59 - New Ball Design Makes It Easy To Get In The Hole...

It looks like Titleist and Callaway might have missed a trick. In their efforts to sue the shit out of each other they may have taken their eye off the (golf) ball. According to the New Scientist website, boffins at the Seoul National University have invented a ball that could help you make more putts…by removing the dimples.

You may know the reason that golf balls have dimples is to help them fly high and far but do you know how they achieve it? The dimples decease drag by reducing the turbulence created by the ball as it flies through the air. They also help increase backspin which sucks the ball upwards as the air passes over them (like the curve of a airplane wing does).

You will need to make more putts with the new golf ball because without dimples there will be more shots from the fairway due to the reduced performance. Or will you? Just because there are no dimples doesn’t mean the ball is smooth, in fact is covered in small grooves (right).

The grooves are arranged in such a way that they still disrupt the air around the ball enough to reduce drag and promote backspin meaning that it should fly just as far and be as controllable as a regular ball but it is on the green where the grooves come into their own.

Because of the way they are spaced, the grooves take up less surface area meaning there is more chance of hitting a smooth part of the ball resulting in a truer connection when finesse is most important. Sounds good to me although I’ve never thought I have missed a putt because I have made a bad connection with the ball.

So are the dimples dead? Is the groove the new God? Who knows? Who cares? I bet Titleist and Callaway will if they can tear themselves away from each other.