Braid Limited Flight Ball
McIntyre Golf is developing a limited flight ball for use with pre-1900 golf clubs. Although we love the gutta percha ball for its history and its unique “click”, the gutta percha material is expensive, and it is a prolonged process to manufacture. Each ball must be individually hand molded and then painted 4-5 times, followed by a final application of polyurethane.
The McIntyre “Braid” ball is a restricted flight ball manufactured by Wilson Golf Company. We strip the existing paint off the cover and remold in the traditional line cut mold pattern. This remolding process consumes and hour per dozen balls due to the shallow cover design. Initial testing has shown that the balls are about 20 yards longer than our “Park” gutty, similar in distance to the Oakhurst ball. It still has some of the “knuckle-ball”, self-correcting features of the gutty. I believe some of those flight characteristics are due to the cover pattern.
It is a much more durable ball, not susceptible to deformation and paint chipping like the Park gutty. It also is less expensive than the gutty.
The Greenbrier Resort has chosen to use the Braid ball for play at the Oakhurst course. Burt Baine, Golf Course Manager, reports that the balls are well accepted there.
