Golf ball having reduced side spin

This invention relates to golf balls, and particularly to a golf ball having reduced side spin. Side spin is a spin generated around the golf ball center in a plane oblique to the flight path of the ball. Side spin is produced when the face of the golf club strikes the ball at an oblique angle to the path of the club. The present invention relates to a golf ball that is constructed to oppose side spin forces generated by the oblique angle striking force of the club face.

Side spin of a golf ball is undesired because it causes the ball to take a curved path after it leaves the club face, so that the ball goes off course from the direction intended by the golfer. With a right-handed golfer a curvature to the right is termed a slice, and a curvature to the left is termed a hook.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,041,011, issued to M. J. Sullivan et al on May 9, 2006 discloses a golf ball designed to have a relatively low spin rate, with an associated lowered tendency to hook or slice. The golf ball has an outer layer containing regions of weighting material that provides perimeter weighting for the ball. Such perimeter weighting increases the moment of inertia of the ball, which the patentees believe causes the ball to have a lower spin rate, compared to a conventional golf ball.

The present invention relates to a golf ball having one or more grooves in its spherical outer surface. Each groove has a sufficient width and depth dimension so that when the ball is airborne a ball-related laminar air flow is achieved in each groove, thereby generating a resistance to side spin of the ball. Each groove acts as a miniature air vane that has a turbine-like resistance to the side spin force. The turbine-like resistance exerts a breaking action to reduce the side spin and minimize the ball slice or hook (depending on the direction of the side spin).

The action of the groove in the golf ball surface is somewhat similar to the action of the fletches or vanes on an in-flight arrow. In each case the vane reacts to a disturbing force to stabilize the in-flight object (golf ball or arrow). In the case of the arrow the vane reacts to the disturbing force to produce stabilizing spinning motion of the arrow around the arrow axis. In the case of the golf ball the vane (groove) reacts to the side spin force so as to absorb the side spin energy, thereby reducing the undesired side spin.