There are two advancements in technology that have seriously changed the game of golf in the past 500 years. And neither of them has anything to do with a golf club...  The two most significant technological advances are (arguably, at least) the transition of the game from feather balls to gutta perch, and then the invention of rubber core golf balls. The latter advancement was due to the Haskell golf ball. Though not technically the first rubber core golf ball, the Haskell was the first to be mass produced, and it changed the game forever.

Offered here is a rare first generation Haskell golf ball. The American patent for a rubber core golf ball was applied for by B.F. Goodrich on August 9, 1898, and issued on April 11, 1899. The very first Haskells were very slow to produce, as each ball had to be hand-wound. Within a couple years, a machine was produced to take over this labor intensive work. These first generation Haskells (before the pattern was soon changed to the much more popular bramble) were very brittle, which is why few quality examples still exist.

Offered here is perhaps the finest, and best documented, first generation Haskell in existence. This Haskell was part of the famous Harry B. Wood collection. Wood himself has dated the ball to the 1890s. It bears the well-recognized small paper label bearing Wood's handwritten notation. These labels were created by Wood in order to display his grand collection of memorabilia in the late 1800s and very early 1900s. Harry B. Wood began his collection in 1868, just two years after the Royal & Ancient announced their own intentions to assemble a museum. Few golf antiques share the provenance and history of items from the Harry B. Wood Collection.

This ball also has the honor of being on the cover of the most celebrated book on golf ball collecting that has ever been produced - "The Story of the Golf Ball" by Kevin McGimpsey. This ball is also pictured on page 47 of the book.