I usually play a TP red, but due to the cost £30 its getting a little expensive when I lose the blighter, Although I'm not losing many these days (touches wood). I have decided to play a different ball and as I prefer a softer ball I've been looking into my options, This is where my question pops up....

 "Does compression actually have anything to do with how soft the ball actually plays?"

The reason I ask is after a few hours trawling T'net from what I can gather its conflicting arguments. Some are saying that yes a low compression ball is a softer ball and others are saying you can get a high compression ball that will play soft due to the chemicals that make up outer layers. Also a lot of manufacturers have removed the compression figures from their packaging???

I narrowed the search down to 3 balls, all Wilson staff, Dx2,Dx3 and the Px3. The former all have a compression rating of 50 but classed as distance balls with the later a 0 compression rating. I decided on the Dx2 mainly due to recommendation and a decent review in TG, Also the Px3 being a "spin" ball put me of as that's the last thing I need off the tee

Any help and info on this would be most appreciated.

Think you need Tim "The Nutty Professor" Hawkins for this one Paul.

He may have perfected his bounce sound what-sit thingamajig by now

I got some Srixon soft feels for sale if you want them?

I got a bucket of about 400 balls that I paid a tenner for at a car boot, all mixed lots.  Feel free to try any of those before you spend to much cash!!

The easy answer to that one Paul is no.  There is no standard measure for the compression, it appears that manufacturers have their own standards.

The actual feel of the softness is dependent on lots of factors, the skin hardness, the core elasticity and in the case of 3 piece balls the composition of the inner core.  From the limited tests I did the actual 'hardness' (in engineering terms) of a ball is not really a measure of it's feel.  From what I can remember there (can't find the plots at the moment) there was very little difference in the hardness of a Pro V1 and a Dunlop DDR, it was only the formers ability to transfer energy that  made it a 'springier' ball.

On a personal front I thought that the Bridgestone B550S felt hard, much harder than my Srixon AD333's, but they took spin much better.  I really like them but were too expensive.

Really need to do some more updated tests, might even build a new rig in the next few days.  This is to go with something else I've been working on so may need some sample balls... 

PS  Just bought 4 dozen  Srixon Trispeeds from my local pro-shop for £49.98, pretty good I thought (and they've got loads left!

I like dx2 but I've only used them maybe 3 or 4 times. I'm waiting for better weather before using them again. Heres the best place to get them if you want 3 boxes or more.

http://www.best4balls.com/wilsonstaff-soft-pack-p-315.html

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Way too geeky for me. Find a ball you like & get on with then stick with it. Simples.

You're no fun anymore John

 Srixon 'soft feel' ar good balls but tend to mark easily if they land in bunkers etc.

I'd like to point out that I like to use a new ball for every round in summer. In winter I use the used balls that I accumulate. I have 2 boxes of dx2 which I started using before the weather turned bad so I am saving the rest til spring.