The Balata Balls Thread

[EmperorPenguin]

There is a forum for classic clubs, but not for classic balls, so I will start a thread here for those curious about the venerable balata ball.  When Coburn Haskell invented the ball at the Turn Of The Century, it was revolutionary enough to have made the old gutty obsolete, just like how modern balls starting with the Pro V1 made the balata ball obsolete at the beginning of the millennium.  Yes, we know how all about how today's balls go so much farther than balatas, but no matter how many urethane-covered balls you try, none of them will feel as heavenly as balatas.  For those who do not know already: the ball has a liquid center that starts with a frozen rubber sac, wound with rubber thread, and then covered with balata sap.  I read that a synthetic balata was produced to prevent the extinction of the balata tree.

 

I consider myself somewhat an expert on balata balls because when I first worked at a golf course way back in 1994, I used to work cleaning golf carts at a golf course.  Quite often golfers leave golf balls in their carts, but sometimes the leave behind balatas, and at the time I loved them and I wanted to keep them for myself because they were more expensive than Surlyn balls at the time, and my collection grew to about two duffel bags full of slight scuffies and one dozen dozen brand new balls packaged in sleeves with original boxes.  Aside from very special occasions when I play the new ones, I use the scuffies on retro days when I want to play with persimmons and blades.  With the driver the longest I can hit one is about 250, but to me I don't care because the guys I play with hit it fifty yards past me, but either OB, in the trees or to another hole.

 

So which balls are my favorite?  Quite honestly, they all feel about the same to me, and given the scarcity of balatas today, any ball with a balata cover and liquid center would be fine.  My favorites that immediately come to mind are Titelist Tour Balata 90 and 100, Royal Maxfli, Maxfli HT 90 and 100, Slazenger balata, Titleist Professional 90 and 100, and a few others, with Titelist Tour Prestige the very last model before they stopped production.  In the mid-1990's, a lot of ball companies were using false marketing to sell "balata" balls that were not really balata at all.  Wilson Ultra Tour Balata was not balata, nor was Spalding Top Flite Z-Balata, both of which were two-piece balls with a durable balata-like mix.  Those balls felt nothing like the real thing, and not even close.  Once you handled so many of these balls, you can tell just by looking at them if they are or not just because of the paint, let alone how they felt in your hand.

 

By the way, if you want to be an enthusiast for these balls, it will be necessary to keep a ball ring with you.  Back in the day, we had ball rings and other accessories to check if they are round.  You can even see them on old-school divot tools, with one having a spoon on the back or the butt end of it in a concave shape to test the roundness, but those are mostly disappeared.  My game is not good enough anymore to demand perfectly round balls, so I can play decently with balls that are slightly out of round as long as the bump is not on my putting line.  Of course, balls with big smiles on them I send out to the driving range or in the water.

 

Which balatas were your favorite?  Share with us your experiences with balata.

 

 

[miamistomp]

 Spalding Dot and Wilson Staff were my favorites as a kid

 

[Shilgy]

Nice write up!  My only quibble would be that the Titleist Tour Pestige and Tour Professional were not balata….nor were the Maxfli HT100 oncethey switched production to South Carolina from Japan IIRC.  The Titleist were an “advanced elastomer” cover and the Maxfli were marked Urethane.

 

In hindsight it is also humorous to read some of the older reviews on these balls. One I read recently was on the Professional shortly after the Pro V came out.  The gist of it was the extra yards of the Pro V were nice but the feel was just way too hard for him to ever be able to play.🤣

[WipeyFade]

With the resurgence of vintage equipment being used, I’m surprised that some small boutique company hasn’t started manufacturing balata balls again. 

[PlayfromtheBrain]

4 hours ago, WipeyFade said:

With the resurgence of vintage equipment being used, I’m surprised that some small boutique company hasn’t started manufacturing balata balls again. 

 

I wondered that myself a while back, but I'm assuming the method is just too labor intensive these days to make any financial sense. Likely a completely different way of manufacturing them. I would love that, however.

 

I've really been fascinated by the balata recently, and a very kind member on this forum (you know you you are :-). thanks again!) was generous enough to send me an assortment to try out. I think my favorite is the Maxfli HT-90, but as OP said, they kind of all feel the same. That "feeling" is GREAT from every one of them, however.

[Haig]

My favorite ball was the Titleist 384 tour. It was around in the late 80’s. I played ping eye 2 irons back then so the ball was pretty beaten up after 9 holes but the feel and spin were amazing. 

[hammergolf]

1 hour ago, Haig said:

My favorite ball was the Titleist 384 tour. It was around in the late 80’s. I played ping eye 2 irons back then so the ball was pretty beaten up after 9 holes but the feel and spin were amazing. 

The Maxfli HT and Slazenger Balata were my holy grail as a teenager and into my early 20’s.

[Haig]

4 hours ago, hammergolf said:

The Maxfli HT and Slazenger Balata were my holy grail as a teenager and into my early 20’s.

I really liked the Maxfli DDH Balata ball. It had an unusual dimple pattern. The Slazenger Balata was a great ball. I’m pretty sure Seve played that ball. 

[grm24]

12 hours ago, Shilgy said:

Nice write up!  My only quibble would be that the Titleist Tour Pestige and Tour Professional were not balata….nor were the Maxfli HT100 oncethey switched production to South Carolina from Japan IIRC.  The Titleist were an “advanced elastomer” cover

AKA as urethane.

[EmperorPenguin]

14 hours ago, Shilgy said:

Nice write up!  My only quibble would be that the Titleist Tour Pestige and Tour Professional were not balata….nor were the Maxfli HT100 oncethey switched production to South Carolina from Japan IIRC.  The Titleist were an “advanced elastomer” cover and the Maxfli were marked Urethane.

 

In hindsight it is also humorous to read some of the older reviews on these balls. One I read recently was on the Professional shortly after the Pro V came out.  The gist of it was the extra yards of the Pro V were nice but the feel was just way too hard for him to ever be able to play.🤣

Yes, you are right.  I do remember the elastomer cover of the Professional.  Professionals felt very much like balatas, with the difference in feel almost negligible.

 

In the old commercials back in the 1990's, there was one of Jack endorsing Maxfli HT balls.  He said that Greg Norman turned him on to the ball and he had played Maxfli balls.  On opening day of a local club near me which he designed, he played Maxfli Revolutions--which were not balata, by the way--and they were simply marked "JACK" on them, so even Jack moved on to urethane balls.

[EmperorPenguin]

14 hours ago, WipeyFade said:

With the resurgence of vintage equipment being used, I’m surprised that some small boutique company hasn’t started manufacturing balata balls again. 

What did Titleist do to their winding machines and presses after the final run of balatas back in 2001?  Did they just dismantle them and chuck them?

 

I was thinking that we can make some good money finding those machines and producing balatas with the same quality controls Titleist had, but only make about, say, ten dozen dozen per day.  I don't know how much we would sell each dozen for, but I am very sure that many golfers would love to play with balatas from time to time.  Put an online or a magazine ad in and see how the response would be like.  However, if we would be immediately successful we would go out of business quickly because Titleist would compete with us and reactivate their machines and start producing more of them and undersell us quickly.

[EmperorPenguin]

I would like to add that one can immediately notice the feel of a balata ball off the putter.  Maybe this is because the ball is on the putter face a little longer than a full-swing strike?  The softer feel of the ball in my hands gives me a better feel of  how hard to hit the putt the desired distance.

 

Also the balls felt way better off the wedge, and I could spin it more and check it more easily and use the spin to stop it on a dime, if needed.

 

Which Rule of Golf states that you must hole out the ball you teed off with?  Can we repeal that Rule and tee off with Pinnacles and putt out with Tour Balata 90's?

 

Finally, of course, the full swing.  Hand a youngster who has never struck balata before a soft ball and he will get hooked!

[EmperorPenguin]

Rick Shiels compared the two types.

 

[grm24]

16 hours ago, WipeyFade said:

With the resurgence of vintage equipment being used, I’m surprised that some small boutique company hasn’t started manufacturing balata balls again. 

It's all about $$$$. No more no less. Absolutely no way to be profitable today. Even from the top OEM's let alone a boutique company, All of the wound ball manufacturers from 2000-2001 or so got rid of all of that equipment to manufacture solid core golf balls.

 

The cost of recreating that type of ball simply from a machinery standpoint today to say nothing of the material costs for a real true balata golf ball is off the charts and will never take place again. Recall that in the late 90's that many ball manufacturers were generally moving on from true balata balls to other materials due to manufacturing costs.

 

If the top OEM or independent golf ball manufacturers today thought there is real money to be made from the tiny balata nostalgia market it would already have happened. 

Edited April 3, 2022 by grm24

[elwhippy]

Ah the good old days. Could move the ball at ease, spin it back for fun and watch the ball balloon into even the slightest breeze. Personal faves were the Slazenger 420 100 compression, Rextar aka Bridgestone and the awesome Titleist 384 LT. 

[braincramp52]

Oh how I hated Balata balls. 😅 One thin shot and it was garbage time. I can't say I ever have missed them for even a nano second. But , Titleist Professional was the ball I played most back then.

[WipeyFade]

I would love to try balata balls, but my course is very tight and it’s a good day when I only loose 3 or 4 balls. I imagine a balata ball would make a 90* turn strait into the woods 😂. I have heard the the Kirkland Signature ball is similar to a balata in the way it spins. Can anyone confirm this?

[EmperorPenguin]

I played the K-Sig ball a couple rounds.  For one, it feels nothing like balata.  I don't know the spin rates, but I can't see how that ball can spin more than a Tour Balata 100 with a solid wedge shot.

 

One ball I remember that spun way more than balata was the Spalding Tour Edition.  Wasn't that ball a two-piece ball with a cover almost as soft as balata?  Greg Norman had to carry his short-iron and wedge shots to the back edge of the green to spin it back, and often they spun to the front.

[nitram]

392 Hogan's, 384 Titleist, and Titleist Tour Balata 90.

[deepred]

On 4/3/2022 at 10:56 AM, EmperorPenguin said:

I played the K-Sig ball a couple rounds.  For one, it feels nothing like balata.  I don't know the spin rates, but I can't see how that ball can spin more than a Tour Balata 100 with a solid wedge shot.

 

One ball I remember that spun way more than balata was the Spalding Tour Edition.  Wasn't that ball a two-piece ball with a cover almost as soft as balata?  Greg Norman had to carry his short-iron and wedge shots to the back edge of the green to spin it back, and often they spun to the front.

The Tour Edition was the spinningest ball I ever played. Also the shortest, probably for that reason. But, it was more durable than the Pro Trajectory which if it didn’t have a smile in it would have stress cracks after 9 or 10 holes. 
I remember buying the MacGregor Tourney or Golden Ram balata balls in the mid 70’s.

[EmperorPenguin]

9 hours ago, deepred said:

The Tour Edition was the spinningest ball I ever played. Also the shortest, probably for that reason. But, it was more durable than the Pro Trajectory which if it didn’t have a smile in it would have stress cracks after 9 or 10 holes. 
I remember buying the MacGregor Tourney or Golden Ram balata balls in the mid 70’s.

I remember Greg driving that ball approaching 280 despite the spin, and that was with his persimmon driver.

 

I read somewhere that the Ram ball was a Hansberger Brothers creation, which was sold under the Sportsman/Bristol/Kroyden brand.  The ball was so popular that Hansberger re-branded the entire company from Sportsman to Ram.

[deepred]

On 4/8/2022 at 11:59 PM, EmperorPenguin said:

I remember Greg driving that ball approaching 280 despite the spin, and that was with his persimmon driver.

 

I read somewhere that the Ram ball was a Hansberger Brothers creation, which was sold under the Sportsman/Bristol/Kroyden brand.  The ball was so popular that Hansberger re-branded the entire company from Sportsman to Ram.

Could be on the name. Imagine an industry where making a first class product, and selling it for a lower price than your competitors puts you out of business. That’s what happened to Ram. They didn’t raise prices so they could pay tour players and since golfers equate price with quality and player endorsements with performance they got squeezed out.

Edited April 14, 2022 by deepred

[elwhippy]

Ram was the ultimate marketing disaster. Lopez, Watson, Brooks, Price and struggled to shift hardwear. ....The wedges were phenomenally popular in the UK prior to Vokey and Cleveland. The Zebra putter was also seen in a host of good players bags. Woods and irons were a niche at best. A crying shame. 

[NRJyzr]

On 4/3/2022 at 1:58 AM, EmperorPenguin said:

Rick Shiels compared the two types.

 

 

Really not a fan of these sorts of tests, because the wound balls have lost so much due to age.  There's a noticeable (significant?) performance loss after only 5 years, much less 20.

 

[NRJyzr]

Answering the thread question...  I've been a big fan of the HT.  I've preferred the urethane versions because of their durability.  Cound them to be surprisingly long, especially when factoring spin rates; I was a higher spin tee game player when I played the HT.  

 

Their best aspect was their stability, especially in side winds.   Saw many shots where I played for drift that didn't happen.

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by NRJyzr

[MrFlipper]

No comments yet about Hogan Apex balata. All the good players in my area played them when I was younger. I especially was fond of the neon green ones. Great memories 

[chisag]

On 4/2/2022 at 6:57 AM, EmperorPenguin said:

My favorites that immediately come to mind are Titelist Tour Balata 90 and 100, Royal Maxfli, Maxfli HT 90 and 100

 

 

... I was teaching golf back then and on staff with Titleist that of course sent me a staff bag and all my clubs along with one dozen golf balls. Getting them to send more ProV1's was brutal and finally received another dozen 3 months later. The Maxfli rep was at our range and I struck top a conversation with him and hit the HT-100 and really liked it. When I came to work the next night there were 4 dozen HT-100's waiting for me. Such a good ball. I am currently playing the 2022 Maxfli Tour and could not be happier.   

[AnimalGeorge]

The most fun I had with balatas as a kid was cutting the cover off, taking the end of the rubber band and tying it to a post, unravelling the rest of it while walking 150 yards or so, pulling it tight to the point of breaking. Then letting go of the end I was holding. I estimate the speed it was traveling at 300 mph or so ( it traveled 150 yards in 1 second,  2 seconds max) 40 years later tried it and the rubber band was to brittle to stretch

 

              I grew up in a golf course and found 1000s of these as a kid, needless to say balata balls were a big part of my childhood

[Maine Golfer]

Good info on here I never thought of. I thought some company might be able to make them again but logic states they would run $100 a dozen. 

[elwhippy]

No point. Why make an inferior product at double the price?