Dimples
Dimples are the small, shallow indentations covering the surface of a golf ball. They reduce drag and add lift, allowing the ball to fly farther and more predictably than a smooth ball would.
What are dimples in golf?
A modern golf ball has somewhere between 300 and 500 dimples pressed into its outer cover, arranged in a symmetrical pattern across the surface. Most are circular, though a few manufacturers have experimented with hexagons and other shapes. The dimples sit on the cover layer, the outermost part of the ball, formed during manufacturing when the urethane or Surlyn cover is molded around the inner core.
Their job is aerodynamic. Titleist describes them as the small indentations engineers use to optimize the forces of lift and drag acting on the ball in flight. Without dimples, the ball behaves quite differently in the air. Acushnet’s Courtney Engle, Manager of Mechanical Engineering, puts it bluntly: “That golf ball is going to fall out of the sky.”
For the average player, dimples are the reason a 250-yard drive actually carries 250 yards. They help the ball climb to a stable height and keep it on a straighter line, reducing some of the wobble a smooth ball would suffer.
How dimples affect a golf ball’s flight
Two forces shape every golf shot once the ball leaves the clubface: drag and lift.
Drag is air resistance pushing back against the ball’s motion. When a smooth ball moves through the air, the airflow separates from the back of the ball quickly, leaving a wide, low-pressure wake behind it. That wake acts like a vacuum, pulling backward and slowing the ball down. Dimples solve this by creating a thin layer of turbulent air that clings to the ball’s surface a little longer, letting the airflow wrap further around the back before separating. The wake shrinks, and according to Scientific American, a dimpled ball ends up with roughly half the drag of a smooth one.
Lift works through a different mechanism. When a ball spins backwards after impact, the air on top moves faster than the air on the bottom, creating a pressure difference that pushes the ball upward. Backspin produces about half of this lift on its own; dimples produce the other half by keeping the airflow attached to the ball’s curved surface for longer.
The combined effect on distance is unmistakable. A smooth ball hit by a professional golfer would travel only about half as far as a dimpled one. NASA wind-tunnel data cited by golf ball designer Dean Snell shows that dimples can cut drag by close to 50 percent compared to a smooth sphere.
How many dimples does a golf ball have?
There is no fixed number. Most modern golf balls have between 300 and 500 dimples, with the average sitting around 336, per data from Glenmuir, Scientific American, and Wikipedia. The exact count depends on the manufacturer, the ball model, and the year. Titleist alone has produced close to 2,000 different dimple patterns since the Pro V1 launched in 2000, according to Golf Digest.
A few examples from current and recent models:
| Golf ball | Dimple count |
|---|---|
| Titleist Pro V1 (current) | 388 |
| Titleist Pro V1x (current) | 348 |
| OnCore ELIXR | 350 |
| OnCore AVANT 55 | 392 |
| OnCore VERO X1 | 318 |
The count itself matters less than golfers tend to assume. Pattern, depth, edge angle, and symmetry all affect performance more than the raw number does, per Snell Golf’s design team. One discontinued ball reportedly had 1,070 dimples, with 414 larger ones in four sizes plus 656 pinhead-sized ones, according to Wikipedia, and it never caught on.
Dimple shapes, sizes, and patterns
Most dimples on a standard golf ball are circular and roughly 0.010 inch deep, according to Scientific American. That depth might sound trivially small, but the lift and drag forces are sensitive enough that a change of just 0.001 inch can radically alter how the ball flies.
A few brands have moved away from the standard circle. Callaway’s HX ball used hexagonal dimples designed to optimize aerodynamic coverage, per Scientific American. Some newer experimental designs use polygonal shapes with sharp corners, which Aerospaceweb notes can reduce drag even further than spherical dimples.
Depth shapes ball flight in a way most players never notice. Deeper dimples produce a lower trajectory, while shallower ones produce a higher trajectory, according to OnCore Golf’s John Calabria. That is also why a worn-out range ball with chipped paint can fly oddly. Paint thickness changes the effective depth of each dimple.
Patterns must be symmetrical to conform to USGA and R&A rules. Within that constraint, dimple sizes can vary across a single ball; designers often mix two or more diameters to fine-tune the airflow, as Snell Golf describes.
A brief history of golf ball dimples
Dimples were a happy accident.
The earliest golf balls were “featheries,” leather pouches stuffed with goose feathers, used from the 1600s into the 1800s. They were replaced in the mid-1800s by smooth gutta-percha balls, made from the dried sap of the sapodilla tree. According to OnCore Golf’s history of the ball, Scottish ball-makers noticed that gutta-percha balls flew further once they had picked up nicks and scratches from play. Ball-makers started forging grooves into them by hand.
In 1905, English engineer William Taylor, co-founder of the Taylor-Hobson company, registered the first patent for a systematic dimple pattern. Wikipedia notes that Taylor had observed players deliberately roughening their balls and ran tests to figure out which surface formation flew best. An earlier 1897 patent filed by David Stanley Froy, James McHardy, and Peter G. Fernie also covered an indented ball, and Froy played a prototype at the 1900 Open at St. Andrews.
Mesh and bramble cover patterns competed with the dimple in those early years. The dimple won out because dimpled balls simply flew better in head-to-head testing, per Wikipedia.
Dimples and the rules of golf
The USGA and R&A set rules on a golf ball’s size and weight, and they also test for overall performance. Neither body specifies how many dimples a ball must have. The shape and depth of those dimples are also left to the manufacturer, which gives ball designers considerable freedom.
The one hard rule is symmetry. The dimple arrangement on a conforming ball must be symmetrical so the ball flies the same way regardless of which side faces forward at impact. That rule was added in 1981 after a controversy over the Polara golf ball, which had six rows of normal dimples around its equator and shallow dimples elsewhere. The asymmetric design helped the ball self-correct its spin axis in flight, reducing slices. The USGA refused to sanction it. Polara’s manufacturer sued, and per Wikipedia, the USGA paid a $1.375 million out-of-court settlement in 1985, but the ban on asymmetric dimples stayed in place.
Today, any ball used in tournament play must appear on the USGA’s Conforming Golf Ball List. A non-conforming ball can be played casually but not in formal competition.
Related Golf Terms
- Decel — Decelerating through impact instead of accelerating, causing poor shots.
- Dew sweeper — A golfer who plays the first tee time of the day.
- Dawn patrol — Golfers who play very early in the morning.
- Dead — A shot that lands very close to the hole with little or no roll.
- Desert course — A course built in arid environments with desert landscaping and limited rough.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do golf balls have dimples in the first place?
To make them fly farther. Dimples reduce drag and add lift compared to a smooth surface, allowing a struck ball to carry roughly twice the distance it otherwise would.
How many dimples does a Titleist Pro V1 have?
The current Pro V1 has 388 dimples in a tetrahedral pattern, and the Pro V1x has 348, per Titleist. Both counts have changed across model years.
Are dimples regulated by the rules of golf?
Not the count or the shape. The USGA and R&A do not specify how many dimples a ball must have or what they should look like, but they require the arrangement to be symmetrical.
Do all golf balls have round dimples?
Most do. A handful of balls, such as the Callaway HX, have used hexagonal dimples, and some experimental designs use polygonal shapes with sharp corners.
What would happen if a golf ball had no dimples?
It would fall short. According to Scientific American, a smooth ball hit by a professional golfer would travel only about half as far as a dimpled one.
Sources
- Scientific American. “How do dimples in golf balls affect their flight?” Updated February 2024.
- Titleist Learning Lab. “Dimples.” Accessed 2025.
- Wikipedia. “Golf ball.” Accessed 2025.
- Snell Golf. “Why Do Golf Balls Have Dimples? Flight and Spin Explained.”
- OnCore Golf. “The Truth about Golf Ball Dimples.” May 2022.
- Glenmuir. “How many dimples does a golf ball have?” August 2022.
- Aerospaceweb.org. “Golf Ball Dimples & Drag.”
- Golf Digest. “Titleist’s new Pro V1 and Pro V1x balls feature a dimple pattern change for the first time in 10 years.” January 2021.
