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Wooden Balls References to ball making dates back to the early 15 th century Holland, these were generally wooden balls made from elm or beech, with little or no aerodynamic properties. As time went by a ball made of white leather filled with cow's hair was introduced, this type of ball was already being used in the local game Kaasten (hand tennis). Feather Balls The Dutch perfected the feathery golf ball around 500 years ago from a basic technique used for game balls in ancient Rome. Wet feathers would be stuffed into a wet leather pouch (approximately inch and a half in size) that was then sewn up and left to dry. As the pouch dried, the feathers expanded and the leather shrank, creating a solid ball. The feather ball was used for the next 400 hundred years or so until the "gutty" ball appeared around 1850. Gutty Balls In 1848 the gutta percha ball or gutty ball was introduced to the golfing world. It is made from gutta percha, which is a rubber like material that comes from the dried sap of the Sapodilla tree that grows in East Asia. The sap substance is supple when boiled in water but becomes hard once cooled down, giving the gutty greater distance than the feather ball. For the next 50 or so years the gutty ball was constantly modified to make it more durable, the outer casing also started to be cut or marked, as it was discovered the ball flew better with these indentations rather the previously smooth ball. Wound Balls The gutty ball was superseded by the first wound ball in 1901, which was the idea of Coburn Haskell, employee of Goodrich Tyre and Rubber Company that was based in Ohio. Haskell had the idea of winding elastic thread around a rubber core (this was completed under extreme tension) then encasing it in a patterned outer cover. The Haskell ball was used by Sandy Herd at Royal Liverpool course on his way to beating both Harry Vardon and James Braid over 72 holes; he used the same golf ball for all four rounds, the only player to do so. From that moment, the Haskell ball has been improved to such extent that the Royal and Ancient and USGA started to enforce certain rules for the design and manufacture of golf balls. In 1920 it was agreed that the ball should weigh no more than 1.62 ounces and have a diameter of no less than 1.62 inches. In 1931 the USGA decided that the ball diameter should be increased to 1.68 inches, which the Royal and Ancient did not agree too, both committees failed to settle on a uniform ball. The USGA standards were adopted by most of the worlds golfing nations, so in 1968 the Professional Golfers Association announced that they would trial the USGA ball in its competitions. In 1974 the Royal and Ancient made the larger ball compulsory for the Open Championship and in 1988 the smaller ball was banned altogether. |
