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There's a lot of money in making tiny orbs that produce a lot of frustration and periodic joy. Golf ball manufacturers know this. That's why they're constantly trying to sell the idea of high-tech advances in an attempt to corner a bigger share of the lucrative market. While it's true that the science of aerodynamics has greatly impacted golf ball technology, it's also true that today's high-tech balls that fly farther, stop quicker and curve less are descendants of products first made more than 400 years ago. The first golf balls were wooden, and while nothing but their circular shape has lasted to this day, the featherie introduced in the early 17th century started the golf ball revolution. Those balls, made of boiled goose feathers stuffed into a leather bag, were manufactured while the feathers and cowhide were wet. As they dried, the feathers hardened and the ball was hammered into a circular shape. Even the best manufacturers had trouble producing a few hundred a year. The gutty was introduced in the 19th century. Its key ingredient was the coagulated juice of the gutta-percha tree, which grows to a height of about 10 feet. The dried, rubbery sap was shaped into a ball when hot, but the surface was smooth, meaning they didn't fly as far as featheries. But when scuffed or nicked, the gutty seemed to fly better, which led to the introduction of aerodynamic features down the road. In an effort to increase distance, various patterns and spherical bumps on gutty balls were introduced, but it wasn't until 1898 and Coburn Haskell's one-piece rubber ball that golf balls entered the modern age. Universally adopted in 1901, these balls looked like gutties but greatly improved distance since they featured high-tension rubber thread wound around the core. The ball wasn't the most accurate, but the distance it traveled necessitated changes in golf course length and led to the introduction of irons, which helped get the balls in the air better than the wooden spoons that once dominated a golfer's bag. By 1905, the distinctive dimpling of golf balls began, which increased lift and reduced drag. Lots of ideas came and went over the next seven decades, including mercury, cork and metal cores. Two big advances occurred in 1968: the introduction of a synthetic covering called Surlyn, and Spalding's unveiling of the two-piece Executive, which was the first modern solid ball. Spalding then introduced Top-Flite, a ball touted for its distance and durability, but better players didn't like the "rock" technology and preferred wound balls that felt softer and spun at a higher rate. In 2000, Titelist unveiled its first multi-layer ball, the Pro VI, which featured a solid rubber core with an inner layer between the core and cover. That led to a shift on the PGA Tour as players tossed out wound balls in favor of solid core models like the Callaway 35 and Nike Tour Accuracy. The past eight years have been highly innovative, with terms such as tungsten energy, steel cores, soft fusion and compression part of the dialogue. But today's balls still wrestle with the fundamental issue that has defined production since the earliest days: energy transfer and balancing hardness and feel to maximize distance and playability. When a ball is struck, it deforms and flattens. The harder the core, the less it deforms, meaning it travels farther because less energy is lost through the flattening process. After impact, the ball regains its original shape through coefficient of restitution, which directly relates to club speed. If the ball is too soft for the club speed, too much energy is lost deforming the ball and not enough is stored, meaning it won't travel as far. But if the ball is too hard for the club speed, the ball doesn't deform enough, meaning less transfer of energy. It's complicated, but after centuries of innovation, high-tech wizardry and a lot of money spent on research and marketing, it's nice to know that you still have to hit the darn thing correctly in order for it to work. |
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