Anyone know is this is true?

Most popular golf item on Reddit today is a cartoon on the history of the golf ball. Says that when balls were made of something called Gutta then ball would often smash and the next shot would be taken from where the biggest piece of the old ball lands. Anyone heard this before or know if it's true?? Pretty funny if it is!

I have read that before (somewhere). I can't remember where but it was probably in "The Greatest Game Ever Played" which has a lot of golf history in the book.

Not read that, will have to try get my hands on a copy. Imagine that rule caused a lot of heated debate then!!

Funny you mention that book, but first, I don't ever recall that reference in "The Greatest...", and I've read it twice.

And what a great book it is, that match which is a reference to the "Greatest Game" and not golf in general in the double entendre title,

is what really spawned the boom in golf America experienced 100 years ago this year. I would say it is an inspirational must read for all golfers, especially the young.

That the USGA is not holding this years Open at Brookline completely baffles me, considering the centenary.

Francis Ouillmet versus Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. Greatest game ever played.  Gives me goosebumps.

Sorry, I don't have the answer yet on the gutta percha

Mr M

It could have been somewhere else that I read that. It's been a while since I read that book and since there was a lot of history in the book and some discussion on early golf balls I figured that was where it was.

It is a great book. I would have read it more than once but someone borrowed it and never gave it back...

This article mentions the rule that had to be put in place for when the golf ball broke apart.

http://library.thinkquest.org/10556/english/high/history/hist05.htm

"The "gutty" was prone to break up in mid-air, thus forcing the rules to accommodate this tendency by allowing the golfer to play a fresh ball from the point where the largest fragment had come to rest. This would be the last occasion on which the Rules of Golf had to be amended to legislate for the properties of the golf ball. For the remainder of the 19th century, the new ball was repeatedly modified to make it more durable."

from that article,