Tips · SAME DRIVE · SMOOTH VS DIMPLED

Without dimples, a ball would fly about half as far.

A smooth golf ball would fly only about half as far as a dimpled one. Dimples make the thin layer of air on the ball turbulent, so it clings on farther round the back, the wake shrinks and the drag falls; with backspin they help make lift. Golfers found it out with battered gutta percha balls.

The one to remember

Dimples keep the air on the ball: a smaller wake, less drag.

Facts and sources

  • Top-Flite's aerodynamicists, in Scientific American: a smooth golf ball hit by a professional would travel only about half as far as a dimpled one, and a dimpled ball has about half the drag of a smooth ball.
  • Dimples trip the boundary layer into turbulence. The turbulent layer follows the surface farther round the back, so the main separation moves back, the wake narrows and the drag drops (NASA Glenn; Choi, Jeon and Choi, 2006).
  • Backspin gives a golf ball its lift, and dimples help it: in Davies' 1949 wind tunnel tests a spinning dimpled ball's lift reached more than half its weight, while a smooth ball's lift was negative below 5,000 rpm and smaller above it.
  • Today's leading balls carry between about 320 and 390 dimples: Titleist's 2025 Pro V1 has 388 and the Pro V1x 348; TaylorMade's TP5 has 322 and Srixon's Z-Star 338 (2021 models).
  • Gutta percha balls arrived in the late 1840s. The first were smooth and ducked quickly; once dented and chipped in play they flew well, so makers scraped and hammered patterns into new balls. Moulded patterns followed, and the dimple pattern was patented in 1905.

Illustration: the drives, the smoke and wakes in the wind tunnel, the drag and lift arrows, the spinning ball, the 1840s links and the ball maker's shop are drawn to explain, not measured. The two drives share one launch, and the smooth ball is drawn to stop about half as far down the hole. The two balls side by side in one tunnel, and the dimples' size and number, are simplified.

Sources

  1. How do dimples in golf balls affect their flight? · Scientific American (19 September 2005; answer by Tom Veilleux, senior scientist, and Vince Simonds, director of aerodynamic research, Top-Flite Golf Company; first posted 5 January 2004) checked 11 October 2026
  2. Drag of a Sphere (Beginner's Guide to Aeronautics) · NASA Glenn Research Center (page last updated 30 June 2025) checked 11 October 2026
  3. Mechanism of drag reduction by dimples on a sphere · Jin Choi, Woo-Pyung Jeon and Haecheon Choi, Physics of Fluids 18, 041702 (April 2006) checked 11 October 2026
  4. Golf Ball Aerodynamics · P. W. Bearman and J. K. Harvey, Aeronautical Quarterly 27 (2), 112–122 (May 1976) checked 11 October 2026
  5. The Aerodynamics of Golf Balls · John M. Davies, Journal of Applied Physics 20, 821 (September 1949) checked 11 October 2026
  6. Golf Ball Surface Patterns · Golf Heritage Society (George R. Petro, 14 July 2020) checked 11 October 2026
  7. Golf Ball from Hairy to Haskell · Scottish Golf History (Neil Laird) checked 11 October 2026
  8. Titleist 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1x Golf Balls Review · TGW, The Golf Warehouse (Ryan McLaughlin, 24 January 2025) checked 11 October 2026
  9. Titleist launches new Pro V1 golf balls · Golf Business News (21 January 2021) checked 11 October 2026
  10. Titleist, TaylorMade, Srixon Update Tour Balls · Colorado AvidGolfer (Tony Dear, 17 February 2021) checked 11 October 2026
  11. How many dimples are there on a golf ball? Here's all you need to know · GolfMagic (Andy Roberts, 4 January 2021) checked 11 October 2026

The narration is AI-generated. Sources last checked 11 October 2026.

Script

A golf ball without dimples would fly only about half as far. Most balls today have between 300 and 400 dimples. Air peels off the back of a smooth ball early, and leaves a wide, swirling wake that drags it back. Dimples stir the air right at the surface into a thin, turbulent layer. It clings to the ball longer, so the wake shrinks and the drag falls. With backspin, the dimples help the ball generate lift as well. Golfers found this out by accident. Old gutta percha balls flew better once they were scuffed and nicked, so ball makers started hammering patterns into new ones.