Golf history

HISTORY OF GOLF

Ball and stick games have been played since ancient
times. Romans played a game called paganica.
A 1296 illustration shows Dutch people playing a game
resembling golf. They used a target to hit rather than a
“hole”. Scotland seems to be the place that began using a
“hole” and a selection of clubs to hit the ball.
Beachgolff® goes back to using a target.

HISTORY OF GOLF BALLS

The earliest balls were made of wood such as Beech or
Boxroot. Then a time consuming and complicated
method was developed to make a ball that performed in a
more favorable fashion.
Called the “featherie”, the balls were made with wet
Goose feathers and wet horse or cow hide. Once dry, the
feathery ball was painted.
This was the ball for about three centuries.
Then in 1848 the dried sap of a Tropical tree was used.
The Sapodilla tree produced the material for what became
known as the “Guttie”.
Smooth guttie balls were used at first, but
imperfections, patterns, and hand-hammering was
found to improve the balls performance. The most
popular design of the gutta percha era was the
“Bramble”.

The days of handcrafted balls came to an end with the
advent of industrialization in the late 1800’s.
Large Rubber Companies like Dunlop, B.F. Goodrich,
and Pirelli began mass producing balls.

The first patent for golf balls in Great Britain was to
Capt. Duncan Stewart in 1876. Patent # 3228 combined
gutta percha with ground cork and metal filings. In 1877 the
second Great Britain golf ball patent was granted to William
Currie, of Caledonian Rubber Works for the process of
making balls from Indian rubber combined with ground cork,
leather, or vegetable fibers. This ball was officially called
the Eclipse, but was commonly known as the “putty”.

The USA also saw it’s share of patents. In 1898, Coburn
Haskell in association with B.F. Goodrich invented a ball
with a solid rubber core, high tension rubber thread
wrapped around it, and covered in gutta percha. Haskell
brought patent infringement charges against United
Kingdom ( U.K. ) ball manufacturers. But in 1905 testimony
for the defense, Capt. Duncan Stewart said he experimented
with the idea of enclosing rubber
thread in a gutta percha cover. The Haskell patent was not
held as valid in the U.K..

In 1907 William Taylor was granted a U.K. patent for
dimples on a golf ball cover. Spalding Co. purchased the
U.S. rights to Taylor’s patent and the modern ball look was
born. And the Beachgolff® ball was designed in this new
millennium to deal with the special requirements of a ball
used at the beach.

HISTORY OF GOLF CLUBS

By 1854 the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews was
erected, and club heads were made from wood or hand-
forged iron. Metal shafts were first patented in 1894.
Groove-faced irons showed up in 1902. In 1910 Arthur
Knight introduced steel shafted clubs. But the metal shaft
was not approved by the US Golf Association until 1925.
Approval by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of
St. Andrew’s wasn’t until 1929.

Beachgolff® uses wood shafts once again.
Also, a composite special material club
is in development for the
Extreme Beachgolff® club.

Golf history