Evening Star Newspaper, April 6, 1930, Page 100

BY WILLIS THORNTON F course, a sixteenth of an inch isn't much. At least it wouldn't be much added to the Leviathan or Primo Carnera, though it might be a great deal if added to the end of your best girl's nose, or the business end of a bee. But it's dollars to deep-dish apple pie that the biggest sixteenth of an inch of 1930 is the one they've added to the golf ball. It isn’t quite a sixteenth of an_inch at that, but exactly six one-hundredths of an inch added to its diameter. With this goes the fact that the ball has been lightened seven one- hundredths, or about one-fourteenth of an ounce. If thai doesn’t seem much, think of the times your wife has come beaming into the room and announced that by laying off choc- olate eclairs and peanut-brittle sundaes, she's shed half an ounce. The analogy goes further. In the case of the ball, just as in the case of the wife, the gen- eral construction remains the same despite the loss in weight. s YOUR first time out with the new ball this Spring is going to go something like this: You are going to buy some of the new-sized balls—oh, yes, you are, for they are optional in play this Summer, and become absolutely and finally official in U. S. G. A. and U. S. P. G. A, affairs, January 1, 1931. You are going to take one of them in your hand and joggle it against one of your mashie-scarred veterans, and you're A sixteenth of an inch may not seem much, but—— = going to say, “Hugh, not much difference there after all.” Then you're going to tee up the new one, take what you like to call your stance, and look down. 3 And right there is where you get the rude shock. “Odds bodikins and gadzooks!” you will cry, or whatever are your favorite expletives. For it's dead sure you'll be that some one has cun- ningly substituted an ostrich egg, or at least a billiard ball for the sphere you so recently held in your hand. Then or thenabouts, you will rather gingerly off and take a measured smack, your first, new golf ball. It will feel, well—funny— leaves the club, and it will immediately } into your favorite slice or hook. will then be duly qualified to wag a jaw discussions which are going to resound h the rough, and light up the locker throughout the Summer. For after late this year no more of the 1.62 balis be manufactured. And the new one is for the play right now. - EHH _IEE 50 many things that seem to be startling innovations, this change in the golf ball isn’t an unheard of audacity. As a matter of fact, there has been almost as much tinkering If you've learned golf since the war, the chances are that you've never used any other ball than the one which goes out of use this Summer. And I'd venture to guess that this includes the majority of all pro, amateur and duffer golfers, by numbers if not by weight. But the point is, that though to most duffers the golf ball has always been just a golf ball, it used to be a sort of miniature indoor base ball stuffed with feathers. l:on golf is really one of the ancient games of the world. It is known in Scotland as the “Royal and Ancient Game of Golf,” and the funny part of that is, it is really both royal and anclent. ‘Though it's been pretty well established that golf didn’t really come from Scotland, but Hol- land, and that golf bloomers are really just an old Dutch costume, Scotland certainly has been the foster mother of the game, even if the brat wasn’t hers to begin with. In 1457 the game had already become so popular in Scotland that old gentlemen were wagging their whiskers and saying that the younger generation was parading to the pooches because they went after birdies with a baffy instead of a long-bow. e The Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews, holy of holies of golf, became offici- ally such in 1834 when William IV became a patron of the. club and presented it with & medal to be played for annually, So you soe THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, APRIL 6, 19 Here they are, the new ball, at the right, eclipsing the old by 6-100 of an inch. The Shift to Larger Size and Lighter Weight Will Jazz Up Verbal Play at the Nine- teenth Hole, Though It Is Only the Climax to Centuries of Refinements in the One Game More Maddening Than Marriage. the game is really both royal and ancient, and no jesting. In those days a golf ball was an egg-shaped, highly compressed body of feathers entirely surrounded by horsehide. They were packed pretty tight in a slow, cumbersome process, and it was possible to get as much as 140 yards with them off the tee. In those days, of course, sticks had longer heads, a little like the curved shinney-sticks kids used to make in the days before sports became big business. IT was not until the latter part of the nine- teenth century that the gutta-percha bail came into use. Gutta-percha is the kind of rubber obtained directly by boiling the latex or sap of rubber trees, and the gutta-percha golf ball was simply a round mass of this hard, but resilient stuff. This solid ball was pretty good off the tee, but not so hot with the irons. Having no cover, it didn't take long to smear it all out of shape, and it was also pretty tough on the clubs. Then, along about 1900, “came the dawn.” An American named Coburn Haskell invented the ball which bore his name, the first to bear a direct resemblance to the present-day article. Haskell’s ball had a solid gutta-percha center, was wrapped with layer after layer of thin India rubber strips or thread, and incased in a cover of hard gutta-percha. This ball really revolutionized golf. It was more resilient, went more lightly off the club than the solid, dead Right:- The overstuffed ball of 1808, had a horsehair cover crammed with feathers, and, be- lieve it or not, you could poke it more than 100 yards with this long-faced weapon. Below: Doesn’t seem much . . . these drawings, scaled to actual size, show exactly how much bigger the new ball is than the old one. 168" weight gutta-perchas, and saved wear and swear on the clubs. The size mose commonly used was about 1.70 inches in diameter, with weight slightly above that of a floater. . But golf ball making was not ‘standardized, and from 1915 to 1919 various makes of ball were sold, constructed to as many as 15 dif- ferent sets of specifications. In 1918-1919 a small, heavy ball was intro- duced which many found hard to get off the ground, though it had phenomenal distance. THEN, in May, 1921, the present ball. (and most golférs have known no other) was adopted—the 1.62-inch, 1.62-ounce ball, But as early as 1924 the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews and the United States Golf Association were both experimenting in the hope of developing a better ball. It was felt that there were certain character- istics of the ball which took away some of the finest shots of the game, such as the long spoorf and long irons to a heavily guarded green, which none but the most expert golfers could control. Half-topped shots would run farther than there was any justification for, in many instances right through shallow bunkers and hazards. Conferences were held between the United States Golf Association committee and the Royal and Ancient to decide what qualities a ball should have. Makers were urged to submit samples of their ideas of what an ideal golf ball should be. The largest ball tested was 1.74 From Colfers’ Magesine, July, 1928 What the New Ball Will Do to Your Golf inches in diameter and the lightest 1.50 ounces in weight. A series of mechanical driving tests were conducted at Pinehurst and Pine Valley, followed by inquiry among large groups of players, and the consensus of opinion was that a ball between 1.66 and 1.68 inches in diameter was the most desirable. Long and exhaustive mechanical tests fol- lowed, using the 1.68-1.55 ball, and a number of tournaments were played, in which 40 or 50 players were entered and in which the scores ran from the low 70s to 115. During 1926, 1927 and 1928 much attention was give the question of resilience and a ma- chine was built and designed for testing and recording the resilience of golf balls. Experie ments w2re made both at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the Bureau of Standards at Washington. The net result was adoption of the new ball and the makers co-operated in order to make it available this Spring. They had to change all their molds, but, generaly speaking, there was no change in the construction, lighter cores and material affecting the reduction in we.ght. UT the Royal and Ancient failed to come along. The Royal and Ancient had gagged at the goose-neck putter and the deep-slotted club and oniy recently came around to the steel shaft. Even now a respectable British player feels better playing wooden shafts. So the Royal and Ancient bucked, as did the * Royal Canadian, which takes its cue from the It might be, for instance, on the end of your girl's nose. parent body. Both will let those funny Amer- icans use their new trick ball in British events after January 1, 1931, but British players come peting in this country must use the new United States Golf Association ball. After it is tried out in this country both British bodies may reconsider. In international competition this Summer, such as the Walker Cup and the British Open, the old ball will undoubtedly be used by both British and American entrants, as it would be manrifestly impossible for Americans planning to enter the British events to play all Summer with the large ball and then jump over and give a decent account of themselves with the small one. IT'S mildly interesting to learn that leading golfers view the new ball without undue alarm. Bobby Jones was immediately con=- demned to the shelf by many writers, but he remained unmoved and sees no reason why he shouldn't play just as well with the new ball. Personally, I think he could play with a china darning egg and still beat most of them. Walter Hagen long ago decided that the new ball was right up his alley and recently said it would add 10 years to his tournament care 'r. But to Mr. Donald Duffer his own golfing fu- ture is more important than that of all the big hook and slice men in the country. He'd rather see himself breaking 100 or 90 or 80 this Sume mer than see the United States win the Walker Cup. And all sorts of charts and graphs have been prepared to show him just what he’ll be able to do with the new ball. Most of them don't. Herbert Jacques, chairman of the implements and ball committee, United States Golf Asso- ciation, has told in Country Club Magazine exactly what the committee hoped for in adopt- ing the new golf ball. Listen to this: “It sits up, and, whether the fairway be long and uncut, bare, wet or burned out, one does not have to dig for it. . . . It flies with & slightly higher trajectory, yet it will not zoom or climb. . ., . Mashie play with the new ball is a delight. . . . The ball rises a little higher, drops more sharply, rolls less. . . In chip shots just off the green it will save the mediocre player strokes on every round. . . . In the rough it does not burrow deep. . . . It is easier to explode from a bunker. . . ., Itis a beautiful putting ball. . . . A refreshing ball to play, eminently fair to the average golfer, more exacting for the expert. . ., ., It will come to be judged one of the most important contributions to the game during the next decade.” The committee believes that 99 players out of 100 will discover that after 8 or 10 cone secutive rounds with the new ball they will be saving strokes on every round. One thing the new ball is going to do—it may cut down the yardage, but it will certainly increase the wordage. (Copyright, 1930.) C Il S Sl e NMUU T TS TR 5 PR —