History of Golf

Golf Ball History

Out of all golf equipments, golf balls are easily the most recognized and known. It is common knowledge that a golf ball is the tiny white ball covered with dimples and used for golf. Golf balls, however, have not always looked like that. In fact, the very first version of these balls is quite unlike the modern golf ball.
The first official and accepted golf ball was made from wood. Back then, the balls were made of hardwoods, usually from the box and beech trees. This was the type of golf ball known to people several hundred years ago.
The wooden golf ball was rampant from the 14th century until the 17th century. By the end of the 17th century, however, golf ball makers have found a new alternative to wooden golf balls. They called this the feathery or featherie. The feathery was made by making small round leather pouches, stuffing feathers inside. They would often use chicken or goose feathers for the stuffing and would boil the feathers first until soft. After stuffing the pouch, the golf ball makers then sew it shut.
Though the makers were delighted that they had created a replacement for wooden golf ball, they were not overall happy with the featherie. There were many issues concerning the creation and usage of this particular version of golf balls.
The first concern with the featherie was with the way it was made. The overall process was very tiresome and time consuming. The golf ball makers found it hard to make the leather pouches into perfectly spherical balls, even when they are stuffed correctly with feathers. A number of featheries would end up having irregular or slightly distorted shapes. These imperfect balls would then badly affect the performance of the player.
In fact, the simple process of making the pouches was not that simple or easy. The golf ball makers would, therefore, end up with only a few pieces of featherie per day. The finished product would thus be sold at a high price. A featherie at that time could be bought for 5 to 10 shillings, which is around 10 to 20 dollars today.
Another problem that arose with the featherie was its tendency to be torn open. This happens when the ball becomes too wet; they are more likely to burst from being hit with the club or upon hitting the ground. These reasons pushed the golf ball makers to find new alternatives to the golf ball.
By the 19th century, the featherie became a thing of the past when a new version was invented. In 1948, the gutta-percha ball emerged. This is a golf ball made from the dried up sap of the Malaysian Sapodilla tree. The dried sap showed characteristics akin to rubber, making it easy to heat up and be molded. The method was very simple and cost-efficient, allowing the golf ball makers to mass-produce it. The ball later became known as the guttie.
A great feature of the guttie is the way it could be easily repaired. Because it was only made from rubber, strong hits and impacts would leave abrasions, dents, and grooves on the surface of the ball. These could be fixed by reheating and reshaping the ball. However, after a certain period of guttie usage, the golf players discovered that gutties with grooves were able to display better flight figures. This is what started the concept of dimpled golf balls.
The guttie paved the way of golf ball production based on rubberized material. The next version was the Haskell golf ball, created by wrapping rubber around the guttie ball. This gave the manufacturers the idea of making dissimilar layers for the exterior and interior layers of the ball.
Even today, golf ball manufacturers are pushing the limits in innovation.

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