In the physical world of air pressure, turbulence, and aerodynamics, surface structure is a critical design element. History has it that there are things that seem to be peculiar on their make-up hundreds of years ago which eventually came up with a better composition based on scientific research. And a golf ball is the best paradigm of this theoretical stand in history.

During the early days of the game of golf on the eastern coast of Scotland, most players used ancient apparatus in order to play the game which was a more disorganized and less formal than it is today. Then, the first golf clubs and golf balls are made of wood.

It was in 1618 that the feather golf ball was finally introduced and made popular. This version of the golf ball was commonly known as the "Featherie". This feather golf ball was a handcrafted golf ball made with goose feathers securely pressed into a horse or cowhide sphere. This was done while the ball was still wet. As the ball dried out, the leather shrank and the feathers expanded to create a hardened golf ball.

Because these types of golf balls were specially handcrafted, they usually cost more than the golf clubs. As a result, only a few privileged people could afford to play the game of golf during this early period.

The next version to become popular was the Guttie golf ball. This prehistoric kind of golf ball was made from the rubber like sap from the Gutta tree that can be found in the tropics. These Guttie balls could be easily shaped into a sphere when hot.  When they cooled, they kept their shape and could then be used as a golf ball. With its rubber nature, Guttie balls could be cheaply reproduced and could be easily repaired by reheating and reshaping.

In a comparison between the two earliest forms of golf balls, the feather golf ball was said to travel farther than the Guttie. This apparent paradox was eventually identified as being due to the difference in surfaces.  The smooth surface of the Guttie limits the capacity of the golf ball to cover more distance.

With this new scientific analysis, the developers of golf ball finally came up with balls with the "dimples" that are found on modern golf balls in use today..

Dimples are crafted onto golf balls so as to reduce the aerodynamic drag, which acts on the ball and is increased if it were totally smooth. This is because smooth balls, when sailing through the air, leave a huge pocket of low-pressure air in its wake therefore creating drag. The drag acts as a brake and the ball slows down.

But in contrast, by having dimples on golf balls, the pressure differential goes down and the drag is reduced. These dimples create turbulence in the air surrounding the golf ball. This, in turn, forces the air to clasp the golf ball more closely. By doing so, the air flows in to the wake created by the ball instead of flowing past it. This results in a smaller wake and lesser drag. So the ball travels further.

Dimples also help players to put backspin on a shot making the golf ball break off on the putting green.

The idea of putting dimples on golf balls can be traced back during the Gutta Percha phase. Coburn Haskell introduced the one-piece rubber cored ball encased in a Gutta Percha sphere. It was during this time when the players first observed how their shots could become more and more predictable the longer that they used the same ball.  They noticed that the rougher the balls became the more accurate and further that they could hit.

When William Taylor applied the dimple pattern to a Haskell ball in 1905, golf balls finally took their modern form.  So the dimples were born.  From then on, dimpled golf balls were officially used in every golf tournament. In 1921, the golf balls took its form with standard size and weight.

Today, there is a large selection of golf balls to fit different golf game and condition. There are golf balls that offer control, while some offer distance. However else these golf balls vary, they all have one thing in common and that is the dimple. Golf balls are not just items of the sports equipment; they are a paradigm of a concept in physics!