Loved and Lamented Balls of our Youth

[vjswing]

Great thread! FINALLY a couple of mentions of the Precept EV Extra Spin! I recall that Ray Floyd and (I think) Nick Price were using the ball in the early 90s, and the ball was SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than the all of the other wound balata balls dominant on tour at that time. I ended up buying some, and didn't lose a single yard, distance-wise, when compared to the predominant distance balls of the day. Being a terminally pathetically short hitter, that was always an essential component to my ball selection!

Golfsmith still sells this model...didn't realize it was still in production!

I was also hooked on the original Top-Flite Tour ball during that same general time frame. This ball was actually in heavy use on the Champions Tour, and seemed to be another excellent "compromise" ball in terms of distance vs. feel.

The Precept MC Double Cover was another one of those "early ancestors" of the Pro V1 in the late 90s, and I recall using it at the time when it was used by Lee Janzen to win the U.S. Open at Olympic Club, although I remember reading sometime after the fact that it was literally a "tour van issue" version of the ball!

[spring70]

[quote name='ScooterMcTavish' post='1943904' date='Sep 10 2009, 07:35 PM']Reading the ball hawking topic reminds me of my youthful days when we had to find balls to have something to play with. This led me down memory lane to remember all the old balls I played.

This got me to thinking that there must be others with nostalgic feelings for that one special ball.

For me, this ball was the Dunlop DDH II in high-vis yellow.

Not only was it actually a good feeling ball, it also travelled well in wind. Plus, back in the day, there were two dimple patterns: otti (think Top Flite), and icosahedral (think Titleist DT). The DDH II was really the first ball to break with these conventions.

Plus, after its launch, dimples got much more creative, including the 492 dimple balls which were covered with a huge amount of teeny weeny dimples (think Golden Ram 492 and Top Flite Plus).

Anyone else have some old faves they'd like to rave about?[/quote]

I remember first taking up the game and getting Dunlop Blue Max's at K-Mart. I think they cost ~ $9/dozen and I onlt mention them because they were the first ball I bought.

As far as my favorites:

Maxfli HT Balata
Maxfli DDH Balata
Maxfli Rev

Titleist Professional

Strata Tour Ace

Nike TA-DD

Bridgestone RexStar

[rich13]

When I started playing in the mid '70's, it was the Dunlop Warwick 1.62", then the classic Dunlop 65, which were individually wrapped like a Ferrero Rocher! Dabbled with the Pro-Staff with the flat-bottomed dimples (but NOT the yellow ones...), and eventually the Titleist DT surlyn. Switched to the 1.68" Slazenger B51 in the late '70's, then my first balata......Hogan Apex 100 compression......after that, Maxfli HT100 (via a brief dalliance with the Penfold GX100), and, finally........Titleist Professional....what a gorgeous ball that was!

[mat562]

Crikey. Apex balatas. I remember finding a few of those in the gorse in my early days of golfing - when all the decent balls in the bag were ones that a well-heeled member at the local club had managed to lose.

Cracking balls, albeit not ones that had a great life expectancy when being clonked around by a novice 11-year-old. As used by a young Tom Watson by all accounts.

[divot46]

wow......this thread got me thinking. Back when I was learning to play (with blades) and finding balls to play with. Usually played with my dad and after every round we would go search outside the fences. I remember I liked the K-28 real well. I put many a smile on a wound ball back then. Also I still have a yellow DDH at home in the collection. A ball that I really liked was the Titleist HP Tour and after that the first NXT dot Tour balls. Still have about a dozen of them at home.

[Swingtheclub]

The feathery was a fine ball lads


I told you guys I was old

Actually my favorite ball as a kid was the k2 by Titelist nothing like real balata ahh the days

[Masse1369]

Titleist ProV1*

Why oh why...

[Ed Settle]

I remember the old Wilson Pro Staffs from the late 70s-early 80s with the "truncated cone" dimples...I played it or years.

 

Anybody remember Royal Golf Balls? They had one that had dimples like the current Callaways, but I thought they were terrible in the wind..

 

 

And I remember when the Polara first came out, then was outlawed in the 1970s. I found a few in the woods, they must not have been that slice/hook reducing.....

 

Yeah, I was thinking of this ball. I won one at the end of my first summer of golf lessons. A 3 hole tournament

the last day and won my choice. My dad wondered why I didn't get a Titleist or Spalding but, I thought this one was cool. I think I lost it the next day!!

[magolf]

Guys, no-one has mentioned the old Penfold Hearts - James Bond's golf ball of choice in the 1964 Bond Movie, [i]Goldfinger[/i].

I'm looking for pix of old Penfolds to add to the photo gallery of Penfold Golf, the small British company that's just re-introduced the 1960s ball with the red heart logo. Fact is, very few pictures of old Penfolds exist, since the company lost its photographic archive in the 1980s. So a community call to scour the garage for old Penfold memorabilia!

Old Penfold golf balls used to be individually wrapped (see picture) by the way.

Much appreciated.
Michele