How Often Do You Change Your Balls

In the coverage of the masters the cameras honed in on Phil Mickleson givng away his ball to someone in the crowd on 16th tee.  One of the commentators said he gives away about 12 balls a round.  A conversation followed about how often players changed the ball they are playing with.  One contribution was that some players stop using a ball when they have hit a wedge shot with it, presumably after they have putted out on that hole.  Sam Torrence said he changed his ball everytime he got a birdie which seemed a bit random.  Presumably it was a joke to indicate he didn't change it very often or some strange superstition.

Anyway it got me thinking how often us lesser mortal, who have to pay for their balls, should change them.  Most of the time for me it doesn't matter as I lose at least one ball a round but sometimes I will string together a number of rounds with the same ball.  Unless it shows obvious damage I keep cleaning it and carry on especially as I have moved to using a medium cost ball since joining this site and realising the type of ball is important.

What do other people do?

I get about three rounds out of a ball, providing of course that I don't lose it somewhere.

The Pros don't pay for theirs, so it is very easy to give them away.

I would say maybe 27-36 holes for me or until I've marked the cover with my short irons. I then use these balls to pratice with and carry in my bag as spares

Not an issue for me due to a particularly high incident rate of mislaid balls.

Dave, you can only change a ball during a hole if it becomes unfit for play but you are not oblieged to use the same ball on the next hole.

Unfortunately I am at the stage that I am just pleased to get a ball round 18 at the moment, 2 rounds and I have it framed

Tony, you could start a new thread, 'How To Frame a Golf Ball.'  I'm intrigued.  Do you smash it flat with a hammer to get it into a frame or do you paint a picture of it.

Depends on how much water there is on a course :-

I will let you know Jon when I get 2 rounds from a ball.....

Of course if i dont loose them then i usually get through a couple of Balls a round.

Im a bit fussy about this thou as if a ball gets "furry" or if i have a heavy bunker shot then i will change the ball. Since ive had a set of vokeys this have been more the rule than than the exception as they do seem to cut the ball up more that my older wedges.