Early golf balls known as “featheries” were leather pouches stuffed with feathers. The feathers were usually chicken or goose feathers, which were boiled and softened before being packed into a hand-sewn leather cover.
The leather was often damp when the ball was made. As it dried, the leather shrank while the feathers expanded, creating a surprisingly hard, compact ball. A typical featherie could require roughly the volume of feathers found in a gentleman’s top hat.
Featheries were expensive and difficult to manufacture consistently. They were rarely perfectly round, lost distance when wet, and could split open after repeated impacts. Their name refers to the filling, not to a feather-covered exterior.
By the mid-19th century, featheries were largely replaced by gutta-percha balls, commonly called “gutties.” Gutties were molded from the dried sap of the sapodilla tree and were cheaper, more durable, and easier to produce.