Equipment

Remember these great golf balls of years past?

Published

4 years ago

Mar 18, 2020

When it comes to classic gear, few pieces of equipment stir up as much conversation as golf balls, especially in the modern era when talking about distance and short game control specifically. Just like clubs, they are carefully constructed and designed to fit certain swings and provide performance benefits for different types of golfers.

Some well-known brands have been around for over a half-century, and in the case of the Titleist Pro V1, has remained the staple by which all other modern golf balls have been judged. But this list isn’t about new, it’s about the forgotten.

Here are some of the forgotten greats of the past two decades.

Strata Tour Ace

Best known as the ball used by Jim Furyk to win the 2003 U.S. Open, the Strata Tour Ace was a four-piece urethane ball with a very soft cover that allowed for what Strata called “one hop and stop” spin around the greens.

One quirky way to quickly distinguish the Tour Ace from other balls in the Strata lineup was the use of card suites instead of numbers to identify balls that came in a sleeve—it also allowed you to really flush one (dad joke, I’ll see myself out).

Maxfli Revolution Solid

Introduced in the early 2000s to compete with the Pro V1, the Maxfli Revolution Solid was engineered to provide improved distance without sacrificing approach or around-the-green spin. It was a three-piece ball that featured an oversized core and urethane cover. What also made the Maxfli Revolution interesting is that its main endorser was none other than Jack Nicklaus.

TaylorMade InerGel

The golf ball made more famous for its packaging than its performance, the InerGel was the first TaylorMade golf ball to market. What really made it stand out was the plastic tube the balls came in to help prevent them from being exposed to moisture (hey, it was an angle).

TaylorMade R&D estimated that golf balls had the potential to lose as much as six yards in distance by being exposed to moisture and this was one way to prevent that from happening. Although it was never a big seller, the InerGel tubes lived on for a long time carrying tees and other things in a lot of golfers’ bags.

Callaway HX Tour 56 (Hogan Tour Deep?)

The HX Tour 56 was the softer brother to the original HX Tour (also referred to as the HX Black) and offered an extremely soft feel and higher spin around the greens. The Tour 56 was introduced the second year after Callaway bought Top-Flite, its manufacturing plant, and all its IP—why do I bring this up?

Here’s where it gets interesting. At the time of introduction, Hogan was still owned by Callaway Golf and they were producing both Hogan and Callaway branded clubs and balls. One of the key design features of the HX Tour 56 were six strategically placed deeper dimples around the ball to help with aerodynamic stabilization. You know what other ball has this feature? The Hogan Tour Deep, the only difference being the HX Tour 56 has the patented HX dimple pattern while the Hogan had the traditional round dimples.

Were they the same ball with different dimple patterns? I can’t 100 percent confirm, but considering how much R&D goes into a ball design, and that these arrived at almost the same time, I would put a few bucks on it.

Precept Lady

You could argue the Precept MC Lady was the ball that changed the way average golfers thought about compression. It was introduced late 1999 as strictly a value ($20 a dozen) ball designed for women with slower swing speeds, Precept really didn’t even market it. By late 2000 it set the golf world ablaze to the point of many shops having a hard time keeping them in stock—it was the number two selling ball at retail behind the $40/dozen Titleist Pro V1.

It was a two-piece ball that performed way above its price point and the softer compression kept spin down and created longer flying straighter drives that average golfers only dreamed of. Technically the Lady still exists today as the Laddie under the Bridgestone brand (Bridgestone owns Precept).

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Ryan Barath is a club-fitter & master club builder with more than 17 years of experience working with golfers of all skill levels, including PGA Tour players. He is the former Build Shop Manager & Social Media Coordinator for Modern Golf. He now works independently from his home shop and is a member of advisory panels to a select number of golf equipment manufacturers. You can find Ryan on Twitter and Instagram where he's always willing to chat golf, and share his passion for club building, course architecture and wedge grinding.

20 Comments

Ewald

Oct 17, 2020 at 6:33 am

Anyonr know what the Strata tour ace specs were ie construction materials, compression etc?

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Joe

Mar 20, 2020 at 10:48 am

Dating myself, but I recall as a beginning golfer the Penfold Ace, the Acushnet Club Special,and the Spalding “Green Eyes” ( a green dot on either side of the number), which were always in plentiful supply in a large glass jar on the pro shop counter

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MikeB

Mar 20, 2020 at 10:45 am

NIKE DD & TW, although the DD was the better ball of the two. Callaway SR series 1,2 and 3. SR1 being the softest and SR3 being the firmest. Played the SR3 up to a year and a half ago when my hoarded supply ran out. Dicks kept selling them for $20/doz, had more dozens of them than toilet paper!

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ChrisJ

Mar 20, 2020 at 9:55 am

What about the Tour Edition that was played by Greg Norman that would spin off the planet?
Also the Precept EV Extra Spin, and the Top Flite Z Balata

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DAVID J. CLEMENT

Mar 20, 2020 at 9:54 am

Going back a bit further – to the 1960’s and ’70’s – I was always glad to find a MaxFli “Blue Max” out on the course as a kid. Remember that the George Peppard movie was out then about WW1 German fighter aces?

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Steve Cantwell

Mar 20, 2020 at 9:15 am

Things I recall…the Precept Lady was a great cold weather ball. Balata balls had wonderful feel off the club face (putter included)….but “thinning” one would result in a big ol’ smile (cut). Balata balls could also become out of round after 36 holes of golf. Gosh, we here making comments are old!

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- Joe
  
  Mar 20, 2020 at 10:38 am
  
  Some of those balata balls were out of round tight out of the box
  
  Reply Report comment
  - joro
    
    Mar 20, 2020 at 11:01 am
    
    The Black Maxfli was one that was a great ball if you got a good one, but some were so out of round they looked like stones.
    
    Reply Report comment
David Arbuckle

Mar 20, 2020 at 8:47 am

Nice story and can relate to those remembering even more balls. Did anyone ever appreciate the Dunlap ball with the different divots? It corrects in flight! I have arguably the largest collection of logo balls and have given away more than 15,000 balls to friends, charities and anyone who respects the game, and really enjoy the difference in the various balls. PS, am not a good enough golfer to get mad.

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Jeff

Mar 19, 2020 at 3:35 pm

This list could be a lot longer. Where are the Precept U-Tri Tour, Callaway Hex Red; Maxfli M3, Strata Tour, TM TP Red, Nike ONE Gold, Top Flite ZBalata?

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15th Club

Mar 19, 2020 at 2:50 pm

You do a great job on these “Remember this old equipment” stories. They are always well done and entertaining.

This is no exception.

But I have to say that apart from some curiosities with branding and marketing, and some things that had nothing to do with Tour golf (like the Precept Lady) golf balls have always been to me the least interesting, least comprehensible things in the game.

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Acemandrake

Mar 18, 2020 at 10:00 pm

I’ll always remember being pleasantly surprised by the Wilson Staff ball in the 1990’s.

They were great and I couldn’t understand why no one talked about them.

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- Rich Douglas
  
  Mar 19, 2020 at 2:12 am
  
  They had one version labeled “Balata,” but I’m pretty convinced it was artificial, not real, balata. Imagine a two-piece ball with a balata cover. Oh, my!
  
  Reply Report comment
juanny

Mar 18, 2020 at 9:50 pm

Tour Prestige was a great ball too despite getting shredded by the third hole.

Loved the Stratas and the Wound Maxfli Rev.

I found two dozen inergel’s in my garage a few weeks ago, sans plastic cases, and threw them on ebay and they sold for $25 which I thought was strange.

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Brandon

Mar 18, 2020 at 6:10 pm

What was the deal with those goofy ping balls that were 2 different colors and felt like rocks?

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- Swirley
  
  Mar 18, 2020 at 8:45 pm
  
  I had one that was Green and Neon Yellow. Needless to say, i hit one in the rough that landed neon yellow side down.
  
  Reply Report comment
Big Earl

Mar 18, 2020 at 3:03 pm

Cool article! Always fun to get nostalgic.
Maxfli revolutions were my jam back in the early days. Also finding a DT wound 80 or 90 was really exciting!

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- Nihonsei
  
  Mar 20, 2020 at 8:47 am
  
  +1 for Revolutions and the side stamp predecessor to lining up for putts perfectly. Do I remember an arrow at least on one side of the Revolution print?
  
  Reply Report comment
Gunter Eisenberg

Mar 18, 2020 at 12:58 pm

As I remember correctly, the Maxfli Revolution solid wasn’t as revered as the original wound version. Most of the technology that you see in Callaway’s current tour level balls are derived from Strata and Ben Hogan when Callway bought Top Flite in 2003 and their patents.

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BillyG

Mar 18, 2020 at 12:57 pm

Lady. Yeah!

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Equipment

Why Rory McIlroy will likely use the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper at the RBC Heritage

Published

6 hours ago

Apr 17, 2024

Andrew Tursky

Although we spotted Rory McIlroy testing the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper last week during practice rounds at the Masters, he ultimately didn’t decide to use the club in competition.

It seems that will change this week at the 2024 RBC Heritage, played at the short-and-tight Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head.

When asked on Wednesday following his morning Pro-Am if he’d be using the new, nostalgic BRNR Copper this week, McIlroy said, “I think so.”

“I like it,” McIlroy told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday regarding the BRNR. “This would be a good week for it.”

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According to Adrian Rietveld, the Senior Manager of Tour at TaylorMade, the BRNR Mini Driver can help McIlroy position himself properly off the tee at the tight layout.

Here’s what Rietveld told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday:

“For someone like Rory, who’s that long at the top end of the bag, and then you put him on a course like Harbour Town, it’s tough off the tee. It’s tight into the greens, and you have to put yourself in position off the tee to have a shot into the green. It kind of reminds me of Valderrama in Spain, where you can be in the fairway and have no shot into the green.

“I’m caddying for Tommy [Fleetwood] this week, so I was walking the course last night and looking at a few things. There’s just such a small margin for error. You can be standing in the fairway at 300 yards and have a shot, but at 320 you don’t. So if you don’t hit a perfect shot, you could be stuck behind a tree. And then if you’re back at 280, it might be a really tough shot into the small greens.

“So for Rory [with the BRNR], it’s a nice course-specific golf club for him. He’s got both shots with it; he can move it right-to-left or left-to-right. And the main thing about this club has been the accuracy and the dispersion with it. I mean, it’s been amazing for Tommy.

“This was the first event Tommy used a BRNR last year, and I remember talking to him about it, and he said he couldn’t wait to play it at Augusta next year. And he just never took it out of the bag because he’s so comfortable with it, and hitting it off the deck.

“So you look at Rory, and you want to have the tools working to your advantage out here, and the driver could hand-cuff him a bit with all of the shots you’d have to manufacture.”

So, although McIlroy might not be making a permanent switch into the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper, he’s likely to switch into it this week.

His version is lofted at 13.5 degrees, and equipped with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft.

See more photos of Rory testing the BRNR Mini here

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Equipment

Spotted: TaylorMade P-UDI driving iron

Published

7 hours ago

Apr 17, 2024

Brian Knudson

It seems like the RBC Heritage is full of new gear to be spotted, and you can add TaylorMade’s P-UDI utility irons to that list.

We spotted a 17-degree P-UDI 2-iron in Nick Dunlap’s bag yesterday, and now have some photos of both the 3- and 4-irons. Nick has his P-UDI 2-iron setup with a Project X HZRDUS Black 4th Gen 105g TX shaft.

From what we can tell, this new P-UDI utility iron looks to have some of the usual TaylorMade technology as we can see the Speed Slot on the sole of the club for additional face flexibility. A toe screw is usually used to close off the hollow body design that will probably be filled with a version of TaylorMade’s Speed Foam that is present in the current iron lineup. This hollow body, foam-filled design should offer additional ball speed, soft feel, and sound, as well as an optimized CG for ball flight.

“Forged” is etched into the hosel, so we can assume that either the face, body, or both are forged for a soft and responsive feel. The club looks good from behind and at address, where we can see just a little offset and a topline that I would consider medium thickness. We don’t have the full details on what is under the hood or how many loft options will be available yet.

TaylorMade P-UDI 3-iron – 20°

TaylorMade P-UDI 4-iron – 22°

Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 RBC Heritage

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Whats in the Bag

Collin Morikawa WITB 2024 (April)

Published

7 hours ago

Apr 17, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

Collin Morikawa what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. More photos from the event here.

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 LS (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 60 TX (45 inches)

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (13.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX

Check out more in-hand photos Collin Morikawa’s clubs here.

5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P770 (4), P7MC (5-6), P730 (7-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid 115 X100 (4-6), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (7-PW)