The Evolution of Golf Balls

 
 
It’s about the balls.

I remember spending long summer days trying to figure out what was inside a golf ball.   We’d find old ones in a big vacant lot every now and then.   We’d get one that

had a cut in it, peel off the white outer layer and then start unwrapping the rubber bands.  This part went on FOREVER!!!  I only remember getting to that liquid-filled center ball ONCE in my entire childhood.  Usually we’d get bored before then!!!  Also, the rubber bands that wrap the core are thinner and more fragile than the rubber bands you put at the end of your pigtails.  So, there was a lot of breakage and a lot of searching for the next loose end!

As far as I can tell, golf began in the 1400s.  In Scotland.  At that time, golfers used wooden balls and wooden clubs.  But in 1618 the “featherie” was introduced. MAN!!  This was a ball with a leather exterior, filled with - I kid you not - exactly one top-hat full of feathers.

Sheesh, doesn’t it seem somehow like a magic trick gone awry???  OOops, a rabbit was supposed to appear inside the top-hat, but all I got was a hat full of feathers!!   Wrong magic word??   Sigh.  Guess we could use them to stuff a golf ball!!!

Anyway, they’d boil down the feathers and cram them all into the leather, and stitch it up.  As the whole mess cooled and dried, the feathers would expand, and the leather would shrink, causing the ball to be compact and hard.  The outside was

then painted, and - wahoo!!!  It was a golf ball!!!

These balls were expensive.  An experienced ball maker could only make 2 or 3 in a day, so they cost the equivalent of $20 each.  Man, it made people motivated to find their balls on those long slices!!!

In wet weather, the stitches would rot, and the ball would often split open after hitting a hard surface.  Even so, the “featherie” ball was the standard golf ball for about 230 years!!

Oh, man, today on the way to my sing-along (I run a sing-along for the elderly on Saturdays) the illuminated light on the corner of Sheridan and Bryn Mawr had a bunch of burnt out bulbs (or whatever it has - LEDs?).  So, instead of saying, “Turn Left on Green Arrow Only” it said, “Turn Left on Gr . . . Arr . . . Only”.  HA!!! 

That totally reminded me of the Mutant Enemy credit - you know, the card at the end of Firefly??  The Joss Whedon card with the mummy walking across the screen saying, “Gr . . . Arr!”

OR, remember Bobby Henderson??  He was the scientist who wrote to the Kansas State Board of Education saying that he believed that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe, and they should include THAT in the curriculum of Intelligent Design. 

He wanted to make the point that correlation does not imply causation.  So he said that global warming was caused by the lack of pirates in the world.  When there used to be a lot of pirates, there wasn’t global warming.  So, perhaps if we all talked like pirates, the temperature would go down.  He created world “talk like a pirate” day (September 19th) and claimed that the world temperature dropped on that day.

Of course, he came up with Pastafarianism (right - that’s what you are practicing if you worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster) before there was such growing

awareness of modern-day pirates.  I’m not sure he would’ve chosen the pirate theme if he’d written his letter in 2010!!

ANYWAY, I kind of expected we were not supposed to turn left except when pirates  came along and directed us!!!

Right, it’s about the balls.

In 1848 the gutta-percha ball was invented.  It was most often called “the guttie”.    The guttie was cheaper than the featherie, plus, golfers could repair their balls by rolling it on a “smoothing board” after each round.

But, of course, there were slackers.  There are always slackers.  The slackers neglected to smooth their balls after each round, and soon their balls were completely covered with dents from the play of the game.  And it turned out the dented slacker balls flew WAY better than their more compulsive friends’ smooth balls.  This is how they figured out that all those dimples made the balls fly more true.  (Doesn’t it seem as if there ought to be a moral here - about slackers being good??  I wish I could think of it!!)

It was in the 20th century that multi-layered balls were developed - the kind that we disected as kids - with the white layer, the rubber band layer, and then the rubber ball filled with liquid.

On January 1, 1932, the golf ball was standardized in the United States at a maximum of 1.620 oz., wih a diameter not to be less than 1.680 inches.

And now, featheries and gutties are sold at auction for ridiculous prices.  Go figure.  There’s an on-line golf-ball museum, if you’re interested.  They have photos of the various types of historical balls.  Check it out:
http://www.golfballmuseum.co.uk/ishop/818/shopscr55.html.

Coming next:  Sugar Grove miniature golf!


Firefly, the Mutant Enemy logo, and Mr. Owl © of their respective owners.
All illustrations ©2010 Michael James.