Golf Ball Research Articles

Use of a Ball Alignment Mark Improves Putting Performance in Golf

Golfers place alignment marks on their balls in the belief that this improves the ability to align and hole more putts. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of using an alignment mark on a golf ball on the number of putts holed. Twenty-nine amateur golfers (handicap 7.6 ± 4.06) performed 10 straight putts from a distance of 1.7m to ascertain putting ability. Based on putting ability they then performed 30 putts from a distance of 1.7m, 2.3m or 2.6m, with better putters putting further from the hole. Fifteen of the putts were performed using a ball with an alignment mark (AM) and 15 with no alignment mark (NAM). The order of putts with each ball was randomized. On average participants holed 17.1 ± 3.9 putts out of the 30 putts completed using both balls. The number of putts holed at each of the three distances from the hole did not differ (*p* = .60). More putts were holed with AM compared with NAM at a distance of 2.6m (AM 9.7 ± 2.4 putts, NAM 7.6 ± 2.8, *p* \< .01), but not at the shorter distances of 1.7m (*p* = .67) and 2.3m (*p* = .39). The use of an alignment mark on a golf ball improves putting success for straight putts from a distance of 2.6m.

Short-term induction of assimilation and accommodation

The dual-process model of developmental regulation distinguishes two processes of self-regulation (assimilation = tenacious goal pursuit, and accommodation = flexible goal adjustment) that depend on differing conditions, but both contribute to successful development. Four experiments were conducted to investigate whether assimilation and accommodation can be induced or at least shifted by sensorimotor and cognitive manipulations. Experiment 1 investigated the relation between body manipulation and self-regulation. It was shown that assimilation could be triggered when participants were asked to hold on to golf balls as compared to being asked to drop them. Experiment 2 showed that a semantic priming of "let go" or "hold on" via instructions influenced the processes of self-regulation. Experiment 3 and Experiment 4 investigated the role of cognitive sets (divergent thinking) and motivational processes (thinking about one's action resources) in enhancing accommodation or assimilation. As expected, accommodation was triggered by an intervention activating divergent thought, and participants were more assimilative when they thought about their action resources. In sum, the results indicate that assimilation and accommodation can be induced experimentally; they were systematically dependent on physical, cognitive, and motivational states. The implications of the findings were discussed in the light of the dual-process model.

The Effect of Static Club Head Loft of a Driver on Golf Ball Launch Variables and Distance

The driver is the club which receives the greatest scrutiny by golfers and the most marketing efforts by manufacturers. One characteristic often indicated and believed to effect driver performance is the degree of loft on the clubface. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect that the loft of a driver and gender has on golf ball launch variables and distance. The variables that were examined included club head speed, ball speed, launch angle, descent (impact) angle, total spin, carry, and total distance. Fifteen participants (12 male, 3 female) with a handicap of eight or lower were used to test three different degree drivers (9.5°, 10.5°, and 13°) on the variables listed above. Participants performed ten tested swings for each driver and the variables were measured. The data were analyzed with a two (gender) by three (club face loft) repeated-measures ANOVA. There were significant differences (*p* \< .05) in total spin rate, descent angle, and total distance between the clubs. The male participants produced significantly greater values for the variables of club head speed, ball speed, descent angle, carry, and total distance when compared with the female participants. For the current study, the main finding was that the low lofted driver produced the greatest amount of total distance, 234.95 meters, compared with 226.57 meters for the high lofted driver and 232.58 meters for the medium lofted driver. This is likely due to the low lofted driver producing a lower total spin rate and descent angle than the medium and high lofted driver, resulting in a greater amount of run and total distance for the low lofted driver.

골프 볼 브랜드 자산이 브랜드 효익 및 재구매의도에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study was to investigate the causal relationships among brand equity, brand benefit and repurchase intention of golf balls. The participants of the investigation were adults at the age of 20 overall who is experienced used of golf country club. For this study, 400 asmples were collected using purposive sampling method and 327 data were used except data which did not respond or trustlessly responded. To prove the hypothesis of the study based on the sampled data, structural equation modeling was conducted using the SPSSWIN 19.0 program and AMOS 5.0 program. Following findign were derived from this study. First, brand awareness among brand equity factor had positive effect no functional benefit. Second, brand association among brand equity factor had positive effect on symbolic benefit. Third, brand benefit(functional benefit, symbolic benefit) had positive effect on repurchase intention.

CFD Study of Drag and Lift of Sepak Takraw Ball at Different Face Orientations

There have been a significant number of researches on computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis of balls used in sports such as golf balls, tennis balls, and soccer balls. Sepak takraw is a high speed court game predominantly played in Southeast Asia using mainly the legs and head. The sepak takraw ball is unique because it is not enclosed and made of woven plastic. Hence a study of its aerodynamicswould give insight into its behaviour under different conditions of play. In this study the dynamics of the fluid around a static sepak takraw ball was investigated at different wind speeds for three different orientations using CFD. It was found that although the drag did not differ very much, increasing the wind velocity causes an increase in drag. The lift coefficientvaries as the velocity increases and does not show a regular pattern. The drag and lift coefficients are influenced by the orientation of the sepak takraw ball.

Visual illusions can facilitate sport skill learning.

Witt, Linkenauger, and Proffitt (Psychological Science, 23, 397-399, 2012) demonstrated that golf putting performance was enhanced when the hole was surrounded by small circles, making it look larger, relative to when it was surrounded by large circles, making it look smaller. In the present study, we examined whether practicing putting with small or large surrounding circles would have not only immediate effects on performance, but also longer-lasting effects on motor learning. Two groups of nongolfers practiced putting golf balls to a 10.4-cm circle ("hole") from a distance of 2m. Small or large circles were projected around the hole during the practice phase. Perception of hole size was affected by the size of the surrounding circles. Also, self-efficacy was higher in the group with the perceived larger hole. One day after practice, participants performed the putting task, but without visual illusions (i.e., a retention test). Putting accuracy in retention was greater for the group that had practiced with the perceived larger hole. These findings suggest that the apparently larger target led to the more effective learning outcome.

Experimentation on recurrent sphere collision with Audacity

Under the theme of collisions that occur repeatedly, we conducted easy and inexpensive experiments of rebounding spheres and Newton’s cradle with two spheres to determine the coefficients of restitution using the sound record feature in modern laptops and a free and open source software called Audacity. In the rebounding sphere experiment, the coefficients of restitution of the golf and ping pong balls used were found to be 0.727 ± 0.025 and 0.816 ± 0.041 respectively. With the Netwon’s cradle experiment, the coefficient of restitution of two steel sphere balls was found to be 0.987 ± 0.003. The contrasts in the results obtained from both experiments permit the operational principles of a pendulum to be emphasized, and engagements to be made to consider the transfer of kinetic energy in the form of vibrational energy of the bodies’ constituents. Using a one-dimensional two-mass model with spring and damper linkages to account for harmonic motions that occur during impact, we found it possible to perform a simple analysis to account for this, and how it can be linked to high energy transfer modes such as the phenomenon of resonance and impedance matching.

Synchronized Dual Camera Vision System for Locating and Identify Highly Dynamic Objects

This paper presents machine vision for locating and identifying 23 highly dynamic objects on 4.4 meters by 2.8 meters micro robot soccer playing field. The approach is based from the idea that the two camera vision subsystems should be synchronized and well informed in real time of the combined vision data and a selection of objects to track under each other’s camera view. A measure of effectiveness on using incremental tracking for two-camera operation is developed and is used to evaluate the introduced approach through experimentation. A real-time visualization of the whole playfield containing the 22 micro robots and a golf ball is also provided for the system operator to validate the objects’ actual poses with the vision system’s measurements. Results show that the proposed technique is very fast, accurate, reliable, and robust to external disturbances.

Cavity dynamics of smooth sphere and golf ball at low Froude numbers, part 1: high-speed imaging and quantitative measurements

Investigation into the importance of water entry at low Froude numbers has been of interest since 1932. Implementation of imaging into the study has offered insight of cavity dynamics and influence of variables such as buoyancy, symmetry of the body, and hydrophobicity of the impacting body. Use of CCD camera toward water entry assisted in defining cavity boundary. In this work, a steel smooth ball and a golf ball that is considered as an irregular sphere were experimented and compared. In order to validate the baseline results, gathered image and analysis for the smooth sphere were strongly correlated to available literature data. In the concluding analysis, analogies to the works of flat plate analysis in the literature were drawn in nonsymmetrical bodies. The contribution of this body of work relies on a 3D comparison to the 2D plate analyzed by the available data based on the principles of Wagner theory and graphical comparisons.

What are the chances?The Improbability Principle Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day David J. Hand Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. 283 pp.

What are the chances?The Improbability Principle Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day <i>David J. Hand</i> Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. 283 pp.

A Muddied Industry

A Muddied Industry

Analysis of a Destructive Wind Storm on 16 November 2008 in Brisbane, Australia

AbstractDuring the late afternoon on 16 November 2008 the Brisbane (Queensland, Australia) suburb of “The Gap” experienced extensive wind damage caused by an intense local thunderstorm. The CP2 research radar nearby detected near-surface radial velocities exceeding 43 m s−1 above The Gap while hail size reports did not exceed golf ball size, and no tornadoes were reported. The storm environment was characterized by a layer of very moist near-surface air and strong storm-relative low-level flow, whereas the storm-relative winds aloft were weak. While the thermodynamic storm environment contained a range of downdraft-promoting ingredients such as a ~4-km-high melting level above a ~2-km-deep layer with nearly dry-adiabatic lapse rates mostly collocated with dry ambient air, a ~1-km-deep stable layer near the ground would generally lower expectations of destructive surface winds based on the downburst mechanism. Once observed reflectivities exceed 70 dBZ, downdraft cooling due to hail melting and downdraft acceleration based on hail loading are found to likely become nonnegligible forcing mechanisms. The event featured the close proximity of a hydrostatically and dynamically driven mesohigh at the base of the downdraft to a dynamically driven mesolow associated with a low-level circulation. This proximity was instrumental in the anisotropic horizontal acceleration of the near-ground outflow and the ultimate strength of the Gap storm surface winds. Weak storm-relative midlevel winds are speculated to have allowed the downdraft to descend close to the low-level circulation, which set up this strong horizontal perturbation pressure gradient.

Semantics is crucial for the right-hemisphere involvement in metaphor processing: Evidence from mouth asymmetry during speaking

Research on the neural basis of metaphor provides contradicting evidence about the role of right and left hemispheres. We used the mouth-opening asymmetry technique to investigate the relative involvement of the two hemispheres whilst right-handed healthy male participants explained the meaning of English phrases. This technique is based on the contralateral cortical control of the facial musculature and reflects the relative hemispheric involvement during different cognitive tasks. In particular, right-handers show a right-sided mouth asymmetry (right side of the mouth opens wider than the left) during linguistic tasks, thus reflecting the left-hemisphere specialization for language. In the current study, we compared the right-sided mouth asymmetry during metaphor explanation (e.g., explain the meaning of the phrase “to spin a yarn”) and concrete explanation (e.g., explain the meaning of the phrase “to spin a golf ball”) and during the production of content and function words. The expected right-sided mouth asymmetry reduced during metaphorical compared to concrete explanations suggesting the relative right-hemispheric involvement for metaphor processing. Crucially, this right-sided mouth asymmetry reduction was particularly pronounced for the production of content words. Thus, we concluded that semantics is crucial to the right-hemispheric involvement for metaphorical speech production.

Aerodynamics of a golf ball with grooves

In this study, we investigate the aerodynamics of our newly designed golf ball that does not have dimples but grooves on its surface. The smooth part of its surface is approximately 1.7 times that of a golf ball with dimples. We directly measure the drag and lift forces on two versions of this golf ball in the ranges of real golf-ball velocity and rotational speed, and compare them with those of smooth and dimpled balls. At zero spin, the drag coefficient of our balls shows a rapid fall-off at a Reynolds number similar to that of a dimpled ball and maintains nearly a constant value (lower by 50% than that of smooth ball) at higher Reynolds numbers. At non-zero spin, the lift-to-drag ratio of one version of our ball is higher by 5%–20% in the supercritical Reynolds number regime than that of a dimpled ball, but it is lower otherwise. With the measured drag and lift forces, we predict the trajectories of our balls and compare them to those of smooth and dimpled balls for the same initial conditions. The flight distances of our balls are larger by 148%–202% than that of smooth ball and shorter by 6%–10% than that of a dimpled ball.

The relationships between driver clubhead presentation characteristics, ball launch conditions and golf shot outcomes

The purpose of this study was to analyse the effects of clubhead presentation on golf ball launch conditions and the subsequent shot outcome. Clubhead presentation was measured using a three-dimensional motion capture system for both male and female golfers across a range of skill levels. A Doppler radar was used to track the golf ball during its flight, yielding speed, launch angles, spin rate and distance. Importantly, the measurements of clubhead and ball quantities were taken independently so that any inter-relationships could be evaluated without recourse to any preconceived models. This article provides values for the median launch conditions and shot outcome, and the associated variability in these quantities for golfers was grouped by handicap category and gender. It was shown that the variability in certain outcome quantities was more linked to golfing ability than others. Linear regression was used to demonstrate that differences in clubhead presentation resulted in changes to ball launch conditions as one might expect from physical analysis. Furthermore, the link between the variability in clubhead presentation and the variability in shot outcome was demonstrated. In particular, the importance of impact location variability in determining launch angle and total distance variability was shown.

The geographical position, system and modelling of golf tourism

This paper aims to present the spatial assumptions related to the tourism theory and the geographical correlations of golf tourism. It att empts to defi ne the concept and to study golf as a tourism product in a systemic approach: it presents its internal and external environment. In the fi rst place, golf courses being the most important factor of golf tourism and the interconnection of other supply elements are discussed. In the second place, the paper highlights the role of the intermediary sector specialised in satisfying golf-related special needs. In the third place, it describes the characteristic features of golf demand. It presents the Western European, Mediterranean and Central European regions (the most preferred areas of research), and it establishes the theory of ABC golf destinations in the Mediterranean region, i.e. tourism supply elements in a unique spatial arrangement. The research results include the interpretation of Maslow’s hierarchy of motivational needs from the golfers’ approach, which helps us understand the golfers’ decision-making process and the stages thereof. Based on the theory, the author establishes the golf ball model of the interconnected material conditions of tourism in which the layers of the basic, infra- and suprastructure required for golf tourism are interconnected like the concentric shells of a sphere.

Designing hollow nano gold golf balls.

Hollow/porous nanoparticles, including nanocarriers, nanoshells, and mesoporous materials have applications in catalysis, photonics, biosensing, and delivery of theranostic agents. Using a hierarchical template synthesis scheme, we have synthesized a nanocarrier mimicking a golf ball, consisting of (i) solid silica core with a pitted gold surface and (ii) a hollow/porous gold shell without silica. The template consisted of 100 nm polystyrene beads attached to a larger silica core. Selective gold plating of the core followed by removal of the polystyrene beads produced a golf ball-like nanostructure with 100 nm pits. Dissolution of the silica core produced a hollow/porous golf ball-like nanostructure.

Smart morphable surfaces for aerodynamic drag control.

Smart Morphable Surfaces enable switchable and tunable aerodynamic drag reduction of bluff bodies. Their topography, resembling the morphology of golf balls, can be custom-generated through a wrinkling instability on a curved surface. Pneumatic actuation of these patterns results in the control of the drag coefficient of spherical samples by up to a factor of two, over a range of flow conditions.

Effect of time derivative of contact area on dynamic friction

This study investigated dynamic friction during oblique impact of a golf ball by evaluating the ball's angular velocity, contact force, and the contact area between the ball and target. The effect of the contact area on the angular velocities was evaluated, and the results indicated that the contact area plays an important role in dynamic friction. In this study, the dynamic friction force F was given by F = μN + μη dA/dt, where μ is the coefficient of friction, N is the contact force, dA/dt is the time derivative of the contact area A, and η is a coefficient associated with the contact area.

Oblique Impact Analysis of a Golf Ball

The oblique impact of a golf ball with a rigid steel target was studied using a high-speed video camera. The video images during the impact were employed to measure the compressional displacement of the ball normal to the target and to determine the normal velocity and acceleration of the ball as a function of time. The rotation angle of the ball was also measured to evaluate the angular velocity during the impact. The results showed that the angular velocity increased and then decreased during the impact. To study the velocity change, we introduced an analytical model and suggested that the ball deformation can play an important role to understand the friction effect during the impact.