Ball manufacturers and majors: pre ProV1

The intro of the ProVi back in the early 2000's was a major turn in the ball and equipment industry. This was a little before my time in golf, before the dominance of the ProV1, what balls were winning majors back in the 80's and 90's?

Titleist Tour Balata

Balata, tour wound 90 and 100....

They were astonishingly complex in construction....especially to account for the different winds(90 and 100)

I’d memory serves, they were $30+ / dozen in the 80s due to the difficulty of mass production and ball complexity...

So tour balls are probably the same relative price per dozen, if not cheaper(less expensive relatively) today...

Tour Balata and Maxfli HT in the 80s and thru mid 90s. Titleist Profession was a BIG step towards ProV

Now that I think about it, I do remember Mark O'Meara winning two majors with the Strata.

Nick Price won with the Precept Extra-Spin (surlyn).

> @cristphoto said:

> Nick Price won with the Precept Extra-Spin (surlyn).

The original EV Extra Spin from the early 90’s was a 2-piece with a urethane cover. Bridgestone later released a 2-piece Surlyn covered ball with the same name, but they were unrelated.

For a while the ball that won the m> @storm319 said:

> > @cristphoto said:

> > Nick Price won with the Precept Extra-Spin (surlyn).

>

> The original EV Extra Spin from the early 90’s was a 2-piece with a urethane cover. Bridgestone later released a 2-piece Surlyn covered ball with the same name, but they were unrelated.

>

I can attest they were *very* different balls. Not withstanding reuse of the same name.

And FWIW, the later Surlyn ball was far more playable for me than the 90's vintage 2pc urethane. That was a ball truly only a Tour player could love IMO.

> @Christosterone said:

> Balata, tour wound 90 and 100....

> They were astonishingly complex in construction....especially to account for the different winds(90 and 100)

> I’d memory serves, they were $30+ / dozen in the 80s due to the difficulty of mass production and ball complexity...

> So tour balls are probably the same relative price per dozen, if not cheaper(less expensive relatively) today...

>

>

>

This is not the Tour Balata. The Balata had a liquid center. That is from the either the DT or the Professional.

> @Socrates said:

> > @Christosterone said:

> > Balata, tour wound 90 and 100....

> > They were astonishingly complex in construction....especially to account for the different winds(90 and 100)

> > I’d memory serves, they were $30+ / dozen in the 80s due to the difficulty of mass production and ball complexity...

> > So tour balls are probably the same relative price per dozen, if not cheaper(less expensive relatively) today...

> >

> >

> >

>

> This is not the Tour Balata. The Balata had a liquid center. That is from the either the DT or the Professional.

The Professional had a liquid center.

> @grm24 said:

> > @Socrates said:

> > > @Christosterone said:

> > > Balata, tour wound 90 and 100....

> > > They were astonishingly complex in construction....especially to account for the different winds(90 and 100)

> > > I’d memory serves, they were $30+ / dozen in the 80s due to the difficulty of mass production and ball complexity...

> > > So tour balls are probably the same relative price per dozen, if not cheaper(less expensive relatively) today...

> > >

> > >

> > >

> >

> > This is not the Tour Balata. The Balata had a liquid center. That is from the either the DT or the Professional.

> The Professional had a liquid center.

So did the Tour Balata.

> @trackcoach13 said:

> > @grm24 said:

> > > @Socrates said:

> > > > @Christosterone said:

> > > > Balata, tour wound 90 and 100....

> > > > They were astonishingly complex in construction....especially to account for the different winds(90 and 100)

> > > > I’d memory serves, they were $30+ / dozen in the 80s due to the difficulty of mass production and ball complexity...

> > > > So tour balls are probably the same relative price per dozen, if not cheaper(less expensive relatively) today...

> > > >

> > > >

> > > >

> > >

> > > This is not the Tour Balata. The Balata had a liquid center. That is from the either the DT or the Professional.

> > The Professional had a liquid center.

>

> So did the Tour Balata.

As did the Tour Prestige and the surlyn covered Tour Distance/Tour Distance SF balls.

> @wombat_vortex said:

> The intro of the ProVi back in the early 2000's was a major turn in the ball and equipment industry. This was a little before my time in golf, before the dominance of the ProV1, what balls were winning majors back in the 80's and 90's?

Titleist Professional. Perhaps the Maxfli Revolution. One of the best wound balls of all time.

> @grm24 said:

> > @wombat_vortex said:

> > The intro of the ProVi back in the early 2000's was a major turn in the ball and equipment industry. This was a little before my time in golf, before the dominance of the ProV1, what balls were winning majors back in the 80's and 90's?

>

> Titleist Professional. Perhaps the Maxfli Revolution. One of the best wound balls of all time.

I still have a Maxfli Revolution - holed my second shot on a Par 5 with it for an Albatros. Will always keep it. Freddy's ball!

> @grm24 said:

> > @Socrates said:

> > > @Christosterone said:

> > > Balata, tour wound 90 and 100....

> > > They were astonishingly complex in construction....especially to account for the different winds(90 and 100)

> > > I’d memory serves, they were $30+ / dozen in the 80s due to the difficulty of mass production and ball complexity...

> > > So tour balls are probably the same relative price per dozen, if not cheaper(less expensive relatively) today...

> > >

> > >

> > >

> >

> > This is not the Tour Balata. The Balata had a liquid center. That is from the either the DT or the Professional.

> The Professional had a liquid center.

Yes, Prestige. I kinda thought Professional was sounding wrong, but couldn't dredge up the name. I made a hole-in-one with a Prestige ball when they were current.

I can remember the Spalding Tour Edition, apparently Greg Norman played it in the late 1980's, with its Zinthane cover it was super-spinny.

Back in the day (damn, I'm getting old), many/most manufacturers had their own line of golf balls. The Spalding Dot, was very popular, along with the Dunlop Maxfli, and the Wilson Staff. There were others, Slazenger, Ram, and who could ever forget the Ping two-color ball!

AHH the Revolution, that was the first time in my golf career that I didn't play a Titleist. The revolution was a great ball compared to the professional

Until the earthquake in Japan in the 90s, Maxfli had a reasonably large piece of the golf ball pie. That quake disrupted their production, and they lost ground.

No offense intended to anyone, but it's always odd seeing the perspective of folks who don't realize, or forget, there were four or five (if not more) solid core tour level golf balls on the market before the Pro V1 was released. In the case of Precept and Strata, quite a few years prior. Many tournaments were won with all of them.

The golfball count on Tour is no different than the driver count, in that the position of the #1 player is largely purchased. For some reason it's overlooked in golf balls. {shrug}

The same guys who get paid to play a Titleist ball could get paid to play something else.

> @NRJyzr said:

> Until the earthquake in Japan in the 90s, Maxfli had a reasonably large piece of the golf ball pie. That quake disrupted their production, and they lost ground.

>

> No offense intended to anyone, but it's always odd seeing the perspective of folks who don't realize, or forget, there were four or five (if not more) solid core tour level golf balls on the market before the Pro V1 was released. In the case of Precept and Strata, quite a few years prior. Many tournaments were won with all of them.

>

> The golfball count on Tour is no different than the driver count, in that the position of the #1 player is largely purchased. For some reason it's overlooked in golf balls. {shrug}

Excellent reply! The multi-layer solid balls were starting to appear in the mid 90's. I was busy with three children in High School all playing three sports! I was still playing golf but on an extremely limited (one or twice a month) basis. I can't remember how I started using the Top Flite three piece ball but it was better than anything else I played! (I shot in the nineties most of the time in those days!) A few years later the youngest was finishing an advanced degree and I was playing regularly and I found some Top Flite Strata TL Tour golf balls on closeout. I left a note with a salesman that I would purchase all they had for an amount lower than the closeout price. A week later I had twenty dozen!!!! Long story short, I must have found a new favorite a few years later as I still have eleven dozen on the shelf in the basement! I'll make an effort to play them in July or August and see if they still perform as advertised so many years ago!

> @davep043 said:

> I can remember the Spalding Tour Edition, apparently Greg Norman played it in the late 1980's, with its Zinthane cover it was super-

Worst golf balls I can remember over the last 40 years! Lol

They definitely spun but they were dramatically short off the tee, at least off my Wilson Staff Tour Block driver.

Yes me I haven’t seen mentioned won a considerable number of tournaments. MacGregor Tourney balata.

To be honest I didn't really see the Pro V1 as the death of the wound urethane ball - for me that was from a small sportswear manufacturer from Oregon, putting together their Tour Accuracy TW ball for some bloke called Eldrick. I remember them being pretty incredible when they first came out - a tour level ball that actually span into greens, without leaving most of the cover on the grooves. They did chew up eventually, but nowhere near as quickly as a Tour Balata / Professional etc.

Us hackers, if we wanted a decent durable ball normally had to make do with the Surlyn PTS Wound, or latterly the Maxfli Revolution. However the Tour Accuracy, and latterly Pro V1 changed all of that.

Anyone remember lining the original Pro V1 up on the seam for that extra (apocryphal) 20 yards? :)

Titleist Professional and Maxfli Revolution were fantastic balls in their day, better than the balatas they replaced. Nike was really the first big “player” with a urethane solid core tour ball. I remember a Tiger switching and saying Phil and the other Titleist guys were playing “old tech” and would get left behind. He was right.

I remember the first time I tried a ProV1 coming from a Professional.... it was unbelievable. It did EVERYTHING... and gave up nothing. I couldn’t believe it.

ZA

> @ZA206 said:

> Titleist Professional and Maxfli Revolution were fantastic balls in their day, better than the balatas they replaced. Nike was really the first big “player” with a urethane solid core tour ball. I remember a Tiger switching and saying Phil and the other Titleist guys were playing “old tech” and would get left behind. He was right.

>

> I remember the first time I tried a ProV1 coming from a Professional.... it was unbelievable. It did EVERYTHING... and gave up nothing. I couldn’t believe it.

>

> ZA

I believe that Bridgestone released the Precept MC Tour Premium as the first retail multilayer solid core urethane ball in January 2000. The Nike Tour Accuracy (production outsourced to Bridgestone) was released later in 2000 as was the Callaway Rule 35.

> @storm319 said:

> > @ZA206 said:

> > Titleist Professional and Maxfli Revolution were fantastic balls in their day, better than the balatas they replaced. Nike was really the first big “player” with a urethane solid core tour ball. I remember a Tiger switching and saying Phil and the other Titleist guys were playing “old tech” and would get left behind. He was right.

> >

> > I remember the first time I tried a ProV1 coming from a Professional.... it was unbelievable. It did EVERYTHING... and gave up nothing. I couldn’t believe it.

> >

> > ZA

>

> I believe that Bridgestone released the Precept MC Tour Premium as the first retail multilayer solid core urethane ball in January 2000. The Nike Tour Accuracy (production outsourced to Bridgestone) was released later in 2000 as was the Callaway Rule 35.

>

The Rule 35 ball was released in February 2000. IIRC with the licensed use of Titleist ball patents. Same with the CTU balls. What was the cover of the solid core M/L Strata that Mark O'Meara used made of when he won his majors in 1998? Urethane or some ionomer blend?

> @storm319 said:

> > @ZA206 said:

> > Titleist Professional and Maxfli Revolution were fantastic balls in their day, better than the balatas they replaced. Nike was really the first big “player” with a urethane solid core tour ball. I remember a Tiger switching and saying Phil and the other Titleist guys were playing “old tech” and would get left behind. He was right.

> >

> > I remember the first time I tried a ProV1 coming from a Professional.... it was unbelievable. It did EVERYTHING... and gave up nothing. I couldn’t believe it.

> >

> > ZA

>

> I believe that Bridgestone released the Precept MC Tour Premium as the first retail multilayer solid core urethane ball in January 2000. The Nike Tour Accuracy (production outsourced to Bridgestone) was released later in 2000 as was the Callaway Rule 35.

>

Thought the first was the Top Flite Strata?

> @"Holy Moses" said:

> > @storm319 said:

> > > @ZA206 said:

> > > Titleist Professional and Maxfli Revolution were fantastic balls in their day, better than the balatas they replaced. Nike was really the first big “player” with a urethane solid core tour ball. I remember a Tiger switching and saying Phil and the other Titleist guys were playing “old tech” and would get left behind. He was right.

> > >

> > > I remember the first time I tried a ProV1 coming from a Professional.... it was unbelievable. It did EVERYTHING... and gave up nothing. I couldn’t believe it.

> > >

> > > ZA

> >

> > I believe that Bridgestone released the Precept MC Tour Premium as the first retail multilayer solid core urethane ball in January 2000. The Nike Tour Accuracy (production outsourced to Bridgestone) was released later in 2000 as was the Callaway Rule 35.

> >

>

> Thought the first was the Top Flite Strata?

Top Flite Strata was the first multilayer solid core ball but it had a surlyn cover.

> @storm319 said:

> > @"Holy Moses" said:

> > > @storm319 said:

> > > > @ZA206 said:

> > > > Titleist Professional and Maxfli Revolution were fantastic balls in their day, better than the balatas they replaced. Nike was really the first big “player” with a urethane solid core tour ball. I remember a Tiger switching and saying Phil and the other Titleist guys were playing “old tech” and would get left behind. He was right.

> > > >

> > > > I remember the first time I tried a ProV1 coming from a Professional.... it was unbelievable. It did EVERYTHING... and gave up nothing. I couldn’t believe it.

> > > >

> > > > ZA

> > >

> > > I believe that Bridgestone released the Precept MC Tour Premium as the first retail multilayer solid core urethane ball in January 2000. The Nike Tour Accuracy (production outsourced to Bridgestone) was released later in 2000 as was the Callaway Rule 35.

> > >

> >

> > Thought the first was the Top Flite Strata?

>

> Top Flite Strata was the first multilayer solid core ball but it had a surlyn cover.

Got it. Were there versions with a urethane cover?

> @grm24 said:

> > @storm319 said:

> > > @ZA206 said:

> > > Titleist Professional and Maxfli Revolution were fantastic balls in their day, better than the balatas they replaced. Nike was really the first big “player” with a urethane solid core tour ball. I remember a Tiger switching and saying Phil and the other Titleist guys were playing “old tech” and would get left behind. He was right.

> > >

> > > I remember the first time I tried a ProV1 coming from a Professional.... it was unbelievable. It did EVERYTHING... and gave up nothing. I couldn’t believe it.

> > >

> > > ZA

> >

> > I believe that Bridgestone released the Precept MC Tour Premium as the first retail multilayer solid core urethane ball in January 2000. The Nike Tour Accuracy (production outsourced to Bridgestone) was released later in 2000 as was the Callaway Rule 35.

> >

> The Rule 35 ball was released in February 2000. IIRC with the licensed use of Titleist ball patents. Same with the CTU balls. What was the cover of the solid core M/L Strata that Mark O'Meara used made of when he won his majors in 1998? Urethane or some ionomer blend?

I believe the ML was actually balata. Spaulding also had the Strata Tour Professional around that time but I can’t find an exact release year nor confirmed cover material. Maxfli also released the Revolution Soild around this time but that was a bit of a flop.

Unfortunately not a lot of available documentation for that time period...