Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-28
EN- GLAND PROTESTS
AMERICAN INGENUITY DAMAGES
BRITISH GAME.
The Golf Ball, With an Elastic Core, is
a Horrid Innova-
ton.

From the London Mail by Gardner G. Smith,
Editor Of Golf.
The usually placid world of golf has late
ly been threatened with an upheaval, pro-
ceeding, like so much that is strange and
new, from America.
The cause is a golf ball of novel con-
struction, which has attained great vogue
in the United States and was used by many
of our own players in the recent internal
tional match and amateur championship,
including the winner and runner-up in the
latter.
The original golf ball appears to have
been made of wood, like that used in jue
de mail and in the kindred Flemish game
of chole, but from about 1850 to 1850 golf
balls were made of feathers, stuffed hard
into case of leather and handstitched.
These balls Were never satisfactory. In wet
weather they became sodden, they flew
badly and they were liable to split and
molt their feathers; moreover, they cost
half crown each.
The Gutta-Percha Ball.
When the gutta-percha ball came in it's
success was at once assured. Even if it
had not flown better and lasted longer
than the feather ball the fact that it was
Is. Cd. cheaper would have made an ire
sistible appeal to the thrifty Scots mind.
From 1850 till now nothing has seriously
challenged the ball of solid gutta-percha.
Many compositions have been tried but
none have had more than the briefest sue
cess, and in the meantime the manufacture
of gutta-percha balls has been carried to
perfection, the annual output amounting to
many millions.
Looking to the perfectly satisfactory be-
havior of the gutta-percha ball the only
problem left for the manufacturers APP
peared TO be to produce an equally good
ball at slightly lower figure and this, so
far, no one has been able to do.
Our American cousins, however CON
ceived the bold idea of ball that should
be SO much better than the gutta-percha
one that golfers would not object to pay
higher price for it, The Haskell bali is
the first embodiment of this idea, and it
remains to be seen whether its pretensions
will be justified.
The Haskell is a composite BALL 1t has a
core of gutta-percha about the size Of a
marble. and round this are wound thin
strings of the kind of elastic used in
Jemimas.' All this is inclosed in a casing
of gutta-percha about an eighth of an inch
thick, the ball presenting the outward SEM
blance Of an ordinary guilty"
The First Haskell Ball.
When the Haskell first reached these
shores, about eighteen months ago, it ut
terly failed to Justify the reports which pre-
coded it from America. 1t was fairly tried
by most of the best players; but so far was
it from adding the twenty or thirty yards of
extra length to the drive claimed for it,
that few were found to grant it any SUI
periority in this respect over the ordinary
ball. In addition. it was SO lively as to
render approaching and putting extremely
difficult and it was liable to split In fact
If it's price had been Cd. instead of the IS
Sd. at which it was retailed the fact would
hardly have mitigated the almost universal
condemnation it received on its first ap-
pearance.
So matters were until the eve Of the re-
cent Amateur championship The ball was
practically forgotten; but the makers in the
meantime had been making improvements
on it. fresh lot was sent over, in which
some Of the balrs defects were remedied,
and many players found an appreciable
gain from using 1t. But at the amateur
championship very remarkable thing was
observed. The big hitters did not get any
further with the Haskell than. with the
guilty; but many of the moderate drivers
added good many yards to their shots.
and drove as far the long drivers.
The explanation of the phenomenon gem
orally accepted is that, If hit with the force
exerted by the longest drives the ball more
or less coflapses. not having the hardness
and quicker recovery Of the gutta-percha
ball. But If hit with less force and in a
more pushing or sweeping manner 1t car
ries and runs further than a gutta-percha
ball hit in the same way.