What kind of ball do you play?

Equipment
1

Hey guys,

I noticed no one really talks much about the kind of ball you are using… or maybe i skipped over it some where haha.

Would love to know what you guys are playing to keep the irons down with enough spin to hold the greens!

2

I play with Srixon soft feel mainly because they are really affordable whilst still being softish. The AD333 are more of the same but spin more for extra £££

I’ve never truely gelled with a titleist ball. Balata’s were always out of my financial reach & the Pro V1 just inexplicably doesn’t light my fire. My favourite ball from youth is a Strata tour professional

3

Wilson Duo

4

Plastic rocks the lot of em. No preference for me. Bring back balata already

5

There are still some balatas floating around… but they are really hit and miss.
A few months ago Newman and I played a round out at Mare with some nice balatas. They flew nicely and not really much difference between them and the new balls as far as distance coming off persimmon, but you could work the irons so nicely into the greens… and spin them around on the greens to get to tucked pins etc.

Today, Zachaus brought out a couple old Maxfi balatas out to Mare and we played them until we realized they were completely dead. They would go about 2 clubs less with the irons. We didn’t really notice at first because the wind was coming off shore which is unusual and the first three holes played downwind. I birdied the first three holes rolling in a 20, and 30 footer and a kick in. They just putt so beautifully… but once we headed back into the wind… we were cooked. I was hitting nice flush irons that were landing 10 yards short of the green on the next 5 holes. I kept thinking it was some other factor, but we were both doing the same thing… and it was clear these balls were just dead as nails. We had to go back to plastic rock balls.

As far as new balls… I’m sure some are better than others… but I don’t find there to be anything similar to balata.

The Wilson FG is probably one of the better balls… but still is a rocket. Lets all keep searching for something that can spin a bit better and feel a bit softer off the putter.

6

Lag,

Further to the discussion from a while back on the “Golf Restoration Solutions” thread.

I was speaking with a friend of my father and he is involved in the golf equipment business. One of the things he does is golf ball development and production for the Asian market.

I asked him if he thought it was possible to create a golf ball that replicated the spin, feel and performance characteristics of balata. He said basically that anything is achievable in terms of softness, spin and distance. I didn’t ask him about this point directly but I suppose the main limitation is the cover material, ie urethane is really the only soft/high spin cover available now?

Also, he said that you can get custom designed balls made and the minimum production run is only 500 dozen. I thought perhaps that a Kickstarter project could be good way to get his happening if there is enough interest.

Keen to hear any ideas and feedback.

Cheers,
St Hubbins

7

500 dozen is less than 6 balls per registered account on the site. As of right now there are 1183. That might be do-able. If the cost was similar to ProV1’s I would be willing to commit to a couple dozen.

8

I would commit to 10 dozen

Steve

9

I’ll commit to 5 dozens, if the price is close to Pro V 1.

10

Thanks for the replies, fellas.

The way I see it, I doubt people will want to stump up the cash without any guarantee that the product is going to be any good (ie. that it achieves the objective of replicating the characteristics of balata).

I can only see it working if the manufacturer is willing to provide protoypes for evaluation purposes ahead of the production run.

My thinking was that we could then provide these samples to those whose judgement we trust (Lag, Bradley etc) and if they give the thumbs up, then we go ahead with production.

Do you think that would work best?

11

sounds like a sensible plan

12

One potential problem though is getting the ball to be USGA approved. For those who compete in USGA or R&A sanctioned events, I don’t know if it makes sense to practice with a ball that performs differently than the one you use in competition.

13

I don’t think having the USGA approve this “experimental” batch of balls is that much of a problem at this time. If we were to truly get a balata like ball that truly does seem to be like the balatas of old and everyone here loves and buys them, then we could get them sent to the USGA for testing/approval. I would imagine whoever this manufacturer is, has a direct pipeline to the USGA/R&A testing for approval. Whatever balls they are producing now probably goes for approval testing now.

No raining on our parade jrich99… :wink:

Seems like with the ball technology we have today, it should be relatively easy to recreate a balata type ball that lasts as long as a modern ball. They have already done it in the past, I used to love the Strata ball back in the 90’s. Balata like performance at a decent price.

BTW, If Lag/Two gets to test these balls and they like them, put me down for 5 dozen (if at ProV or less pricing).

14

Hey everyone,
first time posting here, but I’ve been lurking the forums for a few months now, soaking up information like a sponge :smiley:.

I love that this is being discussed here. Nowhere else do you find people talking about getting a new ball to feel like the old balatas!

I’ve been playing the Wilson FG Tours and they’re nicer than many, but they still feel like rocks. Also recently discovered that Penfold is still making balls. Wonder what those feel like…

Any progress with this new ball idea? Would be seriously interested in what comes of this.