If you’re an average golfer, you need to be using the best golf balls for mid handicap players. Besides needing to put the work in to lower your scores—an essential duty in golf improvement, having the right equipment makes this feat easier to accomplish. When it comes to the best golf balls for mid handicap players, our top pick is the Srixon Q-Star Tour. We chose this ball because of its versatility and the ways it benefits your long and short game. To find out more about this ball, as well as a handful of others, all you have to do is keep reading.
Top Pick: Srixon Q-Star Tour
Any top golf ball pick should be an ideal option for a variety of golfers. With our number one pick for best golf balls for mid handicap players, the Srixon Q-Star Tour was an easy choice. In reality, this ball can provide a boost to high, mid or low handicappers. A rare find among golf balls, you can use this ball from the day you start playing to the day you break par the first time.
Power (and distance) start at the core with the Srixon Q-Star Tour. With a large, softcore, it makes it easy for golfers with moderate swing speeds to produce greater ball speed than with other options. Additionally, this core helps reduce side spin and increase accuracy with a full swing.
What really makes these the best golf balls for mid handicap players is the feel you get around the greens. This control starts and stops with a SpinSkin cover. The technological explanation requires far too much detail for this review. However, the proof is in the results. For a player that struggles to get their shots to land and then stop, you’ll notice an immediate improvement. Due to the cover’s design, your ability to stop the ball on a dime will get better without changing the way you approach each shot.
Pros
- The top pick on our best golf balls for mid handicap player list helps you add distance with longer shots and produce more spin around the greens
- Speed dimples help with producing an ideal launch angle for max distance
Cons
- Difficult to shape off the tee or with woods
Runner-Up: Vice Pro
Part of why we review golf balls is to get players to try something new. While they have increased in popularity, Vice golf balls still do not get the love they deserve. If you want to switch things up among the best golf balls for mid handicap players, look no further than the Vice Pro. A big benefit of playing a lesser-known (to the casual golfer) brand, it’s a lot easier to identify your ball on the rare occasion you’re looking off the fairway.
Vice offers an affordable alternative with superior performance compared to other brands. In this area, they deliver. Vice Pro golf balls are for mid handicappers getting towards the low handicap level. If you’re looking for the best golf balls for mid handicap players, as well as something you can continue to use as you get better, this is it. If you’re someone with a slower swing speed, but scores well, you might want to look elsewhere.
The only potential knock-on this ball is that it is designed for golfers that swing incredibly hard. With this, it cuts out the number of potential users that could get the maximum benefits it offers. On the other hand, this is perfect for younger golfers who swing hard but are looking to add a bit of accuracy to their game. By choosing the Vice Pro, these golfers will be refining their game, especially off the tee without reinventing their swing.
Pros
- Thin cover will feel almost sticky, helping you to increase spin with half swings and chip shots
- Line on side of the ball is plain—no dealing with an aesthetic design, putting alignment help only
Cons
- Best for golfers that carry the ball 200-250 yards off the tee, or who swing 95 to 110 mph, both of which are above average
Budget Option: Wilson Duo Soft+
Everyone loves an affordable golf ball. When it comes to the best golf balls for mid handicap golfers, the best choice that won’t hurt your pockets is the Wilson Duo Soft+.
If you’re a mid-handicapper, it means your swing isn’t perfect. You likely spend plenty of time on the range working on tweaking your mechanics or trying to produce a different shot shape. Well, staying on the range all the time is boring and we’ll occasionally want to try what we’re working on out on the course. When you’re going through a swing change, you don’t want to be playing a $4 golf ball.
Instead, you want to be playing the Wilson Duo Soft+. When you use these, it doesn’t hurt as much when you lose one. The real benefit is they offer a level of responsiveness you’ll need to decide whether you’re swing changes are improvements, or if you need to go back to the drawing board.
Now to the actual golf ball and why you’ll hit it longer with this option compared to the other best golf balls for mid handicap players. This is a two-piece golf ball with a major emphasis on core design. What makes this a great choice is that you do not need to swing like a long drive champion to increase distance. Regardless of your swing speed, the Wilson Duo Soft+ will help you maximize carry making this a great option for good golfers who don’t swing as hard.
Pros
- Best for golfers that swing around 90 mph, an average number
- With adding distance the main goal of the Wilson Duo Soft+ design, you’ll be in better spots while hitting into greens
Cons
- To make this more affordable, one area had to be noticeably affected and that’s a greenside spin
Best Golf Balls for Mid Handicap Players and Greenside Control: Titleist Tour Soft
Coming from the number one brand in golf, Titleist, what more could we say about their Tour Soft balls? Well, since this is a review, a lot. If you’re looking to add some control and accuracy inside 100 yards, then the best golf balls for mid handicap players in this area is the Titleist Tour Soft.
As the name suggests, Titleist Tour Soft golf balls are exactly that, soft. Modern golf balls are more durable than they were, even 15 years ago. Back in the early 2000s, a soft golf ball also meant having to replace it every few holes because you swung too hard, or took a few leaves off a tree. The Titleist Tour Soft is durable in every sense of the word. This ball will last your entire round—so long as you aren’t relying on cart path bounces to give you an edge in distance.
If you’re a mid-handicap golfer, there isn’t much separating you from breaking 80 and shooting 90. What it comes down to is putting yourself in situations where bogey is the worst outcome on a hole and you have a chance for birdie. In order to have more opportunities to break par (to make up for inevitable doubles), you need to be able to drop the ball on the green around the flag. The best option for doing this consistently, the Titleist Tour Soft.
Pros
- Simple, but understated, the side stamp design on Titleist Tour Soft golf balls is second to none
- Biggest benefit is short game control but does not come at the cost of distance
Cons
- May be easier to slice or hook Titleist Tour Soft balls compared to other models designed to produce accuracy off the tee
Best Golf Balls for Mid Handicap Players and Reducing Spin: Callaway Supersoft
There’s a reason we chose Callaway Supersoft as the best pick in our best golf balls for slicers list. Spoiler, it’s the same reason it’s reappearing on the best golf balls for mid handicap players list. Simply put, Callaway Supersoft golf balls are a great option for someone who is inaccurate off the tee, but solid just about everywhere else.
A lot of mid handicap golfers struggle with accuracy. If you were able to hit every fairway, you’d hit more greens. If you hit more greens, you make more pars and fewer bogeys.
When you want to hit more fairways, rather than change your swing a golf ball switch could help. Before you go and mess with the mechanics that have helped you improve in the past, a ball that reduces spin off the tee may be just what you need.
As if Callaway Supersoft needed another selling point, this ball could have very well have been our budget pick as well. Callaway is a top brand. Supersoft is a top model. A top brand, a top model, a perfect price—what more do you need?
Pros
- Distance and control off the tee lead to more fairways and shorter shots into the green
- HEX aerodynamics helps to produce optimal ball flight and reduce drag
Cons
- Harder to maximize distance via draw (reduced spin), but added distance from the ball’s design makes up for it
Best Golf Balls for Mid Handicap Golfers Takeaways
The only person who has the goal of becoming a mid-handicapper is a high handicapper. Once you hit that mid-tier of golfers, you begin looking for ways to shave a shot or two off your round average each year. Obviously, this is all in pursuit of becoming a low handicapper. Unfortunately, it’s significantly harder to go from 85 to 75 than it is from 95 to 85.
With fewer blow up holes that balloon your score, there is less margin for error. While this helps to keep the total score down, it also means you’ll have more difficulty really driving scores down. After all, it’s much easier to make a double bogey than it is a birdie, even for a decent golfer.
Our first few picks are general options for mid handicap golfers. As we go down the list, we start to target specific deficiencies in your game. We’ve always said that we know ourselves better than anyone else on the course. As such, only you can feel the response you get when hitting the ball and know what you really need to work on. If it’s a specific area, go with the golf ball designed to help a certain part of your game. If it’s general help you need, one of the all-around best golf balls for mid handicap players will do the trick.
For a variety of reasons, the better you get, the harder it is to keep improving. For that reason alone, you need to put yourself in the best possible situation to succeed. The best place to start, well that’s using one of the golf balls for mid handicap players. Companies design variations of their best golf balls for mid handicap because of how many players make up this group.
As is natural with a large fraction of golfers, their needs are wide and varying. Some golfers need help off the tee. Some need their help around the greens. Plenty of others need help everywhere on the course. As we mentioned before, golf companies make a lot of variations of their balls. To serve you best, we’re going to cover as many ways as possible they’ll help you improve your game.