The morning journal-courier., 1907-12-19
GOLF BALL POINTS
Value of the Ball Dependent 8 Good Deal on the
 Course.
PLAYER, TOO, RESPONSIBLE
Golf Ball Makers Declared in Prim- tive State of Em-
 piricisn.

' I think that all judicious golfers are agreed that a dull ball off the butter means ball that runs steadily on the green, and therefore that a dull ball is the kind of ball which is best for put ting. Now putting, we are told again until rather tired of hearing it, is what wins matches and medals and makes great men of us; therefore, it seems that the ball which is best for putting is the ball that will pay us best to use. The best ball that ever was for putting was the old Eclipse, l believe it exists still, and is used in the Greater Britain ot our colonies; but at home we never see it, For all that, if I was condemned to putt for mN life, round a course like the la- dies putting course at St. An"
 drews, the ball which I should select without moments hesitation, is the old Eclipse ball, if I could get hold of it. It goes without saying that one would
 be obliged to put oneself into training and practice with it before using, be- cause it starts so very differently off the butter from any ball now in use-~- so very much deader It even went
 very much deader than the old gutta-
 pereha ball, and for this reason, and
 because it was so soft (which was in
 itself the reason of its deadness), we
 used to call it the putty a name
 which had the added beauty and i, sweetness of rhynaing nicely with gut < ty''--the guttapercha ball. In those
 days we were accustomed to ball
 which went off the club, especially the iron club, with a resounding crack, and there were a. great many. people who were quite put off by the silent way inewhtch the putty" ball left the club, like a thief in the night But, then, while putting in such very important part of the game, it Is not all the game; there are other important de- tails also; and the ball which is dead off the putter-even though it have the advantage of going dead to the hole oftener than another-has certain disadvantage as a. consequence of its deadness from the clubs which are in tended for sending the ball to longer distances. and with higher eleva, ton. This was one of the characteris- tics of the putty ball (and in dis, cussing these characteristics I am mol only trying to get at the bottom of 2 historical truth. but considering 6 matter which has very living inter est in the present, for the hputty'
 may be taken as away down at tho bottom of the scale an extreme type of the dead ball off the club--the champion putting ball. but the wors
 driving ball that ever has been in. vented), It was a characteristic of the putty ball that it went lcw, was diff. ficult to raise, did not have at all { x good carry, but after its carry had 6 very good run, which sometimes made 1t able to overtaile on the "gutty" tho distance which it had lost in flight; but this could only be when thC ground was hard. On the soft ground the ''gutty," with it's longer flight could beat it by yards and scores ot yards "every time."'One of the char, acteristic weaknesses of the putty ball was that 1t was so difficult to lof
 1t well in the air in playing the ap, proach shot, and so difficult to stop i