There are almost 20,000 golf courses in the United States today, but a century ago, there were just 41. With two unofficial, amateur national championships, and one professional championship in 1894, the stage was set for the creation of the PGA—and the popularization of golf. In January of 1916, Rodman Wanamaker, a wealthy department store owner, hosted a luncheon at the Wykagyl Country Club to formalize the conception of the PGA with other golf professionals in the North East. The Professional Golfers’ Association of America officially initiated in February. The first PGA Championship took place at Siwanoy Country Club in Eastchester, NY. For his victory, Jim Barnes received $500 and a diamond-studded gold medal, courtesy of Mr. Wanamaker. Last year at Oak Hill Country Club, Jason Dufner won $1,445,000.

You wouldn’t walk onto the course with a hat that’s too small or a club that’s too long, but have you ever thought about how well your golf ball fits you? Savor the peace of mind and confidence that comes from playing with the right golf ball by learning about the four basic types, and finding the one that corresponds to your game qualities like handicap and swing speed. First up on the tee is the two-piece golf ball, engineered for a casual round for fun rather than competition. With a large inner core and cover, it has great durability and distance with every shot. Because of the soft feel of the club face, fast initial ball speed, and flight consistency, all manufacturers have a two-piece ball in their line. Two-piece golf balls are best for golfers with a handicap of 15-36 with a swing speed in the range of 70-85 mph, not for tour players because of their softness. If you would like to get a feel for a few on a hole or two before committing to one ball for the whole course, you can try a sample pack of the newest two-piece offerings from Titleist, Callaway, Srixon, and TaylorMade, here and here.

Tailor-made: (adjective) made special for the individual—as in the TaylorMade golf company, maker of clubs specially tailored to your hand and your golf ball. The first face of TaylorMade was not a Taylor but Gary Adams: entrepreneur, amateur golfer, and founder. In 1979 he borrowed a $24,000 loan. With it he bought a 6,000 square foot building in McHenry, IL with the ambitious goal of creating a new kind of club, one that would catch up to the cutting edge golf balls that had already transformed the game. He began by experimenting with different materials in the hope of improving upon the screws that muttled the face of a persimmon wood.

There you are, finishing up your 72nd hole, amidst cheers and applause-the Claret Jug at last in your hand. Sorry to disrupt the daydream, let us open your eyes to the 143rd Open Championship, beginning on Thursday, July 17th at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, Wirral, United Kingdom. 2014 will mark the 12th time The Open will be contested at Royal Liverpool, and again administered by the R&A (the organization governing golf outside the U.S.A. and Mexico), The Open Championship has not always been the tournament as we know it today. From 1966 to 1979 it was a Wednesday to Saturday format. From 1927 to 1966, the final two rounds were played on Friday, but, before 1926, all four rounds were played in just two days. In the event of a tie, and unlike the U.S. Open, it features a four-hole playoff and then sudden death.

A golf club and a golf ball are two birds of a feather, but what was a “golf ball” when the club was just a wooden stick? The origin of the game of golf always has been and always will be a subject of controversy. Like stickball is to baseball, stick and ball games reminiscent of golf have been around for several centuries, with some accounts going all the way back to the Dutch in 1261. We will stick to our specialty, and concentrate on the history of the golf ball itself.

When we head out onto over thousands golf courses in US, masks on and baskets in hand, in search of golf balls like Easter eggs. How do we distinguish a great egg from a bad egg or even just a good egg? Truthfully we see everything under the sun when it comes to golf balls. Thanks to our innovative sorting process, only a small percentage of what comes through our facility actually has the aesthetics to make it in your golf bag. To help serve you best, we have created a grading scale based on condition to discern the excellent (AAAAA) from the great (AAAA) from the good (AAA).

To analyze the performance of the golf balls we sell at Lost Golf Balls, we collected two sets of data for comparison. First, we compared driver distance off the tee between our recycled golf balls and brand new ones. Second, we tested this same relationship when hitting off the ground using a seven-iron.

If all of our golf ball inventory could be placed into a big golf bag, shaken up and emptied, a Titleist or a Nike might roll out like a white marble—or maybe a Callaway, a popular brand for golf gear, would zoom out ahead of the crowd as the company has done in the last few decades. Today, we celebrate Callaway golf balls for their velocity, courtesy of aerodynamics, but some golfers might not be quite up to speed with their history and ingenuity.

This year marks the 114th United States Open Championship. The first US Open was held in 1895 at Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island and consisted of 36 holes. It was played on a nine hole course and all four rounds were played in a single day.