Who remembers the small ball ?

Kace

Following some rooting out in cupboards at home, I found some of my old golf balls (the smaller diameter ones) and after asking my playing partners found that most of them never even knew that the balls used to be smaller.

So - go on, show your age and let us know if you have ever played the small ball !!

ArielAtom

I did indeed play the smaller ball. I actually found one on a par 3 course in Wexford last year!!!!!

link_2007

Didn't even know they existed.

Do you have a picture of it beside a modern golf ball to show the difference?

BrianD3

I do remember the small ball but they were mainly a curiosity by the time I started playing. I remember them being regarded as old hat, inferior etc. I think they went a lot way but were less accurate than the big ball.

I'm not sure when they were made illegal for use in competition but from about the mid 80s onwards, I never saw any small balls from the big manufacturers (Dunlop, Titleist, Wilson etc.) on sale in pro shops.

Davidth88

I remember it , the US used a larger one that Europe right ?

acejeff

From wacthing Shell's Wonderful World of Golf as a nipper!

onlyfinewine

acejeff wrote: »

From wacthing Shell's Wonderful World of Golf as a nipper!

Off topic , kind of (Apologies)

but if you look at the putting surfaces on the old Shell's Wonderful World of Golf series you will see how slow and bumpy the greens were in general and why the size of the ball did not make much difference. If anything the larger American ball putted better but tended to balloon into the wind and generally fly higher.

The major differences were how the small ball bored through the wind {for it's day} and how it appeared to settle down in the longer grasses of the parkland courses. This made it more suitable for windy links courses.

stockdam

Yes I played with the small ball. I may even still have the first big ball that I found.

The differences (if I remember correctly(:

• Small ball went furher
• Large ball held the green better
• Large ball was easier to chip with
• Large ball sat up on the fairway and made hitting a fairway wood easier

Dtoffee

I always thought it was the large ball that disappeared :eek:

I remember the large ball was rare and seemed huge when they first came out.

Also I can remember the joy of unwrapping a new Dunlop 65 !! individually wrapped golf balls were a great idea and some maker is going to make a fortune reinventing them.

Seves Three Iron

The small ball is to be found alive and well among the chipped, battered and, mainly, brown balls dispensed for the driving range at Black Bush. (Sorry BB, longstanding personal gripe). They definitely do go further alright.

heavyballs

I have a Tom Weizecoff somewhere in the shed.Sorry about the spelling.

Osgoodisgood

Yes, I remember the small ball well. I resisted the large ball for as long as I could despite everyone telling me to make the change. I was a kid and didn't want to voluntarily lose distance! I stayed with my Slazenger B51s for as long as I could.

GreeBo

I'm pretty sure I still have one of those old leather practice bags full of small balls.
I remember being at Portmarnock for the Irish Open in the late 80's and me and a bunch of friends were taking balls that missed/ran off the practice ground.
Now that I think about it Im not sure if they were small or big ones...but it was right about the time of the switch and they were definitely "different"!
They made the hole and the sweet spot bigger...but were like marbles in the rough.

Kace

Dtoffee wrote: »

I always thought it was the large ball that disappeared :eek:

I remember the large ball was rare and seemed huge when they first came out.

Also I can remember the joy of unwrapping a new Dunlop 65 !! individually wrapped golf balls were a great idea and some maker is going to make a fortune reinventing them.

Yes - remember that, the individually wrapped golf balls. I think the Dunlops were wrapped in black plastic with a round sticker on them from what I recall. They were great alright. What used to be annoying though was the ease by which you could cut them.

Remember the times when one bladed wedge would put a mouth on your ball that would eat bread The pain of it all when you bought a ball and then destroyed it in one shot.

It really is amazing the durability that today's balls have in comparison.

onlyfinewine

Kace wrote: »

Yes - remember that, the individually wrapped golf balls. I think the Dunlops were wrapped in black plastic with a round sticker on them from what I recall. They were great alright. What used to be annoying though was the ease by which you could cut them.

Remember the times when one bladed wedge would put a mouth on your ball that would eat bread The pain of it all when you bought a ball and then destroyed it in one shot.

It really is amazing the durability that today's balls have in comparison.

Ah yes, the Dunlop 65 would smile at you if you thinned it, but even worse was when the rubber winding would get cut under the skin and you would have a ball which would grow a bump on it which was highly unpredictable for full shots or particularly putting where it might do anything except what you wanted it to do.
There was also a Dunlop Warwick which was a little cheaper but had a slightly thicker balata skin that would not cut as easily and you might get a couple of rounds out of it if you were lucky.
Dunlop Bogey golf balls were the cheapest you could get but for some reason were not very popular. I think they might have been re-manufactured from old cut balls but am open to correction on this.
Silver King, Slazenger Plus golf balls and Penfolds marked with hearts, diamonds, spades or clubs were also premium balls at the time and shared the ability to smile at you if hit a little thin. That is why many young people were expert at finding lost golf balls as you needed to constantly top up your armoury each time you played. Aaaghh nostalgia is setting in.ABORT ABORT...

lowelife

This has just got me thinking about the 2% larger than the allowed 1.68" diameter ball that was released in the 90's

Topflite Magna.....now that was a heap of ****.
Like a brick with dimples that didnt do anything it was supposed to.

frost53

I,ve played with the small ball in it's day. Penfolds, Slazenger 375, Dunlop 65...I've even hit the odd gutty. The biggest difference in play between the 1.62 and 1.68 was control in the wind.
The most famous small ball was the Dunlop 65, named in honour of Henry Cotton's 65 on his way to victory in the British open in Sandwich, in the thirties. Some achievement then.
This course record stood till the eighties when Junior shot a 64 in the first round .....

onlyfinewine

frost53 wrote: »

I,ve played with the small ball in it's day. Penfolds, Slazenger 375, Dunlop 65...I've even hit the odd gutty. The biggest difference in play between the 1.62 and 1.68 was control in the wind.
The most famous small ball was the Dunlop 65, named in honour of Henry Cotton's 65 on his way to victory in the British open in Sandwich, in the thirties. Some achievement then.
This course record stood till the eighties when Junior shot a 64 in the first round .....

and Henry asked him if he was sure he played all the holes.

BrianD3

Some here probably remember the Uniroyal Plus 6 ball with its hexagonal dimples.

Another interesting ball was the first Dunlop DDH and Marathon, early 80s IIRC. A durable 2 piece ball with an innovative diimple pattern at the time. I have a few DDHs and Marathons, I think I have both small and large size.

Kace

Quick snap I took last night. Difficult to see the size difference but you can see one of those innovative dimple patterns on the DDH.

[IMG][/img]

BrianD3

Tried a photo myself - the camera slightly distorts the shape of the balls but it can be seen that one is bigger than the other. I think these top flites are from the 1970s/early 80s and would have been one of the few two piece construction (as opposed to wound rubber) balls available at the time

onlyfinewine

Kace wrote: »

Quick snap I took last night. Difficult to see the size difference but you can see one of those innovative dimple patterns on the DDH.

[IMG][/img]

Des Smyth used to promote these Dunlop DDH's with the Dodecahedral pattern, they were supposed to be resistant to movement by side winds and would drill through the breeze, and worked well in my opinion at the time.

They were followed by the first two piece ball from Spalding called the Tour Edition with a Zinthane cover which was supposed to give you the distance of the Top Flite with the stopping power of a balata! Greg Norman played these. He later switched to the Maxfli Revolution ball which carried the name "Shark" engraved on his personal supply.

By the way the weights of the small and bigger ball were the same at 1.62 ounces, but the diameter was slightly different with the larger American ball being 1.68 inches and the British being 1.62 inches. Only a difference of 0.06 inches. Which explains why it is difficult to show the difference in photos. You could always tell which was which by holding and comparing them though if you were used to it.

There was also a compromise ball suggested which would be 1.65 inches in diameter which seemed to have a lot of merit but when the idea was put forward after the second world war it was not acted upon quickly enough between the two governing bodies and the U.S. tooling and production run had started before agreement had been finalised.

Kace

onlyfinewine wrote: »

...They were followed by the first two piece ball from Spalding called the Tour Edition with a Zinthane cover which was supposed to give you the distance of the Top Flite with the stopping power of a balata! ......

Ah the Spalding Tour Edition - what a ball !! I found one of these one at home in the bag recently also - although I think I proceeded to drive it off into the nearby farmer's field for practise.

ArielAtom

Here's the ball I found on a course, just off the fairway in Wexford last year!!!!

GreeBo

Mad, havent seen one in years and in the last 2 rounds I have found a small commando, small dublin 65 and today an ancient small balata titleist.

onlyfinewine

GreeBo wrote: »

Mad, havent seen one in years and in the last 2 rounds I have found a small commando, small dublin 65 and today an ancient small balata titleist.

Is that a new/old one that was on limited release in the capital?:)

GreeBo

onlyfinewine wrote: »

Is that a new/old one that was on limited release in the capital?:)

lol, I blame watching the TV and posting at the same time
Dunlop!

PARlance

GreeBo wrote: »

lol, I blame watching the TV and posting at the same time
Dunlop!

That's an easy McDowell to make