WEBVTT - Fried Egg Stories: The Ball, Part 2 - Wound 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.080 This episode of Fried Egg Stories is brought to you 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:08.120 by our friends at b Draddy. Okay, the b Dratty Liampolo, 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:11.440 I've talked about it before. It's magical. It's everything you 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:14.520 want in a polo. And can I just say Peruvian 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:19.120 pima cotton a couple of times Peruvian pima cotton. That's 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.000 what the classic b drotty liampolo is made of. And 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:25.520 it is comfortable, good looking, breatheable, all the things you 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:28.720 want as summer heats up. So head over to bdraddy 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:31.639 dot com to get your own and use code TFE 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:36.160 for fifteen percent off at checkout bdraddy dot com code 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:38.480 TFE fifteen percent off. 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:42.440 The fried egg requires a different technique. What you need 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:45.600 to do is actually square the face so they'll dig 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:49.279 down underneath that bad lie and propel that ball right 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:49.800 out onto. 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:52.720 The green Here's it's a playing out of a buried 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.160 lion of Bunker is completely different than playing out of 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:57.560 a night and clean lion of greenside Buker. 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:01.720 You need to be aggressive on it's sitting cleanly or 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.279 it's Frida Egg. Well, we've all faithd it the dreaded 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.199 fried egg and not to be cleared, though it's actually 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:09.479 a pretty easy shock to hit. 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:19.960 It was eighteen ninety eight. Joe Mitchell was the professional 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.280 at a golf club in the Cleveland, Ohio area. One day, 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.479 a member named Coburn Haskell arrived and he handed Joe 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.559 a golf ball. According to an account in the BEF 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:32.280 Goodrich Company Archives, here's what happened next. 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.200 Hit this ball for me, mister Haskell, requested of Joe. 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.520 The ball looked exactly like the usual ball, the cover 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.360 having been pressed in the same mold, and Joe took 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:45.840 his stance and walloped it, with never a thought that 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.680 he was assisting at the making of history. Out across 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:52.160 the fairway of the first hole was a bunker which 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.000 never had been carried by anybody. It was so far 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.040 from the tea that only an occasional tremendous poke with 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:00.520 the old gutty would send the ball rolling into it 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:03.720 in dry weather. And it was right over the middle 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:06.080 of that bunker that Joe's drive with the new ball 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:10.760 sailed high in the air, landing yards beyond. Joe Mitchell 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.560 stood watching the ball with eyes and mouth wide open. 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:16.399 Then he let out a yell and began a sort 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:20.280 of dance. Then he began to implore mister Haskell to 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:23.160 tell him if he was dreaming, and if not, what 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:24.560 was in that ball? 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.560 What was in it was basically rubber. Here's how the 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.840 story usually goes. Coburn Haskell was visiting a friend at 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.440 the good Rich rubber factory in Akron. There, Haskell picked 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:43.680 up some elastic rubber thread, wound it around and around itself, 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.799 and the resulting ball bounced like a grasshopper. Haskell, who 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.800 was an avid golfer, had an idea. He asked the 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.200 factory workers to encase the ball in a layer of 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:56.960 gutter percha, and that's how in eighteen ninety eight he 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:01.360 invented the wound core golf ball. Five years later, the 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.799 Haskell ball had taken over the game and redefined it 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:10.320 in ways we're still arguing about today. This is Friday Stories. 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:14.560 I'm Garrett Morrison. This episode is the second of three 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.800 to take a closer look at the golf ball, its design, 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.640 its history, and its impact on the game. Each installment 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:25.760 focuses on a different revolution in golf ball technology. Part 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:27.800 one told the story of the gut of Percha ball, 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:31.480 which changed who could play the game. Part two will 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.240 consider the Haskell ball, which I think changed something about 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:36.880 the very essence of golf, or at least how we 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:40.520 think and talk about it. Basically, when the Haskell arrived, 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:43.760 golf had a decision to make ban it and become 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.600 a game fixed in time, separate from the modern world, 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.920 or embrace it and become a game that accommodates science 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.920 and technology, that adjusts its playing fields and even its 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.200 rules to keep up with the times. That was the choice, 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:58.920 and the brightest minds in golf battled over it in 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:02.640 the early years of the twentyth century, and today, somehow 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:04.480 we're still having the same debate. 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:07.960 If you know something about the history, the debate today 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:13.560 sometimes lapses into verbatim verbatim sentences. I mean it literally, 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:15.920 it's the same sentence. 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.680 That's Robert Crosby, a golf historian. And in this episode, 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.760 Bob is my guide through the post Haskell moment, a 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.880 moment that in many ways created the golf world as 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.240 we know it now, and at the center of it 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:32.400 all was an Englishman named John Lowe. 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:41.400 John Lowe was a remarkably precocious, remarkably brass, self confident 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:43.160 Avid golfer. 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.839 By the mid eighteen nineties, Lowe had regular bylines in 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.080 golf magazines, and when the governing body of British golf, 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.880 the RNA, formed a rules committee in eighteen ninety seven, 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:56.359 he was a member. Just a few years before that 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:00.839 he had been a student at Cambridge. I didn't realize 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:03.680 that he was so young when all of this was happening. 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:05.360 He was a kid. 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:09.680 He's not just another letter in the letter box that 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.640 you would find reproduced and say golf illustrated. He's leading 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:20.200 the debate. He's a remarkably outgoing, very bright, incredibly articulate 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:23.640 and extraordinarily self confident for somebody his age. 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:27.000 So in nineteen oh one, John Lowe was already a 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.160 prominent figure in the game. In nineteen oh one was 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:32.960 the year that the Haskell ball made its debut in Britain. 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.760 A couple of balls appeared and they were given to 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.800 Horace Hutchinson, who then gave a couple of the balls 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:43.479 to John Lowe and others of his friends, and they 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:45.279 played with it at Saint Andrew's. 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:48.600 Right away low saw that this ball was different. 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.760 Lowe writes about he took one of the balls and 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:56.480 dropped it on the floor and I guess the RNA clubhouse, 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.880 and the ball bounced over his head. It was clear 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:01.720 from the get go that it was a longer. 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:04.840 Ball, Yet neither Low nor his friends took the Haskell 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:05.880 all that seriously. 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:08.400 At first, they thought it was just a novelty. 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.560 Because the ball was so lively, they assumed it would 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:12.840 be harder to put and chip with. 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.680 It turned out that you could adjusted that pretty easily. 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.400 And the Haskell, already popular in America, caught on like 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.240 wildfire in England and Scotland, so. 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:27.160 That by nineteen oh two it was played everywhere. 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:30.840 By then, John Low knew a couple of things about 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.360 this ball. First, it went much farther than the gutty. 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:38.520 The estimate varied from twenty yards to four yards farther, 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:42.679 But it was a ball that clearly left the club 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:47.080 face at a higher rate of speed than any gutty 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:48.200 could ever hope to do. 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.280 Second, and this is the most important thing, it introduced 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:55.279 a whole new method of designing a golf ball. The 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.160 gutty had just been a solid hunk of hardened gum. 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.840 Aside from experimenting with dimples, there wasn't much an inventor 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:02.560 could do with it. 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.000 The gutty was the gutty. It just was a technology 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:06.800 at a dead end. 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.760 But it soon became clear that the wound ball design 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.160 had opened up a new set of possibilities for the manufacturers. 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:17.040 The leap forward with the Haskell was that it had 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:20.520 a core, sometimes made of something solid, sometimes made of 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:26.560 something liquid, surrounded by a wound bands of rubber at 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:30.040 a certain tension level, and then covered by some sort 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:34.400 of rubber covering. It was a whole new kind of ball, 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.840 but it introduced a whole concept that there would be 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.280 better and better balls coming along on a fairly regular 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:44.760 basis that would be yet longer, yet more durable. 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:49.680 And that was why John Lowe became worried, so much. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.800 So that low goes to the RNA Autumn meeting in 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:58.120 nineteen o two and says, guys, who got this something 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:01.560 about this bomb? This is going to render obsolete the 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:05.840 best golf courses we know. The RNA responds by saying, 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:09.040 and Low thought hopefully that yeah, we'll address it at 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.040 the spring meeting in the nineteen oh three spring meeting. 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.080 In the meantime, let's do some checking and look look 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.960 into it and see exactly how much farther it flies, 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:21.920 Let's see what the effect is having. I'm scoring. By 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:26.320 the time of the May nineteen oh three meeting, it's 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.600 pretty clear to everybody that the ball is, that it 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:34.679 represents an enormous leap in ball performance, that it is 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:40.280 indeed having an effect on how golf courses are played. Nonetheless, 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.760 and this is what angers Low, and he stays angry 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:47.280 about this for the rest of his life. Notwithstanding all 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:49.760 of that, the RNA refuses to ban it. 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.840 Low felt that this decision at its root was self serving. 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.120 It wasn't just that they thought the ball was okay. 0:08:57.240 --> 0:08:59.800 They didn't. They agreed it was a bad thing for 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:02.880 the game, But they made and this is what angered 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:05.679 Love so much. They made a decision not to ban 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.040 it because of its popularity, and that in turn, was 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:13.400 based I think, on fears that if they did do so, 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:15.680 no one would pay attention to them anymore. 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.000 So the Haskell in effect became the new standard ball. 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.720 John Low was pissed, and we've already established that he 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.080 wasn't exactly shy, so he started firing off letters to 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.480 magazine editors, and in his book Concerning Golf, he said 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:36.400 his colleagues in the RNA were quote, neither prompt nor 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.480 brave enough to carry out their own convictions. 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:43.920 He was the bete noir of so many people, the 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:49.320 target of cartoons mocked by other journalists, made fun of 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.959 here and there, and it didn't phase him. He just 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:56.400 marched on. He just soldiered ahead with his objections to 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:56.959 the Haskell. 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.880 So why did he feel so strongly about the ball? Well, 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:03.960 it had to do with his overall vision of golf. 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:09.160 Lowe was concerned first and foremost to try to preserve 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.040 various attributes of the traditional Scottish game. 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:18.800 These attributes belonged to three main categories, the courses, the rules, 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.679 and the equipment. In the traditional Scottish game, as low 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:26.280 knew it, you had courses on the seaside, links, rules 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.240 based on the old Saint Andrew's codes, and clubs and 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:37.080 balls fashioned locally out of wood iron and got a percha. 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:40.240 Because he thought those attributes made the game the interesting 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.760 game that it was, and not because those attributes would 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:48.080 make it a popular game, but because those attributes had 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:55.360 intangible benefits to golfers. They tested character, They developed perseverance, 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:58.880 the ability to deal with good breaks and bad breaks, 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:04.240 which all led to higher levels of camaraderie. It was 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:09.880 a metaphysical view that saw golf as important to character 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.520 and absent the attributes. 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:15.040 Of the older game. 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:22.120 Low believe those benefits to character were less available. The 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:27.920 difficulty and unpredictability of the game is a feature, not 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:33.320 a problem. And for so long as people have the idea, 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:35.640 and this is a phrase that Glow returns to again 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:39.120 and again that they that they want to quote conquer golf, 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:45.080 tame golf, it's a completely incorrect mindset to bring to 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:48.679 the game. The haskell sits in the middle of all 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:52.200 of those issues. It is a way to short circuit 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.840 the best parts of the game by overcoming the difficulties 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:57.640 and unpredictability of the game. 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:01.800 And so in the process of debating the Haskell ball, 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:06.320 Low articulated an entire philosophy of golf. He liked to 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.880 say he represented the conservative party of the game. Now, 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:12.680 of course, conservative has a political meaning now as it 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.440 did then, but this is different. Low used the word literally. 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:19.960 He wanted to conserve the old ways of Scottish golf. 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.920 He thought those old ways built character, bred camaraderie and 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:28.000 were just beautiful in and of themselves. Opposed to this 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:32.160 conservative party, Lo said was the Party of Equity, which 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:35.560 he thought pandered to the masses by seeking to close 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:39.040 the gap between weak and strong players. The Party of 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.160 Equity thought an easier game would be a more popular game, 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:46.679 and that was why they embraced the Haskell ball. This conflict, 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.400 although specific to golf, had a lot to do with 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:50.720 what was going on in the world. 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:54.920 Let's go back to nineteen oh one nineteen oh two. 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:59.440 The Victorian age was coming to an end. The Edwardian 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:02.520 age was just a borning as they say, and Low 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:06.720 was a young man very much an at Wardian. Younger 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.680 men like Low, like Cold, like Fowler, like Simpson, were 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.720 trying to sort out a different way to think about 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:18.760 golf than their what their Victorian forebears had taught them. 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:23.320 For the Victorians, broadly speaking, golf was about fairness. It 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:26.920 was about a very public display of virtue. So to them, 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:30.079 any course design, any rule change, any new club or 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.800 ball that seemed to make the game more fair, more regular, 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:38.320 was clearly good. But at Wardian golfers like John Lowe 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:39.480 saw things differently. 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:44.080 It was okay to just enjoy the challenges of the game. 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:48.199 It didn't have to have a higher moral purpose, enjoy 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.320 the process and learn from the process, whether or not 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:55.199 it brings you, you know, gets you into heaven ultimately. 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.840 And Gardians made golf more about private enjoyment, private self 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:00.440 and provement. 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:03.480 And there are things that I can do that I 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:09.800 like to do, and that's okay, and that's okay, and golf, 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.400 for Low is that thing. It might not make for 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:18.760 better civil servants in the British Empire, but it's fun. 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:23.920 In other words, fairness and public virtue were beside the point. 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:28.640 Lo saw golf as an individual, heroic adventure, and anything 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:32.080 that made the game less adventurous, easier, more predictable, more 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.760 under control, he tended to reject. 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:39.360 One of the key motivations for science is to take 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:43.920 control of nature. Low's concern is those people that want 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:48.320 to take control of golf. Golf is a man made thing, 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.920 and it can be changed if man wants to change it. 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:57.400 But if we are going to enjoy its real benefits, 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.720 we have to leave it where it is, in its 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.920 more or less traditional forms. And if that means golf 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:07.400 becomes less popular, so be it. 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:11.240 So. 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:13.840 In the first decade of the twentieth century, it was 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:17.680 the Victorians versus the Edwardians, the Party of Equity versus 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:21.240 the Conservative Party, And while they all bickered, the British 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:23.240 ball manufacturers got to work. 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:27.440 By nineteen oh five nineteen oh six, a couple of 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:31.960 years after the haskell Is not banned, they're all sorts 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.400 of experimental balls coming out with different sorts of windings, 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.440 different sorts of cores. Some use mercury, some use water, 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:43.640 some all sorts of different things, virtually all of which 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:47.640 didn't really pan out as advertised. But there was this 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:52.680 wild experimentation going on. If you go into some of 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.720 the British newspapers between nineteen oh five and nineteen eleven 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:00.960 or twelve or so, the advertisements for golf balls are fascinated. 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.640 I mean they're making all kinds of wild claim. 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:06.160 What are some examples that you can think of? 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:08.720 Well, I mean, just you know, our golf ball will 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:12.440 go much farther, last longer and staying round longer than 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:17.200 the haschol You know, extraordinary links, you know, the usual 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:19.720 advertising burgs you and I can sort of make up 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.560 here on the spot are all for the first time 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:26.280 being promulgated by golf ball manufacturers. 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.479 But it wasn't just marketing, There were some real advances 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:30.640 in technology happening. 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.120 The ball was getting longer and longer again because there 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.760 were simply no rules and why not try something. 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:40.640 Yet by the end of the decade, a funny thing 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.520 had happened. A lot. More golfers had come to agree 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.880 with John Lowe that something needed to be done about 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:49.320 the ball. This was partly because more edward ends had 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:51.520 come of age, and it was partly because the so 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.560 called Conservative Party had a number of eloquent supporters in 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.720 the press, including perhaps the greatest golf writer of all 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:01.000 time in Bernard Darwin. But most it had just become 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:04.280 obvious to everyone that the rubber wound core ball did 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:06.880 go farther and it was changing the game. 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:12.359 As far as I know, every open venue made substantial 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.560 additions to its length between say, nineteen oh five and 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:20.000 nineteen ten. They had no choice, They really had no choice, 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.320 and it was a shadow that hung over the game. 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:26.520 Golf courses couldn't be sure at any point in time 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:29.280 that they weren't going to have to undergo yet further 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.280 major changes to match up with the golf ball. 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:35.919 And this was how something like a consensus started to form. 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.880 Nobody can deny that the new balls are really affecting 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:43.840 golf courses. It's just in front of your face. Don't 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:45.960 even begin to tell me it hasn't had an affecting 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:46.600 golf course. 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.520 In nineteen thirteen, John mow became chairman of the RNA 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:54.520 Rules Committee. The stage was set. The RNA and USGA 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:57.879 were in touch, Various standards were being discussed, and the 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:01.040 passing of the first ball rule in golf history seemed imminent. 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:04.040 And then World War One hits and everything comes to 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:04.920 a screech and hall. 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:10.119 World War One brought devastation on a scale that Europeans 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:14.399 could scarcely understand on the Western Front, trench warfare rage 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.800 for four years. Obviously, no one was really thinking about 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:21.000 golf at the time. Well, John Lowe sort of was. 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.320 Even though normal functions that the RNA were shut down 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.879 during World War One, low kept discussions of the ball 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.480 alive among members of the Rules Committee. 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:32.639 Wouldn't let it go. 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.800 There were a few basic proposals on the table. J. H. 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:40.320 Taylor h and Harold Hilton had an idea that what 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:44.000 we ought to do is licensed ball manufacturers and as 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.760 a condition to them making approved balls, we can inspect 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.480 your factories to see how they make balls. That sort 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:50.760 of thing. 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:53.800 That would be a strict sort of regulation, giving the 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:57.040 governing bodies direct control over all aspects of the ball, 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:02.000 including its design and material composition. Not a popular idea 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:05.960 among manufacturers. Other proposals were less stringent. 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:10.480 Willie Parker was among the first to suggest the idea 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:14.040 that we limit balls by limiting its weight and size. 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.280 In other words, it can't weigh more than x or 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:19.240 have a diameter of less than X. 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:24.000 This would qualify as regulation, but it would also give 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.960 manufacturers plenty of room to innovate. For John Lowe's part, 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:30.000 he was frustrated that no one seemed to want to 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:32.040 go back to the gutty, so he came up with 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:33.840 an alternative, the floater. 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:38.640 The ball that floats, easy standard to implement and enforce. 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:39.879 Does it float. 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:44.520 The floater did gain support among those fellow conservatives, but 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.680 the problem was most golfers liked what the round ball 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.040 did for them, and they knew that any ball that 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:53.520 could float had no chance of beating the Haskell. The 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:56.959 floater would effectively be a rollback to the gutty, and 0:19:57.000 --> 0:19:59.159 that was where things stood. When the war ended in 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:03.800 late nineteen. The next year, the Daily Mail newspaper sponsored 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.080 a tournament at Saint Andrews that came to be known 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.239 as the Substitute Open. There, the ball issue took on 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:11.960 some extra urgency. 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.200 People were hitting the golf ball distances they had never 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:20.119 seen before. People were hitting the fourteenth hole, the long 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:23.080 hold at the old course with a driver and a 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:27.560 seven iron. They were chipping onto the seventeenth holl for 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:32.560 their second shots. People were shocked, stunned. 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:36.600 So as soon as the RNA opened back up, John 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:37.240 Lowe was ready. 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:41.320 He was able to present to them a subcommittee that 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:45.400 he had formed to investigate ball regulation, named the committee 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:48.840 members and said, we're going to contact the USGA, ball 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:52.119 manufacturers in the British PGA and get everybody on board. 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:57.560 And that's exactly what they did. Immediately, the USGA writes back, 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:00.440 says we're with you on this, buddy. Let's do it. 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:02.200 Something's got to be done. 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.280 But it turned out that other US golf organizations were 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:09.360 less enthusiastic. 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:15.280 The Western Golf Association and the USPGA oppose any ball 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:20.000 rules at all. Nothing we want nothing. We want pure 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.200 libertarian golf. I can play with any ball I want 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:25.320 to play with. Get out of my face. 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:29.919 So in nineteen twenty, the USGA traveled to Mierfield for 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.320 a summit with the RNA, and the American delegates had 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:34.800 bad news for John Lowe. 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:38.040 We can't do the floater. If you're going to do 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:39.320 the floater, we're out of here. 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:42.920 Now. Keep in mind, at this point, Lowe was about 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:46.439 fifty years old. He was no longer an upstart firebrand. 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:50.119 He was an elder statesman, maybe a little gentler, maybe 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:53.520 a little more diplomatic. So he decided to compromise on 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:56.960 the ball role At Mierfield, the RNA and USGA agreed 0:21:56.960 --> 0:22:00.400 to regulate size and weight a minimum diameter of one 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:03.120 point sixty two inches and a maximum weight of one 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:06.560 point sixty two ounces, which was approximately the size and 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:08.840 weight of the best performing balls of the time. 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:12.840 But low thought, well, I was defeated on the floater, 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:17.600 and that's a disappointment. But I got a rule, and 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:21.720 that rule ought to be able to shield us from 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:24.600 further ball improvements down the line, and I'll count that 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:25.240 as a victory. 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:30.080 That was May nineteen twenty, Just a few months later, 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:33.560 before the rule even went into effect, the ball manufacturers 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:37.640 had a surprise, they came out with prototype balls that 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:39.680 fit the new specifications. 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:43.199 It turned out the prototype balls went farther than the 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:50.720 older ball, and everybody was in shock, absolute shock. Jaje 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:54.760 Taylor says, Load, my girlfriend, Load, you really screwed this up. 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:57.480 It's just a big miss. 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:01.479 To this day, nobody knows exactly how the manufacturers did it. 0:23:02.080 --> 0:23:05.280 The theory is that they made the windings were tighter, 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:08.919 there was a slightly thinner cover, that the core was 0:23:08.960 --> 0:23:12.119 made out of some sort of liquid know one. Loan 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:15.920 never could figure out what they did. He was deeply 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:19.760 frustrated by I think he felt betrayed by the manufacturers 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:22.240 because they had been in close consultation with him up 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:25.280 to the ball rule, and I think he felt backsided 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:31.639 by them. I suspect, Garrett, this is rank speculation that 0:23:31.680 --> 0:23:34.440