How long should you use a golf ball before it’s no good?

Well, in 2019 there was an interesting story about a pro called Alex Chiarella.

And in a golf tournament in Canada, he used the same golf ball all four rounds to win the tournament. Here’s a picture of  Alex Chiarella’s golf ball after he used it for 72 holes.

Normally pros use a new ball every few holes. But what Alex did shows most “normal” golfers don’t need to follow that que. And another example is Gary Woodland.

In the 2019 U.S. Open which he won he only used 5 golf balls the entire tournament.

These guys are using Titleist golf balls and Titleist was asked to comment on this, and a Titleist rep said:

“Our normal rule of thumb for regular golfers is as long as paint loss, a scuff or defacement of the golf ball is less than the size of a dime, it should be good to go.”

See how the word Titleist is not clear anymore on the picture of the ball above?

I guess the moral of the story is that we can use golf balls a lot longer than we thought. They may not look as shiny and nice as a  new ball, but will probably perform pretty much the same.