Professional 100

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By Robert M

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  • 24 Replies
  1. Hotsauce

    Hotsauce
    Georgetown MA

    I used to love the Professionals.  I would bet they've got some life in them, but will probably be a bit dated as far as performance goes.

  2. Bern

    Bern
    Jackson, MS

    Josh G said:

    I used to love the Professionals.  I would bet they've got some life in them, but will probably be a bit dated as far as performance goes.

    I used to really love the Professionals but I doubt they will perform anywhere close to "modern" balls.
  3. tdogg21

    tdogg21
    Chambersburg, PA

    I think they would perform to the same specs as they would have when you bought them (assuming your closet didn't experience any extreme temps).  But they aren't going to perform like the new generations of balls.  My family use to own a golf store so I have dozens of balls in my basement that are new in the box.  But the spin and distance is very noticeably different than a new ball.

  4. painter33

    painter33
    Wilmington, DE

    Bern said:

    I used to love the Professionals.  I would bet they've got some life in them, but will probably be a bit dated as far as performance goes.

  5. Dino J

    Dino J
    Burnaby, BC

    Ahhh painter... your waxing nostalgic has me wanting to go back into my Dad's garage looking for my old wooden driver and the more traditional blade or muscle back irons! I can feel my hands stinging from the misfits! :-). A time when hitting one on the screws literally meant hitting it on a screw that attached the resin or cycolac insert of the driver!
  6. LCrawford

    LCrawford

    I found a a titleist professional 100 in my bag of balls I practice with on my back yard range. I tell you, it is old, yellow and even is kind of lumpy, but when I hit it, it's like butter. It still carries like all the other sorted balls. That's why I was on here looking for some. I didn't know they were from the past. Does anyone know what current Titleist ball compares? I would appreciate it.
  7. Dale V

    Dale V
    Surprise AZ

    LCrawford said:

    I found a a titleist professional 100 in my bag of balls I practice with on my back yard range. I tell you, it is old, yellow and even is kind of lumpy, but when I hit it, it's like butter. It still carries like all the other sorted balls. That's why I was on here looking for some. I didn't know they were from the past. Does anyone know what current Titleist ball compares? I would appreciate it.

    You will not find anything like them as they were the last balls that were made with wound rubber bands. They were superseded by solid construction balls, the beginning of the ProV1 era. They were a transition where the inter construction was the same as balata balls but the cover was now a urethane cover. Titleist already had a surlyn covered ball in the DT model but not a pro-level high spin ball. You can still break the inter-bands without cutting the cover so they would get out of round but not as bad as a balata ball. No solid core ball will ever feel like a wound ball just like no metal driver will ever feel like persimmon. We just accept the differences and thank the technology for making the game a little bit easier.
  8. JAMES S

    JAMES S
    SUMMIT, NJ

    LOVE THAT BALL!  I THINK WHEN THE RULING BODIES DECIDE TO TAKE SOME DISTANCE OFF THE BALL TO COMPENSATE FOR THE NEW CLUB TECHNOLOGY THEY WILL REINTRODUCE THE WOUND BALL AKA 

    "THE PROFESSIONAL"

  9. Robert M

    Robert M
    Hollywood, FL

    Thanks Everyone. The days of Persimmon. Still have my MT 693 and 945 and my Dad's 1941 MT's 1-4 wood.
  10. BBilsten

    BBilsten

    I found one of these golf balls on our course, and it looked brand new. I have a plastic donut shaped device that I use to draw a circle around the ball for pitting purposes. When I slipped the donut around the ball, the ball slipped right thru. I had no idea that the current version of ball that we are playing is larger than what we used to play...
  11. Dale V

    Dale V
    Surprise AZ

    Likely a knock-off. The size has not changed over the years. Or, it could have been stored in a hot spot for years that actually caused the core to shrink. It is wound (the last version of wound) so the rubber bands could have deteriorated to the point of actually contracting a small amount. Nice for display but i would not try to play it. Good find for collecting in that it signals the transition into the solid ProV1 generation.
  12. Tyler H

    Tyler H
    Appleton, WI

    All wound balls will shrink over time. I have a few sleeves of Professionals and Balatas they are noticeably smaller in diameter due to shrinking over the years.

    TH
  13. JVincent

    JVincent

    The shrunken size alone would affect the dynamics of the ball. But, certainly, the old Professionals 90s and 100s did not play anything like the ProVs when they came out. They weren’t bad balls by any means (for their time), it’s just the balata cover, rubber band wrapped, liquid filled, rubber cored balls were no match to the solid multi layer urethane covered balls. Those balls would spin in ways that are almost comical by comparison. The trajectory from the spin was so different from what it is now. I can still visualize what they looked like taking off from the driver. And the covers would slice right open if you bladed them or if they hit a rock or cart path (we used to call them smiley’s because of the way they looked). Still, if you have some around and they’re in great shape, take them out for a round to see just how hard this game was before they introduced the new balls. Even more challenging, take out a set of old blades with steel shafted persimmon woods and play them - good luck with that - it’s a far different game, and you’ll wonder how the old timers played as well as they did. Those guys were good. I’m surprised any of us stuck with the game, because it was really difficult back then. Yeah, send some my way, I’d love to see how different my swing would be with them.
  14. Dale V

    Dale V
    Surprise AZ

    The "Professional" was a transitional ball. It was the last wound core technology but was not balata. It was their first transition into the urethane covers. Soon to be followed by ProV1.
  15. Steve K

    Steve K

    Were Tour Prestige and Professional at the same time or did one come before the other? Cheers
  16. Dale V

    Dale V
    Surprise AZ

    Prestige came much later. It was a solid core ball.
  17. Mike M

    Mike M
    Marblehead MA

    Dale, are you certain the professional wasn't balata? I thought the professional was the last balata ball Titleist made, but I could be wrong.I might be thinking of the Titleist 384. I played the professional 100, and I thought you could easily cut them, which anyone who played balata and "knife" one can attest to.
  18. Dale V

    Dale V
    Surprise AZ

    Mike M said:

    Dale, are you certain the professional wasn't balata? I thought the professional was the last balata ball Titleist made, but I could be wrong.I might be thinking of the Titleist 384. I played the professional 100, and I thought you could easily cut them, which anyone who played balata and "knife" one can attest to.

    Positive. They could still get cut but it was much harder to do than previous balata balls. People loved them because of the lower cut rate and the fact that they spun like crazy. It took some people a while to accept that the ProV1 would be better but no doubters now. Scroll down to 1994 in the link below.


    www.golfmagic.com/.../20817
  19. Ron B

    Ron B
    Los Osos, CA

    Just today I found a Professional 100 golf ball (if you can still call it a ball if it's not spherical). Not only is it, how shall we say it, "lumpy", but it has also shrunk over the years. In a "bounce test" it returns to about 60% of the height of a current Pro V1. I can only imagine what its history is ... and how it ended up on the short game practice area of my local course.
  20. Les M

    Les M
    CT

    Military
    Was a lot of fun, back in the day, being able to really move the ball around. Shot shaping was the name of the game before pure straight distance took over. DCI Blacks!
    Loved the way they spun on bermuda greens, and how buttery soft putting them felt to the hands.
    Always felt good to flip open a gold sleeve on #1 teeing ground!
  21. Eric R

    Eric R

    I found a couple of dozen in my basement and took them to the course to check them out. They are not as long as the new balls, but they have a great feel to them. The huge downside is that after hitting them once with the driver they went noticeably out of round. I tested a couple more and had the same results. I am relegating them to my shag bag.
  22. Don O

    Don O
    Madison, WI

    Put one on the trophy shelve. Don’t bother trying the rest. As you note, nothing that you use on course will compare to using them in practice (thankfully!!!..)
  23. Edward K

    Edward K
    Wesley Chapel, FL

    Military

    Eric R said:

    I found a couple of dozen in my basement and took them to the course to check them out. They are not as long as the new balls, but they have a great feel to them. The huge downside is that after hitting them once with the driver they went noticeably out of round. I tested a couple more and had the same results. I am relegating them to my shag bag.

    Driver construction has changed significantly since the Professional days, I used them on the mini-tours years ago, everybody was playing it. The 90 compression was a hit as well. Not even sure how they'd hold up with today's equipment, but I know they'd spin!
  24. Patrick G

    Patrick G

    I was out hunting lost golf balls on the course behind my house. I found a Titleist Tour Prestige 100.It looks like it was just taken out of the sleeve - not a mark on it - bright white. I asked JC Anderson a playing senior pga pro what did I Find. Imagine my surprise when I was told it was 20+ years old.

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