Christmas Gift: Penfold Hearts Golf Balls

Christmas Gift: Penfold Hearts Golf Balls

For Christmas, I got a box of Penfold Hearts Golf Balls.

Here’s my Penfold Hearts

– James Bond, in Goldfinger

Penfold is a British golf equipment manufacturer that was founded in 1927 by A.E. Penfold. The company hung its hat on an innovative way to wind the rubber threads in the golf ball to create accuracy and distance while conforming to R&A specifications. The trick, according to Penfold, “is to prevent too many loops of the rubber thread crossing at exactly the same point.”

Penfold’s career in golf ball design at Dunlop, where he designed the Maxfli in 1919. He also developed a method of coloring gutta percha balls so they were white instead of shades of gray.

The Penfold company became quite successful, sponsoring golf tournaments, and in 1960, becoming the first manufacturer to produce a million balls in a year. Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros both played Penfold balls.

A.E. Penfold died at sea when a ship he was on was torpedoed by a German sub in 1941.

The ball was famously featured in the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger. Bond played a Penfold Heart in his match with Auric Golfinger.

This latest model is a 3 piece urethane, 332 dimple design. It is manufactured in South Korea, as the original Brumford Lane factory shut down in the late 1990s.

It will be great to be able to step up to the tee and say to my partners “I play a Penfold Heart.”

Those who know, will know.

Here’s the golf scene from GolfFinger