Firm and Fast and the Small Ball

[Mike Hendren]

Was the 1.62" ball better suited for firm and fast playing conditions in GB&I?

Bogey

[Patrick_Mucci]

Was the 1.62" ball better suited for firm and fast playing conditions in GB&I?

Good question

Certainly it's better suited for the wind

Bogey

[Mike Hendren]

While the same weight, I assume today's ball rolls out farther than the small ball.  Frankly, I could have used a square ball at Walton Heath.

Bogey

[Nigel Islam]

What year did they go away from the small ball?

[Bill_McBride]

I found the short game shots more difficult with the small ball, but it was definitely a bit longer.

[Josh Tarble]

I would actually assume the opposite.  I would think the larger ball would be less affected by bumps and easier to control the roll out.

Kind of similar to why a lot of mountain bikes are going to 29" wheels vs. 26" wheels, albeit at a much smaller scale.

[Rich Goodale]

The very best players in the north of Scotland in the 1980's played the small Pinnacle.  It bored through the wind like a knife through butter and when putting, the hole looked like a bucket in comparison.

PS--my 1st hole in one was at Spyglass #12 with a small ball (dunlop 65) when it was illegal in the USA.  Does this count?

[Pete_Pittock]

While the same weight, I assume today's ball rolls out farther than the small ball.  Frankly, I could have used a square ball at Walton Heath.

Bogey

with the smaller diameter it meets less wind resistance and flies farther. Since, for most golfers the fflight portion is longer than the bounce roll sector, the small ball was longer. This should be true no matter the conditions.

Having both a 1.62 and 1.68 ball was the genesis of the one-ball rule, which is largely outdated.

[Tom_Doak]

The small ball also flew on a bit lower trajectory, which was better suited to the UK than the US.

The changeover for The Open and The Amateur was in 1979.  The small ball was not phased out for normal club players for many years afterwards.  It wasn't done on a target date per recent Rules changes; instead, there was a natural progression of the small ball being deemed off limits for competitions by the better players, who had switched to play the bigger ball for bigger competitions.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

The small ball was better in the wind..mass per unit volume and all that.
It also apperaed to sit down in the rough more than the big ball, I guess for the same reason, but the wind was the big difference when I changed over.
I played some of my early Junior golf playing tha small ball and remember the change over very well.
It was at the time the Penfold Ace was still a great ball and I played the big ball Penfold for a number of years before taht company went belly up.
At that time changed to Dunlop, maintaining my British loyalty and didnt move from them until Nike started making golf balls, at about the same time that Dunlop quit producing a high end competitive ball to play with.

[Ryan Coles]

Virtually June and I've not played a firm and fast course yet this year, links courses included. Firm and fast is only possible if Mother Nature plays ball.

[Thomas Dai]

Dunlop 65's & Warwicks, Penfolds, Uniroyals, Slazengers names to recall from many moons ago.

Also, many years after the 1.62" disappeared from the shelves - but not from shagbags - a 1.72" ball was available for a period - the Topflight Magma. Anyone ever play it?

atb

[Jason Topp]

I just remember how impossible it appeared to get that ball in the air from the fairway.

[David_Tepper]

According to John Jacobs' memoirs, had it not been for WWII, Britain would have abandoned the small ball in the 1940's. None other than Roger Wethered led a movement to abandon the small ball after WWII. However, given the damage, destruction and financial loss that so much of Britain suffered in WWII, the R&A decided not to make the golf ball manufacturers in Britain absorb the expense of retooling their factories to produce the bigger ball.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Dunlop 65's & Warwicks, Penfolds, Uniroyals, Slazengers names to recall from many moons ago.

Also, many years after the 1.62" disappeared from the shelves - but not from shagbags - a 1.72" ball was available for a period - the Topflight Magma. Anyone ever play it?

atb

I thought the Magna was 1.80"?

[Adam Lawrence]

There was a pretty widespread belief in British golf for many years that learning with the small ball hindered our players' ability to compete with the Americans. One of Henry Longhurst's best known Sunday Times columns was on the subject, and headed 'This Miserable Pellet'.