As a game, golf originates from Scotland and it was initially played using primitive equipment. There is a documented reference that the very fist golf ball was made from wood in 1550. In 1618 the feather golf ball was introduced, also known as 'Featherie'. This was a hand made ball, made from goose feathers tightly packed into a sphere. The feathers and leather were fashioned into a ball while wet. When the feathers dried out, they would expand and harden the golf ball. Then the ball was painted and signed by the craftsman. Quality varied greatly, depending on the skills of the craftsman. But the fact that they were hand made also ment that they were too expensive for the masses.

In 1898, Coburn Haskell created the one-piece rubber cored ball which was then officially adopted by the US and British Opens in 1901. They featured a solid rubber core to give golfers and extra 20 yards from the tee. When W. Millson introduced the thread winding machine started a mass production of Haskell golf balls, making them much more affordable. William Taylor was the first person to apply the dimple pattern on a Haskell ball in 1905. From that moment on, golf balls took their modern shape and golfers never looked back. The advantage provided by the dimple pattern is that it minimizes drag and maximizes the lift.

Modern age technology made a lot of changes to the golf ball, allowing players to hit it farther, straighter and longer than ever before. Precisely engineered dimple patterns have allowed manufacturers to alter everything from trajectory to spin rates. Nowadays, manufacturers produce two types of golf balls - spin and distance. The spin golf balls are designed to spin more, making them easier to draw or fade as they hold the green. Distance golf balls are made form harder, more durable covers and solid cores, so that can travel longer distances. They don't spin a lot, and less spin means less control and restricts the ball's stopping ability in some cases.

Aerodynamics forces are they when it comes to the flight of a golf ball. The dimple pattern on a golf ball, causes the air flow to transition from laminar to turbulent. The turbulent flow has more energy than the laminar flow and hence, the flow stays attached longer. Reynolds number is the number at which a flow turn from laminar to turbulent and the dimples greatly decrease the Reynolds number, compared to the Re number of a smooth sphere. In other words, the dimple pattern on a golf ball decreases the Reynolds number, so the flow can become turbulent at much lower velocity than on a smooth sphere. All of this results in decrease of drag and increase of the lift of the ball.