ProCheck Golf Ball Compression Gage Review

If you're a serious golfer you probably know that "Compression Matters" when it comes to driving your golf ball. You also are most likely aware that higher swing speeds lead to longer drives. Even if you don't have Dustin Johnson's whip like speed you can maximize your drives by matching your swing speed to the proper ball compression.

Let's look at the following graphic which shows how compression plays a role in getting the most distance possible from your swing speed. Too much compression and you are leaving yards on the tee box, not enough compression and your hurting your chances of getting home in two. Like Goldilocks, you want to find the compression that's just right for your swing, but how?

Historically a golfer would need to take their balls into a laboratory and use bulky machines and math, yuck I hate math, to come up with an optimal compression ball to match their swing speed, but not anymore.

A company called Golftek (not to be confused with Golftec) has developed ProCheck, an affordable, easy to use device that brings ball compression technology right into the palm of your hand.  Now golfers can conveniently test every golf ball in their bag and be certain the compression of the ball matches their swing speed. The makers of ProCheck claim the device is 94% accurate in measuring against manufactures listed compression specifications.

The ProCheck comes in a cool carrying case that will fit easily in any pocket of your golf bag.   

When you unzip the case you will find the device and a chart, similar to the one below. For those of you who have never had your swing speed measured you can use this chart to estimate your speed based on your average driving distance and match to your perfect compression ball. According to ProCheck, this chart was developed using 5 separate published driver carry tests and an average was created based on those results.

Using the device to measure ball compression is incredibly easy. To get started turn the device on and it will tell you to insert the ball, place the ball in the hole as shown with the logo centered and facing you. Next the device will tell you to pull the trigger. Once the device has measured the compression it will show an "R" in the display that tells you to hit the green Release button. The ProCheck then measures the compression of the ball using a bar image with 1 bar being very soft (vrsft) and 8 bars being very firm (vfrm).

We tested a number of new golf  balls we had on hand results below.

 We also measured some golf balls we recently found on the course results below

 

Finally we measured some new golf balls that have been sitting in our garage for a few years.

After measuring all of the balls for this article it is easy to see a trend that the older balls were all over the spectrum when it came to firmness, while today's balls appear to be centering in the soft to medium compression range. 

We wondered if there was any inter-box variability among balls so we measured a full box of new Snell MTB Black balls. We took two measurements from each ball and listed the number of bars shown for each of those measurements. While there were minute differences between some balls, all of them were within listed compression from Snell.

Summary:

If you are a casual golfer who hits the links once a month and is happy playing old water balls the ProCheck is probably not for you. But if you are golfer who wants to maximize every last bit of distance off the tee then we see a lot of value in adding the ProCheck to your golf bag. If you've gone to the trouble of getting your clubs fitted, measured your swing speed to be the best golfer you can be, why wouldn't you want to match your golf ball compression to help you maximize your distance? Also, golf balls compression changes over time and being able to measure those balls that have been sitting in your garage through 2 summers and two winters is probably a good thing.

The ProCheck for this review was provided to Golf Gear Box by Golftek.

 

The ProCheck is available for sale at www.procheckgolf.com