Anyone know is this is true?

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MS256 

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.

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,