balata golf ball

[Maine Golfer]

Im in my mid 30s and really like vintage golf clubs.  What are everyone's take on old Balata's? I found one in the rough last night and they are fun with my wedges. I just ordered a cheap sleeve of old Hogans. I more or less want to keep them for messing around on par III and short evening shots, I often play a couple balls casually at sunset with old clubs. 

[RobotDoctor]

Balata balls will spin ..... a lot.  Problem is that they're wound with a layer of rubber bands and after a few holes they will go "out of round".  When I started playing and became a single digit handicap golfer I started playing with Balata balls.  In a round I would go through 4 to 6 balls a round due to hitting them hard and the balls becoming oblong in shape (slightly).  Also, grooves on wedges will shred the balata a bit, especially with square grooves.  I loved the softness of Balata balls and how I could shape shots with them.  The spin generated by Balata balls were unreal, simply insane.  I still covet the soft feel of a Balata ball with my putter so my litmus test with a ball today starts with that, must feel soft on my putter.  I have a few Balata balls in my arsenal but these are primarily reserved to hit drives with my collection of persimmon woods.

 

[Maine Golfer]

So I started going in 99/00ish as a child. Are the balls still Balata at that point or is there another type in-between today's balls and Balatas?

[otto6457]

There's nothing as sweet as a hitting a balata ball with the sweet spot of your putter.   Once you feel it .......you want it everytime you roll a putt for the rest of your life.

[RobotDoctor]

3 hours ago, otto6457 said:

There's nothing as sweet as a hitting a balata ball with the sweet spot of your putter.   Once you feel it .......you want it everytime you roll a putt for the rest of your life.

TRUTH!

[RobotDoctor]

3 hours ago, Maine Golfer said:

So I started going in 99/00ish as a child. Are the balls still Balata at that point or is there another type in-between today's balls and Balatas?

There was a mix of Balata, Surlyn (plastic) and a couple of other materials.  Elastomer was coming out by the late 90s/early 2000s.  Balata and the wound core balls were quickly fading away give way to 2 and 3 piece balls.  The Titleist Professional was the end for Balata as a new material that was a bit more durable was introduced to the golf ball world.  By 2001 or so the last of the Balata balls were all but gone.  The last Balata ball I used was the Maxfli A10 ball around 2001 or maybe just into 2002.

[Maine Golfer]

Thanks for the reply's. I ordered a sleeve of Hogans 

[NRJyzr]

Urethane became a replacement for balata for balls like the Maxfli HT, and its successor the Elite.  As well as what I like to call the quasi-wound balls like the Revolution, A10, and M3 Red/M3 Black from Maxfli, or the Srixon HiBrid Tour.

 

There were also some HT balls made with a balata cover.

 

[bcstones]

Recent thrift store acquisitions...I think the MacGregor DX might be blatta. Are any of the others fit that description or at least lower compression?

 

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2023 by bcstones

[MrFlipper]

5 hours ago, bcstones said:

Recent thrift store acquisitions...I think the MacGregor DX might be blatta. Are any of the others fit that description or at least lower compression?

 

 

 

 

The DXs say surlyn, right on the box.

 

Anything with Durable, Cut Proof, Extra Distance, etc. in the description sure isn't balata.

 

Gotta say, as a tried and true balata guy back in the day, wound balls went dead pretty quickly. So unlikely they'd be half decent decades later. 

 

A box of one of my faves at the time that I saved for some forgotten reason. No way I'd hit them now, prob dead as doornails. But in their time, they were really long.

 

 

Edited July 13, 2023 by MrFlipper
Can't spell

[NRJyzr]

10 minutes ago, MrFlipper said:

Gotta say, as a tried and true balata guy back in the day, wound balls went dead pretty quickly. So unlikely they'd be half decent decades later. 

 

Very true.

 

10 years ago or so, I'd come across what turned out to be a stash of relatively recently manufactured Maxfli HT-100 balls.  I bought several dozen, and played them quite a bit.  I found they were only a couple yards shorter than solid core, multilayer premium balls at the time, and maybe not at all if you could account for the spin.

 

Fast forward 6-7 years, I played the last of my HT-100s, and discovered they were no longer the same length.  They'd lost a goodly amount of distance in those half dozen or so years.  I even compared them to a ball I'd played in comparison, a half dozen years previously, and found a difference that wasn't there previously.  

 

They really aren't short.  They just spin a lot, and have a considerable lack of durability.  It's very hard to knock a solid core ball out of round, but I managed it several times with the HT-100s...

 

[@_the_crook]

One of the best 'feel' balls I ever played. 

This one has been a desktop item for years. Never hit. If it's dropped from 6 ft, it bounces about a foot less than a ProV1. All Balatas age.....

[Pepperturbo]

On 7/12/2023 at 7:01 AM, Maine Golfer said:

Im in my mid 30s and really like vintage golf clubs.  What are everyone's take on old Balata's? I found one in the rough last night and they are fun with my wedges. I just ordered a cheap sleeve of old Hogans. I more or less want to keep them for messing around on par III and short evening shots, I often play a couple balls casually at sunset with old clubs. 

I played Titleist Balata balls back when they were popular on Tour, and I was learning.  Took a really hard PURE strike to get distance out of them; otherwise with the slightest side spin, they spun like a Top off-line.  Reason I also played Titleist Professional 100.

[Buzzkill]

Played them in the 70s!  I’d have to switch them out every few holes even if I hit them on the sweet spot because they’d get out of round.  They were toast if you hit one thin, lol.  Think they were 24 bucks a dozen which was expensive back then.

[elwhippy]

Shorter off the tee but sooooooooooooo easy to shape and stop on the greens. I loved the Slazenger 420, Rextar Pro, Titleist 384LT and Maxfli HT. Would be interesting to see how a 2023 technology wound ball would perform. 

[4Eyes]

In the 1970s the thing I remember most about balata balls was that solid contact with a driver would leave "+" marks on the ball from the screws on the (persimmon) driver face.

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

I still play wound balls when I play persimmon. The wound surlyns are fine, though some of the later models feel pretty hard. I'd say modern high quality balls stop better on the greens than surlyn wounds, but I've not tested that too thoroughly, just my impression.

 

My balatas are OK, but they go out of round faster than I remember. May be something to do with age. 

 

I bought a sleeve of old-but-unhit Titleist Professionals recently (Elastomer cover), and two of them had little ridges on the surface where presumably the winding had deformed or shifted. Not seen that on any of my balatas.

 

Also, even back in the day I found balatas to be about a club shorter than wound surlyns. So much better control around the greens though.

[Maine Golfer]

wow on the prices of those on the boxes!

Edited July 14, 2023 by Maine Golfer

[bcstones]

interesting....learning about balls...tho, I don't really understand what surlyn is or how it differs from a balata or any other cover. I listen & read what ya'll are saying about high compression, low compression, differing cores - it's all over my head. I just want to keep the ball in the fairway basically...
 I read what is said about balls going out of shape or showing the screw marks & I'm wondering if perhaps that's the result of differing times...my initial entry & instruction pre-dated the Palmer era of smack that ball with every muscle fiber in your body. I learned more in the line of Ernest Jones' "let the clubhead do the work", ie "just swing the clubhead". So I really don't recall if any of the balls I used as a kid ever went out of round...my Dad insisted I buy my own balls...never bought a sleeve, couldn't afford it on my allowance 😂 I just reached into that glass jug w/the second hand balls at .10-.15 apiece or 3 for a .25 🤣 Usually these days, I'd use a women's ball - not cuz fo compression or anything like that...it's the color, I can almost always differ my ball cuz it's either purple or pink. I could care less, it's just easier to pick out. 

So the balls that I showed above, I guess I was wondering how old they were, could they be playable for me...looking for more info & learning opportunity. 

[Bigarch]

11 hours ago, bcstones said:

Recent thrift store acquisitions...I think the MacGregor DX might be blatta. Are any of the others fit that description or at least lower compression?

 

 

 

 

Got a tingle on my neck hairs when I saw those EV Extra Spin.  One of my all time fav solid balls along with the MC Spin from Precept.  Back when everyone was singing the praises of the early Titleist Professional, I was a Precept guy.

[bcstones]

4 minutes ago, Bigarch said:

Got a tingle on my neck hairs when I saw those EV Extra Spin.  One of my all time fav solid balls along with the MC Spin from Precept.  Back when everyone was singing the praises of the early Titleist Professional, I was a Precept guy.

Thanks, good to know...gotta admit what attracted me to this bunch of golf balls, was 2 boxes of Hogan Tour Deeps. Kinda sorta recall I bought a box from the PX in the early 2000s. So when I saw these in the bin at the thrift store I jumped on & just picked up everything....

[NRJyzr]

9 hours ago, bcstones said:

I read what is said about balls going out of shape or showing the screw marks & I'm wondering if perhaps that's the result of differing times

 

It's the softness of the material.  Balata, either natural or synthetic, is quite soft.  It's easy to leave marks in it.  It's what gave those balls the extra spin around the greens, and with the shorter clubs.  (as you move longer in the bag, cover becomes less of an influence on spin)

 

The smile that's referenced is the result if you'd hit one thin, you'd actually cut the cover.  

 

[AdExec]

I hoarded quite a few boxes of balatas and professionals a few years back when I found a seller unloading a closet full on ebay. Once or twice a year me and some friends have a balata and blades round where we break out the persimmon woods and old titleist blades. Fun times. 

[bcstones]

11 minutes ago, NRJyzr said:

The smile that's referenced is the result if you'd hit one thin, you'd actually cut the cover.  

 

I did hit a "few" of those smiley balls....I considered my error tho, not something as a potential fault in the ball....tho, it's probably both.🤣

[pseudoswede]

In the early 90's, I saved my stash of Titleist Balata 100's for tournaments. For anything else, I would buy Maxfli HT100's, Slazenger Balatas, and Ultra Balatas.

 

I also played in a mini golf league at the local Putt-Putt, and my favorite ball to use there were the Ultra Balatas.

[NRJyzr]

It's been implied, but I'll comment a little more explicitly...  🙂

 

When you see modern ball tests, comparing solid core balls to old wound balls, balata or urethane cover... these tests are largely worthless.  Wound balls degrade in performance at a much faster rate than solid core balls.  Per many sources, including Dean Snell, they have a fairly limited shelf life.  As soon as three years, they'll drop off significantly.

 

It's like comparing any modern auto to a 25 year old same/similar model that hasn't been maintained at all.  No contest.

 

[RobotDoctor]

10 hours ago, bcstones said:

interesting....learning about balls...tho, I don't really understand what surlyn is or how it differs from a balata or any other cover. I listen & read what ya'll are saying about high compression, low compression, differing cores - it's all over my head. I just want to keep the ball in the fairway basically...
 I read what is said about balls going out of shape or showing the screw marks & I'm wondering if perhaps that's the result of differing times...my initial entry & instruction pre-dated the Palmer era of smack that ball with every muscle fiber in your body. I learned more in the line of Ernest Jones' "let the clubhead do the work", ie "just swing the clubhead". So I really don't recall if any of the balls I used as a kid ever went out of round...my Dad insisted I buy my own balls...never bought a sleeve, couldn't afford it on my allowance 😂 I just reached into that glass jug w/the second hand balls at .10-.15 apiece or 3 for a .25 🤣 Usually these days, I'd use a women's ball - not cuz fo compression or anything like that...it's the color, I can almost always differ my ball cuz it's either purple or pink. I could care less, it's just easier to pick out. 

So the balls that I showed above, I guess I was wondering how old they were, could they be playable for me...looking for more info & learning opportunity. 

Surlyn is a thermoplastic.  Very hard cover.  I would never hit a persimmon wood with one of those as they will leave dimple marks on a strike that is on the wood itself.

[storm319]

On 7/12/2023 at 1:04 PM, RobotDoctor said:

There was a mix of Balata, Surlyn (plastic) and a couple of other materials.  Elastomer was coming out by the late 90s/early 2000s.  Balata and the wound core balls were quickly fading away give way to 2 and 3 piece balls.  The Titleist Professional was the end for Balata as a new material that was a bit more durable was introduced to the golf ball world.  By 2001 or so the last of the Balata balls were all but gone.  The last Balata ball I used was the Maxfli A10 ball around 2001 or maybe just into 2002.

The A10 had a cast thermoset cover, not balata. Dunlop Slazenger was done with balata by the time the Maxfli Elite was released in the mid-90s. 

[RobotDoctor]

3 hours ago, storm319 said:

The A10 had a cast thermoset cover, not balata. Dunlop Slazenger was done with balata by the time the Maxfli Elite was released in the mid-90s. 

The A10 was the last wound ball I gamed.  I had always thought it was Balata.  Thanks for the correction.

[Maine Golfer]

ive gathered a small amount of used balatas. Some are dead and basically useless, some are awesome off the putter. 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Maine Golfer