What Are Practice Golf Balls?

Ever stood at a driving range, grabbed a scuffed-up ball with a red stripe and the word PRACTICE stamped on it, and wondered what the real difference is? You’re not alone. Understanding what these golf balls are, how they perform, and how to use them correctly is a simple step that can make your practice sessions much more effective. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about practice golf balls so you can stop guessing and start grooving a better swing.

What Exactly Are Practice Golf Balls?

At their core, practice golf balls are designed for one thing: durability. A golf ball used on a driving range might be hit hundreds, if not thousands, of times over its lifespan. To withstand that kind of punishment, they have to be built differently from the premium ball you'd use on the course. They fall into two main categories: the ones you find at a facility and the ones you can use at home.

Driving Range Balls

These are the workhorses of the golf world. Typically, a range ball is a one-piece or two-piece ball with an incredibly tough cover.

• One-Piece Construction: Many traditional range balls are a single, solid piece of a durable material called Surlyn, molded with a dimple pattern. They are cheap to produce and extremely resistant to cuts and scrapes.
• Two-Piece Construction: Some slightly better range balls have a solid rubber core and a thick Surlyn cover. While still miles away from a premium ball, this construction gives them a slightly better feel and performance than their one-piece counterparts.

You’ll always be able to identify them by their distinct look - often a plain white, yellow, or sometimes an off-white color, with a colored stripe for the range’s tracking system and that classic "PRACTICE" or "RANGE" stamp. They are not designed for maximum distance or delicate spin, they are designed to survive.

Limited-Flight Practice Balls (For Home/Backyard Use)

The second category of practice balls is what you’d use when you don’t have access to a full driving range. These are tools designed for safe, convenient practice in smaller spaces.

• Foam Balls: Made from a soft, dense foam, these balls feel relatively solid at impact but travel only a fraction of the distance of a real ball. They are perfect for full swings in a backyard without breaking any windows. They give you a good sense of contact quality but won’t accurately show ball flight shape (like a draw or a fade).
• Plastic/Hollow Balls: These are lightweight plastic balls, often with holes like a wiffle ball. They travel an even shorter distance than foam balls and are excellent for practicing short chip and pitch shots in the living room or short-range warmups. The feel is nothing like a real golf ball, so their main use is for working on the motion of the swing itself.

How Practice Balls Differ From Premium Golf Balls

Knowing that a "PRACTICE" ball is different is one thing, but understanding how it's different is what allows you to manage your expectations on the range and get real value from your sessions. The differences primarily come down to construction, which affects performance in three main areas.

1. Construction and Materials

A premium golf ball, like a Titleist Pro V1 or Callaway Chrome Soft, is a masterpiece of multi-layer engineering. It might have three, four, or even five distinct layers, each with a specific job. There are mantle layers designed to increase speed, inner cores for feel, and a soft, thin urethane cover. That urethane cover is what gives premium balls their signature soft feel and incredible spin around the greens.

A range ball, on the other hand, prioritizes resilience over everything else. Its thick, hard Surlyn cover is like armor. It sacrifices the soft feel and spin-generating properties of urethane in favor of being nearly indestructible.

2. Distance and Flight

This is the big one. Practice balls do not fly as far as premium golf balls. Don't get discouraged when your 7-iron on the range is landing where your 8-iron usually does on the course. This is perfectly normal and expected.

Due to their harder compression and less aerodynamic design, range balls can fly anywhere from 10% to 15% shorter than a standard ball. So, if your driver normally carries about 250 yards, a 220-yard drive on the range is a great hit. Many driving ranges also use intentionally "limited-flight" range balls for safety reasons, especially if the range is shorter. The key takeaway is simple: the range is for working on your swing, not for dialing in your precise yardages.

3. Spin and Control

If you've ever tried to hit a delicate chip shot with a range ball and watched it skate across the green with no check or spin, you've experienced the difference firsthand. The hard Surlyn cover on a practice ball just can't "grip" the grooves on your clubface a premium ball can. As a result, range balls produce significantly less backspin.

• With Irons: You won’t see shots back up on the green like you might with your gamer ball.
• With Wedges: Hitting high, soft-landing pitches and chips is nearly impossible. The ball will come out lower and run out more.

This doesn’t mean wedge practice is useless on the range. It just means you should focus on making solid contact and controlling your trajectory, not on making the ball stop on a dime.

The Right Way to Use Practice Balls for Real Improvement

Now that you know their limitations, you can structure your practice to get the most out of every bucket of balls. It’s all about focusing on what they can teach you and ignoring what they can’t.

Making the Most of the Driving Range

When you're at the range, your focus should be on your full-swing mechanics, not the results.

What to Focus On:

• Quality of Contact: Are you hitting the ball in the center of the clubface? The sound and feel of a purely struck shot are the same, regardless of what ball you're using.
• Swing Tempo: The range is the perfect place to work on a smooth, unhurried rhythm.
• Start Line and General Direction: While they might not fly the right distance, practice balls will honestly show you your swing path. If you’re pulling everything left or slicing balls to the right, that's valuable feedback. Pick a target and focus on starting the ball on your intended line.
• Practice a Structured Routine: Don't just mindlessly beat balls with your driver. Work your way through the bag. Hit 10 shots with your wedge, 10 with a mid-iron, and 10 with a wood. Simulate playing a hole: hit a driver, then an iron, then a wedge. This makes your practice more deliberate.

Using Limited-Flight Balls at Home

Foam and plastic balls are great for repetition and building muscle memory when you can't get to the course.

• Full-Swing Feels: Trying to incorporate a new move your coach gave you? Making 50 swings in your backyard with a foam ball can do more to embed that feeling than one expensive range session.
• Chipping Mechanics: Take out the wiffle balls and practice your chipping motion inside or in the yard. Focus on the proper setup, body rotation, and keeping your wrists quiet. You’re training the motion, not the ball’s reaction.

A Pro Tip: The Hybrid Approach

Want the best of both worlds? Warm up with a small bucket of range balls to get your body loose and work on your tempo. Then, bring one sleeve of your actual on-course golf balls to hit at the end of your session. Hitting just a few shots with your gamer ball will give you a true sense of its flight, distance, and feel. This helps bridge the gap between range practice and on-course performance.

Final Thoughts

Practice golf balls are essential tools for a golfer's improvement, built for endurance rather than top-tier performance. By understanding that they will fly shorter and spin less, you can use them effectively to work on the root of your golf swing - your contact, tempo, and technique - without getting frustrated by the results.

Making your practice time productive comes down to knowing exactly what to work on. With Caddie AI, you have a 24/7 golf coach in your pocket to help you do just that. Instead of guessing, you can get specific drills to improve ball striking or instant clarification on any swing thought, helping every bucket of range balls translate into real, on-course improvement and more confidence.