Incredible technological advancements and engineering innovations have enhanced all aspects of golf over the course of its history. Golf clubs and golf balls are now engineered to precise specifications that didn't even exist in the days when Bobby Jones was putting the great sport on the map. Swing paths are currently analyzed using 3-dimensional digital software and machinery, and balls have gone from saggy bags that would be used as hacky sacks in modern times to rigid and refined spheres designed to make drives longer and scores lower. Unlike many American sports, golf has embraced the evolution and natural progressions of science over the course of the past few centuries.
In an era where budgets are tight, purchasing slightly used golf balls is an excellent idea. Getting top-notch golf balls for warehouse clearance prices is a great way to stay at the top of your game without devoting too much of you precious paycheck to it. Here's a quick look at the evolution of the golf ball over the course of the past few centuries.
The Beginning
Balls made of leather shells stuffed full of chicken or goose feathers date back to 17th century Ireland. The balls were meticulously prepared using a large hat full of feathers and were finished off with several coats of white paint and varnish. "Featheries" flew surprisingly far considering their components and were the only choice for golfers for well over two hundred years. The primary drawbacks were the high price of the balls and the fact that they were easily ruined by moisture.
1850s
In the mid 19th century, creative and entrepreneurial folks began making
golf balls out of the dried milky sap of a tree found in the tropical regions of Malaysia. They discovered that when the sap was dried and reheated, it could easily be formed into round shapes, which were amazingly hard and durable once they dried and hardened a final time. After about 20 years of smacking dried tree juice around the links, golfers began to realize that the final process of smoothing the Gutta-Percha balls was actually making them less aerodynamic than balls with tiny grooves and indentations covering the surface. What followed was an array of styles and patterns that were intended to allow the ball to fly on a perfectly straight path. The Gutta-Percha was the ball of choice for the second half of the 1800s.
Turn of the Century
The state of Ohio has long been a relativity unknown hotbed of golfing talent and innovation. A local golfer by the name of Coburn Haskell created a groundbreaking product when he combined forces with a major American rubber manufacturer in the spring of 1898. Haskell discovered that a golf ball could be fashioned out of rubber, which provided much greater response and durability for a mere fraction of the production cost of all other balls in existence. A bevy of designers and golfers created different indentation patterns on the rubber balls before the traditional dimpling pattern that is still in use today was final decided upon as the most effective.
1930s and Beyond
Universal golf ball standards were introduced in the 1930s, which unified and streamlined the production process and gave golfers all over the country a consistent weight and shape to play with. The United States Golf Association decided that a golf ball should weigh exactly 1.62 ounces and have a diameter no smaller than 1.68 inches. A slew of plastics, rubber, threading and silicone have served as common ingredients in the production of golf balls for the past 80 years.
