The Construction of a golf ball

The modern golf ball consists of hundreds of dimples. The golf ball has evolved through time to its current aerodynamic shape.

The earliest golf balls can be traced back to Scotland and were made out of wood. It did not matter to these ancient golfers how the ball performed as the game were played in a disorganized and informal way. As the competitive nature of the game started to evolve, so did the search for a better golf ball.

The next golf ball invented was called the “Featherie” and consisted of goose feathers pressed into a horse or cowhide sphere when still wet. As everything dried the leather shrank and the feathers expanded to form a hard golf ball. It was very expensive.

The Guttie ball was less expensive and was made out of the sap of the Gutta tree. The rubber substance could easily be shaped into a sphere when hot and could be reheated and reshaped. Coburn Haskell introduced the one-piece rubber cored ball encased in a gutta percha sphere.

William Taylor then took the Haskell ball in 1905 and applied the dimple pattern. After that, dimpled balls were used in golf tournaments. In 1921, the golf balls took its current form with standard size and weight.

Today the USGA and R&A rules a golf ball must be spherical, no smaller than 4.26cm in diameter and no heavier than 45.93 grams. A golf ball must not generate a speed of more than 76.2m per second at a temperature of 23 grades Celsius. Rules are imposed to prevent professionals from designing balls that can travel significantly farther than other golf balls. This levels the playing field.

There are three types of golf balls. The golf ball is usually made in either two or 3 piece designs or there can also be a combination of the two. Surlyn is a hard, synthetic, rubber like substance and is used to cover less expensive balls. The main characteristics of these types of balls are that they spin less, travel further and last longer. Synthetic balata is a much softer substance than surlyn and is more commonly used to cover golf balls these days.

A two-piece ball consists of a hard synthetic rubber or plastic inner core and at thin, durable cover made of surlyn or synthetic balata. The core of this ball produces fantastic rebounding energy while the cover provides the golf ball with its low spin and durability. It is therefore the perfect choice for the beginner.

The three-piece ball has either a small, synthetic rubber or liquid core surrounded by a layer of rubber windings. A Surlyn or balata cover caps it off. Most Pros use three piece golf balls, because they have a softer feel and are more workable than most two-piece golf balls.

The modern golf ball has hundreds of dimples. The dimples on the ball help generate the spin to get the golf ball up in the air. Golf balls come with a number indicating the compression of the ball. The compression of a golf ball can vary from 80 to a hard 110. Compression plays a role on how the ball feels on the club face. An 80 compression ball will feel much softer than a 100 compression ball.

The construction of the golf ball is one of two factors, the other being the velocity of the club head that is most important to create enough energy that can be converted into velocity and lift. It is therefore important for any golfer to choose the right golf ball that suits the level of his game at any stage.

A History of Balls And Holes: Golf Through The Ages

In terms of the sports modern society is used to, golf has one of the longest and most interesting histories. This is a sport that has been dominating the public conscious for nearly 500 years, and as with anything with roots in Medieval times, has been forced to adapt and change as the world around it does so too.

The first game of recorded golf was in 1456 in Edinburgh, Scotland. This, however, does not mean the Edinburgh game was the first time the sport was played, merely that it was the first time a person took the time to write down the events. In a period of low literacy levels, it is little wonder that some golfing historians say the game has social origins up to 200 years before the first recorded date.

The game itself was recorded in the archives of the Edinburgh Burgess Golfing Society, and can still be seen today. This confirms golf as a primarily Scottish game, which soon became popular throughout Europe and eventually the world. Much of the spread from Scotland is attributed to King James, who in 1603 became the first monarch of both Scotland and England, creating what we now know as the United Kingdom. Having grown up in Scotland, when King James became King of England following the death of his kinswoman Elizabeth I, the game came south with him. Golf obviously now has a worldwide appeal, yet the Scottish roots remain, with many famous courses still being played by world famous players in the northern country.

The foundation of golf is widely accepted to be the act, usually done by shepherds, of knocking stones into rabbit holes in Scotland during tedious watchings of sheep flocks. From these humble beginnings, the worldwide popular game we now know and love is believed to have stemmed.

All of the traits we associate with modern golf originated and were developed in Scotland. This includes the first 18-hole golf course, the first set of written rules of play and the first membership of golf clubs. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of Saint Andrews is a popular destination for the golfing fan, due to their vast collection of documentation about the foundation of the game.

While some argue that golf has changed and developed from a basic game of hitting stones into rabbit holes to the cultural phenomenon it is today, others say simply: it’s still just about hitting stuff into holes. While this opinion may be crude, it is nevertheless truthful!

So, Having Minus Points … That’s Good?

If you have never followed golf before, or if you are explaining it to someone who never has, the weird and wonderful world of golf scoring makes for an interesting way to spend a bit of time. In so much of life, we look to have positive numbers. Minus ten degrees is really cold, while plus sixty is nice and mild. On your bank statement, you never want to see a minus and if you do, the number next to it had better be pretty small. We even assign the words “positive” and “negative” where numbers are concerned, and nothing can be more prejudicial than that, right?

So to have a sport where you actively set out to record as low a score as possible will always be confusing for some. It makes perfect sense to the golfer and the golf enthusiast, though. Indeed, it helps to think of golf as a race of sorts – a race between men in ill-designed knitwear and slacks rather than lycra, but a race nonetheless. When you’re watching athletics, you know it’s been a good race if the numbers next to the winner’s name are low. Although if, as in golf, those numbers are in the negative then maybe it’s time for drugs tests all around.

The thing to keep in mind with golf is that you have a set number of shots which is judged as a fair limit in which to get around the course, called a par. On an eighteen-hole course this will almost always be between seventy and seventy two. The ideal is to get a score that is less than this – to get around the course in, for example, sixty eight shots. If you hit 68 on a course with a par of 72, then you have recorded a score of four under par, which is recorded on your score card as –4. In a professional tournament, there may be as many – indeed there usually will be as many – as four rounds. So for a competition around a par 72 course, the competition par will be 288, and the winner will always be the person with the lowest score.

Tiger Woods – A Golfer Like No Other

There is something amazing about the world’s number one male golfer in this day and age – and it is not just his race, although this makes him pretty unique. No, Tiger Woods is remarkable for so many reasons that he transcends race, and makes the curiosity value that surrounded him for much of his early career completely irrelevant. Whether you like golf or not, you will undoubtedly have heard of him, and this is not something that could have been said for most of the people who preceded him in golf’s premier ranking.

From an early age it was clear that Tiger Woods was a phenomenon. At the age of two – yes, that’s right, two – he appeared on American television showing his adeptness at putting and a year later he played nine holes at California’s Navy Golf Club, making his way around in 48 shots. Now if you don’t know much about golf, take it as fact that that is amazing. Many adult amateurs would dream of shooting 48 for a nine-hole round. To do it at the age of three is incredible.

Tiger Woods turned professional at the age of twenty – not especially remarkable in this day and age, but certainly one of the younger players ever to do so. By the time he had turned professional he was already marked out as one of the most exciting prospects the game had ever seen – in fact, probably undeniably the most exciting. There was no doubt that in terms of coverage, he gained some extra attention for being of mixed race. But the coverage was far more than anything due to the fact that he just kept winning.

As things stand, with Woods just back in the game after eight months out following surgery on his left knee, he remains the top-ranked golfer on the PGA Tour. Despite the injury – with which he played the entire US Open in 2008, and won – Woods’ place was untouched, and at the age of 33 he has spent 536 weeks (more than ten years) at the top of the world rankings. That is more than the three next most successful men in the rankings put together. Those three men? Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros.