Golf balls patterned with grooves, not dimples, should mean fewer missed putts, a new patent application says (Image: WIPO)
The dimples on a golf ball are more than a pretty pattern - they help a struck ball fly further. But a new patent application says that replacing them with grooves will make for fewer missed putts.
A ball's dimples help a golfer in two ways. As well as letting the ball cling onto a cloak of air to reduce turbulence and drag, they also magnify the effect of lift created by backspin.
The trouble with dimples, say Hae Cheon Choi and colleagues at Seoul National University in Korea, is that striking one of the indentations off centre can send the putted ball in the wrong direction.
The team's answer is to design a golf ball with grooves rather than dimples on its surface, arranged in such a way as to divide the ball's surface into triangles. The grooves disrupt airflow in a similar way to dimples, so the ball still carries roughly the same distance, say the team.
But the grooves cover a smaller surface area of the ball than dimples. That makes it much less likely that a putter might strike them in a way that sends the ball off at an odd angle. The end result is fewer putting errors, they claim.
The new ball should be permitted by both of the governing bodies that regulate golf - the USGA that covers the US and Mexico and the R&A that covers the rest of the world.
Neither organisation's rules explicitly mention surface pattern - instead specifying the ball's weight, diameter, symmetry and initial velocity when struck with a club. The pattern on a ball's surface must be symmetrical, though, precluding arrangements that cause a ball to "self right" into a particular position to ensure a straighter flight.
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