Gutta-Percha Golf Ball - View 1

The gutta-percha ball changed the face of golf. Much harder and less expensive to make than featheries, gutties turned golf into a game for the masses.
In 1848, the Reverend Dr Robert Adams Paterson of St Andrews experimented with rubber-like gutta-percha which wrapped a gift he received from India. Paterson found that gutta-percha was softened by boiling and could be moulded into a ball.
Gutties were not an instant success as the smooth ball tended to duck in flight. Players soon noticed that scuffed and marked balls flew straighter and further. Enterprising players marked balls with the back of a hammer. Ball makers soon followed with hand cut and then machine cut balls.