Golf balls, tiny white spheres that get smacked hundreds of yards off of a tee, look the same to the spectating eye. But there’s quite a bit of preference, and several important factors, that go into the ball a golfer uses.
That’s why Bridgestone Golf is releasing a new app, BFIT, that helps golfers of all levels figure out the ball that works best for them on the course. The concept is called ball fitting, and the app will help players determine — through various speed and distance metrics — the type of golf ball that will optimize their game on the course.
The app itself offers two options: a quick fitting, or a more in-depth option. Golfers using the app first input personal statistics and information pertinent to their style of golf — whether they prefer feel or distance, how often they play, and the current brand and model of the balls they use.
“A professional golfer may be seeking a lot of spin. That way they can control it around the greens and get it to stop, but then in turn, a golfer that can’t really control the ball as well as a professional golfer wouldn’t want a lot of spin,” said Adam Rehberg, a Bridgestone Golf ball fitting representative.
To give the golf ball these different properties, Bridgestone manufactures its different models of balls with certain materials, from the core to the surface, that can affect the spin, accuracy and distance the ball travels, and how the ball responds to different types of clubs. A golf ball can be customized in any manner consistent with the regulations enforced by the United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.
“We know more about the golf ball performance than anybody else from a user perspective,” Rehberg said.
“We do our best to provide the golfer with the most optimal fit and with the magnitude of data that we’ve compiled over the years.”
Rehberg said Bridgestone owns a trove of data from 350,000 ball fittings and two million unique swings to create algorithms that can calculate the ball’s spin rate, carry distance and total distance from the analysis of a high-speed video taken within the app. Those 350,000 individual ball fittings provided Bridgestone with data from professionals, but mostly from amateurs across the country.
One professional, Bryson DeChambeau — the 2016 Web.com tour champion — has been touting BFIT. He showed it off at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show and has advocated avidly for ball fitting as a practice. The USGA, however, prohibits the use of the app, or any similar technology that provides real-time data, on the golf course during competitive play.
“With my technology and physics background, the BFIT app is perfect for me,” DeChambeau said in a statement. “The success of Bridgestone’s ball fitting program has benefited many over the past decade, but the masses deserve to experience how valuable this process is and the app allows maximum inclusion for golfers of all skill levels.”
Bridgestone is launching the app in the U.S. anticipating commercial success. From there, the app could launch in Japan, where the company has a large presence, and could eventually spawn a more advanced version and a spin-off app that would help show a golfer which clubs to use.
Because of the video quality the app requires, the app works only on the iPhone 6 or newer and on the iPad Pro 9.7, despite having been in development since the inception of the iPhone 5. It is currently only available for free on the Apple platform.
“The big key with this device is it’s going to be used as a tool to get you fit on the right golf ball,” Rehberg said. “But it also will be used in its launch monitor capacity to be able to educate the golfer to the nth degree on what their conditions are.”
