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Last Christmas my brother-in-law Marvin, sent me a golf ball that floats. This ball is called Floater 4 and has 336 dimples arranged in the ATTI dimple pattern. I was curious about how this was made and so I did some searching to find out. Using Google Patents1 I found a US patent, issued in… Continue reading Floating Golf Ball

Last time1 I reported that Spalding golf balls #537, MOLITOR Spalding and #29, Spalding XL Top-Flite both had 332 dimples arranged in the Acushnet Icosahedron Dimple Pattern2. Upon closer examination I found that ball #537 also had a new feature that ball #29 did not. Ball #537 contained 12 dimples that were slightly smaller (0.12… Continue reading Spalding Icosahedron Pattern

Two golf balls in my collection, the Spalding Dot golf ball #241 and the Spalding Dot Diamond 90 golf ball #349, appear on the 1975-1982 USGA lists. #241, Spalding DOT, (1975, 1979-1982 USGA lists) Golf ball #241 has 336 dimples arranged in the traditional ATTI dimple pattern and has a soft balata cover, as evidenced… Continue reading The Spalding DOT Mystery

The USGA began listing conforming golf balls starting in 1972. Here are three golf balls made by Acushnet Co. in my collection that appear on the 1975-1978 USGA lists. These three golf balls all have 324 circular dimples arranged in a modified icosahedron pattern (four dimples were removed in each polar region for the name… Continue reading 1975-1978 Titleist Acushnet DT

Here is how you can start your own golf ball collection. First read my previous post, Golf Ball Collection, from June. Then use these tools to record the data that you obtain for your golf balls. The notebook (Figure A). It is important to write everything that you can find about each golf ball in… Continue reading Golf Ball Collection-2

Start Your Own Golf Ball Collection I have been playing and enjoying the game of golf for more than fifty years. I finally decided to start a golf ball collection. You can start a golf ball collection too. I record the golf balls in my collection in a bound notebook. Tools that I use are:… Continue reading Golf Ball Collection

In Chapter 2 of my book Golf Ball Cover Story, I reported that Acushnet Co. introduced a new golf ball in 1973 that had circular dimples arranged in an icosahedron pattern. This dimple pattern went on to have a huge impact on the golf ball industry, but Acushnet was not able to obtain a US… Continue reading Icosahedron Dimple Pattern

As promised, here are the answers to the Golf Ball Cover Story crossword puzzle that I posted last month. Next month’s post will discuss the early history of the icosahedron dimple pattern on the cover of golf balls.

Here is a crossword puzzle that I created for your enjoyment. Use this to increase your understanding of the science and technology of golf balls. If you are struggling to come up with the answers to the puzzle, please look for the clues (in parentheses) next to the questions. These refer to the location of… Continue reading Golf Ball Crossword Puzzle

The other day I saw a video about some golf professionals driving a Titleist golf ball that had no dimples.  It was entirely smooth like a billiard ball and was made using the same materials as a normal Pro V1 golf ball. The longest drive went about 150 yards and the flight trajectory was erratic. … Continue reading Why Dimples?