Tyk Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 After getting rained off the course and into the clubhouse, where the Crown was poured perhaps too heavily, I got into a debate with my buds about golf balls and what the pros played. I think they are for the most part playing balls that are either available to us or are perhaps playing a new ball that is not yet available but will become available to us soon (such as Mickelson playing the new Callaway Tour ix a season before it hit the shelves a couple years ago). A friend contended that they are playing special formulations and custom balls that are not available to us, and claimed that the manufacturers are able to easily customize balls based on player preference and request. It doesn't seem feasible to me that companies are able or willing to make custom golf balls to suit individual tour players, and that if they were, then these special formulations would see the light of day occasionally, as is seen with tour clubs and prototypes that one can find for sale. I've never seen this with balls. So I'm asking the experts here at MGS to help settle this. When you see that a pro is playing the Nike One Tour, are they really playing the same Nike One Tour that that we can buy at our pro shop, or are they playing some specially designed ball with a Nike logo stamped on it? Many thanks for your input! Ping I20 8.5* - Aldila NV 65g SAdams XTD Super Hybrid 15* - Stock Fubuki SAdams DHY 21* - Stock Matrix Ozik White Tie SMizuno MP58 4-8 Irons - Fujikura MCI 100 SSCOR 42,46,50,54,58* - SCOR/KBS Genius SSTX Robert Ingman Envision TR 35", Iomic grip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudfish Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 I've always wondered this as well... I'd like to know the answer to this... My Bag:Driver - King F6+ 3 Wood - XR16Hybrids - ZH45Irons - JPX 850 ProWedges - Mac Daddy 2Putter - Spider Tour RedBag - Ogio Grom Stand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Bush Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 always rumors that tiger etc plays a nike witha tiger stamped on it and that ball is on the usga confirmed list of balls etc but if there is a difference them and only the tour players would notice i doubt we would and with mickelson getting product a year early if anyone would get it be the big guys on tour a article on this forum not to long ago talked about mickelson driver getting cracked and the r and d team at cally getting the gamer fixing it and back to him within like 24 hours so yea i say they have certain strings they can pull lol Andrew Bush da lefty of the forum. Cleveland DST Tour 9.5 with Diamana Whiteboard. Nike Sasquatch 4 wood with diamana blue. Nike Sasquatch 3 hybrid with diamana hybrid shaft Callaway x forged 4-pw with prject x flighted 6.0 Callaway x forged 52 and 56 chrome Callaway x forged 60 vintage Odyssey white hot tour number 5. Nike one platinum soon to be nike tour running out of the platinums!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbo32 Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 We all know they can get special club built to specs that we cant get and that they get new products far before we can but I highly doubt they play special balls. Yes Tiger can get TIGER stamped on the balls but anyone can get their name stamped on the ball, his is just in a different location the we are not offered. I know some of the tour guys all play different numbers like 1-4, 6-9 an I've played with a nationwide tour player who played a TM ball marked with #99 on it. Titleist 905R 9.5* w/ RIP Beta 60x Adams 4060 16* w/ Matrix F7M2s Maltby KE4 Tour 19* w/ AXE Xcaliber Tour Hybrid TS Adams CB1 3-PW w/ KBS Tour S Hardstepped 1x Scratch 8620 DS TNC grind 53* & DS EGG grind 58* w/ Dynamic Gold S300 Ping Redwood D66 w/ KBS Tour Black Nickel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxio Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 All you have to do is look at the USGA conforming ball list and the different balls there that never see the retail light of day. If a pro wasn't thinking of putting a ball in play or at least to try the OEM probably wouldn't bother sending it in to be tested by the USGA. I have come across several used Nike balls at one of my home courses that I found different. I would check and see they would be on the USGA list but not available in the retail market. I think some Nike exec from Japan probably comes over to my home course every so often and chunks a couple into the ravines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rounders Posted April 27, 2010 Share Posted April 27, 2010 Customizing a club is one thing but I don't think (or at least I would hope not) that a company would go as far as to make a "spec ball" for each individual pro. I think it would take far too long to produce a batch of balls for a player. But what do I know, Kenny Perry played an R7 iron that wasn't available to the public for years. However as I think to myself, with the millions of dollars that these guys get paid, who knows maybe they do get balls made on a case by case golf course. Pretty crazy when you think about it. Fairways and Greens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Bush Posted April 27, 2010 Share Posted April 27, 2010 http://www.usga.org/ConformingGolfBall/conforming_golf_ball.asp heres the link i searched callway and seen a few that might be a mickelson proto Callaway Golf Company Callaway Golf with chevron logo ---- Tour Proto X ---- white heres a nike ball that tiger may use, there 2 with tw on it Nike Inc. Nike Swoosh logo One Tour TW white and ps i know u can get custom balls with anything written on them but look at the list just search nike and u will see that there are balls that these guys do play that 99% of us could never get Andrew Bush da lefty of the forum. Cleveland DST Tour 9.5 with Diamana Whiteboard. Nike Sasquatch 4 wood with diamana blue. Nike Sasquatch 3 hybrid with diamana hybrid shaft Callaway x forged 4-pw with prject x flighted 6.0 Callaway x forged 52 and 56 chrome Callaway x forged 60 vintage Odyssey white hot tour number 5. Nike one platinum soon to be nike tour running out of the platinums!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyk Posted April 27, 2010 Author Share Posted April 27, 2010 Some of those balls are Japanese or European marks. Take the Callaway Aero for instance and look at this: http://www.tourspecgolf.com/Callaway-Japan-2009-Legacy-Aero-Ball . It does seem almost undoubtable given that list that there are some balls that are never mass produced. It doesn't quite answer the question of why though. I suspect most are prototypes being tested by and played by pros in competition that for whatever reason don't make the cut or are remarked as something else. Some also seem to be balls released for players, although the Nike One TW is the only one on there that really jumps out at you. Who knew Mizuno made golf balls?! Never ever seen those anywhere! Great list Andrew! Very interesting stuff to me! Anyone out there with any first hand knowledge of how the pros get thier golf balls? Ping I20 8.5* - Aldila NV 65g SAdams XTD Super Hybrid 15* - Stock Fubuki SAdams DHY 21* - Stock Matrix Ozik White Tie SMizuno MP58 4-8 Irons - Fujikura MCI 100 SSCOR 42,46,50,54,58* - SCOR/KBS Genius SSTX Robert Ingman Envision TR 35", Iomic grip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxio Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 Mizuno balls are a huge disappointment. I have tried almost all of them since they first came out in 2004-2005. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PingManKMB Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 We all know they can get special club built to specs that we cant get and that they get new products far before we can but I highly doubt they play special balls. Yes Tiger can get TIGER stamped on the balls but anyone can get their name stamped on the ball, his is just in a different location the we are not offered. I know some of the tour guys all play different numbers like 1-4, 6-9 an I've played with a nationwide tour player who played a TM ball marked with #99 on it. FYI, you can order TaylorMade balls with whatever number you want on them 0-99. More or less the same as custom lettering you can order on most premium balls. "Hey Ace... You got any more of that gum?" "That's none of your damn business and I'll thank you for staying out of my personal affairs." - Ace Ventura Pet Detective Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTrueReview Posted May 26, 2010 Share Posted May 26, 2010 I think on the whole most touring pros are playing the same balls that are available to us - just they usually have access to them before us. I went to the Australian Masters last year (yes, the last tourny played by Tiger before the marital blow up) and saw a Callaway rep handing out boxes of ix balls to pros on the putting green (even non-Callaway pros). Maybe a handful of pros might get a ball adjusted to their specs but I think this is a small minority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manavs Posted May 27, 2010 Share Posted May 27, 2010 note the attached image. i went to the usga conforming ball page and was able to print this out. its all the types of pro v1 balls titleist makes. now for the most part they are constructed the same, but what could be the difference? well basically if all fitting comes to launch angle and spin rate - my educated guess would be that each of these models are tweaked in such a way that spins more or less. i remember the pro v1 diamond was played by vijay a few years back because it spun different than the pro v 1 * or pro v1 - so yeah for the masses you get 2 balls that say pro v1 but the usga has currently 19 pro v1's approved that titleist can give to any one of their elite players - meaning, if your outside the top 50 in the world, you don't count, your playing what we play lol Staffer Staffer www.MANAVIANGolf.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyk Posted May 28, 2010 Author Share Posted May 28, 2010 Figure Titlest is on thier 4th Pro V1 release, so that accounts for several of those, I don't know if balls get taken off the list, presumably if a player wanted to play an old model, they could. Ping I20 8.5* - Aldila NV 65g SAdams XTD Super Hybrid 15* - Stock Fubuki SAdams DHY 21* - Stock Matrix Ozik White Tie SMizuno MP58 4-8 Irons - Fujikura MCI 100 SSCOR 42,46,50,54,58* - SCOR/KBS Genius SSTX Robert Ingman Envision TR 35", Iomic grip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil_Genius Posted June 22, 2010 Share Posted June 22, 2010 Most players are playing a production ball. Generally speaking if they're not using Titleist and it's NOT a stock ball it is marked as prototype MY BAG Driver: Titleist 917D3 9.5, Fuji Speeder Pro Tour Spec 74 s-flex Fairway: Cobra Fly-z+ 15* x-flex Irons: Ping i25 4-PW (yellow dot), dynamic gold X100 Wedges: Cleveland RTX 2.0 60*, TaylorMade TP EF 54* Putter: Scotty Cameron Studio Select Newport 2, name stamped, II black oxide finish Grips: Golf Pride New Decade Midsize +2 wraps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
backquak Posted June 22, 2010 Share Posted June 22, 2010 I have wondered about this, too. Its probably because they can make their ball do so much more than I can my ball. Someday, I will learn their little secrets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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