A Short History of Golf Balls

Here at Graff Golf, we are building a smart golf ball and analytics platform, so it only makes sense that we would do a podcast talking about the many iterations of golf ball that have been made throughout history. From rudimentary beginnings where hand-crafted balls could only go a short distance all the way to the modern day missiles that are made in factories today, golf balls have represented the most remarkable transformation out of any piece of equipment in the game. And as we are proving at Graff, that evolution is far from over.

In this podcast, host Sean Fairholm explain how golf balls started and where they are currently. We’ll also go into what are they made out of, how are they made and what could be in store for the future of golf balls. There have been so many eras of golf balls over the years, each one an improvement to making the game more enjoyable — but as I will explain in this podcast, there are a couple of drawbacks with the modern ball that has many people hoping that there will be changes to some of the rules around how big a golf ball is, how much it does or doesn’t spin, and other variables like that. But no matter how you view it, golf balls are an iconic piece of equipment in all of sport and their history dwarfs some of the other histories of different equipment used in other sports.