Why The Dimples On A Golf Ball Matter (And What Happens Without Them!)

While there are seemingly endless options when it comes to choosing a golf ball that’s right for your game, there are a few determining factors that all golf balls possess and see them get airborne in the first place. When picking up new golf balls, we think about distance, spin, and feel, but rarely do we think about why these balls fly the way they do through the air.

In case you are not familiar with the science, dimples are something almost every golfer takes for granted, myself included. You obviously see them on your golf ball, but do you know the precise purpose they serve? I’m a +4 golfer, and I’m a little ashamed to admit I wasn't completely clued up on the science behind dimples and how they affect a golf ball's flight.

WATCH: See What Happens When A Golf Ball With No Dimples Is Hit!

To find out more, we have to look closely at the aerodynamics of the ball's flight. The inner workings of this technology are heavily researched at Titleist’s Manchester Lane testing facility in New Bedford, Massachusetts - truly one of the most beautiful settings in golf, where the brand’s R&D team tests new golf balls and then works with players to potentially put these balls in play.

Through rigorous year-round testing, their team of experts relies on both the core, the mantle, and these shallow indentations on the ball to optimize the fundamental aerodynamic forces of lift and drag to differentiate golf balls' flights and ultimately help all of us amateur golfers and the professionals play a ball that maximises performance.

What Do Dimples Actually Do?

From a design standpoint, dimples are somewhat the engine of a golf ball's flight, and without them, even shots struck from the very middle of the face with one of the best drivers on the market would produce results that would have you seriously questioning all that time you’ve spent dedicated to working on your swing!

As John Dytko, Titleist R&D Golf Ball Mechanical Engineer, explained to me in person, “What golf ball dimples do is create a turbulent flow so that air hits the front edge of the golf ball, and the dimples energize that air, which reduces the drag force.”

In layman's terms, drag is essentially wind resistance, and the force that air presses on the ball is directly opposite to its direction of motion. By putting dimples on the golf ball, manufacturers can manipulate how air flows over and around the ball and, therefore, how long it flies and what trajectory it follows. This layer of air hugs the ball's surface much longer than it would on a perfectly smooth sphere, effectively slicing through the air by reducing the wake behind it.

What Happens Without Dimples?

I never thought I’d actually get to experience this with my own eyes, but it’s truly a remarkable sight - a Titleist Pro V1, perfectly round and smooth, looking like a cue ball straight off the pool table, but built to the same weight and with the same core and mantle system as a regular Pro V1.

Straight away, a member of the Titleist staff teed the ball up and let fly. Now, before spoiling it, it’s worth saying I’d just watched said staff member (Bryan) stripe countless drives down the fairway about 260 yards very consistently. After one swipe with the dimple-less ball, we all broke into laughter.

Addressing what happened to the dimpleless ball, Dytko noted, “That golf ball is going to fall out of the sky, and it has to do with the very high drag force acting on the golf ball and slowing it down.”

The ball shot off at 157mph ball speed, but only carried 125 yards because a smooth ball cannot create that necessary boundary layer of turbulent air, and is subjected to a massive amount of uninterrupted drag. Without the air being able to stick to dimples, the ball slows down so abruptly that it simply drops out of the air like a stone, traveling only a fraction of its normal distance.

The demonstration carried on with prototype balls only half covered in dimples on one side and, due to the pull on the ball, when set with the dimples on the left side at address, the ball shot off fairly violently to the left and vice-versa when positioned the other way around on the tee.

The last demonstration showed the importance of how precise the manufacturing of golf balls needs to be, in particular, the dimple depths and sizes, and the thin layers of paint applied. John and Bryan tested a ball where one half featured dimples just 1/1000th of an inch deeper than the other side - a difference comparable to less than the thickness of a human hair or a coat of paint.

Despite this microscopic difference that was undetectable to the human eye (albeit I was sure I could see it!), the ball, when teed up twice facing opposite directions, resulted in an 80-yard total dispersion (40 yards left and then right).

This goes to show just how much the surface of the ball affects ball flight and how it may be best to leave that battered and bruised ball you’ve found at the bottom of your bag to the side, as opposed to trying to squeeze another round out of it.

Finding The Right Flight

Creating golf balls that perform differently isn’t just about the number of layers or the materials they’re made from, and it isn't just about having dimples - it is about how they are specifically arranged and the number of dimples on the ball.

They come in a huge variety of depths, shapes, patterns, and edge angles, and it’s at testing facilities such as Manchester Lane that engineers spend days, months, and years designing and manipulating these geometric patterns to create different flight characteristics and optimize trajectory.

Some dimple patterns are engineered to produce higher spin and launch (Pro V1x), while others are designed to keep the ball flight lower and more stable in windy conditions (Pro V1).

Both golf balls feature spherically tiled dimple designs, but the main difference between them is the dimple count, where the Pro V1 boasts a 388-dimple layout, while the Pro V1x uses a 348-dimple design.

So, the next time you are standing on the tee holding your golf ball, take a closer look at the dimples and the cover and know that there's an entire team of scientists and engineers totally dedicated to designing them in a way that will make that golf ball perform exactly the way you expect it to when you strike it correctly - unfortunately that part is still very much up to you!