Hot List Criteria, The Rating, The Awards, The Terms, Golf Balls, Hot List 2009 rankings, performance, innovation, feel, demand: Golf Digest Magazine

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The terms: Two-piece: A cover and a core.
Three-piece: A cover and either a core inside a core, or a core surrounded by a mantle.
Four-piece: A cover and either dual cores and a mantle, or a single core and dual mantles.
Ionomer: A durable cover material made of a blend of plastic resins (Surlyn).
Mantle: A layer of ionomer between the core and the cover usually used to control spin of high-speed impact.
Urethane: A softer, more elastic cover material than ionomer and more difficult to manufacture.

The robot

Our process included robot testing at Golf Laboratories, an independent company in San Diego. Using a driver with 10.5 degrees of loft, the robot hit each ball at 96 miles per hour. We then had the robot hit every ball with a 56-degree wedge (half swing).

Driver: The balls had marginal differences in spin rate (within 400 revolutions per minute) and launch angle (within a degree), so the difference in total distance would be negligible. But less loft could increase those ranges. Also, at high swing speeds, low-compression (or softer) balls don't fly as far as high-compression (or firmer) balls because they lose energy by compressing more at impact.

Wedge: Here balls differed. You could plot them along a slope from high launch/low spin to low launch/high spin. That slope mirrors increasing price and technology.

DRIVER: SAME DIFFERENCE: At our robot's test clubhead speed of 96 miles per hour (slightly faster than average golfers), there was little difference in performance. But depending on your needs, some balls might be a better fit. The more you slice or hook, for example, the less spin you want; the faster you swing, the less you might benefit from a low-compression, two-piece ball.

WEDGE: SPIN ZONE: Remember that spin matters to your short game to the extent that you can take advantage of it. Most balls with ionomer (Surlyn) covers spin less because they tend to slide up the clubface. But balls with urethane covers tend to stick to the face longer, thus imparting more spin. USGA testing has found that balls with urethane covers spin 60 percent more than ionomer balls in shots from the rough.