The small ball

[James the Hogan Fan]

On the subject of lost, old-timey golf balls, I found this guy today in our course's bucket:

 

 

He's felt a little heavy, or perhaps dense, and when I compared sizes, he's English!

 

I'd never seen the British small-ball before, but now I want to try him out. Has anyone here played with the small ball, and how was it?

[Ty_Webb]

I didn't know Titleist ever made small ones. I've played with ones I've found on occasion. The ball is very stable in the wind, but it really sits down and it feels harder to get club on ball, especially in the rough.

[dcopp7]

Guarantee it has fluid center too...lol

[Jiggered]

A few of us over here in the UK play them occasionally.

They definitely go further than the larger ball and for the first few holes they're noticeably small but you soon get used to them.

 

I actually just won a dozen 1.62" Penfold GX100 balls on ebay as below which I'd bought to use but they look so good that now I'm loath to open them.

Magazine adverts of the day describe them as wound with a liquid core and balata cover.

 

 

[wkuo3]

They were still around when I started to play golf.

My father's friends used them because they believed the smaller fold balls were longer ( on rolling out ). Until they banned it from club competition.

One of the guy had several brand new Slazengers given to my father after he passed, I wanted to get a dozen or two to save them but, my father played them away and intentionally lost them on the golf courses they used to play together.

I did not find anything noticeably different than the regular sized golf ball, just like I did not find anything special about the other kind of "jumbo" sized golf ball which is slightly larger ( from the 80's ).

 

[RSinSG]

I hit a few when I first started playing (1967 or so) and they went equally as crappy as the larger ball.

[stixman]

I was brought up on the 1.62 and mourned it's passing.

Dunlop 65s regularly appear on Ebay UK at £10 a box (or so). Some can be soft but most are still good to play and work as designed.

The 1.68 sat up better on Parkland style courses which I imagine favours courses and course management in the US, but in the UK with our tighter lies and less manicured approach to the great game they were fine....provided your swing was directed 'down and through' the ball. I never noticed any difficulty getting the ball to stop as required on the green, and in the wind it could be persuaded to fly lower, and with a more handsy approach to swing technique a simple roll over would get the ball to run.

'Down and Through is where the good shots live' was the club players mantra and without any special talent I got down to 5 on our handicap system.

[rwc356]

I remember finding a Slazenger on the course back in the early 70s - being a student any shiny ball was a great find! Played it for most of the round and felt it was a little different but couldn't really figure why. After there round, putting it in my bag I noticed the size difference. Showed it to my Dad, and he said "thanks" - never did get it back ....

[elwhippy]

I found one on our range on Wednesday. A battered old Dunlop. For such a small difference in size it jumped out at me. Went like a boomerang as the cover was worn and the windings will have snapped and withered about 40 years ago. If I recall we made the 1.68 mandatory in 1982. At that time the Slazenger B51 was the marker leader.

[NRJyzr]

> @elwhippy said:

> I found one on our range on Wednesday. A battered old Dunlop. For such a small difference in size it jumped out at me. Went like a boomerang as the cover was worn and the windings will have snapped and withered about 40 years ago. If I recall we made the 1.68 mandatory in 1982. At that time the Slazenger B51 was the marker leader.

 

Found something online on the USGA website, says the small ball was not officially outlawed by the R&A until Jan 1, 1990. Oh my!

[stixman]

Most sources confirm that date, even Wikipedia. Events run under R&A jurisdiction, ie most of the world outside of the US, were fine to use the 1.92 on an optional basis until 1990.

[Nomad Golfer]

> @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> On the subject of lost, old-timey golf balls, I found this guy today in our course's bucket:

>

>

>

> He's felt a little heavy, or perhaps dense, and when I compared sizes, he's English!

>

> I'd never seen the British small-ball before, but now I want to try him out. Has anyone here played with the small ball, and how was it?

I played the English/Scottish small ball in the 70's until the American larger ball was introduced (forced?) into the golf market. I believe the small ball went further but the larger ball was easier to hit, I used Penfolds and Spaldings iirc.

 

[BIG STU]

Played them some back in the day. My old man had a Pro friend somewhere in the UK and got all kinds of "English" balls sent over. Titleists , Penfolds, Slazengers, Dunlop 65s and even Spalding Dots. Sold the heck out of them. Those balls would go like stink on the sun dried Carolina fairways in those days. All the hustlers played them off the tee unless they were playing a "down" match where they could not touch the ball. Now they hit a regular sized ball on green approaches because even though they were balata and wound they were hard to stop. For some reason I liked putting with them. Still have quite a few Penfolds with the different card suite markings on them. Also have 2 Dunlop 65s still in the wrapper. I was starting to play comp golf in Jr high and my old man did not want me hitting the small balls because they were not legal for comp over here. I remember one kid got DQed in Jr high for playing one. No malice intended he had bought some lake balls and one was in there. He did not honestly know. All he knew it was a Titleist. Someone noticed and called him on it. That is when my old man got me a ball check gauge. One of the reasons was to cover his own butt and protect me because everyone around knew he was the "importer" of the English sized balls and he figured someone would accuse me of cheating.

[bigdane]

> @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> On the subject of lost, old-timey golf balls, I found this guy today in our course's bucket:

>

>

>

> He's felt a little heavy, or perhaps dense, and when I compared sizes, he's English!

>

> I'd never seen the British small-ball before, but now I want to try him out. Has anyone here played with the small ball, and how was it?

 

In my early years, from 1964 to around 1980, that was the standard in Europe, 1.62" as opposed to the "American Size" 1.68".

The small ball is more upredictable, it swings fast, it is more fitting to play on links courses, where the wind does not get to it the same way, but sadly, it was discontinued. If you ever saw a small figurine with a very large head and a sixpence, it is the Penfold Guy - the most successfull 1.62" ball ever.

I would not recommend you hitting it, you'll risk it disintegrates in the air - keep it as a curiousity of our great game.

[James the Hogan Fan]

I had it on calipers today and it's actually shrunk a bit: 1.599-1.605" depending on where measured. Thought that was interesting.

[WoodHeads]

How do these compare to the "illegal" distance balls? Are those even smaller and heavier?

[stixman]

> @bigdane said:

> > @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > On the subject of lost, old-timey golf balls, I found this guy today in our course's bucket:

> >

> >

> >

> > He's felt a little heavy, or perhaps dense, and when I compared sizes, he's English!

> >

> > I'd never seen the British small-ball before, but now I want to try him out. Has anyone here played with the small ball, and how was it?

>

> In my early years, from 1964 to around 1980, that was the standard in Europe, 1.62" as opposed to the "American Size" 1.68".

> The small ball is more upredictable, it swings fast, it is more fitting to play on links courses, where the wind does not get to it the same way, but sadly, it was discontinued. If you ever saw a small figurine with a very large head and a sixpence, it is the Penfold Guy - the most successfull 1.62" ball ever.

> I would not recommend you hitting it, you'll risk it disintegrates in the air - keep it as a curiousity of our great game.

 

Back in 2003 we played Kristianstad with hickory, helped by Claes Kvist of Viken, we organised and provided hickories for over 50 of the members. We played Dunlop 65s and Penfolds, all 1.62, all traditional wound balls, all successfully, nothing exploded or got out of shape. It was a fun day and highly successful. Nothing wrong with the golf balls except unfounded rumour.

[Mike_C]

I remember seeing an odd one here and there here in the US in the 1970s as a kid. Don't know if it was because I was in Michigan, and maybe Canadians were playing the small ball and losing them here? I went to Europe in 1980 with my parents to see my brother in the Armed Forces, and got to play once, I think it was in Switzerland (was pretty much a cow pasture), and rented some clubs and bought I think 2 sleeves of the small Titleists they had in the pro shop.

[bigdane]

In the "old"days (the 1960s) the European standard size was 1.62", and the American 1.68". For some reason or another, today's standard is 1.68".

One reason for the 1.62" may have been that they are more suited to the windy courses in Scotland and Ireland.

One reason for the introduction of the 1.68" is probably that the majority of ball manufacturers were in the US, so the 1.62" sadly was phased out.

[Foozle]

Living and playing in Scotland, I grew up with the 1.62. My perspective is therefore the other way round to others here as I can clearly remember making the change to 1.68 - I am guessing in the early '80s? My main recollection was how much bigger the 1.68 looked at address! It felt quite daunting to hit one!

I think Dunlop 65 carried into 1.68 but lots of other names passed into history at that point.

I remember our club used to issue Dunlop Silver Max balls as prizes. I didn't get to play those very often......

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

Playing in the UK in the latter half of the Eighties, I don't think I ever saw a smaller sized Titleist. That is a novelty. Although I had some 1.62" balls, I preferred the larger US balls, but then again, I grew up playing an inland golf course.

As a small note of interest, I see quite a lot of 1.62" balata balls on sale in Japan (Dunlop and Bridgestone in particular). I am guessing here, but I suspect that the smaller sized ball remained popular here for some time. In fact, I have a sleeve of Dunlop small ball balatas that I found in a second hand shop here. Skins are a bit soft and yellowed, but they are playable. However, where I play, the fairways never really bake out enough to get that huge rollout.

[elwhippy]

I am sure the UK changed over in 1982. The Slazenger B51 was the biggest seller at my club. A great ball and more durable than Titleist, Maxfli and Penfold.

[BIG STU]

Catchy I know up until a few years ago there were different equipment rules in Asia versus the US and Europe. I know some drivers were non conforming in the USA and GB but were ok for comp in Asia tour events. Balls I am not so sure of on size. I think with the world wide tour things going on they more or less standardized the rules between all of them about 10 years ago.

[mocokid]

I had read that in order to compete and beat the US golfers and win in US,( where 3/4 majors are located), individually and in team comp (Ryder), Euros were best served by switching to the US ball, ASAP. They did and eventually won back the RC and had a core of dominant players by the mid late 80s who were winning on US soil, you know who they were.

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

I thought the "rest of the world" followed the R&A, but that may be the Rules of golf excluding equipment. I really don't know.

As an aside, some Japanese manufacturers make non-conforming clubs, as sell them as such. PRGR sell a 480cc high CoR driver for example.

https://www.prgr-golf.com/en/product/driver/19-super-egg-driver.html

If it makes the game more fun for the recreational golfer, why not?

[BIG STU]

I absolutely have no problem with it for the average recreational golfer if it enhances their fun and keeps them enjoying the game. Back when we had the golf shop we built a lot of the non conforming So Long drivers and sold a lot of Bandit balls. LOl we also had a run in with E-Bay over the PRGR hybrids. Somehow my partner Big John knew a lot of importers on the west coast and we ended up with a lot of those PRGR Hybrid heads. We built and sold some on E-Bay Someone flagged us accusing us of selling some kind of knockoff Ping hybrids. We jumped through hoops with the E-Bay people and they pissed John off and he pulled everything off of E-Bay. Yep no one outside of Asia knew about PRGR. Back then was the infancy of E- Bay and we were selling 2 to 5 k a month with golf equipment. Needless to say after a couple of weeks they e mailed John and gave him a phone number. We went back on there with the statement that these were made in Japan and were not Ping clones etc.

Now with the advent of world competition the equipment rules are standardized among the USGA and R&A even on the Asian tour.

[Hawkeye77]

Must have been in the pool!

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

heh, that must have been the early days of Ebay. Now, someone could just google PRGR and pull up a picture in an instant.

PRGR, by the way, make some really funky equipment. Not much of it is my cup of tea, but I have to commend them for pushing the envelope (think that's the right expression).

[BIG STU]

Yep those EGG hybrids are sure funky---- Scared to try one because for some reason I tend to hit funky or ugly clubs good---- I just put a old Adams GT 5 wood back into play. That IMHO is the ugliest club this side of a set of outright ugly Cleveland VAS irons but I can darn sure hit it. When I got it some time back I named it "The Ugly Duckling". Just put it back into front line play the week before I got hurt

[James the Hogan Fan]

 

Found another one today, this one from a thrift shop.