Most golfers have a favorite golf ball. Some choose one for distance, others for spin and control, and plenty of us have convinced ourselves that buying a new box might be the secret to finally fixing that slice.
But have you ever wondered what golfers used before modern golf balls existed?
The story is stranger than you might expect. Long before today's carefully engineered equipment, golf balls were handmade, expensive and sometimes filled with feathers. Over the centuries, new materials and clever discoveries transformed the ball—and changed the way golf was played.
In the latest episode of Under Par Over Time, host Sammy Jo is joined by Ray for a conversation about the evolution of the golf ball, from early craftsmanship to modern technology.
And as you'll discover, those little dimples have quite a story to tell.
When Losing a Golf Ball Was a Much Bigger Problem
Imagine stepping onto the first tee knowing that replacing your golf ball could be a costly affair.
For centuries, one of the best-known early golf balls was the featherie: a leather casing stitched by hand and packed tightly with feathers. Producing one required considerable skill and labor, making featheries expensive compared with the balls that came later.
It certainly puts today's habit of losing a ball in the rough into perspective.
The featherie wasn't the first type of ball ever used in golf, but it became an important part of the game's early equipment history. Its construction also reveals just how different golf was before manufacturing technology made equipment more widely available.
So what could possibly replace a ball made with leather and feathers?
As it turned out, the answer came from a natural material that could be heated, shaped and molded.
The Unexpected Material That Made Golf Balls More Accessible
During the nineteenth century, golf-ball makers began using gutta-percha, a rubber-like material derived from certain Southeast Asian trees. Balls made from it became known as gutties.
Compared with featheries, gutties were more practical to manufacture and less expensive. This helped make golf equipment more accessible, while also introducing a new chapter in the development of the golf ball.
But the gutty's importance wasn't just about cost.
Golfers noticed something unusual about the way their balls performed. Surface marks and imperfections could influence how a ball flew, leading players and manufacturers to experiment with different textures and patterns.
Those experiments helped set the stage for one of the most recognizable features of a modern golf ball.
Why do golf balls have dimples? The answer involves more than appearance. It comes down to the way a ball interacts with the air as it travels, and the science behind that simple-looking surface is one of the most fascinating parts of golf equipment history.
The Rubber Revolution That Changed Distance
By the end of the nineteenth century, another major development was on the horizon.
American golfer Coburn Haskell, working with Bertram Work of the B.F. Goodrich Company, helped develop a golf ball featuring a rubber core wrapped in elastic rubber thread. Patented in 1899, the Haskell ball became a landmark in golf-ball design.
Its construction offered a significant change in performance, particularly in distance. That created new possibilities for golfers, but it also presented challenges for the courses they played.
When equipment allows players to hit farther, the game has to adapt. Course designers, golfers and manufacturers have been navigating that relationship ever since.
The Haskell ball is an excellent example of how one piece of equipment can have consequences far beyond the equipment itself.
And it certainly wasn't the end of the story.
How the Modern Golf Ball Became a Piece of Technology
Today's golf balls are designed with a range of performance characteristics in mind. Depending on their construction, they can offer different combinations of distance, feel, spin and control.
Modern designs may use a core, intermediate layers and an outer cover, with each component contributing to the ball's behavior. The result is a product that looks simple but reflects decades of experimentation and engineering.
For golfers, choosing a ball can feel like choosing between a dozen competing promises. For historians, that variety represents the latest chapter in a much longer story: the effort to make a ball that performs better.
But there is a bigger question behind all this innovation. If technology keeps helping golfers hit farther, what does that mean for the game itself?
The debate over equipment and distance isn't new. The history of the golf ball shows that every major improvement has asked golfers to reconsider what the game should look like and how its challenges should be preserved.
Listen to the Full Story on Under Par Over Time
In this episode, Sammy Jo brings the history while Ray brings the golfer's perspective. Ray previously helped Sammy Jo as a voice actor on Legacy Lore, and now the two are putting their different strengths together to explore the object at the center of every round of golf.
Expect a little humor, a few surprises, and a look at how an ordinary-looking ball became one of the most important pieces of equipment in sport.
Listen to “From Feathers to Dimples: The Evolution of the Golf Ball” on Under Par Over Time, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Follow the show so you don't miss future episodes as we continue exploring the people, inventions and stories that shaped golf.
A Note About Our Podcast Schedule
Under Par Over Time is moving to one episode per month from October 2026 through February 2027, before returning to two monthly releases in March 2027.
This seasonal schedule gives Sammy Jo more time to focus on the newest season of Legacy Lore: True Crime & Ancestral Secrets, while continuing to share golf history throughout the quieter months of the golf calendar.
Saraceni & Co Productions also produces Auntie Jo Jo's Library, featuring stories and history for children and adults.
The schedule is changing, but Under Par Over Time isn't going away. There will still be a new golf-history episode each month through February, with twice-monthly releases returning in March.
Be sure to follow the podcast on your favorite listening platform so you don't miss a release.
Sources and Further Reading
Scottish Golf History — The Feathery, Gutty and Haskell Golf Balls — A historical overview of early golf-ball materials, the transition to gutta-percha and the Haskell ball.
USGA — The Country Club Plays Role in Game's History — Background on Coburn Haskell and the rubber-wound ball that transformed golf equipment.
USGA — STEM News: The Science of Golf — An accessible resource on the materials and engineering behind golf balls.
United States Golf Teachers Federation — A Brief History of the Golf Ball — An overview of the evolution from early balls to modern construction.
