It’s not surprising that I’m chatting about the weather because it certainly wasn’t golf weather last weekend. This was ironic after last week’s newsletter when I was focused on trying to find motivation to kickstart my golfing year. Well, it didn’t happen. I chose to walk my dog instead across the golf course.

To be fair, the fairways and greens were covered in frost, and I couldn’t believe people were actually playing. They definitely needed a coloured golf ball and were negotiating a very different golf experience. On the subject of golf balls, do you change your ball between seasons?

 I prefer a particular brand of golf ball – usually Titleist or Srixon – but I’m also sometimes guilty of using the first ball that I pull out of my golf bag, one that I’ve found, or a sleeve that I’ve been fortunate to be given at an industry event.

 I’m mentioning this because we’re not doing ourselves any favours by switching from brand to brand or even model to model, as golf balls have their own characteristics, which means we’ll never gain any consistency over the distance we hit our shots or the touch and feel we have around the greens if we keep swapping, as every ball reacts differently.

 Single figure golfer Carly Cummins emphasised this in the article I commissioned her to write for Golf Monthly when we got chatting about how different golf balls can affect your score. Most importantly, why you should switch from your usual summer ball of choice to a different ball during winter months. I asked Carly to put this to the test and when using her summer ball (a Titleist Pro V1) on hard ground in winter conditions, it cost her many shots – a gross difference of 10.

 In the article, Carly explains how her winter ball (Srixon AD333) flies off the clubface faster, so although courses play longer in the winter, this ball flies further in the air to counteract the lack of runout. Plus, this firmer-feeling ball, with a harder cover, is easier to hit to the hole, saving her from leaving putts short.

 On another note, the tech-driven TGL golf league, the brainchild of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, has been the talk of the golfing world since it launched last week at the new state-of-the-art SoFi Center in Florida. In a family-orientated atmosphere, the league’s goal is to engage a new audience and grow the game, so why are there no women competing?

 From grassroots to tour level, making the game more inclusive with less segregation is key. It would have been great to give an opportunity to the world’s leading female players to showcase their talent to a new audience. Players such as Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko, among others, are based in Florida, and with the LPGA Tour not resuming until the end of January, it’s likely they would have been available to compete.

 If the league is a success, maybe women will feature in the future, but as we know, when it comes to women’s golf, we have to be patient!

Alison Root

Women's Editor Golf Monthly