Episode 80
A Feathery Quest with Gavin Bottrell
July 9th, 2026
1 hr 42 mins 11 secs
Your Host
Special Guest
About this Episode
Gavin Bottrell joins me on this episode to reflect on a twenty year odyssey to perfect the lost craft of Feathery Ball making.
Gavin is an engineer by profession and became fascinated with how one might reverse engineer the process of developing a modern day feathery ball. Over the course of a 90 minute chat Gavin shares his learnings from the bottom of a very deep rabbit hole, from where he has perfected a skill that was lost to time and progress as the development of the gutta percha golf ball superceeded the feathery in the 1850's.
Gavin recently tested his mark 43 ball against a genuine 185 year old feathery ball and replicated its performance.... he swears that this is the end of his quest..somehow I get the feeling that a doubling down may be on the cards. I'm led to believe that a book is on the cards at some point in the future, which will lay out the techniques, methodology and processes that Gavin has employed in mastering this ancient craft.
We hope you enjoy the episode!
Check out the following links that detail some of Gavin's fascinating research
How far did Feathery Balls Actually Go?
Why did Feathery Golf Balls come in different sizes?
The proportions of Feathery Balls
Some additional links that might be of interest
Hitting a genuine 185 year old Feathery Ball
Link to Feathery Golf Ball Website
Link to British Golf Collectors
Book Recommendations
Allan Robertson: King of Clubs by Roger McStravick & Bill Williams
The Oldest Clubs - 1650 - 1850 by Bob Gowland
Episode music - Nectar by Dye O
Supplied under license from Epidemic Sound