Word: percha
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...small clique, played by amateurs on seaside links. Darwin was truly a figure out of the pages of P.G. Wodehouse who engaged in quoting contests to see who knew Pickwick Papers best while at Eton and for whom the golden age of golf was when the gutta percha ball was in circulation and the renowned British "Triumvirate" of J.H. Taylor, Harry Vardon and James Braid reigned supreme...
...chief maker and supplier of feathery balls, stitched a spherical bag out of cowhide which was then stuffed with boiled feathers. Enough feathers to fill a top hat were packed into each ball. The unreliable and easily rotted feathery endured until around 1848 when the discovery of gutta percha, an elastic gum found in the forests of Malaysia, sent shock waves through the golf industry...
...malleable gutta percha could be rolled into balls know as gutties, which then hardened. The gutties, however, were prone to duck to earth after leaving the club face until it was realized that older, pock-marked balls had a truer flight. Gutties were then deliberately battered with hammers before...
...gutta percha ball required a more resilient shaft; the solution was supplied by hickory, which reigned supreme until the advent of steel in the age of Bobby Jones...