Shelf life of a golf ball?

modore · June 30, 2020

I found Pro V 1 392's in my basement. They have probably been there for over 10 years. Any chance that they still perform ?

HyzerFlipDG · July 1, 2020

If it's from the last 18-19 years it's a solid core ball so much better chance of it being good still. If it is a wound core ball there is no chance that it has the same performance characteristics of when it was new.

My dad just played a round with me for the first time in about a dozen years and the Tommy Armour balls he had in the bag were still fine. He said he didnt notice a difference in trajectory, distance, or feel. He used to ne a scratch golfer so I'll take his word for it.

grm24 · July 1, 2020

As long as your basement garage doesn't have extreme temperature swings the Pro-V1's should be fine. A couple years back I played some old Nike TA2 LNG and Tour Accuracy DD balls along with Z-Star XV's. The Nike balls at the time were 15 years old and I saw little difference between them and the Z-Star XV in terms of distance and spin. Play your Pro-V1's.

cristphoto · July 1, 2020

They will be OK to use if stored in mild conditions. The manufacturers typically say a ball is good for about 5 years before performance drops off. That is probably true but for the reason that newer balls tend to perform slightly better with each new generation. The biggest difference I see is the newer models tend to feel slightly softer and have much better durability.