THE BLOGThe beginning of golf balls
A trip into history…
Social changes of the late-Victorian era caused many more working men and women to enjoy more free-time and more wealth.In Great Britain the number of golf clubs mushroomed from 34 in 1870 to 400 in 1890. By 1910 there were over 2300 clubs, and over 4000 by 1910.Similarly, the golf craze exploded in the United States. The first club had only been established in 1888 in New York, yet by 1900 there were over 750 clubs. By 1920 the number had doubled again to nearly 1500 clubs.The operations of golf equipment makers rapidly expanded to meet the growing numbers of golfers and they saw the advantage of protecting their designs.
Undoubtedly a novel step in golf ball design contributed greatly to the growth of game. An American engineer called Coburn Haskell designed a golf ball with a core of elastic bands covered with a thin outer shell of gutta-percha. Nearly everyone found that they could hit these balls at least 25% farther, and within only five years this style of “rubber wound core” ball had totally replaced the “solid guttys”. The use of wound balls endured for nearly all of the 20th century and it has only been in relatively recent years that ball manufacturers have moved away from the wound concept.
Another leap forward came when William Taylor designed a ball with “over 300 shallow isolated circular cavities” or “DIMPL’s” rather than the normal raised pips.Spalding bought the rights in 1909 and made a series of models. Other manufactures copied the design in parts and termed their balls as “recessed”, “depressed” or “indented”. By 1915 the Taylor patent had expired and the term “dimple” became universal.The Square Dimple or Mesh was the dominant pattern of the 1910’s and 1920’s. However, the round dimple design eventually prevailed as it was easier to manufacture and didn’t clog with dirt as easy.
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