This guide takes you through the evolutionary process of the golf balls, from its first appearance, up till modern times.
The first ball, the wooden ball
When golf first came into existence back in the 16th century, the material used in the construction of the clubs and balls, was wood.
Tickle my fancy with the featherie
It did not take too long for a far better construction to be introduced to golf, although it was only of any benefit to the wealthy amongst the patrons of the sport. 1618 brought to the world of golf, the Featherie. This ball was made from cow or horse hide, and goose feathers. The hide took the form of a hollow sphere, and the goose feathers were packed inside the sphere. Then to enable it to be shaped into a ball, it was soaked. Once the ball had dried it would become hardened due to the feathers expanding and the hide contracting. Finally the ball would be painted and the maker's mark applied.
When rubber came on to the scene
The first rubber golf ball came into existence in 1848, and was the invention of Reverend Adam Paterson of St. Andrews, Scotland. The?sap of the Gutta-percha tree, a native of the tropics of northern Australasia and south east Asia was used to create the rubber for this new golf ball construct, and also resulted in the name by which the ball would be known, the Gutta Percha.
If the rubber balls were ever damaged it was just a matter of reheating then remoulding them in order to repair them. The easy repair was a plus, but a serious minus was that it could not travel as far as the Featherie due to the fact it had a smooth surface. A pattern was implemented in 1880, which meant the ball could finally travel a decent distance.
Industrialisation and the end of the hand crafted ball
By the end of the 19th century industrialisation and the introduction of mass production of the Gutta Percha golf ball, meant that there was no longer a market for the hand crafted golf balls.
The one-piece rubber core
At the end of the 19th century in 1898, a revolutionary design of the golf ball came into being. In this case the ball was made up of three parts; a solid rubber core covered with a threaded rubber layer, and a Gutta Percha outer case. This was the design of Coburn Haskel. A problem existed at the start with these balls, as the threaded rubber layer had to be hand crafted, which meant that they could not be mass produced. This was solved by the creation of a thread winding machine by W. Millson.
Cute little dimples
The Haskel design was improved by William Tyler in 1906, when he added dimples to the golf ball's surface. The dimples minimised the ball's drag and maximised its lift.
Exploding golf balls
We've seen them in the movies, but they were not fiction, back in 1906 these exploding golf balls really existed. Some non too clever person decided it would be a good idea to make the core of the golf ball compressed air. For some reason they forgot that air expands when heated, so when the balls got hot, and if they got too hot, the expanding air would blow to golf ball apart.
The standardisation of the golf ball
Up until 1921, golf balls came in all weights and sizes as up until that point there were no standards governing the size and weight. Then in 1921, Britain's R&A in Scotland, and the USA's USGA came up with their own standards to limit the golf ball's weight and size. An issue with these standards was that they differed between the two organisations, which meant there were slight differences between the games played in the States and Britain. In 1990 this changed, with a unified set of standards agreed by the USGA and the R&A.
