David,
Frankly, I can't make much sense of anything they wrote in there but I can tell you I disagree with the below statement. Not from experience, but that seems like a hole in their case for a patent.
With what exactly do you disagree? What do you see as a hole in their case for a patent? So far as I can tell, they are trying to parallel the USGA version of the distance test. Nine degree driver, 160 fts (109 mph) swing speed. Record the distances.
Regardless, there's no effort here to optimize for any ball (except potentially the Tour Edition), so for these specific launch conditions the DT was only slightly longer than the balata.
But these launch conditions were pretty standard for a well struck driver for a very good player at the time, weren't they?
Respectfully, I think you are exaggerating just how much difference tweaking the launch conditions will make. Two key variables in optimization are swing speed and the ball. Here the swing speed is controlled (109 mph), and the ball is what is being tested. As for launch angle, it seems to be in the right ballpark (looking at the trackman optimums.)
So just what is it that you think they can fiddle with to significantly change these numbers?
According to this example there was only a 7 yard difference between the Balata and the Top Flite, and I am not going to argue about whether they could squeeze a few yards out of any one or all of these balls.
Do you seriously believe that the test procedure was so flawed that it was understating the distance of the Top Flite by 20 or 30 or 40 yards at 109 mph swing speeds? That seems extremely unlikely to me.
Then again, I can't see conditions that generate 21 yards of roll out of a balata and 18.6 out of a DT, can you?
EDIT: Does it comply with anyone's memory that the harder balls would roll less than the softer balls?
My recollection is that the Balata launched lower than the harder balls. This test seems to suggest the same. This also seems to be the experience of the those who have tried side by side comparisons (your corn field tests.) It makes sense to me that a lower launched ball would have a tendency to run a little further.
Think of these new balls. They are low spin but they launch high and a high percentage of their distance is carry. If you think the older distance balls have similar distance characteristics, why would this be any different then?
As Jim Sherma suggests, it may be that the trajectory of the balata changed at extremely high swing speeds/ spin rates, but that is a different issue, isn't it?
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Garland, I am not patent attorney and I won't even begin to try and unwind what is involved in a successful patent application.
As for your conclusion a few posts ago. I agree that the various balls were all pressed up against the initial velocity limit. The 273 in this test seems reasonably close to the 279 Frank Thomas observed.
My point is that the balata wasn't too far behind that.
If you were hitting it substantially farther than 279 yards back then, my guess is that you were playing on extremely hard fairways or your swing speed exceeded 109 mph, or both.