Old Balls

[cdrusch]

I am new to golf and have a question that maybe a bit remedial. My dad was cleaning out his basement and found a few "new" boxes of a dozen golf balls. One box is Top-Flite XLs, one is MaxFli Tour Ltd MD, and the last one is Pinnacle Gold.

Here is my concern- the date on the back of the Top-Flite box is 1982!!! I don't think the Pinnacle or MaxFli balls are as old, but they are probably still from the 90s.

I suppose my question is as follows- what happens to golf balls when they get old? Do they become fragile, or will they be significantly shorter than the Titleist NXT Tours I have been using?

I am considering using these "antique" balls, as I am still learning the game an losing a few balls each time I go out.

Blue skies,

Craig

[Greg]

I doubt there's anything wrong with them, they've never been hit. They probably wont go as far as today's balls because the balls now are more advanced to get more distance but if you're a beginner I doubt that will make much difference. I've played a few old ones a friend of mine found in his garage, some of them even had paint on them, he had them in a bucket and had painted his garage, had about 100 balls, I sorted through them and found about 60 good enough for practice and 35 good enough to use to play, only threw away about 3 or 4 because they were cut so badly i couldnt use them. Some of them werent that old, some even looked almost new but I think there were some of them that were 10+ years old. I still lose balls so I'll take any I can get, If I buy new I'll get cheap ones, actually the walmart intech balls which cost $10 for 24 are good balls for the money and I'll get balls for birthday and christmas gifts and use those which are usually the intech or the nitro blaster, which arent as good but they're cheap. Free balls are always good.

[shankapotamus]

They won't go as far as your NXT's because they're probably lower quality. I have never used a ball that old, but I am sure technology in golf balls has improved tremendously.

[Power_fade]

If they're that old, they could be balata, which means you shouldn't hit them with a metal wood. It should say if they are somewhere on the packaging.

[iammpspeer]

I believe balata balls will give you more spin than that of the newer balls though. So you may compromise distance for a higher spinning ball.

IMO the worst you can do is try them..

[flopdarock]

at first look i thought the thread was a line from an adam sandler movie... lol...
id sell those balls on ebay and get you some new ones...
heck id love to try those puppies out

[RocketSauce]

at first look i thought the thread was a line from an adam sandler movie... lol...

thats a good idea. some people love to buy brand new old balls. but again, if you want to use them, you probably wont notice much of a difference if you are fairly new to golf