Golf Ball Brand v. Distance

Brady Haering10th GradeMr. Carley

OBSERVATION

• When golfing with my grandparents I watched my grandpa hit his drive on several occasions and throughout the game he lost balls. So, I watched him hit three drives all with different brands of balls, and every time he had a different drive distance. My grandma also lost a ball during the game and she had different drive differences with different brands of balls. I began to wonder if the brand of ball made a difference in the distance of someone’s hit.

Research

• The five brands of golf ball that I am using (Nike CRUSH, Top Flite XL, Taylormade Rocketballz, Callaway Warbird, and Maxfli Tour LC) are all balls made for distance with hexagonal dimples. The core of each of these balls is solid, made of a blend of urethane, plastic and pressurized rubber. The golf balls each have a white plastic cover. The club I used to strike the ball was a Genex six iron. This club is made of forged iron with a cavity back that makes the weight of the club more even and therefore more consistent in terms of the experiment.

Hypothesis

• I think that in this experiment the Taylormade Rocketballz will travel the furthest because they are the newest brand of ball.

Independent/Dependent Variable

Independent Variable• Brand of golf ball

Dependent Variable• Distance the ball travels

Materials

• 1 six iron golf club• 5 different brands of golf ball• 1 ring stand and clamp with additional clamp

used to hold the club at an angle.• 1 30cm by 30cm square of carpet• 1 meter stick

Data Sample (Trials 1-15)Nike Crush Top Flite XL Taylormade RBZ Callaway Warbird Maxfli Tour LC

Trial 1 7.6 8.5 9.8 8.2 7.3Trial 2 7.4 8.9 10.5 8.1 7.2Trial 3 7.3 8.4 9.7 7.7 7.9Trial 4 7.8 8.4 10.3 7.9 7.6Trial 5 8 8.3 10.3 7.7 7.4Trial 6 7.8 8.6 10.7 7.7 7.5Trial 7 7.5 8.6 9.8 8.3 6.9Trial 8 7 8.4 9.8 8.5 7.3Trial 9 7.3 8.3 10.2 7.8 6.8Trial 10 7.4 8.9 10.2 8.1 7.3Trial 11 7.4 8.8 9.9 7.6 7.3Trial 12 7.7 8.8 10.1 8.2 7.5Trial 13 7.8 8.4 10.3 7.5 7.1Trial 14 7.5 8.9 10.6 7.5 6.8Trial 15 8.1 9.1 10.4 7.5 7.2Average 7.573333333m 8.62m 10.17333333m 7.886666667m 7.273333333m

Data Analysis

Nike Crush Top Flite XL Taylormade RBZ Callaway Warbird Maxfli Tour LC 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

7.58333333333333

8.63333333333333

10.2266666666667

7.843333333333337.30666666666667

Golf Ball Brands v. Average Distance Travelled

Average

Golf Ball Brand

Ave

rage

Dis

tanc

e Tr

avel

led

Data Analysis (cont.)

• The Nike CRUSH balls had an average distance of

Conclusion

• In my experiment the results agreed with my hypothesis. The Taylormade Rocketballz traveled the furthest on a consistent basis and even it’s lowest outliers were higher than the highest outliers of the Top Flite XL which traveled the second furthest.

Further Research

• If I were to run this experiment again I would test balls with dual cores, I would use a driver instead of a six iron, and I would like to test different versions of the same golf ball brands.