Balls !!
Any of you remember playing with the old 1.65 size and the mental anguish when we went to the bigger American sized 1.68 ball knowing you were going to loose tens of yards into the wind at Freshwater?
How about the awesome Dunlop DDH with the Dodecahedron Dimple Pattern? Twelve sided figure I think. Or that each ball came its individual wrapper within its box of dozen, you used to play for a "new ball" and the furore when my Father won a wrapped Dunlop 65 off the (now deceased) club secretary to find a Dunlop Warwick inside - ah happy days!
Balls aren't exactly straight forward now either, there are myriads of soft feel or extra roll out there to suit your swing speed but it's worse when you consider it's your responsibility as the player to know if you ball is Conforming. So if it's non conforming does that mean it's been stamped an x-out, perhaps it's got practice written on it or covered in company logos? Is a yellow or pink version of a white conforming ball still ok and does it have to go through testing all over again?
Rule 5 - The Ball - 5-1 General
The ball the player plays must conform to the requirements specified in Appendix III.
Note: The Committee may require, in the conditions of a competition (Rule 33-1), that the ball the player plays must be named on the current List of Conforming Golf Balls issued by the R&A.
If your ball is non conforming then odds are it goes further than it should hence the penalty of Disqualification
To be honest I can't remember the last time I read Appendix III so the majority you guys will probably have never been there in the first place, it covers General, Weight, Size, Spherical Symmetry, Initial Velocity and the all important Overall Distance Standard - we just trust that the balls we buy from the Pro Shop are conforming but what about those we find on the course? If you have any doubt simply don't play it in a competition.
The R&A have published a interesting article on their website that answers the question raised above.
http://www.randa.org/en/RandA/News/News/2014/March/Golf-Ball-Rules-and-Conformance-Testing-QandA.aspx
