This thread inspired me to revisit my old persimmons using both modern and late balata era balls.
As has been said, the old balata balls seem soft and mushy and swerve all over the place. Less distance too.
As to the persimmons, less distance and lower trajectory and more swerve but some of that will be that the archer, me, is now quite a bit older, although the 3-4–5 woods are still pretty usable.
But jeez, my old persimmon headed steel shafted Driver is murder now. It’s sooo heavy, forget about swing weight, I’m speaking overall weight, ie head plus steel shaft and grip. Not many lightweight steel shafts 30+ yrs ago and I’m 30+yrs older than when I bought it.....and you can’t just change out the shaft in a few seconds on an old persimmon like you can in a modern era driver. No real custom fitting for amateur punters back then either. You found something you liked the look, of and hoped the shaft was okay, and then crossed your fingers and played with it. Lots of secondhand persimmons available back in time too. Guess lots of folks bought one and didn’t get on with it so went to something else.
Atb