Vintage Balls

BIG STU · July 28, 2015

[quote name='NRJyzr' timestamp='1438096691' post='12034458']
Back in Ye Olde Dayes....

Occasional WRX poster MCoz used to provide ball reviews on the GEA forum. He had a group of good players who would test many balls over a decent length of time. A few years in a row, Maxfli balls were always on top in the test. This drove the Title-heads crazy, they couldn't believe anything would be better than their precious ProV1, so it must be a biased test, he must own Maxfli stock, blah blah blah.

Still makes me laugh.

It was even funnier when the reformulated Strata Tour Pro was the top ball. They still whined about Maxfli bias. LOL

Amusingly, a friend of mine was a Pro V1 user. For his bday one year, I got him a dozen Srixon ZStars, something to try that was different. He noticed an immediate improvement in performance, and his scores actually dropped while he was using them. He saw the same thing with the TaylorMade Penta TP3.

Another bit of amusement for me.
[/quote]I remember that I am a GEA refugee also posted under Big Stu M3. Got kicked off there supposedly for making a bad but true post about a golf course here owned by a state senator (now deceased but not at the time of the post) One of his cronies was a mod and they suspended me for a time> I never went back because I found MGS and then WRX

BIG STU · July 28, 2015

[quote name='guisician' timestamp='1437783016' post='12015270']
Hickory golfers have these:

https://www.mcintyregolf.com

Is anyone similarly making / marketing balata-era replicas? Seems like an untapped market if not.
[/quote]Not that I know of Sadly there would not be a big demand for them and I don't think our little classic community could support the cost of manufacturing

NRJyzr · July 28, 2015

The very best of those old wound balata balls were terrible balls by modern standards. They came out of the sleeve out of round (good players used to carry a tool to determine which were round), went out of round during play, could be ruined by a slight mishit, or even a carelessly struck cartpath. The only good thing about them was that they could perform magic around the green. They were, however, expensive, and good for maybe one round. Pros routinely changed balls every three holes or so, even lacking obvious damage.
I never saw a Urethene HT-100 all I ever saw and have now are balata

In my HT 100 hunting of several years ago, I managed to score a couple dozen HT 100s that were apparently from the Asian market, and were "genuine balata," in contrast to the HT100s I'd found on ebay earlier, which were urethane.

I found the HT100 balatas could indeed go out of round. I didn't have that trouble with the urethane models I'd acquired previously; managed to play the better part of two rounds with one, it showed little or no damage.

I guess not all wound balls are created equal. <shrug>
All the HT-100s I ever saw were balata in fact the 10 or so I have now are all balata

I had to dig out a couple sleeves, just to be sure I was remembering correctly. Not 35 anymore, brain cells aren't what they once were. ;)

The genuine balatas say "Made In Japan" on the sleeve, and look a bit different. The urethane HT100s say "next generation balata" on the box, and have "soft urethane cover technology" on the sleeve. Also have urethane on the side of the ball.

Guessing the urethane HT are from the early Maxfli Revolution era, or just before. It wasn't long after the Revolution that they came out with the Elite as their "pure" wound ball.

Here are a couple pics:

CBECH22 · July 28, 2015

Thats a beautiful looking ball..

fluffy265 · July 29, 2015

[quote name='NRJyzr' timestamp='1438087537' post='12033350']
Fluffy, that sounds very similar to the ball that was released here in the US as the M3 Red. It's one of the successors to the Revolution and A10, and a cousin to the Slazenger Players. There was also an M3 LT, aka M3 Black. The Red flew a little higher with a little less spin, the Black flew lower, allegedly with a little more spin (LT = low trajectory).

There were also some prototype variants of the M3 Red floating around, with slightly different dimple configurations.

The M3 balls were a large solid core with a thin layer of windings. The stupidity of the US marketplace dictated they disappear, because people couldn't use a ball that was remotely close to "wound." Idiots. (of course, people also think the Pro V1 is "the standard," can't expect them to have a clue)

I absolutely loved all those Maxfli balls, hunted them for years after they were discontinued. Amazing around the greens, great in the wind, they had it all.

edited to add: the Maxfli balls were all urethane covers
[/quote]

Thanks,
I did a little research last night and it does look like the M3 Red (432) is the closest thing to it. The M3 Black you mentioned apparently had 402 dimples. I do have the Japanese Black Super 432's as well though I'm yet to test them out. I'd just assumed that the black was a higher compression version.
And your right about another thing. These are great to play in the wind!

.... and in case any of you are wondering, those Japanese DDH HT's pictured are Balata ( the box doesn't mention it in English though).

J

sbboudreau · September 4, 2015

[quote name='CBECH22' timestamp='1437425723' post='11987266']
[quote name='Woodridge' timestamp='1437420549' post='11986512']
Welcome to the forum.

Goodwill is the best bet for vintage balls unless you want to do the eBay thing. A lot of times they don't clean the balls out of old golf bags, so you can find a decent haul in some of them.
[/quote]

Figured Ebay would be the best bet, thank you!
[/quote]Careful on eBay. Some people think they are the only people in the world selling what they have and are asking way, WAY too much for their products. Be patient and you too can find a brand new, new old stock(NOS) dozen Titleist DT 90's for $5.00 plus $6.95 Shipping like I just did Wednesday the second of september.