Golf as we know it was first played with a leather-covered ball stuffed with goose or chicken feathers. Several pieces of substantial leather were tightly stitched, leaving a small opening. The casing was then turned inside out, and feathers - a "gentleman's top hat full" by measure - were boiled and softened, then tediously stuffed into the casing before the final stitches were made. 

The resulting surprisingly hard feather ball was hammered into roundness and finally coated with several layers of paint. Because of the difficulty and time involved in making Featheries, they were relatively expensive. This fragile missile was used for almost four centuries