We’ve covered how to assemble an arsenal of golf clubs, yet one simple fact remains: You can’t play golf if you don’t have balls.

Buying golf balls should be simple, right? Good luck. The ball section at most golf shops is a bit like the soda aisle at a grocery store. Lots of choices, lots of marketing hype, lots of flashy packaging. If you try to make a decision based on reading golf ball packaging, you’ll be convinced you can’t go wrong. But you can spend a lot more money than you need to and end up with a ball that doesn’t really do what you need it to do.

I have three boxes of golf balls on my desk, for example, and they all sound great. One promises “longer distance while maintaining a soft feel.” The next offers “blazing speed and blistering distance.” The third assures me I’ll experience “maximum distance with soft feel.” The first ball goes for nearly $50 a dozen, the second fetches $25 and the third will set you back $15. It pays to know the difference.

The main thing to know about golf balls is that every product on the market falls into one of two categories: performance balls and distance balls. Of course, every performance ball claims to give you tons of distance, and vice versa. And that is true to some extent. But how the balls are built, what they’re designed to do and what they’ll cost you is very different. Here’s a quick guide to the two types of golf balls, and a little buying advice to help you make your decision.

Performance balls - These are the balls that PGA Tour players use, and they’re also suitable for casual players with a fair amount of skill. If you have a handicap of 10 or less, or usually shoot under 90 for 18 holes, you might be candidate to use a performance ball. These top-of-the-line balls are high-tech wonders, designed to go prodigious distances off the driver and still land like a butterfly with sore feet on the greens. Performance balls typically consist of three parts: A solid synthetic rubber core surrounded by a thin plastic-like ionomer “mantle layer” (also called an “inner cover”) and a thin cover made of urethane. Each of the three parts plays a different role depending on how hard the ball is struck. On a hard swing with a driver, for example, the core and mantle layer spring back quickly to transfer energy from the club to the ball very efficiently. On slower swings, the soft, almost sticky urethane cover grabs the grooves of your irons or wedges to generate the backspin that helps control ball flight and make the ball stop on the greens.

For decades, performance balls were built like baseballs—including a core with rubber windings around it—and had covers made of rubber-like Balata material. Pros loved them, but average players lost distance with them and they weren’t very durable. All that changed in 1999 when balls like Titleist’s Pro V1 and Callaway’s Rule 35 started the urethane-cover craze, and no one makes Balata balls anymore. If you’re only an occasional player, you should still steer clear of performance balls. They cost $35-$50 a dozen, and you really need to generate a fair amount of clubhead speed to unlock their full distance potential. But if you’re looking to impress your playing partners with your top-drawer golf ball selection and don’t mind spending the money, you won’t be penalized as much for using a performance ball as you were in the old Balata days, as the newer balls give you more distance and durability for the money.

If you’re going to step up to performance balls, the gold standard is the Titleist Pro V1. A new generation of the Pro V1 was just introduced this spring, along with the Pro V1x variant for golfers with very high swing speeds. Other very good balls in this category are the Callaway HX Tour and HX Tour 56 models, the TaylorMade TP Red and Black models and the Nike One Platinum (Tiger Woods’ ball of choice).

• Distance balls - These are the golf balls for the rest of us. These are generally two-piece balls consisting of a synthetic rubber core and a plastic-like cover material, usually a compound called Surlyn created by DuPont. This design doesn’t lend itself to creating extra spin like performance balls do, but that’s good news for most golfers. While skilled players can control their spin and use it to their advantage, most of us can’t. Distance balls spin less in terms of backspin and sidespin, which means they go straighter and roll farther after they hit the ground. That’s what helps average golfers hit them farther – performance balls tend to fly farther, but stop faster, but distance balls will have more roll.

There have been some recent advances in distance balls that can help your game. One such change is the popularity of balls with low-compression cores. These balls have softer core compositions, making them springier off the club with a softer feel. There are also some three-piece distance balls on the market that mimic the design of performance balls, but with Surlyn covers for more distance.

Some of the distance balls I can recommend from personal use are the Titleist NXT and NXT Tour, the Callaway HX Hot, the Maxfli Noodle (long and soft, get it?) and the Nike Juice. All of these can be had for under $25 a dozen.

A few final thoughts on buying golf balls - Buy them new: Don’t go for the used balls that can be found in some department stores and at places like gas stations around golf resorts. These are usually reclaimed from ponds and lakes on golf courses, and research shows that being soaked for more than a few minutes leads to significant distance loss. Unless you’re going to buy some used balls for practicing in the backyard or at the park, stick with new stock. If you don’t use them all, don’t worry. Today’s golf balls have a long shelf life—at least five years for performance balls, and longer for distance balls.

Look for deals: Big box golf and sporting goods retailers often have good volume deals on closeout golf balls. Dick’s Sporting Goods was recently selling Precept’s MC Lady model (don’t snicker, it’s a very popular model with men as a low-compression distance ball) for $9.99 a dozen. And if you’re really just looking for ammo—quantity over quality—brands like Top-Flite, Pinnacle and Wilson often have 18- or 24-packs of balls that run in the $12-$15 range.

Look for overruns: Golf balls with logos of businesses, colleges, sports teams, etc. are big business. Manufacturers sometimes are stuck with extra stock, which they sell through the big box golf retailers. This is a good way to get performance balls at a good price, but the availability is sporadic. Golf sites like golfwrx.com often have postings from golfers who have found gold at a specific retailer. Another way to get cheap balls is by buying X-Outs – balls that have production irregularities and have their logos crossed out. They’re cheap for a reason, though, but you could use them as practice balls. X-Outs are not approved for tournament play, so don’t use them if you’re invited to play in a member-guest or scramble event.

Mark it up: Look like a pro and put a small mark or two on your golf balls using a Sharpie. That way you can ID your ball more easily if there’s confusion as to whose Titleist ended up on the green—and whose is in the bunker.

A dash of color: Colored golf balls come and go as a fad. Right now, there are some popular balls like the Volvik Crystal, the Maxfli Noodle Ice and Nike’s Mojo that feature colors like orange, yellow and blue. These are fun for a round with your buddies, but don’t bring them out to play at a corporate outing. Stick to a Titleist, Callaway, Nike, TaylorMade or Bridgestone traditional white model—those are all well-regarded brands with good performance. And if you really want to be a conformist, play a Titleist, as that’s the brand that has held the lion’s share of the golf ball market for decades.

(Photo: Ioan Sameli)