Purchasing Dimpleless Golf Balls

[Norbert P]

  Does anybody have a line on where someone can purchase golf balls without dimples?  Not a Cayman or a gutty but a two piece modern smoothy.

  I'd like to play some golf with these on a nice dry course to involve more land action and I don't want to use my putter to do it.

  It also seems like it would be the simplest solution to the Overall Distance dilemma.   Easily detected by any rules official as abiding or not without the use of some compression testing gizmo.  

 "OK Tiger, you can play... your balls are smooth."

[John Nixon]

I'm walking with great trepidation into an area where I am fairly uninformed, but aren't dimples what allows you to get a golf ball airborne? If so, I can't imagine a smooth ball would give you any kind of distance at all, however far it rolled.

[Norbert P]

 Exactly.  It also reduced hooks and slices since Bernoulli's Principle effects are reduced.

[John Nixon]

You would also be eliminating any ability to work the ball left or right, right? Which is one complaint I hear a lot from some corners - the players today don't know how to hit the shots that the players did back in the good ol days. Would merely scooting the ball in a straight line along the ground 150 yards at a time really be that enjoyable?

[Norbert P]

"First, the dimples don't create the lift, they only improve it. And second, as shown in History of the Golf Ball, Aerodynamics, the dimples substantially reduce the drag by creating a turbulent boundary layer which reduces the wake. Wind tunnel tests verify this. Measured drag forces for a smooth and a dimpled golf ball are compared throughout the full speed range. Clearly, the dimpled ball generates much less drag, only about half as much as the smooth one. This drag reduction is the most important contribution of the dimples."

(exerpted from a website.)

[Norbert P]

Would merely scooting the ball in a straight line along the ground 150 yards at a time really be that enjoyable?

 I don't know but I'd sure like to try it.  Heck, most of my shots are under 150 anyway.  
  I've played with gutty and hickories and I had a blast. Nary a slog.  A 150 yard smack with those made me as giddy as a schoolboy.

[Joe Hancock]

Slag,

Exerpted from a website...but does that make it factual? I'm not a scientist, or physicist...but I think ,the dimples do create the lift, not just improving it. Think of those shots you've seen Joe Gorilla hit, where he takes a mighty blow, and imparts a huge amount of backspin on the ball. The ball actually rises as it goes. I doubt any amount of spin on a smoothie would have any effect.

I believe your dimpless ball would take off, airborn, based on clubhead loft (at impact), but would fall like a ton of bricks in short fashion.

Mind you, this is just my opinion, and not necessarily any more or less factual than the website exerpt!

Good luck in your search for smooth balls,

Joe

p.s. I believe that would be the first time I've ever uttered such a phrase.....

[Norbert P]

 Yes Joe, it's definitely a search where careful word selection is a must.

Here is a website that, for anyone with the inclination, offers  a smattering of dimplespeak.

http://www.adsources.com/GOLF/GOLFINFO/golfpa4.htm#Epilogue

(perhaps useful just around bedtime.)

[Pete Lavallee]

Joe, don't knock it till you've tried it. Whoops, wrong thread. The ball scrubber at our driving range does a great job, given enough time, at removing considerable surface area. It allows you the opportunity to play one of golf's most fun filled shots: the double breaker! Balls that started out slicing can turn into a hook with just a breath of wind. I'm tempted to shout out "it was dimple free" when my drive carries a mere 160 yards!

[Joe Hancock]

My marketing juices just kicked in:

The "Niekro S1"

"The smoothest ball in golf"

Joe

[Norbert P]

 Joe, I assume you mean Phil.  I dig the quote at the top of the page...

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=niekrph01

[Paul_Turner]

Not really sure about the drag claim.  But they're right claiming that dimples don't actually create lift, but simply improve it; it's the backspin of the ball that creates the lift-backspin pulls the air faster over the ball's top surface, which creates a nagative pressure when compared with the ball's bottom surface, which creates lift (like an aircraft wing).  If the ball is dimpled it will pull the air faster over the top surface of the ball = more lift.

[Mike Benham]

 I'd like to play some golf with these on a nice dry course to involve more land action and I don't want to use my putter to do it.

I have an old R-90 that I had a machine shop surface the faces removing all the grooves, would that help your experiment or fun factor?

Mike

[paul cowley]

  if not his ,mine .....

[Norbert P]

 Mike,  my Wilson SW has already been degrooved by normal play.  The furrows are more like runrigs now.  
 
  I tried eBay and Google searches but no luck finding "Dimpleless Golf Balls". Any ideas on what a better choice of words for Search Entry might be?   Maybe I'll try some Bondo(tm) auto body filler.  

  BTW Joe,  a ping pong ball, with as smooth a surface as one could relatively imagine, has tremendous curving effects from spin.


 

[Joe Hancock]

Slag,

The ping pong ball....I forgot about that! Now you've created another thought in my head: what about a dimpless ball that is not perfectly balanced? That way it gets on the ground quick, plus you have no idea what direction it will go. It would add all the excitement and mystery that anyone could possibly want from golf! A bit more Niekro-ish too, don't you think?

Joe

[Buck Wolter]

Try this link. Not exactly what you're looking for but sounds like a lot of fun to me.

http://www.almostgolfball.com/theball/story_37.php

[Norbert P]

Buck, those are interesting and I wouldn't mind having a dozen of them.  I got the wiffles but I'd sure like to give those a try.  

Speaking of odd golf balls, I came upon this site in my search...

http://mb-soft.com/public/gyroball.html

  Makes a lot of sense but to get the effect each time, one would have to lift and replace on every shot.

  He states a few odd characteristics of ball action like...
the ball will bounce straight when landing on side hills.  Cool but that really would ruin the archies intentions, eh?

Joe, funny thing, when I was a wee lad, I got one of them wobbly baseballs as a gag gift.     Yes, very Niek.  Uh oh, I feel a new word entering my vocabulary.  "Dude! that is so shreddin' Niek!"    

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