Golf Trivia

It’s all a matter of distance! 

The earliest golf balls were a thin leather bag stuffed with feathers (feathery); it was not a distance ball, falling short of 200 yards. The gutta-percha ball (whitish rubber derived from the coagulated milky latex of the gutta-percha tree) was adopted in 1848, reached an upper limit distance of 225 yards. The rubber ball of 1899 helped golfers achieve greater distance. A 430 yard drive was made by Craig Wood in the British Open at St. Andrews in 1933. George Gayer, American pro made a 426 yard drive in Tucson, Arizona in 1955. The greatest recorded carry of a golf ball is 458 yards, by America's Jack Hamm, at Highlands Ranch, Colorado, USA, on July 20, 1993. Today, routine tee shots of 300 yards and more are not unusual for some professionals with their high tech drivers and balls.

But, in 1836 Samuel Messieux whacked a feathery 361 yards at St. Andrews – still the longest recorded drive with such a ball! Reports say the shot was downwind on frozen ground.

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