On Thursday, the 144th British Open begins, and players can be grateful that much has changed since four-time champion Old Tom Morris was first playing.
A golf ball from 1834 was up for auction at St. Andrews.Caters NewsA feathery golf ball, made by the “Godfather of Golf” in 1834 was auctioned on Tuesday, having been expected to sell for as much as £8,000 (approximately $12,500).
Morris, who was born in St. Andrews, Scotland in 1821, worked as an apprentice under Allan Robertson — considered one of the world’s first professional golfers — when he made the auctioned ball, stuffing animal feathers into a leather pouch.
Morris was later fired by Robertson for playing with the cheaper and mode-advanced guttie ball, made from the dry sap of a tree. It wasn’t until 1901 that the rubber-cored ball — a version of which is the norm today, with a dimpled urethane cover — first was used.
