Gutties for Sale! (A market survey)

[David Harshbarger]

Who would buy and try to play Gutties if they could be had brand new, and not dear you could swing without fear?


Gutta Percha (also known as Guta Balata?!) is still around, mostly in use for dental procedures.  Just because it isn't being pressed into the shape of golf balls doesn't mean it couldn't be.  And if it were to be, would you buy and play them?

[Peter Flory]

McIntyre makes replicas with synthetic gutta percha.  Is that different than what you're suggesting? 

From their website: "The gutta is warmed to a soft putty like consistency, then compressed in 1890's style line cut molds and allowed to cool.  It is then trimmed and hand painted 6 times.  Finally, 4 coats of polyacrylic are applied for durability.  This process takes 4 to 6 weeks. 

It's a pretty limited market and guys tend not to lose them like they do modern balls.  The entire hickory golf market is pretty small, but the gutty guys are a small subset of that. 

[David Harshbarger]

McIntyre is doing exactly what I was suggesting, though from a framing perspective I wasn't thinking of hickory.  I was thinking more just would you play a gutta percha ball you know, 'cuz.  Whack it with a 460cc head, dig your grooved 56-degree into it's side, you know, play golf, but just with an obviously non-optimized low-tech ball.

[David Harshbarger]

Would you consider Gutta Percha balls as a sustainable and environmentally responsible alternative to the plastic-shell golf ball?   Similar to the paper alternative to the plastic straw.

[Peter Flory]

The strange thing about gutty ball is that they just sort of max out at 170 from my experience... like if you hit it with a modern 5 iron it goes 160, but hit it with a 460 cc driver and it goes 170.  So, it's not just like a scaled down version of golf, it's a different dynamic.  One other issue is that they go out of round on one hit and then you have to sort of line it up for the next tee shot so that you knock it back into round.  Putting with them back in the day probably was OK because of the long grass, but on modern greens, they weave around due to them being distorted. 


Of the few buyers you'd find, my guess is that most of them would be one time buyers because of the issues above. 

[Thomas Dai]

A slight tangent but does anyone recall playing with these?
Didn't go too far, cheap and durable, soft feel and really did spin.
atb



"... is there going to be any difference in playing a 100% ball on a 100% length course to playing a 80% ball on an 80% length course? Same number of shots I suggest."

[David Harshbarger]

The strange thing about gutty ball is that they just sort of max out at 170 from my experience... like if you hit it with a modern 5 iron it goes 160, but hit it with a 460 cc driver and it goes 170.  So, it's not just like a scaled down version of golf, it's a different dynamic.  One other issue is that they go out of round on one hit and then you have to sort of line it up for the next tee shot so that you knock it back into round.  Putting with them back in the day probably was OK because of the long grass, but on modern greens, they weave around due to them being distorted. 


Of the few buyers you'd find, my guess is that most of them would be one time buyers because of the issues above.

Not being able to maintain round is a major problem. 

[Jim Sherma]

The ball that I wish we could have stopped at for good players was the Titleist Professional. Wound center created a natural governor to very high clubhead speed due to over-compression and not being able to control the spin, while the urethane cover allowed for some reasonable durability compared to the balata covers.


I would like to hit a guttie just to do it. The %-decrease in distance is probably too great for many modern courses, and the lack of being able to stay round would be an issue. Although you could always use a putting ball like we did back in the day with balata balls that were not quite round, but not bad enough to not play with tee to green.

[Jon Wiggett]

Not being able to maintain round is a major problem.

Only if you can control where it flies  for most of us in the hit and hope brigade its just another uncontrollable factor that would add a bit of extra spice to the game.


I say make the pros play with a ball with a mind of its own like the rest of us 

[David Harshbarger]

Not being able to maintain round is a major problem.

Only if you can control where it flies  for most of us in the hit and hope brigade its just another uncontrollable factor that would add a bit of extra spice to the game.


I say make the pros play with a ball with a mind of its own like the rest of us