Different golfers experience feel in different ways. Feel is very closely tied to acoustics and the sound, so different clubs may change the perception of feel for different players. Mike Madson, VP of Golf Ball R&D at Acushnet Company, explains, “We've given players really high compression golf balls and really low compression golf balls and put headphones on them and had them hit. What we found is they can't tell the difference between the two.”
Some golfers prefer a softer feeling golf ball, others prefer a slightly firmer feeling golf ball, and different players experience that feel in different ways. Sometimes a player wants to hit putts on the green and feel the golf ball coming off the putter face. For others it's more in the short game with wedges around the green. And it can even be how it feels off the driver.
Jeremy Stone, VP of Marketing at Titleist adds, “While flight and spin are measurable performance attributes, feel is incredibly important to certain golfers. That’s why we pay so much attention to that when we're making a recommendation for a best fit golf ball.”