"Real" Golfball Producers ?

[Gerald]

There are at least 100 brands that market flyfishing lines, still all of those lines are made by 5 or 6 manufactories worldwide.

I wonder if this is the same with golfballs ?

Anyone knows ???

[dhanson]

here's a list of pga conforming balls.

i took the liberty of jotting down all the manufacturers listed:

Acushnet

Banpresto Co.

Best Tech Co.

Bridgestone

Callaway

Central Kosho

Chiyoda Co

Crews Co.

Curly & Fry

Dick's Sporting Goods

Dixon

Dragons Sporting Co.

Dunlop Slazenger Equipment

Excel Golf Products

FLGolf

Foremost Golf Mfg.

Founders Club

Globeride Inc.

Golf-Do-Co

Golf Partner

Golf Tech GMBH

Golfball Bussjager

Golfsmith

Golftech Golfartikel Vertrieb

Himaraya

Honma

Japana Co.

Kaisar Co.

Kasco

King Par

Komperdell Sportartikel

MG Golf

MacGregor

Maruman & Co.

Mizuno

Muziik

Nano S

Nexen

Nike

Oxylane Group

PGF International

Pelz Golf

Qingdao Dongsung Golf Co.

Royal Corp.

SRI Sports Limited

Scanna Co.

Seoul Nassau

Shinhankorea Co.

Sureway

TaylorMade

Tokai Golf Co.

Top-Flite Golf

Tsuruya Golf

U.S. Kids Golf

Volvik Inc.

WRRT BVBA

Wilson

Works Golf Corp.

Xebio Co.

Yamaha Corp.

Yokohama Rubber Co.

i'm sure some of these companies are owned by others, for instance I think Top-Flite is now owned by Callaway. but to answer your question, there's really only one REAL manufacturer, and it happens to be at the top of the list...

[Kieran123]

Then who makes Titleist balls?

[Billy Enforsee]

Originally Posted by Kieran123

Then who makes Titleist balls?

Acushnet

[henrik_s]

Titleist is owned by Acushnet.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by henrik_s

Titleist is owned by Acushnet.

And they make their own golf balls. I've been to the plant.

Nike balls may or may not still be made by Bridgestone.

[Gerald]

Quote:

here's a list of pga conforming balls.

i took the liberty of jotting down all the manufacturers listed:

Acushnet

.

.

.

.

. but to answer your question, there's really only one REAL manufacturer, and it happens to be at the top of the list...

Hmmm ...... are you telling me all balls come from 1 manufacturer ????????

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by Kieran123

Then who makes Titleist balls?

Dixon Balls almighty, I can't believe nobody figured out you were being sarcastic.

PS. I've never actually been to any real golf ball "manufactories".

[Kieran123]

Originally Posted by iacas

And they make their own golf balls. I've been to the plant.

Nike balls may or may not still be made by Bridgestone.

Interesting....are Bridgestone balls American made? For some reason I would be surprised Nike would not have them manufactured in China.

[allin]

You could probably get a good idea of who actually manufactures their own balls by reviewing active patents.  Even if they contract out manufacturing they can control much of the design, materials, etc.  After all does anyone really believe all these golf bags are actually made by the equipment name on the bag?.  Everyone knows that club casting and forging is mostly contracted out.  How many of your car parts are actually made by the car manufacturer.  They control design parameters and material, but make only a small percentatge of the parts.

[dhanson]

Originally Posted by allin

You could probably get a good idea of who actually manufactures their own balls by reviewing active patents.  Even if they contract out manufacturing they can control much of the design, materials, etc.  After all does anyone really believe all these golf bags are actually made by the equipment name on the bag?.  Everyone knows that club casting and forging is mostly contracted out.  How many of your car parts are actually made by the car manufacturer.  They control design parameters and material, but make only a small percentatge of the parts.

This doesn't make sense. If "they" contract out the manufacturing of the balls, but still design the balls, wouldn't "they" still hold the patent? Or are you saying, "Sure they hold the patent, but someone else makes the ball"?

[BrushCaddy]

The patent owner can make their patented design anywhere they want.  They allow permission to the factory.  IF the factory wants to make their own ball with that technology, then they would have to get permission from the patent owner to produce it to put their own name on it.  Not sure if that answers what you were asking...

You don't have to own a patent to make a ball and you don't have to be a manufacturer to own a patent.

[GaijinGolfer]

Originally Posted by Kieran123

Interesting....are Bridgestone balls American made? For some reason I would be surprised Nike would not have them manufactured in China.

Some are and some are made in Japan.  Bridgestone is a Japanese company, BTW.

[Gerald]

Well let me make it more clear why I asked ....... It might well be so that we think ball A is better than ball B, while it well might be that both balls are to exact equal specs made by C.

It might also well be that there are only 3-5 real manufacturers, making most of the 100+ brands...... and that some balls have identical specs at several price levels, etc.....

In fly lines it is mostly easy to say where a line is produced, by comparing boxes or spools.......

It just might well be that some balls are 100% identical (inside) and have a different dimple designs.......

Anyway it might very well be that the 2009 Pro V1 is also sold as .......... etc.

[allin]

Originally Posted by Gerald

Well let me make it more clear why I asked ....... It might well be so that we think ball A is better than ball B, while it well might be that both balls are to exact equal specs made by C.

It might also well be that there are only 3-5 real manufacturers, making most of the 100+ brands...... and that some balls have identical specs at several price levels, etc.....

In fly lines it is mostly easy to say where a line is produced, by comparing boxes or spools.......

It just might well be that some balls are 100% identical (inside) and have a different dimple designs.......

Anyway it might very well be that the 2009 Pro V1 is also sold as .......... etc.

I guess my earlier response was not clear.  There are a number of design and construction decisions in producing a golf ball.  Many of those involve patented areas.  For example there was a patent fight over patents used in the original Top Flight Strata golf ball.  Dimple patterns, chemical composition of the urethane etc.  As long as you are willing to pay patent licensing fees you can take advantage of these advances.  Companies can contract actual manufacture of the ball out, just like club head casting.  So you are correct it is possible that a lower priced ball could be identical to a higher priced ball, like a grocery store brand produced by the same company as the national brand.  Since licensed technology is involved there is almost no way to tell.  Quality control may vary as well of course.  It is unlikely that the latest technology would be licensed if in current use in a high end ball like Pro V.  But could a lower price ball be nearly identical to the Pro V of five years ago? Maybe, but you would need a lot of knowledge and the ability to test in a scientific manner to know.  Looking at the last decade of golf balls it is clear that the features and construction of high end balls are migrating to mid priced and even some value priced balls over time.  As a consumer that is why we have to decide how much advances in high end balls are worth isn't it?

[GaijinGolfer]

Originally Posted by Gerald

Well let me make it more clear why I asked ....... It might well be so that we think ball A is better than ball B, while it well might be that both balls are to exact equal specs made by C.

It might also well be that there are only 3-5 real manufacturers, making most of the 100+ brands...... and that some balls have identical specs at several price levels, etc.....

In fly lines it is mostly easy to say where a line is produced, by comparing boxes or spools.......

It just might well be that some balls are 100% identical (inside) and have a different dimple designs.......

Anyway it might very well be that the 2009 Pro V1 is also sold as .......... etc.

The thing is though that there ISNT only 3-5 real manufacturers, so its a moot point.