(FAKE) Golf Ball Hitting Steel at 150 MPH

[sean_miller]

What about gravity... huh? Come on smart guy.

That's not a "rule".

But anyway, the faster a clubhead contacts a ball the more the ball compresses. It's easier to compress a lower compression ball. For lower swing speeds, a lower compression ball is better. They can't "tap into" the inner layers of a high compression or tour ball. This is all based on what I've read from various sources (including golf ball manufacturer literature which is totally unbiased - lol - and from personal experience). At some point a lower compression ball is maxxed out, distancewise, and start to balloon. According to Golf Digest, and those brochures, some multilayer balls (and the ones where the properties of a single layer change as you near the centre) are not compressed fully by lower swing speeds. For a higher SS though, a higher compression ball goes farther. A person with a 95 mph driver swing is not doing themselves any favours playing a Pro V1. They can't compress it properly (or take advantage of their driver's COR) then with the added spin it goes even shorter. Whatever.

[iacas]

But anyway, the faster a clubhead contacts a ball the more the ball compresses. It's easier to compress a lower compression ball. For lower swing speeds, a lower compression ball is better. They can't "tap into" the inner layers of a high compression or tour ball. This is all based on what I've read from various sources (including golf ball manufacturer literature which is totally unbiased - lol - and from personal experience).

Is it easier to compress a lower compression golf ball? Yes.

Does a higher compression golf ball have more ball speed off the clubface than a lower compression ball at any reasonable swing speed (50 to 150 MPH)? Yes. Why are lower compression balls better for slower swingers? Spin. Let's not confuse things like ball speed with total distance. Total distance is a matter of ball speed, launch angle, and spin. A firmer ball is always the way to increase ball speed without changing anything about the player's swing or club, but it may negatively affect launch angle and/or spin.

A person with a 95 mph driver swing is not doing themselves any favours playing a Pro V1. They can't compress it properly (or take advantage of their driver's COR) then with the added spin it goes even shorter.

You can't make a blanket statement like that. If they can generate enough spin and have a good launch angle with the Pro V1, it'll come off the face with more ball speed than a lower compression golf ball.

[sean_miller]

You can't make a blanket statement like that. If they can generate enough spin and have a good launch angle with the Pro V1, it'll come off the face with more ball speed than a lower compression golf ball.

Sure I can. After all, I cited the most reliable sources on the issue - Golf Digest and the ball manufacturers - lol.

If guys swing at 80-95 mph want to buy tour balls for the greenside spin that's their choice. My opinion is they'll likely need it though, because they're gonna have longer shots into the green and miss more greens in the long run.

[Shanks A Million]

Let's not confuse things like ball speed with total distance. Total distance is a matter of ball speed, launch angle, and spin. A firmer ball is always the way to increase ball speed without changing anything about the player's swing or club, but it may negatively affect launch angle and/or spin.

Aw heck, why stop there, you know this stuff better than anyone. Your point carries more weight when you realize just how complex of a puzzle it really is. Total distance probably has more than a thousand factors, from humidity to barometric pressure, to coefficient of friction of the grass, to dimple patterns, to the tides to the position of Jupiter (I wish I wasn't serious).

The bottom line, distance is about optimization, and what works for you. You ever seen the Ad where Justin Leonard and the tech are having a contest to see who can make Iron Byron hit it further? Yeah, that. Small factors change distance, and to get a theoretical maximum distance from a club and ball at a swing speed has probably never been done.

I know a golf ball compresses but even a rubber bouncy ball doesn't flatten like that. We need that slow motion show from the discovery channel.

Time Warp. In the TiVo... great show. Especially when they blow stuff up. Did you see the one with the baseball? I was amazed how much a baseball compressed when it hit the bat.

[iacas]

Sure I can. After all, I cited the most reliable sources on the issue - Golf Digest and the ball manufacturers - lol.

I don't know why that's funny. I'm just citing the science... from

this article : And I'm not in any way suggesting that guys should all play high compression balls. No way. I'm just saying that ball speed is higher for higher compression balls regardless of swing speed. Overall launch conditions may suffer, which is why lower compression balls might end up flying farther, but ball speed itself and alone is a simple one.

Aw heck, why stop there, you know this stuff better than anyone.

I hope not to have given the impression that I feel that way. I'm simply repeating what the ball engineers I've been fortunate to talk to have told me, and what my fairly decent understanding of physics tells me is true.

There's no "mythical ball boost" when you can "compress the core."

[Shanks A Million]

I hope not to have given the impression that I feel that way. I'm simply repeating what the ball engineers I've been fortunate to talk to have told me, and what my fairly decent understanding of physics tells me is true.

Don't be modest, you and several other members know this stuff pretty cold. I've learned the answer to any question of physics should be, "it's more complicated than that." To think we could fully and accurately measure anything to such a degree as to trivialize it to a general statement is, as you know, almost blasphemous to what, or whoever created the infinitely expansive universe. We, as humans, rely a lot on being "close enough."

I'm a musical scholar, and I know enough to know that there's no way to ever fully understand or appreciate the full spectrum of just how complicated music really is, and I know it better than most people on this planet. Even the most mundane "fact" comes with a list of a thousand caveats, and as I've gone back to college, I've found most people with doctorates in music don't even know these things. Even something as simple as an octave, is not what it seems. Most instruments don't have proper octaves, they beat in the octave (meaning they are not in tune with themselves). The earliest FM synthesizers (which were pretty much perfectly in tune,) sounded like crap.

[bigoak]

Is it easier to compress a lower compression golf ball? Yes.

I thought the absence of score lines on a driver was to reduce spin and therefore hit a knuckeball type short which would increase distance. Wasn't that how the mighty jack increased the distance by hitting the ball after the Zenith and launching at higher angle. simple principle of physics the 45 degree angle produces the greatest trajectory. The spinning ball will have the air above the top of the ball moving relatively slower than the air moving against the spin surface than the air moving past the bottom of the ball producing a higher relative speed producing more of a vertical drop.

[iacas]

I thought the absence of score lines on a driver was to reduce spin and therefore hit a knuckeball type short which would increase distance.

No. Grooves channel away debris. They're pretty much useless on a modern driver. They're decorative only, really.

simple principle of physics the 45 degree angle produces the greatest trajectory.

In a vacuum... On earth, nobody (regularly) hits their lob wedge farther than their driver. The golf ball does not travel on anything resembling a parabola except short pitch and chip shots, and even then it's inches or feet from being a perfect parabola.

The spinning ball will have the air above the top of the ball moving relatively slower than the air moving against the spin surface than the air moving past the bottom of the ball producing a higher relative speed producing more of a vertical drop.

That's not really it... it's simple lift and drag and turbulence... but mostly lift. Bernoulli's and a few other principles at play.

[Shanks A Million]

No. Grooves channel away debris. They're pretty much useless on a modern driver. They're decorative only, really.

Studies done show that, grooves, even on wedges, from a clean lie, do almost nothing. In the rough, and in wet conditions, they do a lot. The same principle applies to race car tires. They use smooth tires when it's dry, and treads when it's wet.

In a vacuum... On earth, nobody (regularly) hits their lob wedge farther than their driver. The golf ball does not travel on anything resembling a parabola except short pitch and chip shots, and even then it's inches or feet from being a perfect parabola.

Yeah, most people don't really get that I think. With no dimples or spin, the world long drive champions would be hitting it 180 yards. The aerodynamics of a golf ball make it so unique compared to nearly any other ball out there. I try and find golf balls with no dimples left at the range, and get my friends to hit them. They go maybe 150 yards if you really smash one.

That's not really it... it's simple lift and drag and turbulence... but mostly lift. Bernoulli's and a few other principles at play.

Reynold's number, the Magnus effect, those are two other ones I can think of. Without dimples, the ball wouldn't churn the air properly until about 140 mph. With dimples, it overcomes the Reynolds number at more like 30 mph.

[will54]

Aw heck, why stop there, you know this stuff better than anyone. Your point carries more weight when you realize just how complex of a puzzle it really is. Total distance probably has more than a thousand factors, from humidity to barometric pressure, to coefficient of friction of the grass, to dimple patterns, to the tides to the position of Jupiter (I wish I wasn't serious).

Thats the one though I never saw the baseball episode. Wonder if it was one of the so called "juiced" baseball.

Also David K I never meant that the other videos were fake just the initial.

[David K]

Also David K I never meant that the other videos were fake just the initial.

Yeah sorry I figured that out after I posted it

. I have a little bit of a hard time believing the grooves don't grip the ball to help it spin even with clean contact. I'm sure its not a big effect but they without a doubt have an effect. My worn out vokey wedge is still made of the same soft metal from when it was brand new but as the grooves got dull the ball just didn't spin as much anymore. The more impact there is (with longer irons for example) the less effective the grooves probably become with clean contact. It is amazing how the dimples on a golf ball work. A friend of mine was a flight instructor and I've learned a lot about aerodynamics from him along with building/flying my own RC planes but I never would have though about using dimples to reduce drag. They let air curve around the backside of the ball which makes the low pressure behind the ball smaller. If the low pressure following the ball is smaller, than it reduces drag. The right amount of spin makes this aerodynamic effect more efficient. Of course dimples wont help an airplane wing, there is no vacuum behind the wing because of the top and bottom surfaces meeting at a very sharp point. I wonder how far a smooth tier drop shaped golf ball would go?

[stacks04]

[wubskis]

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

Yeah, either that's WAY faster than 150 mph (unlikely), or that's not a golf ball, but rather something much softer than a golf ball with a golf ball cover on it. From the way it wobbles all over the place after rebound, I'd guess it's filled with some kind of viscous liquid or gel.

-Andrew

[wubskis]

Semi-constructive reply: It's definitely not a real golf ball, the compression is way too intense. There have been videos released showing high-speed driver->ball impacts, and the ball was nowhere near as elastic as is shown in that video.



One that's a bit less mystery science theater 3000 =P

[Valleygolfer]

It is actually a shot of a normal golf ball coming off my driver, 750 yards BAYBAY!

[jamo]

How many times does this have to be posted here (and elsewhere) for people to realize it's a fake. All the evidence you need is to look at a slow-motion of Bubba Watson (or anyone else with a 120-130 mph swing) and see that at just 20-30 mph slower they don't compress the ball 1/2 that much. From that you can make the logical assumption that this is fake.

[enis750]

It is actually a shot of a normal golf ball coming off my driver, 750 yards BAYBAY!

the only way that is possible, is if you hit it w the HAMMER!!!!!!

then ill beleive it......