Question:

You can take the golf balls in question, one at a time, and drop them on an even, flat, "hard" surface, and to the extent they "bounce" back to the point they were dropped – gives a crude way of evaluating their worth – for play. If they return back to the point from where they were dropped, you are a winner.:–)

You are also an alien, because the laws of physics in our known universe don’t allow for that.

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – A couple of years ago my Father in-law gave me a dozen Titleist DT and a dozen Top-flite XLs. The Top-flite balls have a date of 1982 on the box which I think is the manufacture year making the balls 21 years old. They also have a ‘Sentry Insurance’ logo. The Titleist have no date but must be about the same age because these were the balls he had left when he gave up the game. The box has no bar coding so these predate checkout scanners. Will they still perform like new (none have every been hit)? He gave me the balls expecting me to use them but I just put them on a shelf and forgot about them until today. The way I go through balls they’ll all be gone quickly if I were to start using them. Anyway I doubt they would perform like the Noodle that I currently use even if they did perform like new. Part of me would like to keep them, maybe one day my three year old would like to have his granddad’s balls (golf balls), and part of me would like to tee-em up and see how they fly.

Is there a way to test used balls to see if they are any good? Checking the bounce and using a roundness thing… is that enough? I’d like to buy some recycled practice balls & cull the good ones, or is it cull the bad ones?

Response:

A couple of years ago my Father in-law gave me a dozen Titleist DT and a dozen Top-flite XLs. The Top-flite balls have a date of 1982 on the box which I think is the manufacture year making the balls 21 years old. They also have a ‘Sentry Insurance’ logo. The Titleist have no date but must be about the same age because these were the balls he had left when he gave up the game. The box has no bar coding so these predate checkout scanners. Will they still perform like new (none have every been hit)?

If the DTs are wound (which I’m pretty sure they are from that date), forget it.  The Top-Flites are probably OK though. Part of me would like to keep them, maybe one day my three year old would like to have his granddad’s balls (golf balls), and part of me would like to tee-em up and see how they fly.

Well by all means keep them until then, then.

Response:

You can take the golf balls in question, one at a time, and drop them on an even, flat, "hard" surface, and to the extent they "bounce" back to the point they were dropped – gives a crude way of evaluating their worth – for play. If they return back to the point from where they were dropped, you are a winner.:–) Shelf life for golf balls, per se, is probably unknown. Their environment during that time would come into play, in the determination. —— A couple of years ago my Father in-law gave me a dozen Titleist DT and

a dozen Top-flite XLs. m h o