Travis was not hesitant about trying new equipment in his efforts to improve his game. He was the first to win a major event using the Haskell rubber-cored golf ball—the 1901 U.S. Amateur. As reported in the Travis biography, ""The Old Man"," Travis had" "dabbled with predecessors of the Haskell ball, but kept his involvement under wraps until shortly before the tournament"" and he ""had developed a feel for this type of ball with practice and was not afraid to debut it at the championship"". As Labbance reports, ""Travis's bold move had not only prompted a change in golf balls but a change in golf as well"". It sounded the death knell for the gutta-percha ball, created the need for inserts in the face of wooden clubs to prevent splitting, and soon led to calls for the lengthening of golf courses due to the longer shots made possible by the Haskell.