Golf Balls used to be hand-sewn leather pouches stuffed with feathers or cow hair
It is commonly believed that hard wooden, round balls were the first balls used for golf between the 14th through the 17th centuries. Though they were undoubtedly used for other similar contemporary stick and ball games, made from hardwoods such as beech and box trees, there is no definite evidence that they were used in golf in Scotland. It is equally, if not more likely, that leather balls filled with cows' hair were used, imported from The Netherlands from at least 1486 onwards. [1] Then or later, the featherie ball was developed and introduced. A featherie, or feathery, is a hand-sewn round leather pouch stuffed with chicken or goose feathers and coated with paint, usually white in color. The volume measurement for the feathers was a gentleman's top hat full of feathers. The feathers were boiled and softened before they were stuffed into the leather pouch.[2] Making a featherie was a tedious and time-consuming process. An experienced ball maker could only make a few balls in one day, and so they were expensive. A single ball would cost between 2 shillings and 5 shillings, which is the equivalent of 10 to 20 US dollars today.[3] @Curionic
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