Unlike lots of other balls used for sports, golf balls are riddled with little dimples all over their surfaces. Some people think these are just for aesthetic, but it turns out they serve a functional purpose.
The dimples have an impact on the way air moves around the golf ball, allowing it to travel greater distances than a smooth ball could with the same amount of driving force behind it.
The feat is accomplished by removing some of the low pressure from behind the ball as it travels through the air, reducing drag and allowing the golf ball to glide through the air effortlessly.
We've built dimples into golf balls for more than a century, but they haven't always looked the way they do today. Like with anything else, the design changed with time as research and development made improved dimpling methods possible.
Different companies dimple their golf balls in different ways. They can have varying shapes and sizes that allow anywhere from 300-500+ dimples to exist on a single golf ball.
