or an amateur golfer aspiring to lower your scores you need to know what the best golf balls are for your game.

Obviously, golf balls for mid-handicappers cover a wide range of golfers including men, ladies, and those who play with the best golf balls for beginners and high handicappers. However, these golf balls are suggestions for amateurs who want to score well, and play with a high-quality golf ball, but not pay the premium price tag.

Best overall: Wilson Triad | View Offer

Best value: Srixon Q-Star Tour | View Offer

Best high-spin: Kirkland Signature 3-Piece | View Offer

Best budget: Vice Tour | View Offer

This is a relatively new category of golf balls which sees a merger between the best premium golf balls and the best beginner and high handicap golf balls. Almost all of the top brands have an option in this category, whether you normally play with Titleist, TaylorMade, or Callaway golf balls, there’s a fantastic model to choose from here.

These golf balls probably appeal to more golfers than any – but not many people will assume so – especially after the news of the golf ball rollback definitely happening. As a mid-handicap golfer, you might want to increase distance or greenside spin and control, to better understand which will benefit your game it’s worth checking out the best golf balls for spin.

If you’ve never used a golf ball from this category, the choice can be difficult, especially with so many being among the best value golf balls you can buy. Therefore, I have compiled the following list with ranging options to suit every golfer’s needs and wants. Hopefully, you can make a sound informed decision to help you play to the best of your ability.

Once you’ve looked through the best mid-handicapper golf balls, to help you with your decision, read through the detailed buying guide and have any questions answered in the FAQ section. Also, you might want to partner your golf balls with one of the best drivers for mid-handicappers and best irons for mid-handicappers.

A brilliant golf ball which makes putting easier and more enjoyable

Rrp: $34.97

Rrp: $34.97

A premium feeling golf ball targeting amateur golfers

Rrp: $42.98

Rrp: $42.98

Srixon's answer for the players who don't quite have the swing speed to play with a Tour standard golf ball

Rrp: $39.99

Rrp: $39.99

A fantastic value golf ball for amateur golfers wanting to increase spin

Rrp: $39.99

Rrp: $39.99

An unlikely soft-feeling distance golf ball

Titleist's softest golf ball which provides a sensational soft feeling off every club in the bag

A quality cheap golf ball for mid-handicappers to consider

Sadly we haven’t been able to test the Titleist Tour Soft yet because when we carry out our annual robot test we are limited to a number of golf balls. The Titleist Tour Soft was considered in 2023 and 2024, it’s only a matter of time before this ball is put through its paces in our golf ball robot test.

This category of golf balls hasn’t been massively inundated until very recently. Now, mid-handicap golfers have an extensive range to choose from. Golf balls are vitally important to get right for your game in order to score better and improve your handicap. Therefore, I have compiled a list of key factors to consider when purchasing golf balls.

Budget

The majority of amateur golfers will not need to play with a premium golf ball partly because of ability but also because of price. It’s very rare that any golf balls in this category are more than £40, which is a reasonable price for mid-handicap golfers to pay. Obviously, if you do want to play with a premium golf ball I won’t stop you!

Performance

With the golf ball rollback due to come into force in the not-too-distant future, performance has never been more important! If you want to make sure you have a ball that travels as far as possible it’s worth stocking up now before it’s too late.

Every golf ball performs slightly differently, and only through trying a range of golf balls will you find the best golf balls for your game. If you are playing with the wrong golf ball, you’ll know by how far the ball is going, how high the ball’s flying, how much the ball’s spinning, etc. When you find the perfect golf ball, you’ll know.

Feel

This is a factor most amateur golfers won’t even need to consider. Many regular golfers know exactly what type of ball they are looking for with regard to feel. There are both soft-feeling and firm-feeling golf balls for mid-handicap golfers to choose from. I personally prefer a firmer golf ball because I like the stronger feedback off the clubface. However, I know I’m in the minority there because the vast majority of golfers would rather play with a soft golf ball.

There isn’t a right or wrong answer when it comes to feeling, it’s all about finding the right ball for you and then you just have to hope that it feels good to play with.

Alignment

Alignment golf balls are becoming increasingly popular because they offer golfers extra assistance to help them line the ball up with their intended target. These alignment aids differ in size and style in order to appeal to more golfers. The majority of alignment golf balls do come without alignments as well but there are some which don’t.

Visibility

I guarantee most golfers will have been told good golfers don’t play with any other color golf ball than white – this is nonsense. The best-colored golf ball for you is the one you can see best and helps improve your game. Whether this be white, yellow, or pink, when you rip it off the tee, hole out from 100 yards, or sink every 8-foot putt no one will care what color your ball is.

At Today’s Golfer, we make it our mission to test golf equipment to the best of our ability in order to provide you with as much information as possible so that you can make a sound decision to help improve your game.

That’s no different when it comes to golf balls. In what is an extremely crowded marketplace, we do all we can to deliver as much clear information as we can so that you can find the perfect golf ball for your game.

There are hundreds of golf balls on the market all claiming to do the same job and that’s why we feel the need to take on the mammoth task of scrutinising these golf balls in any way we can to see which models are genuine and which are duds.

In our quest to ensure you’re well-informed it has led us to perform three golf ball robot tests, the first in 2019, our second test was carried out in 2023, and we followed that up with our third in 2024. Potentially, we could have a fourth golf ball robot test on the cards for 2025.

It’s all well and good hitting golf balls on the course, at the short game area, or on the practice grounds, but without access to an accurate launch monitor it’s very difficult to know exactly how a golf ball performs.

The same goes for human testing, in the sense that it’s very hard for a person to perfectly hit a golf ball every time, hence why we carry out robot testing with golf balls.

Leading our golf ball robot testing is our Equipment Editor, Simon Daddow, who spent a large part of his career as a golf club maker and product development manager, and has worked in the golf industry for more than 30 years.

We decide to perform golf ball robot tests because it’s the only true way to see the difference between each golf ball’s performance with a repeatable swing and consistently accurate impact location – which no human tester can reproduce.

Certainly not across different swing speeds and various club categories, especially when 20+ different golf ball models need testing.

Our robot testing takes longer than a week to complete, we spend months behind the scenes planning how to make it happen, and Simon spends a week crunching the numbers to determine our top-performing golf balls from each robot test.

With the costs of buying an R&D golf robot out of our reach, there aren’t too many options around. The brands that have them also make golf balls, which obviously presents a conflict of interest should we use one to perform a golf ball test against competitor models.

Loughborough University, though, is often referred to as the best sports science university in the world, and thanks to Ping’s introduction (who have invested in an R&D lab on campus) a couple of years ago it made perfect sense to explore the opportunity to collaborate in 2023 and again in 2024.

It takes months of setting up, but with Senior Lecturer Jonathan Roberts being a golfer and understanding our cause, and with Loughborough and Ping having no vested interest in golf balls, our partnership makes perfect sense.

We have always been about the club golfer here at TG, so it’s vital to us to test each golf ball at different swing speeds to show how each model will perform for you. So, no matter what your speed, you’ll find plenty of useful information within this test tailored to your own game.

Our driver shots were hit at speeds of 85, 100, and 115 mph (moderate, mid, and fast). For 7-iron we used a mid-80 mph speed. The pitching wedge was hit at 74 mph. To ensure our results reflect real-world golfers we also used the Ping clubs most suited to these speeds.

A 9° Ping G430 LST driver (with X flex Tour 2.0 Chrome shaft) at 115 mph. A 10.5° Ping G430 Max driver (with S flex Tour 2.0 Chrome shaft) at 100 mph. And a 12° Ping G430 Max (with R flex Alta CB Black) at 85 mph. We took the same approach for irons and wedges using the Ping Blueprint S 7-iron and pitching wedge (with S flex Dynamic Gold 120 shafts).

James Hogg, one of our Equipment Writers, is responsible for much of the on-course testing of golf balls where he applies his skills and knowledge from working in the golf industry since 16-years-old.

Thankfully, at Today’s Golfer, we are blessed to have a full team capable of testing all pieces of golf equipment – including golf balls. No matter whether a ball features or not in one of our robot tests, we ensure it’s put through its paces out on the golf course by one of our talented team members.

When we’re testing golf balls, both out on the course and on the robot, we’re always looking for certain aspects. With all golf balls, one of the most obvious aspects you’re able to judge with the naked eye is durability. For me, this is one of the most important aspects because if a ball isn’t durable then its value plummets through the floor – as does its performance.

Every other feature of a golf ball we’re scrutinising when testing golf balls is more ambiguous because they are more dependent on the wants and needs of the individual. For instance, feel is something that’s always discussed with golf balls, therefore, we make it one of our priorities to provide as much information as we can about feel, even if it contradicts what the brand says we’ll always stand by what we feel.

Flight and ball trajectory is much easier to draw conclusions from our robot test than any on-course testing because on course it can depend on what club we’re using, weather conditions, and how the ball sits either in the fairway or rough. Hence why it works much better getting this information from a robot because it delivers the same swing and strike with the same club. However, we will still mention how the ball travelled for us on the course compared to what we normally play or want to see.

Obviously, important factors to investigate are distance and spin, after all, these are ultimately what most golfers are interested in depending on whether they need to improve how far they’re hitting the ball or if they want to hit and hold more greens.

There are certain golf balls designed to do both for certain golfers, mainly the best premium golf balls that are built with Tour Pros in mind. However, if we’re testing a distance golf ball, we expect it to produce impressive and competitive distance, but we don’t expect it to grab really well on the greens so we account for this when we’re testing.

Most golfers will be interested in a golf ball that spins in the short game to give them all the control they need around the greens. When we’re out testing on course this is one of the most important aspects we’re looking at. I personally spend a large amount of time at the short game area playing chip shots and pitch shots to see how well each ball grabs.

For a golf ball to feature among the best golf balls for mid-handicappers, they need to deliver performance for the needs of the intended golfer. Obviously, they have to perform well to be considered one of the best in their category too.

Golf balls for mid-handicap golfers are those intended for the better amateur golfers who would typically play with premium golf balls but don’t need to spend the money. The best golf balls for mid-handicappers tend to pack the same technology as the premium version or are very similar. Most better amateur golfers will know what they look for in their golf balls, and if you have never played with one of these golf balls before, the best ball to start with is the one closest to your current golf ball, and if you don’t like it, simply try other options.

Depending on who you ask, you may get a different answer to this question. However, I believe the main difference is price, purchasing a dozen golf balls for mid-handicap golfers will save you money without sacrificing much (if any) performance. As someone who prefers this range of golf balls to premium golf balls, I don’t see a massive difference in performance – but my wallet certainly appreciates the difference in price.

Obviously, the answer to this question is yes. Any golfer of any ability can play with any ball they like. However, that doesn’t mean it is the right golf ball for them. Most mid-handicappers will find the same, if not more, success from playing with a non-premium golf ball. The issue with premium golf balls for most amateurs is they can’t unlock the full potential of the golf ball, whereas, with a golf ball purposefully designed for mid-handicappers, it’s easier to maximize the potential of the ball to help you shoot better and score better.

James Hogg – Golf Equipment Writer

James has a degree in English Language from Newcastle University and an MA in Journalism from Kingston University.

He spent seven years working for American Golf as part of the sales and fitting team alongside his studies and is a specialist in putters, golf balls, and apparel.

James took up golf as a teenager and, thanks largely to his length and consistency off the tee, he plays off a handicap of 4.7 at Cleveland Golf Club.

You can contact James via email for loads more golf equipment insight.

Golf Equipment Writer