Collecting Putters:
Ping & More
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.