When we look at modern golf, we see golfers use balls having lots of dimples on their surface while playing golf. At the early age of golf, the golf balls had no dents on the ball’s boundary layer, and gradually, the design of the golf ball is changed. Here we describe how dimples come on the advanced balls used for playing golf and other related queries frequently found in the novice golfer’s mind. This discussion will fulfill your questions if you want to know about the dimpled golf ball. So let’s read the below description.
Table of Contents
How do dimples introduce the model of golf balls?
Early, the golf ball manufacturer incorporated leather and covered the balls with wet chicken goose feathers. These smooth golf balls were known as the Featherie. But there were so many difficulties found while making featherie. Because it was tedious and time-consuming, a professional ball maker could only a few in a day. That’s why it was too expensive, and the price was around $10-20.
In a short time, golfers found that the damp goose feathers loosened immediately after hitting clubs and lowered the distance. Besides, there was a chance of splitting on impact. Still, before the 19th century, featherie golf balls made more progress than wooden balls.
In 1848, the Rev. Dr. Robert Adams Paterson started using the East Asian Sapodilla Tree gum to stash the feathers. The gum gave a stiff feature at the ball’s boundary layer. Besides, Its firm structure enables the feathers to stick for a more extended period than before. These new golf balls were named the Gutta-Perchas.
In 1898, Coburn Haskell and his golf buddy Bertram Work Played golf near Akron, Ohio. Haskell made some dots on the ball’s outer layer with the rubber thread and got a vast carry distance of the club swing. That wounded ball was the birth of the 20th-century golf ball that soon replaced the Guttie Bramble balls.
After that, in the early 1900s, James McHardey, Davis Stanley Froy, and Peter J. Fernie acknowledged the patent of the ball with indentations. In 1900, Froy played The Open with the golf ball prototype at St. Andrews, the old Golf course, and he got more control over balls’ trajectory, spin, and flight distance.
Then, the casual golfers thought that the smooth ball would increase swing speeds and distance. But they discovered that the flat boundary layer of the ball was less resistant to the layer of air and created an obstruct to passing a long distance. Casual players also noticed more consistent ball flight when the balls squeezed and got dents on the beat-up balls. To prevent the differences in pressure on the airborne ball, the manufacturers decided to make the ball with dimples in 1930. And golfers were also agreed that the golf ball dimple design would be the best for golfing. Thus The golf industry introduced dimpled balls on the golf courses.
How do the dimples influence the game of golf?
It is a general question in beginner golfers’ minds about why golf balls have dimples on the outer surface. The answer is below.
The golf researchers found that the golf club and the ball get in touch only for 0.0005 seconds while a professional golfer swings their club for an approaching shot. This contact’s duration between the club and the ball is not considerable, but it significantly affects launch conditions like launch angle, spin rate, and velocity. The dimples pattern controls the ball’s trajectory through gravity pressure and softer ball aerodynamics. Generally, two kinds of force or laminar flow work when the player strikes the ball with indentations with their club, One is dragging energy, and another is lifting power. The drag works directly with the opposing motion where lift acts perpendicularly on flight characteristics.
When average golfers strike the ball towards the target, A strong turbulent flow creates from the front side of the flying ball and gets separated on the backside. It also leaves a rugged wake area or a low-pressure region behind the moving path. As the airflow fluctuates, it influences the amount of drag force. The dimples on the ball surface create a thin turbulent boundary layer around the moving ball. This light turbulence around the flying ball reduces the air dragging force and allows the ball to go further.
On the other hand, the ball’s spin creates a high air pressure at the bottom than at the top. The variation in the air pressure controls the ball’s aerodynamic performance. Bernoulli’s principles on air movement act in the lifting force of the striking ball. According to Bernoulli’s regulations, the airflow decreases around the flying ball with the airflow increase. Thus the ball uplifts more. Dimples on the ball make the variation in the air pressure and help to get more distance than any flat or plain golf ball. We think that now you can understand the effect of dimples on golf ball flight.
How many dimples does a golf ball have?
After introducing dimples on a golf ball, different manufacturers introduced their unique designs with various dents. Even after developing the USGA, there have been no specific ball specifications rules or regulations for the ball surface dimples number. So you will see different forms of balls having other dents or depressions in the inches in diameter. Usually, the dimples per golf ball vary from 300 to 500. You also get some balls with dimples around 1077, however, it is rare, but it is possible to get. For example, Titleist’s famous golf products manufacturer uses 328 dimples for the Pro V1 model and 352 for the Pro V1X model. However, there is much more variation in the dimple’s numbers; the regular numbers most producers use are 336 dimples.
What is the dimension of the dimple on a golf ball?
Not only in the variation in dimple’s number, but you also get the difference in their dimensions when going to the market for buying golf balls for you. Generally, the sizes of dimples depend on the dimple depth used while producing them. Various ball models have dimples of varying sizes, and the ball’s average surface depth is about 0.010 inches. Like a soccer ball, dents may be circular, oval, teardrop-shaped, or hexagonal. And they can be large or small, deep or shallow. However, it depends on the producer’s choice, and the manufacturers always maintain asymmetrical balls design within the definite radius and depth of dimples. Because the dimples are the main feature of modern golf balls and have a scientific reason, golf ball companies must follow the ball specification rules of the unique combination of number, shape, average depth, and size of the dimples on the premium golf ball.
Science of golf: Why golf balls have dimples
Final Words
After reading the above discussion, now you can understand that the dimples on ball technology don’t introduce only for the choice of making a design’s variation on the branded golf ball. There have unique scientific principles for input dimples on the ball’s smooth surface while producing them. The number may vary from model to model, but every producer must ensure the symmetrical arrangement of the dimples on their ball’s models. As the dimpled cover significantly impacts the movement and the distance covered during the in-flight period, beginner golfer gets a distance advantage while playing golf. They can quickly control their swing because of the difference in velocity in the direction of the swing path, which enhances their confidence to succeed in golf.