"I would love to have more information about how the unique idea evolved in golf that everyone can play the ball of his choice."
Bob:
That remark above (and the rest of your good post #46) really does bring up and probably requires a full-blown review of how various of the Golf Rules evolved, and particularly WHEN AND WHY and very much including the first examples of so-called I&B (Implements and Ball) Rules and Regulations which came about perhaps a whole lot later than most today thought or ever realized.
But to start with----how the unique idea evolved in golf that everyone can play the ball of his choice?
It seems to me, Bob, and it certainly can be documented, that idea simply evolved out of the farthest and deepest mists of golf itself. In essence, there was just no question that it be that way and frankly, the very first administrative (R&A and USGA) Rules on Clubs (Implements) did not begin until the R&A ruled on and then banned the Schenectedy putter in 1908! As for Balls, there was no I&B Rule on golf balls, including on their weight, size, or playing characteristics until 1921.
It should also be noted that no other organizations have ever comprehensively (as an association) administered the Rules of Golf, including the I&B Rules of Golf, other than the R&A (beginning in 1897) and the USGA (beginning in 1896).
Previous to that, particularly abroad, various clubs maintained their own Golf Rules, mostly including "local" rules unique to each club and course, and that alone became so confusing that the R&A was prevailed upon (although not without some demurring among some Scottish clubs) to step into the breach and confusion and offer a Rules Committee for the purposes of general Rules unification. But back then it only ever involved “playing” rules, and not I&B rules.
It is interesting to me what the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews said about this and felt about it at that time (1897). Obviously, like a number of other clubs abroad, the R&A had their own Rules for many years but they did agree (in 1897) to offer their aegis and authority as a "go to" entity for all to ask them Rules questions but they insisted this was not intended by them to be some dictated law for all but merely something they would offer for convenience and Rules unification. Essentially this was not something they offered first, it was asked of them and other clubs actually had to prevail upon them and do a bit of persuading to get them to agree to fill this particular roll for Golf's Rules.
Into this stepped Macdonald and Laurence Curtis who had been appointed the two Rules representatives from the USGA in 1896-7. Macdonald wrote his friends abroad and on the R&A Rules Committee and asked for their help and advice that the USGA might follow the R&A's Golf Rules which the USGA board almost unanimously agreed to do at that time. But then eventually things would come up and questions on Rules would be asked, including on clubs and balls, where the separate R&A and USGA Rules Committees did not completely agree in the future.
The Rules of Golf (and I&B Rules) did not really come back to general unification again until that remarkable R&A/USGA Rules Conference in 1951-2.
When I&B issues really began to be debated (from around 1908 into the 1920s and 1930s) the sort of prevailing feeling from the so-called "Conservative" Party (the traditionalists) was that golf was no different than sports such as hunting or fishing whereby the "sportsman" simply CHOSE himself what equipment to use to basically JUST support his maximum SKILL against his opponent (in the purist golf mentality this was essentially the golf course) and no more. It was considered contrary to the "sporting spirit", for instance, to use a 10 gauge shotgun on a small bird or too heavy a test on a fishing line for the particular size and weight of a fish. The meat of the interest was not necessarily in the result of the outcome but more in the sporting quality during the duration of the contest.
But it did not take long for stroke play and tournament golf to begin to skew that voluntary election amongst golfers and the entire philosophy of "Standardization" of I&B that included the new and evolving I&B “Rules and Regulations” began to enter the game and its administrators’ and golf philosophers’ minds.
But within the developed R&A and USGA I&B Rules and Regulations framework that evolved from the early part of the 20th century and on and which is still with us today there is still a good degree of latitude with choices on clubs and balls and such that golfers can choose to use and legally.
Will the R&A and USGA Rules Committees agree to put into the Rules a requirement for some single completely “standard” ball (as you may be suggesting on this thread)? I don’t think they will, not even this so-called “competition ball” idea, but what they may do someday soon, realizing that the desire for such a thing may be increasing amongst golfers or clubs or associations, is offer some wording on what is called within the Rules of Golf, “Conditions of Competition” (in Appendix II of the R&A/USGA Rules of Golf), where clubs and associations and such can adopt that wording within their "Condition of Competition" on selective tournaments and require tournament competitors to use such a thing as a complete similar and standard golf ball.
As far as I know, to date, only one association has ever done such a thing in a selective state golf association tournament; The Ohio State Golf Association.