What is a golf ball made of?

Question

What are the materials that make up a golf ball. I'm most concerned with the outter layer. Plastic? If not, what then?

Answer 1

plastic pvc plastic with thousands of little rubber bands wrapped around a little ball with water in it thats the core . throw one in the fire and stand back. its pretty cool

Answer 2

Today's golf balls look remarkably similar to those from the 19th century, but what's inside has changed in a dramatic way, with new materials and designs fueling a veritable distance revolution in recent years. The credit tends to go to physics, but it is the chemistry of the golf ball that allows it to leap off the club head, bend in the air, and stop on a dime--while emerging from the ordeal virtually unscathed.

In recent years, everything has changed. Multilayer balls hit the market in 1996, and the so-called distance revolution was launched. The Top-Flite Strata, the first of the multilayer balls, essentially bridged the gap between wound and solid-core balls with a hard "mantle" between the solid core and the soft terpolymer covering. "You want to reduce the spin that comes off the driver so that you don't have the ball ballooning up in the air and losing distance; hence the mantle," says chemist Tom Kennedy, vice president of research and development for Top-Flite Golf. "Then, in order to have a good playing ball around the green, you have the very soft outer cover."

In late 2000, many tour players began teeing up another ball heralded for its distance, Titleist's solid-core Pro V1, and the average driving distance of professionals increased by more than 6 yards, according to Golf Digest magazine. "The hottest material right now is polyurethane," Weiss explains, and that is what Titleist and other manufacturers are using as a cover. Soft materials like polyurethane do not transfer energy well from the club to the ball, dampening the impact of the club head. But manufacturers have found a way to put an extremely thin layer of polyurethane over an ionomer mantle, minimizing the dampening effect.

See on golf ball history at http://www.golfeurope.com/almanac/history/golf_ball.htm

Answer 3

I think the outer layer is plastic, then inside it has a few MILES of elastic. The inside is a rubber solid or liquid inside ball about 3/4 of an inch diameter.

Answer 4

Everlasting Gobstoppers

Answer 5

The ones I play with have to be made from flubber. When hit,
it goes anywhere it wants to.

Answer 6

that used to have a balata and rubber bands now carbon and pvc.

Answer 7

the ones used on the men's tour are made of snakes, and snails, and puppy dog tails. the one's used on the women's tour are made of sugar, and spice, and everything nice.

Answer 8

carbon fibre with pvc palstic.

Answer 9

http://www.titleist.com/technology/evolution.asp

Answer 10

blue cheese covered with hardened sponge.