Grupo Mayan Resorts: A History of Golf Balls
The early days
History and the Grupo Mayan experts in Golf tell us that the first golf balls were made of wood, and these persisted until the 17th century. The big invention of that era was the “featherie” ball which replaced wooden balls. The featherie was made of a large quantity of feathers sewn into a leather ball. The feathers were boiled and then put into a leather pouch made of cowhide. As the feathers cooled down they expanded while the pouch shrank, creating a ball that was hard and compact. The leather exterior was then painted. This ball was a substantial improvement over wooden balls as it had better characteristics in flight, and it remained the standard for two centuries, say the Grupo Mayan experts.
While a big improvement on what had gone before, the featherie was nonetheless not without its faults. For one thing, it was time consuming to make, so that even a skilled ball maker could make no more than a few per day. This made them expensive, between 2 and 5 shillings, or between 10 and 20 US dollars in today´s money. They were also hard to make perfectly round, which made them unpredictable when in flight, say the Grupo Mayan golf professionals.
The gutta-percha ball
It was in 1848 that the next big advancement in golf balls was made. The new ball was constructed of sap from the Sapodilla Tree, and it was invented by a Dr Robert Adams. The tree sap had to be collected and heated, which allowed it to be shaped into a sphere. The sap was then dried and had a rubber-like feel when finished, say the Grupo Mayan experts in Golf.
It was quickly (and accidentally) discovered that manufacturing the gutta-percha (or guttie) ball with defects on the surface gave it a more consistent flight. So the makers began to do this on purpose. Because this could be done easily, and because the ball was cheap to produce, the guttie quickly replaced the earlier feather-filled balls.
Multi-layer balls
Modern multi-layer ball consist of 2-4 layers of synthetic materials such as urethane, and come in a wide variety of different types. This design did not arise until the 20th century. The story goes that in 1898, Coburn Haskell of Cleveland, Ohio had a golf date with Bertram Work, who at the time was the superintendent at B.F. Goodrich. Haskell went to the plant, and while waiting for Work, idly wound a thread of rubber around a golf ball. When he then bounced the ball, he was amazed that the ball flew up of the ground and nearly touched the ceiling, say the Grupo Mayan golf professionals. His friend Work encouraged him to develop the idea, and the multi-layer ball, initially a solid core with a layer of rubber thread between it and a hard shell, was born.