Golfing Greats: Men
Hall of Fame
Golfing greats: Men
Craig Wood - The Blonde Bomber
For his power, length off the tee and natural movie star good looks, sportswriters dubbed Craig Wood the “Blond Bomber.” But they also labeled him the perennial runner-up, the bridesmaid and the “No. 2 wood”, for losing all four of golf’s modern major championships in playoffs. To his contemporaries
and everyone else fortunate to have known him, Wood was a professional of enormous class, universally respected, admired and loved. (He went on to win the Masters and the US Open in 1941, with his career cut short by WWII).
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Eras of Golf Ball Collecting
Early rubber Core – 1900-1920 Era
Around the turn of the 20th century, the golf ball took another leap forward with the invention of the wound, rubber core ball. Supplanting the gutty over a period of just a few years, the rubber core, or “bounding billy” as the early ball was known, took off, literally, with golfers who discovered its penchant for to add distance to their games. The early balls varied in size and weight. Core materials varied widely as inventors tried almost everything from a hollow core, to compressed air, honey, steel, a radioactive substance, and, in one bizarre instance, the pizzle (penis) of a bull! Yes, you read that right. Such were the many patterns, weights, cores, that collecting balls from this period involves much research to understand the many patents and varieties. It is a particularly rich period for collectors and balls can be found ranging from reasonable prices to very high for prized and rare patent balls.
Eras of Golf Ball Collecting
Rubber Core 1920-1940 Era
The ball was still undergoing experimentation as manufacturers jockeyed for position in the market. Surface patterns in the early 20s were just as inventive and unusual as the earlier decade. As time wore on, the golf ball market began to settle down as more consistent manufacturing processes took hold and key makers began to dominate. The collector for this period will look for early maker names and try to assemble a progression that shows the evolution of both the ball and its marketing and maker iterations.
Characteristics of rubber core collecting involve looking for moulded or hand-cut gutties; wrapped and uwrapped balls, golf ball boxes (fascinating in their colorful varieties), even fakes, which have, when known, a certain collectible appeal. Wooden balls, too, were available for short time during war years.
Eras of Golf Ball Collecting
1940s-Current Era
Collectors of balls for this period have many choices should they wish to focus on a particular niche, as these include balls with logos of from anything to universities to sports clubs and everything in between; corporate brands (logos); images of any number of things from animals to birds; joke balls, balls with the names of professional golfers, sometimes in script; autographed balls, itself a category as collectors often like to build a display of balls that the golfer him or herself has signed.