Counterfeits & Fakes — The Collectible Golf Balls Directory

Counterfeit Antique Golf Balls

By Jeffery B. Ellis

A large collection of golf balls I received in late 2022 included more than 100 that had been ‘repainted’. These accounted for approximately half of the collection and the owner claimed the ‘repainting’ was due to them being found in lakes.

As you can see in the image accompanying this article, these balls were not simply repainted white, however, as was the time-honoured custom employed by the golfers of yesteryear. These were newly painted in two dramatically contrasting colours with black often one of them. I had seen what I call ‘decorated’ two-colour balls before, but never in this number. Because I had seen far too many counterfeit antique golf clubs and knew many of the devious tricks used to make them and the fishy stories used to explain away their anomalies, I had my questions about the validity of these balls. My examination of them, unfortunately, confirmed my suspicions.

Of all the decorated balls I examined in detail and even invasively tested, which was about half of them, I was unable to validate even just one as genuine. Instead, they proved to be counterfeits. I found images on the internet of many other decorated balls that looked as though they had been painted by the same person/group as had painted the balls I received. I also used images of genuine balls in their original paint with moulded letters and patterns that, when placed side by side with various counterfeit balls, document the night and day difference between the genuine and the fake.

The full results of my 10-month study—Counterfeits! Antique Golf Balls That Do Not Fly—is found at www.antiqueclubs.com. Approximately 100 counterfeit balls are shown there along with genuine balls, so the viewer can see the differences.

In the group of 100+ decorated balls I received, there were both counterfeit solid gutta percha balls purportedly from the 1890s and earlier, as well as counterfeit rubber-core balls purportedly from the early 1900s.

The counterfeit gutta percha balls were all genuine gutta percha ones made during the 1890s that had been materially modified. Some were once common mesh pattern balls that had been stripped of their old pattern and remade with a new and more valuable pattern, such as a Willie Dunn’s Stars and Stripes ball. Others had been stripped of just their name and then marked with a more valuable name, such as Harry Vardon, Willie Park, Tom Morris, etc. These name and pattern alterations are engraved/etched in place, not moulded. This is the opposite of what it should be. All genuine gutta percha balls sold in the 1890s came out of moulds. Hence, their patterns and lettering are moulded. The scope of these bogus solid gutty balls extends far beyond the examples just cited.

The counterfeit early rubber core balls were produced in a few ways. In some instances, new design elements were engraved/etched onto the cover of an otherwise completely genuine ball, such as new lines that would connect the original dimples, turning an ordinary dimpled ball into something far rarer and more valuable. In most instances, however, the original cover had been removed from an old rubber-core ball, and a new cover moulded back on the wound core. This process is no different from how golf balls were recovered in the early 20th century except for one thing: the covers on the counterfeits are made from synthetic rubber instead of organic gutta percha or a gutta percha composition, which was the cover material used on most of the early rubber core golf balls made between 1898, when they were introduced, and the 1920s.

Consequently, the covers of the counterfeit balls I examined were typically not the correct colour of gutta percha and often did not make the correct sound when lightly bounced on a hard surface. Furthermore, synthetic rubber is oil-based, and the unpainted rubber covers I encountered were often slightly tacky, not slick like unpainted gutta percha in clean original condition. When I heated a few tiny pieces of these synthetic rubber covers, they would melt, smoke, and produce an unbearable smell like oil on fire.

Because most of these counterfeit balls are completely covered in paint, the rubber cover is not visible. The paint hides it. In many instances, I stripped paint off a portion of the cover to view the material underneath the paint. In every instance, the material was rubber, not gutta percha. Again, almost all early rubber-core golf balls made during the early 20th century had covers made from gutta perch or a gutta percha compound.

I also encountered a fair number of decorated balls with paint only in the pattern and none on the rest of the cover. In those instances, the unpainted area of the moulded rubber cover was, again, not the correct colour nor texture of gutta percha. These covers not only looked and felt rubbery, but when tested they would typically work as an eraser, erasing a light pencil line off a piece of paper. This is something an unpainted gutta-percha-covered golf ball cannot do.

The moulded rubber covers were produced in two main ways. The first way was to make an otherwise blank cover that could be engraved and/or stamped with either a valuable known pattern or a previously unknown one. However, although many crazy patterns were produced, the counterfeiters were not crazy; invariably, the crazier the pattern, the more a genuine ball will sell for. The names on these engraved pattern balls were also engraved. It's not hard to trace lines and letters on a ball and then etch away. As mentioned, in some instances the pattern was hand-stamped into place.

To execute the engraved patterns, I believe the counterfeiters used silhouettes/outlines of valuable cover patterns made from scanned images. Overlaying the outline of a pattern onto an object, then tracing it onto it, and then engraving away is nothing new. In the case of many of the engraved balls, the pattern is close to correct. However, the badging and pattern is too large, which is what will happen if you take a 2-D image of a ball and then expand its size so it will cover half of an actual 3-D golf ball.

Taking the above one step further, given that a dentist can wave a wand around the inside of a patient's mouth and then output a perfect copy of their teeth, I don’t believe it would be hard to scan in an image and then output a mould or copy of a ball complete with the pattern on the scanned image. While I have not seen this done, there is no question it’s possible and will be done if it hasn’t already occurred.

Another method used to produce counterfeit balls was to make a soft mould using a genuine antique golf ball and then reproduce it in perfect detail. On the reproduced ball, the pattern and the name look perfect, only the cover is rubber and not gutta percha. Both rare high-value antique balls and more common ones were duplicated this way.

Additional differences between genuine and counterfeit golf balls are found in my online report. The second and third sections (1.2 and 1.3) are particularly helpful in understanding the differences. Those sections provide a foundational understanding of how antique golf balls were made, which is extremely helpful when trying to determine if the ball you are looking at might be old or a counterfeit.

I readily acknowledge I do not know everything about the various ways the counterfeiters plied their trade. Their techniques have evolved over the past 20 years or so, that is for sure, and I do not know the mechanics behind how they produced all the different types of fakes they made and continue to make. However, being able to recognise counterfeit golf balls, autographs, watches, money, or anything else is far more important than knowing how they were made.

With all the angles the counterfeiters used to work their scam and the fact there is no simple single test to identify all the various types of bogus balls, it can seem confusing to understand what is real and what is not. Just remember, when a genuine antique golf ball has been repainted, it has lost the foundational evidence of its originality. Because its original paint and any exposed gutta percha on any worn or chipped areas are no longer visible, the ball might have gutta percha under the new paint—or synthetic rubber. The pattern itself is no guarantee of authenticity. A wide variety of patterns have already been reproduced on a myriad of balls.

So, how does a collector know if what is supposed to be an early 20th-century rubber-core ball is genuine? Again, there is no single simple answer for every situation and every ball. Below, however, are some guide points to help collectors steer clear of inadvertently collecting counterfeits.

1. Any purported vintage/antique ball that has been newly painted in two contrasting colours has an extremely high chance of being counterfeit. Furthermore, black paint was used extensively on the counterfeit golf balls I examined. Black paint in and of itself is also a giant red, or should I say black, flag.

2. Any purported vintage/antique ball that is painted only in its pattern and its unpainted area does not have the appearance/characteristics of gutta percha has an extremely high chance of being counterfeit. The vast majority of all the golf ball covers produced during the first two decades in the 20th century were made from gutta percha or a gutta percha composite. The counterfeit balls that purportedly date to the same time have rubber covers.

3. Any purported vintage/antique golf ball that has any portion of its pattern stamped or engraved onto its cover, even if only its name, has an extremely high chance of being counterfeit. All genuine antique golf balls had their names and patterns molded in place. Furthermore, engraving over a genuine name or pattern, even if only remaining in part, is to deface the ball and thereby eliminate any remaining value it might have once had. Why? Because nothing is left to validate the ball.

4. Any purported vintage/antique golf ball that lacks basic symmetry to parts of its design/pattern and or name, has an extremely high chance of being a counterfeit. All genuine balls were made by skilled artisans who were masters at their craft. Everything about their work was neat and symmetrical. Having said the above, I am also sure there is a small number of recently painted two-colour decorated balls that are real (most likely lower-end stuff) but given the degree to which these counterfeit balls have penetrated the hobby, I simply cannot trust any recently painted, decorated, engraved, or asymmetrical pattern ball to be legitimate. And even if the ball under the black paint or a two-colour scheme happens to be genuine, the paint has poisoned it.

There can be no doubt that the counterfeiters have read my work posted online and are updating their methods to try and have their fakes appear more legitimate, either that or other nefarious individuals will eventually try to take advantage of this market, as it can be lucrative. The money paid to date for counterfeit golf balls likely totals millions of pounds. I speak in terms of pounds as the counterfeit balls I have encountered originated from the UK, although they have long been sold and resold all over the US at collector shows and on eBay.

In the future, as two-colour and black-painted balls become understood for what they are, I expect more counterfeit ones will be painted solid white. When it comes to single-colour repainted balls, I advise collectors to be extremely confident that such a ball is legitimate before making a purchase. New repaints done in the last 20 years, which continue to come onto the market, can sometimes be tricky to discern without stripping the paint.

Given the extent to which the counterfeiters have already gone in their despicable efforts, and the fact that powerful technology can be brought into play if it has not been already, ball collectors need to be diligently on guard. To that end, the purpose of my study, research, and testing of these balls was to inform the golf-collecting world of the giant travesty that has been perpetrated on the hobby for upwards of 20 or more years now. And of that, there is no question. Today, there are now thousands of two-colour decorated golf balls in circulation and in a wide variety, much wider than any one person understands—other than the perpetrators. Again, the two colours are not simply used for decoration, as engaging as these balls might be. They are used to distract from and hide the fraud behind the ball.

Bottom line, this is a crime of major proportions that its victims should report to the authorities.

NOTES:

[1] Using 62 pages in the second edition of The Clubmakers Art: Antique Golf Clubs and Their History, I document more than 76 fake and replica antique golf clubs.

[2] I have seen two different antique golf balls that had a two-colour cover. The first is the Challenger XL with an original paint black and white checkerboard pattern. When viewed close, the one genuine ball I saw showed a great deal of age, with discolored paint and cracks in the gutta percha cover, not just dried paint cracks. However, I have seen at least six Challenger XL checkerboard balls that have new paint, no signs of age, no cracks in the cover, and no chips in the paint. Nothing about these six balls verifies their purported age, and everything about them matches all the other two-colour counterfeit balls I have examined. The second ball is the Flash Spot which also has a checkerboard pattern, but it used either gold or silver reflective paint in its recessed squares and white paint on its raised squares.

[3] Many genuine lattice pattern and dimple pattern balls made during the 1920s and 1930s have different colored coatings underneath their original white paint.