Show Golf EI Ball B ll Once W Was 8 Made With Co Core e of F Feathers Caddy dy Was the Discoverer of Gutta P Percha Ball I Golf Golfers rs Started With Round Pebble r Rubber Core Ball the Best I NEW YORK Oct 2 Tom From From pebbles to feathers to gutta percha to rubber core that's core that's the history of or the evolution of ot a golf ball Back j in the dear old days that are e dead embalmed and probably petrified the golfing persons used to swat a round pebble Every swat used to produce a sting sUng that was telegraphed along the this shaft of the club to the mitts of the golfer goIter A sting causes Pain and pain paip usually provokes profanity it In this day and age the clerical persons are inclined to td look with horror horror hor- hor u upon n the average golfer because he cusses ever And ind anon They think Its It's the golfers golfer's fault and his individual sin But flut it The golfer can cant can't t help cussing because Its It's heredity The cUssing chasing habit has come down from irom his cussing ancestors A fellow cant can't duck heredity can he Invented Feather Ball Well along about 1652 A. A D. D a golfing ge geezer zer of an inventive turn of ot mind decided to quit cussing Probably he was nearing the end of life Ufe and ami was repentant So he invented the feather ball as the one way of playing without risking the chance of getting a job jn ln the hereafter under the boss rule of a party named Lucifer I It It Was Heavier Than the Modern Golf Ball The feather feather fall all a few samples of which are still alive but hut returned to museums and curio collections was about the same size as the golf golt ballot ball of ot today and a trifle heavier It was made thusly Thin strips of leather which served as the cover were sewed together A small space was left lett This enabled the maker maler to turn the covered side out so eo as to get th the rough stitching Inside Two Quarts Quarts Quarts-of of Feathers Were Used Having been turned inside out the ball was ready for stuffing Feathers Feathera Feath Feath- ers era were Jammed into to the opening and packed with a sharp stick sUck A two- two quart measure of feathers usually was required to stuff one one of those golf balls One feather isn't a dangerous weapon A half bushel of feathers loosely packed arent aren't dangerous but two quarts of feathers jammed into a space the size of a golf ball is something else again The feather ball in those days when properly propelled could have knocked out Jess Willard should he stick his concrete Jaw in Its feathery path Invention of Gutta Percha B Ball II The feather b ball ll continued in force until until about 1840 Then a Scot caddy revolutionized things again He found a discarded fo football shoe shod that had hada a 3 gutta gutti p p percha sol sole Business was poor that day and not having any wood to whittle he carved away on the sole After a time It struck him tha that the sole might be rolled together and made into a ball I The caddy soaked the sole sale rolled it together tied it with a string a-string and went golfing with it the next day He got some gre great t distances on his drives the golfers goIters took cognizance of it and it-and and the gutta percha ball came into existence Rubber Cored Ball Appears in United States X S It was in 1898 that the rubber cored ball came into existence in the United States The golfers in this land hand of the free tree and the n neutral went Into raptures about its great Improvement over the gutta percha ball But jolly old England yno and Scotland too too couldn't see the bally Yankee device until 1905 And then a gent n named med Alec Hard opened the Briton peepers lie used an American rubber core ball In the British op open n championship and won easily because he was able to get tremendous distances distances distances dis dis- dis- dis In his drives Golfing Fanatics Offered Bendelow Real Money for One Tom Bendelow of Chicago owns one of the feather balls palls He bought it tat t tat at a relic sale in Scotland about ten years years years' ago Bendelow picked it up at ata a bargain price Since then he has refused offers of and more made by golfing fanatics The ball that Bendelow has is more than i io years old old may may be years years' old but ld-but but it is still in good shape It is almost st s' s solid as as a It piece of f rock Bendelow often otten has yearned to take the ball bali on a course and try It out in a game The ball looks as if it it still could st stand nd a lot more batting balting said Ben Ben- delow but I hate to take tall a chance on it |