Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
Not everyone knows what's inside a golf ball. I do. Or I thought I did.
When I was a kid a friend of mine taught me how to open golf balls. You need a hacksaw (Sw. bågfil) and preferably a vise (Sw. skruvstycke). It's impossible to open them with a knife or wire cutters - you're guaranteed to stab yourself if you try. After removing the dimpled hard white shell, we found a layer of soft black rubber, then tens of meters of tightly rolled-up thin brown rubber band, and at the ball's centre a small limp ampoule of soft black rubber that felt like it contained oil. I don't recall opening that. In essence, the balls I opened in the 80s were like balls of string, only consisting of rubber band.
Over the last year I have collected two messed-up golf balls from the ground in order to pass the lore on to my kids. One, a Callaway HX Hot 3, looked like it had been gnawed by a large sharp-toothed dog. The other, a Spaulding Top-Flite 6, had been set on fire and then put out before the whole shell caught flames.
Opening the two balls with my kids last night, I found to my surprise that neither contained any rubber bands. Both instead consisted of a solid ball of very hard rubber, orange in the Callaway and blue in the Spaulding. The Callaway also had a layer of hard clear plastic inside the shell.
So now I wonder, like archaeologists often do when faced with a small sample of finds, if the difference I have documented is due to change over time or if I am dealing with two separate functional or symbolic categories of golf ball that have co-existed for decades.
Disclaimer: I would be embarrassed if anyone imagined that I play golf. I just live next to a golf course where I occasionally go skiing in the winters.
Technology
Comments
When I was a kid, I managed to get one open with just a pocket knife. I think I would have said it required a lot of patience, and thought it was pretty neat that it was essentially a sheathed ball of rubber band. I figured the core was just used to start the wrapping. What I wondered was how they managed to make the wrapping uniform.
Posted by: Russell | January 7, 2010 8:56 AM
The solid-core variety have been around since at least the 80's, I'd guess. I recall getting a few such duds when searching for the rubber-band variety when I was a kid.
-kevin
Posted by: kevin | January 7, 2010 9:15 AM
Kevin, you make me feel old.
Posted by: Russell | January 7, 2010 9:19 AM
Actually this is funny you mention this. I grew up with the opposite experience. When I was a child my father was doing research and development at a tiny firm that he ran with his cousin and my grandmother. One of the projects he worked on was the solid core golf ball. So we had these all over the place. They were toys from work. Still, it wasn't until more recently that nearly every ball started to use them. They were always known to fly further, but were thought to be harder to control. Though I don't know this for sure, I think Tiger Woods, or another famous golfer started using them religiously, and that help the concept take off.
Posted by: Matthew Putman | January 7, 2010 9:20 AM
I had the same experience as you(rubber wound when I was a kid, tried it again and found only solid polymer).
That doesn't really push us over the line between "sad little pile of anecdotes" and "actual data"; but it wouldn't much surprise me if there has in fact been a general change in internal structure.
Posted by: phisrow | January 7, 2010 9:23 AM
Rubber bands in the one I cut open as a child, also (in the sixties). This is clearly an example of evolution at work, demonstrating irreducible complexity doesn't prevent an intermediate stage from being overly complex before becoming optimised after enough developmental runs.
Posted by: Ian Tindale | January 7, 2010 9:31 AM
I also hacked open balls as a kid, but did so with trepidation as the rumor held they were prone to explode.
Posted by: jimspice | January 7, 2010 9:47 AM
In a recent episode of "How stuff works" (on Quest, UK), they showed solid core golf balls being made. Seems at least one ball manufacturer (as opposed to a ball design firm) makes only solid core, these days. The colour of the core indicates properties of the core, but I have no handy key for checking what's what.
Posted by: Ingvar M | January 7, 2010 9:47 AM
The cores we checked out last night each had a seam, indicating that they're cast in moulds consisting of two hemispheres.
Posted by: Martin R | January 7, 2010 9:50 AM
I dissected a few golf balls when I was a kid during the late sixties. Under the yards and yards of rubber band wrapping there was a sealed ampoule of a dark viscous substance. The word amongst my peers was that the goopy stuff was deadly poison and possibly explosive.
Posted by: Larry Ayers | January 7, 2010 10:07 AM
When I was a child, back in the 70s, the rumour was that golfballs contained acid - people usually claimed battery acid! I remember dissecting one and finding the tightly wound rubber band. I think there was a small rubber ball in the centre - I can't remember whether this contained anything or not, but I didn't find battery acid in there.
It'd be interesting to find out how widespread the 'acid' rumour was - I have spoken to a few people who also grew up in Northern England who were also told they contain acid. I never heard the rumour about them containing explosive.
Posted by: Mike | January 7, 2010 10:23 AM
I was never told that golf ball cores had an explosive, per se; rather that the core was under pressure and that when the windings were released, the core would blow up because of that pressure. My friend Kim and I found that hard to believe, so we dissected several to check it out. It was a little disappointing to get to the core with no explosions. This was in the 60s in northern MN . . . .
Posted by: Don in Rochester MN | January 7, 2010 11:02 AM
Not to make y'all feel even older, but when I was a kid in the early '90s my dad and I sawed open several balls out of our big box of cart path scuffed rejects. We got some yellow and white solid cores, but then my dad decided to try a "balata" ball. This resulted in a small rubbery core explosively launching out of the groove from the saw. We then put the tools away before my mom found out.
Posted by: A.P. Ferguson | January 7, 2010 11:22 AM
my experiment using a sharp penknife in the 60s, found the rubber-band style with a hard rubber ball at the core. Cutting into that core released a liquid under extremely high pressure. It didn't explode and didn't burn the skin (much). We concluded our investigations before testing the liquid for flammability ;-)
I am with John Gierach, philosophically opposed to golf..
Posted by: Doug K | January 7, 2010 12:12 PM
@Mike (#11):
We used to cut them up as kids in the late 60s / early 70s as well. All the ones we did were the type with rubber band wound around a hollow fluid-filled core.
We also heard the rumor about battery acid inside the central core. We cut them open anyway. As I recall, the fluid was clear, a bit more viscous than water, but not as viscous as cooking oil or motor oil. We didn't really think it was any kind of acid, but we still avoided touching it. Just in case, right?
Interesting to think that the battery acid rumor might have been so wide-spread, especially since there was no internet or similar media to spread it around. (FWIW, we lived in Houston at the time.)
Posted by: qetzal | January 7, 2010 12:18 PM
Your friendly local golf player here, at your service.
Golf balls come in two flavours - solid-core and wound, with the latter being all but extinct, which is why any found golf ball is more likely to be of the former kind.
Solid-core balls come in several flavours as well - 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-piece constructions, all with different characteristics. Typically, 2-piece balls fly far, 3-piece balls are softer, 4-piece balls are more expensive, and 5-piece balls are for show-offs.
It would appear that the Top-Flite is a 2-piece, and the Callaway a 3-piece construction. The numbers stamped on the balls are just for in-game identification purposes, btw.
Posted by: Pär | January 7, 2010 12:31 PM
Martin, you've got way too much time on your hands...
Posted by: ArchAsa | January 7, 2010 12:44 PM
Thanks for enlightening us, Pär! I did wonder about those digits. Unlike you I don't have the necessary reserves of coolth that would allow me to play golf and still have any face left.
BTW, you should try listening to the Drabblecast, Sherman is your kinda guy!
Åsa, opening golf balls is a guy thing. You wouldn't understand.
Posted by: Martin R | January 7, 2010 12:48 PM
In the early nineties, I worked on an atlas of eye injuries that had a whole chapter on injuries caused by dissecting golf balls. Some of the chemicals caused injuries that were difficult to treat, especially as the golf ball manufacturers were reluctant to disclose what they were.
Posted by: Alistair Wall | January 7, 2010 2:15 PM
Gosh -- I grew up among golf balls, too, but I don't think the idea of opening one ever even occurred to me. To think what I missed out on! No use starting now: those new solid-bore ones seem very inferior.
Posted by: Tor | January 7, 2010 4:39 PM
Solid Core Golf balls caught on when MArk O'Meara, a solid but otherwise unremarkable player, won two of the four "major" tournaments in 1998. He was Tiger Woods' friend, and while many players were using a solid core ball at this point, I recall that being frequently mentioned at the time. Within 2 years, Tiger Woods also switched to a solid core ball, and that was the end of the wound balls.
Posted by: aweb | January 7, 2010 5:40 PM
Hi what a cool topic. I also sawed open golfballs in the late '60's and early '70's and found kilometers of rubber band about 2mm wide when stretched around the very soft inner core. The rubberband was just tied around the soft centre which my older brother assured me was deadly poisonous. We found that taking the shell off older golfballs and dropping them was diverting because the bands would spontaneously unwind flicking the ball around in a satisfyingly dangerous way. Modern golfballs appear to have evolved to be almost boring inside, suggesting major holes in the irreducible complexity doctrine. I'm just sayin'
Posted by: Another Kiwi | January 7, 2010 6:42 PM
I once took on a side job drilling holes halfway through golf balls, hammering in spikes, and selling them to kite flyers as sand stakes. The wound, fluid centered ones made a gushing mess when you drilled into the center, so I quickly discovered that you could tell the difference either by dropping them or by spinning them. A solid ball would bounce off of a smooth concrete floor nearly back into your hand, while the fluid centered ones only bounced back about 2/3. Spinning was less obvious and took longer, but a fluid centered ball doesn't spin nearly as long.
I'm assuming the fluid centered balls may be more forgiving; the fluid center decaying spin that causes a hook or slice, sacrificing ultimate performance for reliable playability. Maybe that fluid doesn't bounce off of the club quite as hard as a solid ball, either. Solid balls will drive all of the spin into aerodynamic reaction, creating more lift. But only if you hit it just right, if you hit it crooked it's going to hook or slice all that much harder. But it works great if you're Tiger, which is great for selling unforgiving product to ordinary Joes. Plus, they're all that much more likely to get lost in the rough, which ultimately sells more balls, right? Hmm...
Posted by: John | January 7, 2010 8:41 PM
My brothers and I used to cut them open in the early '70s. At that time, balls from golf courses were always the wound variety, and the solid ones were used on driving ranges. I don't recall that we ever cut open the fluid-containing bit; not for fear of poison, but just because we weren't interested. We assumed it was some random oil.
Posted by: Nathan Myers | January 7, 2010 9:07 PM
1970s, Europe & Australia: rubber-band cores.
Looks like the fun police have got to the golf balls now.
Posted by: Vince Whirlwind | January 7, 2010 9:33 PM
Back in the 1970's when Uniroyal still had a plant here in Providence my friends mother worked there. She used to bring us golf ball centers. Those suckers would bounce like there was no tomorrow.
Posted by: Tony P | January 8, 2010 1:17 AM
Said John, selling them to kite flyers as sand stakes
That's intriguing. Were the spikes used to anchor kites to the ground?
Posted by: Martin R | January 8, 2010 2:43 AM
John, check this for a brief discussion on the spin characteristics of the different ball types. It's actually the other way around.
Posted by: Pär | January 8, 2010 5:49 AM
when i was a kid (around 1988) we cut open 3 golf balls after hearing the battery acid rumor.... i live in the midwest and had heard about it from one of my older cousins. All of the balls were old in 1988. THey could have been leftovers from the early 60's. The third golf ball we cut open seemed just like the other two until we got to the core which sprayed a fluid everywhere. I remember it getting on one side of my neck and all over my hands which were holding the hacksaw. The area turned red and burned really really bad but after rinsing with soap and water for a few minutes it started to fade. I have touched battery acid (which seemed to burn worse) but whatever was in the golf ball i opened was not benign. I don't know enough to say it was acid but it was something strong. It certainly seems like it would have blinded me if it got in my eyes.......
I feel sort of lucky to have the explosive acid reaction to openint a golf ball... i googled it assuming lots of people would have had the same experience as me!
Posted by: hoerath | January 8, 2010 12:19 PM
Hmm... 1960s... Acid in golf balls... Turn on, tune in, drop out, play golf!
Posted by: Martin R | January 8, 2010 12:29 PM