In today’s video I’m taking a close up look at the brand new Titleist Pro V1x golf ball and comparing it to a mid-90s Titleist Tour Balata 100 golf ball!
What’s inside and how do they compare?
What do you think, have you used this ball, comment below?
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so this is the legendary Titless Tour BL from 1995 this is the Titless Tour BL 100 it’s the legendary pros ball that only the best players could play it spun like crazy felt like butter and could literally split in half at just the thought of the leading edge on your wedge and this is the brand new Tireless Pro 1X that I recently bought it’s the high-tech Tour approved gold standard golf ball that again only the best golfers should play and today I’m putting both of these golf balls side by side to have a close-up look and then we’re going to cut them open with the help of Jeff to see exactly what’s inside this 1995 to Balata golf ball and I’m a little bit worried because the Balata ball just might be full of liquid and could even explode all over the floor so the Titus Balata ball was a tour ball from the mid to late 90s it was played by only the best golfers it was made from the hardened sap of a tree found in the Caribbean and South America and it had a super soft cover it feels really soft and I know that’s not scientific but it gave incredible spin it was loved by professionals for how much control it gave them around the green so when I saw these golf balls online on eBay recently I jumped at the chance to bid for them and I did win them so I want to take a close-up look and find exactly what these golf balls are like and how they compare to the modern ProV 1 golf balls so first things first let’s have a little look at what I got in this package when I bought it from eBay some of these golf balls are actually in pretty good condition and some of them as you’ll see are not in great condition so the thing about the BL golf balls were that the leading edge of your golf club if it made the slightest bit of contact would almost slice through the golf balls like butter and you can see on this one here this is a tool 90 that is actually just almost ripped through the cover on that golf ball you can see there’s another one there h this is a golfer who’s similar to me cuz he’s obviously made a real mess of this golf ball yep you can see it’s completely out of shape looks really really beaten up and there’s another one here i don’t know if you can see it on the camera it’s almost in a little V shape at the end there just above the number and the logo it’s been completely squished either by compression someone’s hit it too hard or they just smashed it with the uh the edge of their golf club so the big thing I wanted to look at with these golf balls is yes definitely have a look inside the golf balls to find out what’s in the middle because I have heard that the inside of the golf ball could be filled with liquid now this is a Torata 100 the other golf ball they have is a Torata 90 and the numbers apparently mean the compression of the golf ball so 90 therefore means 90 compression and the 100 therefore means 100 compression much like you get with a Prov1 and a Prov 1X now except that the lower compression golf ball actually has the red number whereas when you look at the modern Prov 1X the red number has got the higher compression but I want to take a closer look at some of the tech on these golf balls as well because I’ve heard that the dimples could be shallower and rounder than the more modern golf balls and I’ve also heard that the golf balls could be smaller than modern golf balls so we can have a look at that as well but because I know some of you are geeky about golf balls like me I’ve even got my electronic scale so I’m going to weigh the golf ball to find out how the old golf ball compares to the more modern Prov1X so why don’t we start with weighing the golf ball so this is the modern Prov1X golf ball let’s pop it on the weighing scale and see exactly what the weight comes out at okay so that says 46 g on there hopefully you can see that let’s grab this one here this one looks like the oldest golf ball I found it’s a Tora 100 okay wow so that’s really interesting so that’s 44 g so let’s have a look at the size then because it So let’s have a look then at the size because it could be that the reason it’s lighter is because it’s smaller and visually it probably doesn’t show up very well but but it is a smaller golf ball and when we have a look at the dimples in comparison to both of these you can see on the modern Titus Pro 1X the dimples are closer together they’re different shapes and that’s due to the AI and the the modern tech they use to get the best out of the aerodynamics so there is definitely differences with the dimples on these two golf balls so as I said with the help of Jeff we’re going to cut these golf balls open now let’s start with the Pro1X and what I’m hoping to see is a modern fourpiece golf ball okay yep so you can see there it’s got a dual speed core with the black outer mantle and then the the white outer layer on there so how is that going to compare to the Torbolta 100 from 1995 is it going to make a mess is it going to explode now I think I’m going to see underneath the outer layer are tightly wound rubber bands wrapped around a small core and it’ll be much smaller the core than the Titus Pro 1X from 2025 what I don’t want to see is a load of liquid that’s going to spill out and hopefully not explode all over the floor here so let’s move some of these golf balls out the way so they don’t get in there let’s get hold of Jeff and we’re going to cross our fingers and hope it doesn’t make a mess here we go oh my word you see that we should have done that in slow motion wow look at that oh my god oh I’m sorry Jeff what have I put you through it’s like Jeff’s had a happy ending right let’s have a look at this then so this is the inner core that was that had the the rubber bands that are all over the floor tightly wound around it and you can see in there it is a liquid filled core hopefully I’ve been able to go back into the footage and slow down that uh that explosion but look all over my hands it’s all over poor little Jeff he’s had a real facial um so I’m gonna have to clean him up there so you can see here inside this outer cover that we’ve got these rubber bands that are really really tightly wound around that center core in there and it’s obviously filled with that liquid center it gives it that soft feeling but I’m sorry Jeff made a real mess of you but what I want to know in the comments below is did you ever play with a tour of golf ball and how did you get on with it and also let me know what was the first golf ball that you ever played with mine was a Topfly XL and it was a tour trajectory and I’ll catch you in the next
13 Comments
Did you ever hit a Balata?
Or better yet… did you ever destroy one mid-round?
Tell me your best (or worst) Balata story below — and yes, I read all of them! 👍🏌️♂️
No don't cut it. I will buy it from you❤
you should do the taylormade Project A or project S. and or tour preferred balls next
A golf ball that made Jeff vomit 🤮
I used a ball that Nick Faldo brought out in the early 1990’s, it was a Balata ball and cut up terribly. I don’t know if any are around. 👍🏌️♂️🇨🇦
Back in the 70s & 80s i played the titliest balata. They were 80 pence. The top flite was £1.10. Not a lot of higher handicappers played anything that was going to cut easily. According to how i was striking the ball, if good, i could use a Titliest Balata all 18 holes. If bad i could oval it after 9 and chucked it. I played the balata because i was a junior 3 handicap and wanted control and that is where i believe titliest got the drop and stop marketing from because they did. I could lose 20-50 yards up against my now ball the tp5. After they stopped the balata at my course i went onto Titliest Professional 90s but they were not the same, they wasnt as soft and stopped but not as quick. Size i cant remember but it could have been 1.62 or 1.68. First ball was Penfold Ace if i could find any, if not anything
First golf balls i remember playing were top flight or dunlop
Poor Jeff…
Balata 100%
I miss hitting balatas. Bring back the tour balata and tour prestige titleist!
I swear that never happens – Jeff
You just can't beat the feel of a well struck balata on a traditional wood!
Yes, these balls spun like crazy…. off all clubs from Driver through to wedges!
I've been playing 40+ years now, and still play balatas to this day!
(I still have 30 dozen new in box Titleist tour balata 100s, 10 dozen Maxfli balatas, 10 dozen Slazenger interlock balatas, as well as at least 40 dozen titleist professional/tour prestige which were early Urethane covered wound liquid center balls….. all made obsolete by the introduction of the prov1 around 2000)
They would go out of round after less than 9 holes, even on pure strikes and you are looking at at least 15% loss of distance in comparison to a modern multi layer Urethane covered tour ball, but man nothing comes close to the feel of these balls! ❤
And if you thin one, forget it…..there would be a huge smile cut into the ball!
We used to carry a roundness checking tool in our golf bags, as they were very often not round even straight out of the sleeve!
Like I say, I still play these balls on short par 3 courses…. even though they are shorter, I can control these things with absolute precision…. I just club up on my yardages.
Golf just hasn't been the same since the dominance of the solid cored balls.
And, if re introduced it would solve the current distance issues the game is suffering from…. these would be the perfect solution to the golf ball roll back that's currently getting implemented.
Unfortunately, durability, along with extremely expensive manufacturing costs mean we will never see this happen.
In reality, modern tour balls are so much better/easier to play….. but I'm just a middle aged golfer set in my ways! 😂
Go and play a round with some, you may just be surprised (although with age they do loose performance as the rubber windings deteriorate, but new in box well stored examples can still play fairly well!)
Cool video fella. 👍 ⛳
First 'proper' golf ball was the old Dunlop 65 named after Henry Cotton's low round in the Open Championship,in the 60's it was also a wound,liquid centre,balata covered ball,back then in 1.62" size.
When American size (1.68") became available I switched to Wilson Pro Staff optic orange as a Jerry Pate fan but the world turned when I discovered Titleist forged irons and balata balls circa 1981.
Balata balls were brilliant if you were playing well but were outclassed by the Titleist PTS (Pro Traj Surlyn) Wound which was almost as 'spinny' as balata but was more resistant to cuts and scuffs.
Got down to 9 h'cap (old rules) with persimmon woods,forged blades and balata balls . . happy days.