GOLF BALL

The golf ball has undergone many upgrades and enhancements throughout it's long life.
There are four distinct stages in the evolution of the golf ball: Wooden golf balls , Feather stuffed
leather covered (Featherie) golf balls , Gutta Percha (Gutty) balls and Rubber Core balls. From
the original wooden ball to the modern Rubber-Cored, the ball has changed the way we play the
game of golf.

The golf ball has come a long way since the time of colf .When golf first came about, the balls
used were made from hardwoods such as beech and crudely rounded with tools. This period lasted
from the 14th Century to the 17th Century. In the late 16th Century it is recorded that one William
Mayne was producing clubs for the nobility in Scotland. In 1603 Mayne, a bowmaker by trade was
appointed, among other things, club maker to King James VI of Scotland, shortly before his
accession to the throne of England. Record books also show that in 1447 King James II issued his
now famous edict in Parliament that golf was to be outlawed. His concern was that his subjects
were more interested in golf than training how to use the warfare weapons of their time! Worried this
would leave his country defenceless; he banned golf (although it was still played, just not by the
masses.)

The Early Wooden Balls

The first golf balls were made of wood until the early 17th
century when the "feathery" came into use.

Wooden balls were used until the early 17th century, when the featherie ball was invented. The
"feathery" consisted of a leather casing, usually bull's hide, soaked in alum and crammed with
goose feather which have been softened by boiling. The ball was then knocked into shape and
painted white so as to make it more visible. On drying, the ball became tighter and firmer. It weighed
about the same as the modern ball (that is, 1.62 ounces) and was usually a of similar size although
in there was no uniform diameter in those days.

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 In 1618 a new type of golf ball was created by handcrafting a cowhide sphere stuffed with
goose feathers. The 'Featherie' golf ball was invented. The balls were manufactured while the
leather and feathers were wet. As the leather shrunk while it dried the feathers expanded to create a
hardened, compact ball. Once coated with paint, these balls were sold, often for more than the price
of a club. The time-consuming processes involved in creating a Featherie ball ensured that the price
was out of reach of the masses. Though expensive, this type of ball had great flight characteristics
and made the wooden ball obsolete almost immediately.

The average player used four balls per round as

the "feathery" had a tendency to split and get too
damp

The "feathery" had two differences from the balls preceding it. Firstly, wooden balls could
seldom be propelled more than 100 yards whereas distances of more than twice that could be
easily achieved with the "feathery". In wet weather, when the ball became rather soggy, its
advantage over the wooden ball was not so marked. It is worth noting that the very act of stiching up
the finished "feathery" inadvertently assisted the flight of the ball. This was because the seams
fulfilled a similar, if cruder, role to that played by the dimples which help the modern day golf ball get
airborne. The second difference of the "feathery" from the wooden ball was its price. A "feathery"
cost twelve times the price of the old boxwood ball and about the same as a wooden club. It made
golf far too expensive for the ordinary man. Even the most skilled craftsman struggled to produce
more than four "feathery" balls a day which probably accouted for its high price.

The less wealthy had to make do with wooden balls for decades after the coming of the
"feathery" and it is from this era that golf's image as a rich man's pastime still lingers.

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Each "feathery" was stuffed with more than a
top-hatful of feathers

For over three centuries the Featherie was the standard, only to be replaced with the advent
of the Gutta Percha ball.This added a new and exciting feature to the game of golf. A featherie is a
hand sewn leather pouch stuffed with goose feathers and coated with paint. The feathers in the ball
were enough to fill a top hat. They were boiled and put in the cowhide bag. As it cooled, the feathers
would expand and the hide would shrink, making a compact ball. Due to its superior flight
characteristics, the featherie remained the standard ball for more than two centuries. However, an
experienced ball maker could only make a few balls in one day, so they were expensive. A single
ball would cost between 2 shillings and sixpence and 5 shillings, which is the equivalent of around
10 to 20 US dollars today. Also, it was hard to make a perfectly spherical ball, and because of that,
the ball often flew irregularly. When playing in wet weather, the stitches in the ball would rot, and the
ball would split open after hitting a hard surface.

In 1848, the Rev. Dr Robert Adams Paterson (sometimes spelt Patterson) invented the gutta-
percha ball (or guttie). The introduction in 1848 of the gutta percha ball (or often called the "gutty")
did an enormous amount to restore golf as a genuinely popular game. The gutta was created from
dried sap of a Sapodilla Tree. Gutta percha is a gum which is tapped from a tree indigenous to
Malaya. The substance is malleable when bolied in water and it becomes hard on cooling.

The sap had a rubber-like feel and could be made round by heating and shaping it while hot.
Accidentally, it was discovered that defects in the sphere from knicks and scrapes of normal use,
could provide a ball with a truer flight than a pure sphere.Thus, makers started creating intentional
defects in the surface to have a more consistent ball flight. Because gutties were cheaper to
produce and could be manufactured with textured surfaces to improve their aerodynamic qualities,
they replaced feather balls completely within a few years. Soon over time, the "gutty" became the
ball of choice, not so much to the greater distance which can be attained with the "gutty" but rather
because of its cheaper price. The "gutty" cost about 1 shilling a ball in the 1850s. It was in this age
when golf in Britain became more of a game for everyone.

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 Golf balls made of gutta-percha were cheaper
and more durable, helping dispel golf's image as
a rich man's past-time.

This rudimentary implement was

used to mound gutta-percha balls
as of the late 19th century

The "gutty" was prone to break up in mid-air, thus forcing the rules to accommodate this
tendency by allowing the golfer to play a fresh ball from the point where the largest fragment had
come to rest. This would be the last occasion on which the Rules of Golf had to be amended to
legislate for the properties of the golf ball. For the remainder of the 19th century, the new ball was
repeatedly modified to make it more durable.

Its outer shell was indented was a hammer after it was observed that the ball flew better when
it has been cut or marked than in its smooth pristine state. "The Bramble" design, with it's minute
bulges resembling a Brambleberry, became the most popular design of the Gutta Percha era ball.
This pattern was carried over with a few brands of rubber balls.

In 1901, the rubber-cored ball made its British debut. It was the invention of the fledgling
American golf equipment industry. The idea belonged to Coburn Haskell, an employee of the
Goodrich Tyre and Rubber Company in Ohio. Elastic thread was wound around a rubber core under
extreme tension and then encased in a patterned outer cover of gutta percha.

The Haskell ball initially had its skeptics until in 1902 where people were shown what a
difference the ball made to the best players when Sandy Herd played four rounds at the Royal
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Liverpool course in 307 to beat the great Harry Vardon and James Braid by a shot. Herd used the
Haskell ball for all 72 holes and he was the only man in the field to play with one.

From that moment, the Haskell ball has been improved to such an effect that it spawned a
host of dicta from the R & A and USGA, the dual arbiters of the integrity of the sport. In 1920, they
agreed the ball should weigh no more than 1.62 ounces and have a diameter of not less than 1.62
inches. From January 1931 however, the USGA turned its back on the collective agreement and
introduced the "big ball", a ball having a minimum size of 1.68 inches and a maximum weight of 1.55
ounces.

A year later, they raised the weight stipulation to 1.62 ounces. Subsequent attempts to settle
for a uniform ball of 1.66 inches failed but finally, the USGA standard was also adopted elsewhere.
The Professional Golfer's Association (PGA) in Great Britian was swayed by people who attributed
the American dominance of golf to their usage of the big ball. It announced in 1968 that it was to
experiment with the bigger ball of 1.68 inches in its tournaments. Soon it became mandatory.

In 1974, the R & A made the big ball compulsory for the Open Championship. Under the rule
revisions that came into effect in 1988, the R & A outlawed the small ball altogether.

The Haskell ball. It had a heart of tightly wound rubber and

suddenly came into demand when Sandy Herd used one to
win the 1902 British Open

In the 20th century, multi-layer balls were developed, first as wound balls consisting of a solid
or liquid-filled core wound with a layer of rubber thread and a thin outer shell. This idea was first
discovered by Coburn Haskell of Cleveland, Ohio in 1898. Haskell had driven to nearby Akron to
keep a golf date with Bertram Work, then superintendent of B.F. Goodrich. While he waited for Work
at the plant, Haskell idly wound a long rubber thread into a ball. When he bounced the ball, it flew
almost to the ceiling. Work suggested Haskell put a cover on the creation, and that was the birth of
the 20th century golf ball. The design allowed manufacturers to fine-tune the length, spin and "feel"
characteristics of balls. Wound balls were especially valued for their soft feel.

They usually consist of a two-, three-, or four-layer design, (named either a two-piece, three-
piece, or four-piece ball) consisting of various synthetic materials like surlyn or urethane blends.

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They come in a great variety of playing characteristics to suit the needs of golfers of different
abilities.

In more recent times, the original gutta percha shell of the Haskell ball has given way to new
and refined compounds. Balata replaced gutta percha in balls for the professionals and good
amateurs while surlyn took over in balls for the novices.. Many manufacturers have produced balls
of new standards but most have been rejected for tournament usage. Ball manufacturing today is
indeed big business. In January 1993, Spalding announced the launch of its Magna ball. It was a
ball of 1.72 inches, larger than stipulated in the rules. The manufacturers claimed that the ball
supplies golfers with more distance and accuracy while it spun less.

The modern day balata ball. It generally was a water filled

core wrapped in rubber yarn.

The current regulations mandated by the R&A and the USGA state that diameter of the golf
ball cannot be any smaller than 1.680 inches. The maximum velocity of the ball may not exceed
250 feet per second (76 m/s) under test conditions and the weight of the ball may not exceed 1.620
ounces. Until 1990, it was permissible to use balls of no less than 1.62 inches in diameter in
tournaments under the jurisdiction of the R&A.

Aerodynamics of the golf ball. When a golf ball is hit, the impact, which lasts less than a
millisecond, determines the ball’s velocity, launch angle and spin rate, all of which influence its
trajectory (and its behavior when it hits the ground).A ball moving through air experiences two major
aerodynamic forces, lift and drag. Dimpled balls fly farther than non-dimpled balls due to the
combination of two effects:

Firstly, the dimples delay separation of the boundary layer from the ball. Early separation, as
seen on a smooth sphere, causes significant wake turbulence, the principal cause of drag. The
separation delay caused by the dimples therefore reduces this wake turbulence, and hence the
drag.

Secondly, backspin generates lift by deforming the airflow around the ball, in a similar manner
to an airplane wing. This is called the Magnus effect. Backspin is imparted in almost every shot due
to the golf club's loft (i.e., angle between the clubface and a vertical plane). A back spinning ball
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experiences an upward lift force which makes it fly higher and longer than a ball without spin.
Sidespin occurs when the clubface is not aligned perpendicularly to the direction of swing, leading
to a lift force that makes the ball curve to one side or the other. Unfortunately the dimples magnify
this effect as well as the more desirable upward lift derived from pure backspin. In order to keep the
aerodynamics optimal, the ball needs to be clean. Golfers can wash their balls manually, but there
are also mechanical ball washers available.

Design of the golf ball. These two balls are disclosed in U.S. Patent 4,560,168. These two
balls are easily made with a two-piece mold. Since there is no dimple located on any of the slash-
dotted circles (one is marked red), the mold can be two hemispheres.

Dimples first became a feature of golf balls when a certain Taylor patented a dimple design in
1908. Other types of patterned covers were in use at about the same time, including one called a
"mesh" and another named the "bramble", but the dimple became the dominant design due to "the
superiority of the dimpled cover in flight".[6]

Most golf balls on sale today have about 250 – 450 dimples. There were a few balls having
over 500 dimples before. The record holder was a ball with 1,070 dimples — 414 larger ones (in
four different sizes) and 656 pinhead-sized ones. All brands of balls, except one, have even-
numbered dimples. The only odd-numbered ball on the market is a ball with 333 dimples, called the
Srixon AD333.

Officially sanctioned balls are designed to be as symmetrical as possible. This symmetry is

the result of a dispute that stemmed from the Polara, a ball sold in the late 1970s that had six rows
of normal dimples on its equator but very shallow dimples elsewhere. This asymmetrical design
helped the ball self-adjust its spin-axis during the flight. The USGA refused to sanction it for
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tournament play and, in 1981, changed the rules to ban aerodynamic asymmetrical balls. Polara's
producer sued the USGA and the association paid US$1.375 million in a 1985 out-of-court
settlement.

Golf equipment maker Callaway has introduced a ball with hexagonal dimples to increase the
dimpled area on a golf ball, as hexagons tesselate unlike circles. The United States Patent and
Trademark Office's patent database is a good source of past dimple designs. Most designs are
based on Platonic solids such as icosahedron. Golf balls are usually white, but are available in other
high visibility colors, which helps with finding the ball when lost or when playing in frosty conditions.
As well as bearing the makers name or logo, balls are usually printed with numbers or other
symbols to help players identify their ball.

Nowdays,there are many types of golf balls on the market, and customers often face a
difficult decision. Golf balls are divided into two categories: recreational and advanced balls.
Recreational balls are oriented toward the ordinary golfer, who generally have low swing speeds (80
miles per hour or lower) and lose golf balls on the course easily. These balls are made of two
layers, with the cover firmer than the core. Their low compression and side spin reduction
characteristics suit the lower swing speeds of average golfers quite well. Furthermore, they
generally have lower prices than the advanced balls.

2 Piece Golf Balls:

This type of ball makes up the majority of the market from all the leading
manufacturers. It features a large, solid rubber core (shown in blue) surrounded by
a plastic or urethane (rubber) cover.

Golf ball engineers can alter the performance of the finished ball by changing the
size of core, the compression of the core, and the softness of the cover.

2-Piece balls are typically your game improvement or distance balls. The large core provides a lot of
velocity when struck by the club face.

These balls are typically lower spinning, which means your undesirable slice or hook spin will not be
as pronounced and the ball will fly straighter. Lower compression models of 2 piece balls perform
well for men, women, and children with slower swing speeds (<85 mph).

3 Piece Hybrid Golf Balls:

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 Hybrid golf balls have a solid core surrounded by a "mantle" layer (show in green).
This 2 piece assembly is then surrounded by a soft plastic or urethane rubber
cover. These balls combine the forgiveness of a 2 piece model, with the increased
performance and spin control of a 3 piece construction.

Engineers can adjust the core and thin layer to end up with a playable, performance ball for a
variety of golfers. They are quite a revolution.

3 or 4 Piece performance Golf Balls:

Professional and low handicap golfers with high swing speeds need a ball with low
initial spin (for distance) and high iron spin (for precision). A 3 or 4 piece ball meets
these requirements with a unique "dual core" design.

In a 4 piece construction, the 2 piece core (shown in green and light grey) is
surrounded by a thin mantle layer, and then a urethane, dimpled cover. The urethane cover in
conjunction with the other components give these balls the "drop and stop" action you see on the
weekend broadcasts.

Advanced balls are made of multiple layers (three or more), with a soft cover and firm core.
They induce a greater amount of spin from lofted shots (wedges especially), as well as a sensation
of softness in the hands in short-range shots. However, these balls require a much greater swing
speed that only the physically strong players could carry out to compress at impact. If the
compression of a golf ball does not match a golfer's swing speed, either the lack of compression or
over-compression will occur, resulting in loss of distance. There are also many brands and colors to
choose from, with colored balls and better brands generally being more expensive, making an
individual's choice more difficult.

Used golf balls are golf balls that have been played, most likely hit into a water hazard, then
retrieved, cleaned up and resold. Used golf balls comes in different gradings.

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 Golf balls with embedded radio transmitters to allow lost balls to be located were first
introduced in 1973, only to be rapidly banned for use in competition. More recently RFID
transponders have been used for this purpose. This technology can be found in some computerized
driving ranges. In this format, each ball used at the range has its own unique transponder code.
When dispensed, the range registers each dispensed ball to the player, who then hits them towards
targets in the range. When the player hits a ball into a target, they receive distance and accuracy
information calculated by the computer.

In fact, the weight of the ball shall not be greater than 1.620 ounces avoirdupois (45.93 gm).
The diameter of the ball shall not be less than 1.680 inches (42.67mm). This specification will be
satisfied if, under its own weight, a ball falls through a 1.680 inches diameter ring gauge in fewer
than 25 out of 100 randomly selected positions, the test being carried out at a temperature of 23
+1°C.

The spherical symmetry, the ball must not be designed, manufactured or intentionally
modified to have properties which differ from those of a spherically symmetrical ball. The initial
velocity of the ball shall not exceed the limit specified (test on file) when measured on apparatus
approved by the United States Golf Association. The combined carry and roll of the ball, when
tested on apparatus approved by the United States Golf Association, shall not exceed the distance
specified under the conditions set forth in the Overall Distance Standard for golf balls on file with the
United States Golf Association.

While few among us can deny that golf is one of the least exciting of all spectator sports, we
aerospace engineers are fascinated by its aerodynamics! Even the non-golfers of the world are
familiar with the shape of a golf ball, like that pictured below, and have probably wondered why its
surface is covered with small indentations called dimples.

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 The dimples of a typical golf ball
Before explaining the purpose of dimples, we first need to understand the aerodynamic
properties of a sphere. Let us start by looking at a smooth sphere without any dimples, like a ping-
pong ball. If we lived in an ideal world without any friction, the air flowing around a smooth sphere
would behave like that shown in the following diagram. In this figure, the angle q represents position
along the surface of the sphere. The leading edge of the sphere that first encounters the incoming
airflow is at q=0° while the trailing edge is at q=180°. A position of q=90° is the top of the sphere,
q=270° is the bottom, and q=360° brings us back around to the leading edge. Note that in this ideal
situation, the air flowing around the sphere forms a perfectly symmetrical pattern. The streamline
pattern around the front face, from 270° up to 90°, is the same as that around the back face, from
90° down to 270°.

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 (a) Ideal frictionless flowfield around a sphere and (b) the resulting pressure distribution
The lower half of this figure also displays the pressure distribution around the surface of the
sphere, as represented by the non-dimensional pressure coefficient Cp. Positive (+) values of Cp
indicate high pressure while negative (-) values indicate low pressure. It is the differences between
high-pressure regions and low-pressure regions that create aerodynamic forces on a body, like lift
and drag.

However, this ideal flow pattern tells us something very interesting. Notice that the pressure
at the front of the sphere, or q=0°, is very high. This high pressure indicates that the incoming air
impacting against the front face creates a drag force. Nonetheless, the pressure at the back of the
sphere, or q=180°, is also high and identical to that at the front. This high pressure actually creates
a thrust, or negative drag, that cancels out the drag on the front of the sphere. In other words, this
theoretical situation tells us that there is no drag on a sphere!

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 Early aerodynamics researchers were quite puzzled by this theoretical result because it
contradicted experimental measurements indicating that a sphere does generate drag. The conflict
between theory and experiment was one of the great mysteries of the late 19th century that became
known as d'Alembert's Paradox, named for famous French mathematician and physicist Jean le
Rond d'Alembert (1717-1783) who first discovered the discrepancy.

The reason d'Alembert's ideal theory failed to explain the true aerodynamic behavior of a
sphere is that he ignored the influence of friction in his calculations. The actual flowfield around a
sphere looks much different than his theory predicts because friction causes a phenomenon known
as flow separation. We can better understand this effect by studying the following diagram of the
actual flow around a smooth sphere. Here we see that the flowfield around the sphere is no longer
symmetrical. Whereas the flow around the ideal sphere continued to follow the surface along the
entire rear face, the actual flow no longer does so. When the airflow follows along the surface, we
say that the flow is attached. The point at which the flow breaks away from the surface is called the
separation point, and the flow downstream of this point is referred to as separated. The region of
separated flow is dominated by unsteady, recirculating vortices that create a wake.

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 (a) Actual separated flowfield around a sphere and (b) the resulting pressure distribution
The cause of this separation can be seen in the above pressure distribution around the
sphere. As the flow moves downstream from the q=90° or q=270° position, it encounters an
increasing pressure. Whenever a flow encounters increasing pressure, we say that it experiences
an adverse pressure gradient. The change in pressure is called adverse because it causes the
airflow to slow down and lose momentum. As the pressure continues to increase, the flow continues
to slow down until it reaches a speed of zero. It is at this point that the air no longer has any forward
momentum, so it separates from the surface.

Once the flow separates from the surface, it no longer results in the ideal pressure
distribution shown as the dashed line. Instead, a separated flow creates a region of low pressure in
the wake. We see this behavior over the rear face of the sphere from 90° < q <>. Here, the actual
pressure distribution, shown as the solid line, remains negative, in contrast to the ideal prediction.
The pressure on the front face is still high, however, just as it was for the ideal sphere.

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 Since the pressure is now much higher on the front face than it is on the rear face, the net
result is a drag force exerted on the sphere. By accounting for the effect of friction, theory and
experiment come into agreement and d'Alembert's Paradox is reconciled.

This explanation leads us to an important conclusion: the drag on a sphere is dominated by

the flow separation over its rear face. If we could somehow minimize that separation, the drag
experienced by the sphere would be significantly reduced. We can see this effect in experimental
data, like that pictured below.

Variation of drag coefficient with Reynolds number for a sphere

This diagram illustrates how the drag of a sphere varies with the Reynolds number. Reynolds
number (Re) is an important non-dimensional parameter that is used to relate the size of an object
to the flow conditions it experiences, and is defined by the equation

where

r = atmospheric density
V¥ = velocity
l = reference length (in the case of a sphere, this variable is defined as the diameter)
m = viscosity (or friction)

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 In other words, any two spheres that experience the same Reynolds number should exhibit
the same aerodynamic characteristics even if the spheres are of different sizes or flying at different
speeds. The above figure indicates that there is a significant change in the drag on a smooth sphere
at a Reynolds number of about 3x105. Below this Re, the drag coefficient is roughly constant at 0.5.
Above this Re, the drag coefficient again becomes nearly constant at about 0.1.
What is it about this particular Reynolds number that causes such a large reduction in drag? It turns
out that it is at this critical point that the air flowing around the sphere makes an important change.
We have already discussed the concept of flow separation. One of the key factors affecting flow
separation is the behavior of the boundary layer. The boundary layer is a thin layer of air that lies
very close to the surface of a body in motion. It is within this layer that the adverse pressure
gradient develops that causes the airflow to separate from the surface.

At low Reynolds numbers, the boundary layer remains very smooth and is called laminar.
Laminar boundary layers are normally very desirable because they reduce drag on most shapes.
Unfortunately, laminar boundary layers are also very fragile and separate from the surface of a body
very easily when they encounter an adverse pressure gradient. This separated flow is what causes
the drag to remain so high below the critical Reynolds number.

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 At that Reynolds number, however, the boundary layer switches from being laminar to
turbulent. The location at which this change in the boundary layer occurs is called the transition
point. A turbulent boundary layer causes mixing of the air near the surface that normally results in
higher drag. However, the advantage of turbulence is that it speeds up the airflow and gives it more
forward momentum. As a result, the boundary layer resists the adverse pressure gradient much
longer before it separates from the surface.

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 Flow separation on a sphere with a laminar versus turbulent boundary layer
The difference in the flowfields around a smooth sphere and a rough, or dimpled, sphere can
be seen above. Since the laminar boundary layer around the smooth sphere separates so rapidly, it
creates a very large wake over the entire rear face. This large wake maximizes the region of low
pressure and, therefore, results in the maximum difference in pressure between the front and rear
faces. As we have seen, this difference creates a large drag like that seen below the transition
Reynolds number.

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 The transition to a turbulent boundary layer, on the other hand, adds energy to the flow
allowing it to remain attached to the surface of the sphere further aft. Since separation is delayed,
the resulting wake is much narrower. This thin wake reduces the low-pressure region on the rear
face and reduces the difference in pressure between the front and back of the sphere. This smaller
difference in pressure creates a smaller drag force comparable to that seen above the transition
Reynolds number.

These results tell us that causing a turbulent boundary layer to form on the front surface
significantly reduces the sphere's drag. For a given sphere diameter, a designer has only two
options encourage this transition, either 1) increase the speed of the flow over the sphere to
increase the Reynolds number beyond transition or 2) make the surface rough in order to create
turbulence. The latter case is often referred to as "tripping" the boundary layer.

In the case of a golf ball, increasing the speed is not an option since a golfer can only swing
the club so fast, and this velocity is insufficient to exceed the transition Reynolds number. The
purpose of the dimples is to do just that--to create a rough surface that promotes an early transition
to a turbulent boundary layer. This turbulence helps the flow remain attached to the surface of the
ball and reduces the size of the separated wake so as to reduce the drag it generates in flight.
When the drag is reduced, the ball flies farther. Some golf ball manufacturers have even started
including dimples with sharp corners rather than circular dimples since research indicates that these
polygonal shapes reduce drag even more.

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 Comparison of flow separation and drag on blunt and streamlined shapes
The reason we do not see dimples on other shapes, like wings, is that these particular forms of
boundary layer trips only work well on a blunt body like a sphere or a cylinder. The most dominant
form of drag on these kinds of shapes is caused by pressure, as we have seen throughout this
discussion. More streamlined shapes like the airfoils used on wings are dominated by a different
kind of drag called skin friction drag. These streamlined bodies, like that pictured above, have a
teardrop shape that creates a much more gradual adverse pressure gradient. This less severe
gradient promotes attached flow much further along the body that eliminates flow separation, or at
least delays it until very near the trailing edge. The resulting wake is therefore very small and
generates very little pressure drag.

However, there do exist other types of devices commonly used on wings that create a similar
effect to the dimples used on golf balls. Though these wing devices also create turbulence in order
to delay flow separation, the purpose is not to decrease drag but to increase lift. One of the most
popular of these devices is the vortex generator.

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 Lastly, the story of golf ball. USGA officials still chuckle about the time they employed an actor
to purloin samples of the golf balls being used by Japanese professionals Isao Aoki and Tommy
Nakajima in the 1980s. Some players felt they delivered an illegal distance, especially as they were
not available outside Japan.

The man was duly dispatched to the US Open and after much traditional bowing and scraping,
asked the players in their own language if they would donate balls to the USGA golf museum.

The pair obliged with samples straight out of their golf bags and the balls were immediately
spirited away to be secretly tested on the USGA's New Jersey range, where it was discovered there
was nothing to choose in distance or performance compared to those regularly used on Tour.
This is just one of the many anecdotes which pepper 'The Story of the Golf Ball', written and
published by Kevin McGimpsey, antiques expert with auctioneers Bonhams and brother of Walker
Cup captain Garth McGimpsey, who wrote the book's foreword.

But this is more than a light-hearted tome of stories and illustrations, this is the definitive book
on the golf ball that will provide hours of fascination for generations. Not only do its 288 pages trace
the history of the ball from the 1450s - made from wood, leather, hair and feathers - to the modern
day, but also included are many original advertisements featuring such models as 'The Eclipse', The
Vardon Flyer, 'The Spalding Bramble' and the rubber-cored 'Haskell.'

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 Much of the information is credited to 'Golf Illustrated' - the oldest golf magazine still in
circulation (now called 'Golf Weekly'), which I was proud to edit for five years. I knew we were sitting
on a gold mine of information but it takes the skill and dedication of a Kevin McGimpsey to research
and publish the information found in it.

Not that his resources are bottomless. He has sunk much of his own time and money into
producing this labour of love, but also pays tribute to the help and encouragement of Shifnal golf pro
Roger Morton, fellow collector Jim Espinola, Sotheby's golf consultant David Neech and European
tour pro Mark Roe, a keen collector of golf memorabilia.

Kevin says:" Extensive use has also been made of the hundreds of golf balls sold at auction
since the 1980s enabling collectors to work out what their golf balls are worth. "And for the specialist
collector there is a listing of over 3,000 balls, each one cross-referenced to provide details of
characteristics, date, cover pattern and auction prices."

The book reveals that the highest price paid for an early ball was £24,000 for a 'featherie'
model made in 1840 by David Marshall. However, still the most expensive is a Henry's Rifle ball
made in 1903 and sold at auction in 1998 for £29,000.

Sadly, as the book reveals, golf balls have cost some poor souls their lives - and not
necessarily by being struck by one.

In 1637 at Banff in Scotland, Frances Brown - described at the time as 'a boy of an evil life' -
was hanged for stealing two golf balls, which he confessed he sold to the servant of one of the local
gentry.

Galleries
22
 Wooden Golf Ball

Featherie

Gutta Percha (Gutty) balls

Rubber Core golf balls

23
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