In the end it was a golf mad Reverend called Rev. James Patterson of Dundee who whilst on missionary work in Malaysia discovered the gutty percha which is a rubber like material that comes from the dried sap of sapodilla trees of East Asia.
James sent a statue back to Scotland, which he used the gutta percha as protective packaging for. On his return home he was idly fiddling with this elastic substance which in turn gave him the idea to attempt to create a golf ball from this substance.
Shortly there were many companies producing golf balls from gutty percha and very quickly the gutty ball became the standard equipment of play. Now that there was wide spread demand for this product, two piece metal molds were produced to fashion perfectly round spheres. At first only smooth balls were produced but golfers soon realized that the more the ball nicked and marked so it was easier to predict their shots. This in turn led to companies producing guttys with surface markings to enhance its aerodynamic qualities.
Robert Forgan the St Andrews club and ball maker was attributed to have sold the first guttys with surface patterns in the 1860.s. Robert used to simply place the ball in amount and indented the surface of the ball with the claw end of the hammer. This was known as the hand hammered gutty and this period lasted 20 years until markings where then applied in the molds.
Constant improvement were made to the gutty ball until the turn of the Century, with companies adding material.s such as ground up cork, leather and other materials to the pure gutta-percha.
The Gutty Ball
The modern era can be said to have began during this period, when the featherie golf ball was replaced by the gutta-percha golf ball.
it was inevitable that someone would attempt to replace the feathery with a more resilient material.
The cost effectiveness of the gutty material was soon recognized and a skilled worker could roll a gutty in a matter of minutes. Soon these balls were being produced at a quarter of the cost of featheries and slowly the game of golf became affordable to the masses. Perhaps one of the finest qualities of the gutty was its ability to be remolded when it had become heavily scarred. Several manufacturers offered a trade in service where the old guttys were taken in part exchange against new. The old gutty.s were then remolded and resold. Alternatively golfers could remold the balls themselves.