The first golf balls used were called featheries. They were made with a horsehide cover packed with wet goose feathers. When the balls dried they became extremely hard. The major flaw with the featheries was that they could not be used when the conditions were wet because they would soften again.[5] Despite the flaw of the featheries, they remained the only ball used up until the middle of the 19th century when the revolutionary gutta-percha ball was invented. The new ball, sometimes referred to as a "guttie", was molded from the warmed, dried gum of the sapodilla tree.[5] These balls were cheap to manufacture and opened up the game of golf to a more diverse socio-economic group. This in turn made the game of golf very popular, which led to dramatic improvements in golf balls in the

Because of the unique challenges that physics present during a game of golf, it will be a long time before anyone is able to master the game. In an endeavor to improve scores many miracle products have claimed to lower ones score, however it is evident that only those ideas and products, which have a basis in science, have stayed on the market. The golf ball is a prime example of this. It has made dramatic changes from being made of dried goose feathers to the two piece dimpled design of today. All of the improvements on the ball were based around trying to give the golfer and edge in lowering his score and working around some of the laws of physics, which prevent him from reaching perfection.

First, the collision must be considered. During the collision between the club head and the ball, several things happen. The club head is slowed down, and the ball is sent off with a high speed at some angle above the horizontal with a high rate of spin.[1] This all happens in less than a thousandth of a second while the club head moves less than an inch.[1] Such a short time makes it extremely difficult to observe what is happening during the collision. The force between the ball and the club head averaged over the time of the collision is greater than 3000lb[1] and high speed photography has shown the ball to be considerably flattened against the club head.[1] The elastic properties of the ball come into place at this point because it is those properties that allow the ball to be compressed and then spring away from the face of the club at a high velocity. Although there is no scientific proof of what exactly happens at the point of impact, through the use of physics, several educated guesses can be made.

Although it may not seem possible, a human swinging a golf club works in a very similar manner to the whip. First, one must consider where the energy for the stroke comes from. In the whip it obviously came from the muscles in the arm. However, when swinging a golf club, much more energy is required, in fact it has been estimated that the amount of energy transferred into the golf ball during impact is about two horsepower.[1] Because muscle generates approximately 1/8th horsepower per pound, it would take about 32lbs [2] of fully loaded muscle to generate enough energy to produce two horsepower. If however the muscle is not suitably loaded, then more then 32lbs of muscle would be needed. If that seems to the reader to be a lot of muscle, their assumption is correct; that is a lot of muscle. The average person does not have that much muscle in their arms. Instead they must rely on the much larger muscles in their back and legs. The person uses their body to transfer the energy from these muscles into their arms. The explanation of how this is done can be found in "Appendix 3" of this paper. It shows a graph of the five torques which work on the arms during the swing.

Before delving into the details of the golf stroke, it is important for one to consider the general concepts of motion that control the swing of the golf club. Two men are most influential in this area of study, Galileo Galilee and Isaac Newton. It is the principles of these two men that will be used during the discussion of the physics of golf. A brief explanation of momentum, moment of inertia, torque, centripetal force, and centrifugal force can be located in "Appendix 4". These terms were derived from the experiments and research of first Galileo, and then expanded upon by Newton. Although neither of these two men are solely responsible for all of the physical principals presented in this paper, Galileo and Newton were two of the most influential men in these areas of study.

Lift and drag are the final aspects of how physics relates to golf. As the ball spins, it creates lift by disturbing the flow of air around the ball. The dimples help greatly with this. However, drag is also produced, which threatens to pull the ball ba

Some common words found in the essay are:
Professor Tait, Newton's Law, Bi EL, Frank Beard, Stroke Lost, Momentum Newton's, Harry Vardon, , Moment Inertia, Galileo Newton, golf ball, club head, golf club, kinetic energy, game golf, moment inertia, hit ball, flight ball, centripetal force, mass body, el + spin, bi el +, club head ball, spin + lift, + spin +,
Approximate Word count = 5293
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page double spaced)