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Catalogue >Fine Art >  General >  The Story of the Golf Ball The Story of the Golf Ball Kevin McGimpsey This book is about the golf ball and how it has affected the game, especially club development and the rules. It begins with the feather ball era in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which was followed by the gutty ball era of the 1850s to 1900. The rubber-cored (modern) ball era ran from 1900 to 1970 (the year before the first golf ball was struck on the moon). This type of ball was far easier to play with than the gutty ball and was known as a 'bounding billy' 210 x 297 mm; 288 pages, cloth 32 colour and 500 mono illustrations ISBN 0 85667 588 1 Unfortunately this book is currently out of print.  Online price: £35.00 / €52.50 Until 1920 there was no size or weight restrictions to the ball. Thereafter maufacturors had to conform to the specifications, otherwise the ball was deemed illegal. The American and British golfing authorities could not agree on dimensions so for nearly 50 years there were 2 'legal' balls played either side of the Atlantic. Ball makers have long sought to make the ball travel further, move straighter and to provide protection to the ball from poorly executed shots. This book shows how manfucaturing techniques have evolved from stuffing feathers into a leather sack in the seventeenth century to hydraulic presses and spraying booths in the early twentieth century. The balls' cover patterns were designed to improve their flight characteristics and these ranged from stars, diamonds and pimples to the round dimple (today's standard) that was patented in the early twentieth century. The author has made extensive use of the data recorded at the many golf memorabilia sales since the early 1980s. He also records many of the prices paid at auction for golf balls. Kevin McGimpsey has played golf since he was a boy. He has caddied at the Masters and the Open and has been collecting golfing memorabilia since the early 1990s. He writes regular articles on golf antiques in Golf Inernational magazine.