Golf Ball Memories

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

When I were a lad...beyond the Dunlop 65 that we all loved and cherished; there was the Slazenger family (+ ... don't think there was a -); the Penfold family (Heart, Spade, Club and...), and the bachelor Uniroyal Plus 6 (still got one in the garage somewhere), and all the rest who's names escape me. However even I as a beginner I really struggled if the only ball in my bag was a Price's Everlasting (who remembers them!) - even for these times this was truly a rubber ball that would split apart like a cracked egg at the earliest opportunity and was rather embarrassing to be seen with - but needs must - and that was as it was back then - my £1.75 a week (7 day week btw) from my paper round didn't stretch to buying golf balls.

And I remember finding my first 'big' ball - it was a Titleist (I'd never heard of them), and I found it to the right of the green on the Par 3 16th at Deaconsbank muni - Thornliebank,Glasgow - my first golf course. I suppose that was back 1972-73 time. I still get quite excited if I find a ball I haven't come across before - is it any good? Have I struck gold?

And so forumers what are your early golf ball memories?

 

[Imurg]

When I first played I had no idea even what make I was playing with...could have been anything
Once I joined a club in '93 I remember using the TopFlite Z-Balata - kind of a NXT type but it did spin a bit.
Then the Multi-layer balls came on the scene and I used Strata and Maxfli Revolution - loved those.......

Didn't TopFlite come out with a couple of balls "designed" to be used with the latest Tm and Cally Titanium drivers...?
The TopFlite TaylorMade and the TopFlite Callaway I think. Designed to get the best from a particular driver. So you were buggered if you used a McGregor driver then....

 

[garyinderry]

when i was a kid i had a two colour ping ball. half pink, half white. they are collectable now i hear! why dont ping have balls on the market today? missing a trick there i think!

 

[Crow]

I started playing during the change over to the larger ball.
Remember Dunlop 65s were the bee's knees but boy did they cut easily, Penfolds were quite common and I came across the odd Titleist that I was never sure how to pronounce the name.
I think I've still got a 1.62" Uniroyal in the garage somewhere.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

When I first played I had no idea even what make I was playing with...could have been anything
Once I joined a club in '93 I remember using the TopFlite Z-Balata - kind of a NXT type but it did spin a bit.
Then the Multi-layer balls came on the scene and I used Strata and Maxfli Revolution - loved those.......

Didn't TopFlite come out with a couple of balls "designed" to be used with the latest Tm and Cally Titanium drivers...?
The TopFlite TaylorMade and the TopFlite Callaway I think. Designed to get the best from a particular driver. So you were buggered if you used a McGregor driver then....

Don't recall that (I wouldn't) - did anyone really believed that guff about ball and club making a difference if you couldn't swing a cat - ah well. That's marketing for you. You'll note my early memories are British balls. I can remember coming across ProStaff and TopFlite balls for the first time. Of course they were BIG balls and I can recall feeling rather grand (and a bit nervous) teeing one up and my mate looking on (in curiosity rather than wonder it has to be said)

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Remember Dunlop 65s were the bee's knees

For a few years I would get one wrapped in it's paper in my Christmas stocking from Santa Special.

 

[JustOne]

Crikey.... as a kid in the early 80's Dunlop 65's and Dunlop Warwick? There was Penfolds and Uniroyal (were they hexagon or pentagon pimples?), Slazenger B65's?

In the mid 90's I remember Prostaff, Precept, z-balata and finally the professional 90

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Crikey.... as a kid in the early 80's Dunlop 65's and Dunlop Warwick? There was Penfolds and Uniroyal (were they hexagon or pentagon pimples?), Slazenger B65's?

In the mid 90's I remember Prostaff, Precept, z-balata and finally the professional 90

Whaddya mean Crikey am I that old?? I forgot Warwicks (how could I - cheaper than 65s so I played them more than 65s). And as for the Uniroyal Plus 6 - clue is in the name whether hexagon or pentagon ...;-)

 

[JustOne]

And as for the Uniroyal Plus 6 - clue is in the name whether hexagon or pentagon ...;-)

Ha! Can't rember them having plus 6 written on them... I was only a sprout back then ;-)

Used to caddy for 50p/round which was GOOD MONEY at the time... LOLOLOL


found a linky.... http://www.golfball-guide.de/museum.htm

 

[CliveW]

I've got these.

 

[JustOne]

^
^
^
Cool... golf porn!

The Warwicks in the white wrapper are the ones I remember, they just looked 'hittable' on the tee.

 

[ArnoldArmChewer]

I've got these.

Golden Kahuna's baby, there was nothing quite like unwrapping a brand new ball!!

 

[Hobbit]

When I got my Dad's clubs in the late 60's there were RED Dunlop 65's in the bag. He'd took up the game whilst working in the middle east. There was the odd Spalding, and if I had a Commando - wow! I remember the Uniroyal +6 from the early 70's, marketed on the hexagonal dimple making the ball fly 6yds further.

The 65's were the 1.62" small ball.

I remember putting a small ball next to the current 1.68" & a Molitor, which was bigger again at 1.72"(?). The Molitor looked like a cricket ball next to the 1.62".

 

[Farneyman]

Who needs a quality baw...

 

[need_my_wedge]

When I started playing early eighties, it was Penfold Commando's, Topflite, Ping multi coloured and Dunlop DDH. Lost a whole shedload of them.....

 

[MashieNiblick]

:clap:Farneyman. My only hole-in-one was also achieved with a Top-Flite!

Back in the early 70's we hardly ever saw a Titleist. Dunlop 65's were definitely the most sought after followed by Slazenger + and Penfolds. Wilson Staff did a some good balls. But boy did those old balatas cut up badly if you bladed one.

 

[Colin L]

So who else goes far enough back to remember the delights of peeling the cover off an old hacked ball from his Dad , unwinding all the elastic and bursting the wee capsule of white stuff in the middle?

 

[MashieNiblick]

Ahh yes. There was miles of brown rubber thread in those old things.

Wonder if BobMac used to have as much fun getting out all the feathers?

One day (actually when we were visting the RAF Museum at Hendon, I remember it so well) we left some balls in the back window of the car in a heatwave and the covers melted off.

 

[GreiginFife]

Being a child of the 80's I too grew up playing Penfold Commando's, Dunlop Warwicks, Dunlop 65s (we called them Deadly Dunnys because they could go anywhere). You found the odd Titleist and Wilson ball around the later 80's and in the early 90's we would start to see more Pinnacle and Top-Flite balls, anyone remember the radically different sound the Top-Flite made after hitting a Commando... it was like breaking glass!

Oh yeah, I remember unwinding a split ball as well, I think it was the early Penfolds (hearts possibly) that had a wee dark blue hard core that absolutely reeked like a stink-bomb if you cut it open.
Ah, the olden days eh...?? None of this 17 yards longer rubbish!

 

[munro007]

My favourite ball was the Tour Edition, my god it was so soft, also titleist tour 90 & 100. Ah the good old days. lol