Golf Wiffle Ball Practice Tips for Beginners

While Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Jordan Spieth have probably graduated from using plastic golf balls for practice, beginning golfers trying to improve their swing can actually benefit quite a bit just by using these hollow golf balls (shown on the left) when we want to practice, but can’t make it to the range or the weather is not conducive to actually playing a round of golf.

In this article I want to give you some golf wiffle ball practice tips that you can use to improve your golf swing. We will look at why these golf balls are good practice tools, what areas of your golf game can benefit the most from using practice golf balls, what clubs are best to use with golf wiffle balls, what are the best types of plastic golf balls to use, and where you can purchase plastic golf practice balls online.

Why Golf Wiffle Balls Make Good Golf Swing Training Aids

Any tool that can help beginning golfers improve their golf swing is a good training tool in my book. Here are some reasons why I like to practice with these golf wiffle balls and why they are also good for beginners

• Inexpensive so you can buy a lot and not have to worry about running out

• Allows anyone to practice hitting golf balls – as least as close as you can come to hitting golf balls – in confined areas, such as small backyards or even inside the garage

• Great training tool to practice golf indoors in the winter

• Provides a ‘swing target’ so that the hand-eye coordination required to hit a golf ball consistently is developed

• Have similar flight paths to actual golf balls, which helps curing slices and fixing hooks

In my opinion, the greatest benefit of using these golf balls is that when practicing they …

..provide a target for your club head….in this way they help beginning golfers develop a repeatable swing…

Tips for Practicing with Golf Wiffle Balls

Tip #1 – Select a good plastic golf ball.

Believe it or not these practice balls are all not created equally and the less expensive ones do crush quickly after repeated impacts. Even the higher-end ones are relatively inexpensive. I like the idea of someone who is new at golf and maybe doesn’t have a lot of extra money to spend being able to buy something that can actually help them get better at golf. Below I’ll tell you where you can buy these golf wiffle balls online

Tip #2 – Choose a club appropriate for this type of practice golf ball

Choose something you can use in a tight space, but that also allows you to practice a full golf swing. I like the shorter clubs like a pitching wedge or nine-iron. The irons allow you to get more use out of each practice ball, too. You can certainly use a driver, but the extra length of a driver is sometimes not what you want if you are practicing in your garage or basement. The plastic will also crush more quickly if you only use a driver.

Tip #3 – Use a golf mat when hitting plastic golf balls (especially indoors)

I use these balls in my garage in the winter and when I first started using them I neglected to buy a golf mat. Trying to hit these off of a hard surface or concrete like my garage floor is made out of is not fun. Even a slight mis-hit can damage your club head and, more importantly, injure you. A golf mat provides some soft, artificial turf that allows the ball to sit up so you are not directly hitting off of concrete.

Tip #4 – Buy extra golf wiffle balls

These practice balls are great, but they do not withstand a lot of repeated hits. Lately there have been some additional innovations like foam practice golf balls, as well as other alternatives, that are more durable and provide golf swing feedback that approximates more of hitting an actual ball.

Tip #5 – Use a golf net when practicing indoors

Even practice golf balls can damage the wall if struck hard. Also, they can ricochet off of hard surfaces, such as a concrete wall like the one in my garage, and hit you. A golf net can help catch the ball and prevent these deflections. I don’t typically use a golf net outdoors since I want to see the ball flight.

There is a good discussion and some additional tips on this online golf forum about the pros and cons of practicing with these and other types of golf balls that are specifically designed for practice as opposed to actual golf balls.

Where Can I Buy Plastic Golf Wiffle Balls Online?

There are a couple places where you can purchase practice golf balls. Prices vary and items come in and out of stock.

Amazon.com

You can by golf wiffle balls from Amazon.com. There are several different brands and they come in several different sizes. The 6 pack of golf wiffle balls to the left are available on Amazon and comes with free shipping on certain orders or depending on your membership. One of the great things about Amazon is that almost everyone has an account there already so there most likely won’t need to be any registering or setting up of a new account. However, on that site prices are subject to change and items do run out of stock. The good thing is there are usually multiple brands for this type of item and they come in lost of six, twelve and twenty-four.

 

Golfsmith (2018 Update: This program has been discontinued and is no longer open)

ZTech Airflow practice golf balls like the ones shown to the left come in an 18-count mesh bag and are available from Golfsmith. You can read what people are saying about them right here (no longer relevant). Although these were – in my opinion – slightly more durable than the ones above from Amazon. These were my favorite golf wiffle balls and the ones that I used to use the most for practicing in the backyard or in the garage when it’s too cold out to play. However, there are some new, comparable, practice golf wiffle balls now available on Amazon. These polyurethane practice golf balls are my new favorite (non-foam) practice balls.

 

What Other Alternatives to Golf Wiffle Balls Are There?

As I mentioned  above plastic golf balls are good to use in tight spaces and really help hand-eye coordination with your golf swing, but they don’t provide the type of feedback you get when you hit a real golf ball. Lately, there have been some advances in the development of practice balls.

The first new kind of golf practice ball is made out of foam. These are more dense and yet softer than golf wiffle balls, which are made out of plastic. Here are some examples.

Amazon

The balls to the left are made out of foam kind of like a nerf football. Because of this they are more durable and last longer than the plastic golf balls above. They also provide more swing feedback similar to a real golf ball. They go farther, as well. You can see if there are any in stock right here.

Golfsmith (2018 Update: This product is no longer available)

You can also get a twenty-four count of foam golf balls from Golfsmith (with bucket). The ones to the left were designed by Hank Haney and I feel like the colors are a little more natural. You can read more about the best foam practice golf balls available on Amazon here. In general they are similar to the ones above from Amazon.

 

How far do plastic golf wiffle balls go when you hit them?

Plastic golf balls can travel about 30-40 yards if hit very hard by a driver. As I said earlier, I like to use a pitching wedge or a 9-iron and even with a full swing I may only end up hitting a golf wiffle ball 20 yards or so with these clubs. The foam practice balls go a little farther due to having a higher density. Both are great golf training tools.

Anyway, I hope you’ve learned more than you ever wanted to know and enjoyed these golf wiffle ball practice tips. Whether you choose plastic or foam the main thing is to just get out there and have fun.

Happy Golfing!