Updated May 21, 2021. This article was thoroughly audited by multiple golf experts and coaches for its accuracy. You can read more about our rigorous testing protocol here.
The Rundown:
Best Overall: Titleist Velocity
“If you’re looking for the most forgiving golf ball, look no further, the Titleist Velocity is designed for you. It offers high levels of forgiveness with maximum distance. You can even choose from several fun color options.”
Most Forgiving Option for Low Handicappers: TaylorMade TP5x
“Offering an exceptional tour-level distance with a soft, high-spin cover, the TaylorMade TP5x is the most forgiving option for low handicappers. It even has a speed-layer system which increases carry, control, and forgiveness.”
Most Forgiving Soft Feel Option for High Handicappers: Callaway SuperSoft
“For high handicappers, Callaway SuperSoft is your most forgiving soft feel option. It offers a soft feel, a high-spinning core, and exceptional distance!”
Most golfers believe that the way to inject forgiveness in their game is through equipment. And while that is true, it remains only partially true, because they are forgetting how golf balls play a part of the final result as well.
The most forgiving golf balls offer advanced dimple design, a high-quality compression core, and multi-piece construction that aids in helping create straighter shots.
In our review of the best forgiving golf balls, we’ll take a look at how these balls react to all levels of swing speeds, differing ball flight, and if softer feel causes shots to go off their intended target line.
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Table of Contents
Most Forgiving Golf Balls in 2021
Here are our top picks for the most forgiving golf balls today:
- Best Overall: Titleist Velocity
- Most Forgiving Option for Low Handicappers: TaylorMade TP5x
- Most Forgiving Soft Feel Option for High Handicappers: Callaway SuperSoft
- Best Extra Spin Option: Titleist Pro V1
- Best Soft Feel Option for Mid Handicappers: Titleist TruFeel
- Most Forgiving Option for High Handicappers: Bridgestone e12 Contact
- Best Long Distance Option for Beginning Golfers: Bridgestone e6
Titleist Velocity
Best Overall Option
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KEY FEATURES
- Wonderful forgiveness with soft and responsive feel
- High-quality cover that reduces drag and increases length of drives
- Surprisingly soft ball around the green
With the Titleist Velocity golf balls, a golfer will find high levels of forgiveness with maximum distance.
Off the tee box, the Titleist Velocity is engineered to create length with low side spin for tight shot dispersion with accuracy. Fueled by an energetic core, the Velocity provides outstanding feel with irons and wedges.
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Around the green, the Velocity provides a soft cover to generate more rotation over comparable soft feel golf balls. With the putter, the Velocity delivers accuracy from mid-range distances.
Another highlight of the Velocity remains the exciting and fun color options. The matte yellow, green, and orange matte finish options are easily the best golf balls for beginners.
TaylorMade TP5x
Most Forgiving Option for Low Handicappers
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KEY FEATURES
- Speed-layer system increases carry, control, and forgiveness
- Dual-spin cover provides soft feel on the green
- Exceptional tour-level distance with a soft, high-spin cover
Best for high speed swings, the TaylorMade TP5x golf balls provide more distance with the tour-level core that increases accuracy and forgiveness. Advanced players, including tour pros, love the TP5x due to its soft cover that increases rotation from inside 150 yards.
Off the tee box, TaylorMade golf balls, such as the high-end TP5x, offer minimal rotation to keep the ball in the fairway, ready to attack the flag.
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From the fairway, the TP5x offers a smooth strike, making it a great option from long distances with a hybrid or long iron.
Golf balls like the TP5x earn their reputation as wonderfully forgiving with a soft outer layer that provides feel and response.
Callaway SuperSoft
Most Forgiving Soft Feel Option for High Handicappers
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KEY FEATURES
- Two-piece construction with soft compression core inside the ball
- Hybrid cover increases ball speed, launch, and greenside control
- Six color options with green matte finish
The Callaway SuperSoft, a well-made two-piece low compression ball, offers a soft feel, a high-spinning core, and exceptional distance. With a highly forgiving nature on off-center strikes, this Callaway golf ball provides a low-cost option golf ball with accuracy and shot-shaping ability.
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For high handicappers, the SuperSoft offers low rotation with the driver with high launch to shorten the golf course.
A softer ball, such as the SuperSoft, remains a great option for golfers looking to lower their scores while increasing their accuracy into the fairway and putting surface.
Golf players that have just started their journey will greatly benefit from using a softer ball like the SuperSoft.
Titleist Pro V1
Best Extra Spin Option
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KEY FEATURES
- Soft feel for responsive short game play
- Exceedingly long distance with advanced dimple design
- Tour-level option that provides exciting all-around performance
One of the most successful golf balls in history is our next choice as the Titleist Pro V1 remains a weapon for the golf course. Great for advanced golfers, the Pro V1 is a high-quality ball that shortens the course for shorter approach entries into the green.
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Off the tee box, a Pro V1 provides minimal rotation with the driver for tighter shot dispersion that keeps the ball in the fairway with more regularity.
With the Titleist Pro V1 ball, golf aficionados can enjoy a professional-grade ball that generates length while providing the response of soft golf balls.
Titleist TruFeel
Best Soft Feel Option for Mid Handicappers
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KEY FEATURES
- Low compression ball with high-impact core
- High-quality cover with tour distance and minimal rotation
- Soft feel around the green with shot-stopping power
Soft golf balls, such as our next choice, the Titleist TruFeel, are great from the tee box to the green. This ball delivers distance with the driver, along with a high approach entry that lands soft on the putting surface.
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The outer layer generates high rotation through Titleist’s energetic interior core. TruFeel golf balls provide consistency with fairway woods and hybrids with forgiveness.
With outstanding greenside control, the Titleist TruFeel offers a soft ball that remains one of the best golf balls on the market.
Golf balls with a soft response, such as the TruFeel ball, are excellent options for mid handicappers looking to increase their touch around the cup.
Bridgestone e12 Contact
Most Forgiving Option for High Handicappers
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KEY FEATURES
- Great for slow swing speeds needing more distance
- High-grade cover offers the Contact Force Dimple system
- Low side rotation coupled with soft core provides better feel off the tee box
The Bridgestone e12 Contact provides low compression that helps boost launch and increase carry for longer yardage. The ball offers tight shot dispersion with the driver due to the lower rotation that keeps the ball headed along the target line.
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The highlight of the e12 Contact is the Contact Force Dimple cover. Engineered by the Bridgestone designers to increase the surface contact between the ball and the club face, the dimple cover reduces drag and provides a soft response that golfers enjoy.
Our choice for the most forgiving option for high handicappers, the e12 Contact offers a solid option at an affordable price.
Bridgestone e6
Best Long Distance Option for Beginning Golfers
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KEY FEATURES
- Two-piece ball delivers outstanding spin with soft response and feel
- Affordable price point makes ball great for beginning golfers
- Low compression option with energetic core for explosive distance
Popular golf balls, like our next choice, the Bridgestone e6, comes from the high-performing core that reduces side spin with maximum forgiveness. A two-piece golf ball, the e6 provides length with exceptional accuracy.
Off the tee box, finding a golf ball that delivers low spin offers the best avenue for increasing forgiveness and the e6 is quite successful in this regard.
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From the fairway, the e6 utilizes its low compression to increase launch with the soft core that produces dynamic length with tour-level spin.
A great long distance option for beginning golfers, the low compression Bridgestone e6 ball provides a soft cover with outstanding feel.
Things to Consider When Choosing the Most Forgiving Golf Ball
Compression
If you are a faster swinger, then you can improve your game with the help of high compression golf balls. To maintain maximum distance coupled with high speed golf swings, the golf ball must produce low spin off the tee.
High compression golf balls formulated to create a forgiving, low-spin flight remains the best option for a golfer with this skill set.
For slow swing speeds, a low compression core helps maintain length while boosting spring off the face of the golf club.
From tee to green, a lower compression ball helps senior golfers, women, and beginning golfers maintain their distance while providing unmatched consistency that increases forgiveness.
To find the best golf balls for your game, take a hard look at your swing speed and how it correlates with compression rating of your golf balls.
Dimple Design
A golf ball’s cover remains one of the most important factors in how forgiving your ball will be on the links. An advanced dimple design reduces drag by helping push the air that surrounds the ball away from the cover.
For long distance drives, a ball needs a dimple design that increases speed, while helping produce low spin. A tour-level ball, such as the Titleist Pro V1, offers a well-designed dimple pattern that offers reliable flight and accuracy, along with terrific shot-shaping ability.
On short iron shots, the dimple pattern produces the high spin needed to stop golf balls on the putting surface. Soft feel golf balls offer enhanced response that offers better forgiveness over distance golf balls.
Construction
Every piece of the golf ball’s construction, from its cover to the core, continues to bear responsibility for the ball’s overall performance.
A two-piece ball, like the Srixon Soft Feel and its Speed Dimple system, offers moderate forgiveness when compared to a ball with multi-piece construction that can provide more sophistication.
When dealing with the short game, multi-piece golf balls can also generate the spin to help stop a ball closer to the cup for shorter par putts that save the scorecard from unsightly bogeys.
Spin
Two categories of spin must be evaluated by golfers before deciding if the golf ball will help provide forgiveness.
The first part of the game with spin to consider is off the tee box. With the driver, golfers want low spin off the golf ball to reduce the penalty of a slice or hook, plus to make sure to maximize carry.
Back spin on the ball when using a long club, such as a driver or fairway wood, causes the ball to fly higher and shorter, a combination that provides far less forgiveness to the golfer.
The opposite remains true for when the golf ball sits in the fairway. At that point, the golfer wants spin to help stop the ball on the green. Whether the golfer is hitting a 150-yard 9-iron or a lob wedge from 50 yards, the ball’s spin dictates control of flight and distance.
Conclusion
Forgiving golf balls offer soft feel, low compression core, high spin close to the pin, and provide straighter shots that stay on target.
Our top choice, the Titleist Velocity, offers golfers superior forgiveness with high ball speed after impact. From the tee box, the Velocity reduces side spin, provides long distance, and promotes accuracy with an advanced dimple pattern.
Finding the most forgiving golf balls, without sacrificing length, automatically improves the quality of shots from anywhere on the golf course.
Whether you are a low handicappers or one of the beginners just picking up the game, finding the best golf ball to improve accuracy is a must-have in your golf bag.