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