Maxfli BlackMax...

[Diesel]

anyone still playing these...?

Just wondering how they compare to the V1x...

[Terpman]

If you don't mind, a little history about the Black Max. Back in the day, the late 70s to early 80s to be more precise, Dunlop's Black Max balls were made not by Dunlop but, rather, by Sumitomo Rubber Inc. under contract to Dunlop. Well, one fine day the ball factory burns down and the contract is cancelled. Dunlop goes off to find another ball manufacturer. Sumitomo decides to rebuild and start manufacturing and marketing their own balls. Thus, they create a new company using each of the first letters of their company name (SRI) and you get Srixon. I played the Black Max ball in the late 70s and i really liked it. All this might explain why I like Srixon balls now.

 

Now, I notice that the Black Max is reborn and back on the shelves. I wonder who makes them.

[dmagalhaes]

I am still playing them. I just bought 7 dozen AAA from lostgolfballs.com and they were all pretty much mint. Great ball that is very similar in performance to the TP Black. It does some funny things in the wind sometimes but still a great ball.

[You're a terrific slouch]

I have 5 dozen (new) left from 2 years ago. I have played Maxfli for over twenty five years with no complaints. I still have some A-10's and some 3 piece Revs left.

[cristphoto]

There was a Black Max back in the 80's? I thought the Black Max was a fairly recent ball that replaced the Revolution and A10.

[Onebulldogs]

Just wondering how they compare to the V1x...

 

A few years ago, Taylor Made bough Maxfli (in part to get access to their patents). Originally, the plan was to have the TM brand be a premium brand with Maxfl more of a mid-tier brand. Although Maxfli had recently introduced the Blackmax as a tour quality ball to replace the Revolution Tour, TM brought out the TP black/reds in the same price range.

 

To promote the Maxfli brand, TM spent a lot of money promoting its new Fire (2piece) and Tour Fire (three-piece) balls. They even sponsored John Daly to play the Tour Fire in tour events.

 

Unfortunately, the effort failed miserably. TM claimed the Maxfli brand was irreperably harmed by the association with the Noodle and could not support a mid-tier (or premium ball). TM took action:

1. It kept the Maxfli patents.

2. It kept the Noodle brand, but dropped the Maxfli label from it. Going forward, the Noodle is its own brand and won't have the TM label.

3. It sold the Maxfli brand to Dick's Sporting Goods. Dick's planned to market Maxfli as a house brand.

4. TM introduced the Burner TP (which was probably a rebranded Maxfli Tour Fire) and the Burner under the TM labels. TM set up the TP Red/Blacks ($40 range), the Burner TP ($25), the Burner ($20) and the Noodle ($15).

 

Since Dick's has owned Maxfli, they have been selling the old "Fire" balls for years without really dropping the price much. They tried to to introduce their own premium ball - didn't seem to take off. Last I saw, they were marketing a BlackMax Distance ball which does not appear to be anything like the Tour Quality BlackMax of just a few years ago.

 

If you have some of the old Tour BlackMax's, they were a good ball. No experience with the Blackmax Distance.