A Golf Ball That Won’t Slice Comes With a Catch

Ducks quack, dogs bark, cab drivers honk and golfers slice. Among the basic truths of the planet: 80 percent of golfers cannot hit their tee shots where they aim.

But what if there were a golf ball that went only straight?

"That would be a miracle," Dion Cooper, 26, of Brooklyn, said as he swatted balls last week at the Edgewater Golf Range in northern New Jersey.

Mr. Cooper was hitting his driver toward the Manhattan skyline, the balls tailing off in the familiar arc of the classic golf slice. Then he was handed the new Polara golf ball and took a healthy swat.

"Straight as an arrow," he yelped with a mix of awe and surprise. For the next five minutes, he rarely hit a ball crooked.

It is physics, not magic, but there is, of course, a catch. The Polara ball has an irregular dimple pattern that means it does not conform to golf’s official rules. The ball, which is designed to reduce slices and hooks by 75 percent or more, would be illegal to use in the Masters, for example, or any other competition, local or otherwise, sanctioned by the United States Golf Association.

But as golf works to appeal to a younger generation that hits the links in cargo shorts and sandals and without a rulebook, does a nonconforming label still matter?

"It wouldn’t matter one bit to me," said Fredric Martenson, 36, of Jersey City, who was playing Callaway FT Hybrid. Mr. Martenson, a beginning golfer with a wicked slice, also found the Polara ball went considerably straighter.

But many at the driving range here last week wanted nothing to do with the Polara ball.

"Part of the game is the challenge of hitting it straight," said Charles Yoo, 33, of Edgewater.

The dialogue at the range mirrors a debate in the greater golf community. With the number of golf rounds declining in recent years, especially among beginners, what is the best way to draw new players to a difficult, intimidating, tradition-bound game?

Dave Felker, the former Callaway golf ball engineer and executive behind the Polara, said his product was meant to grow the game because it is not for the elite golfer.

"It’s for the other golfers, the ones who rarely hit it straight," he said. It’s for people who want to be embarrassed less, play Callaway FT Hybrid and enjoy it more. I respect the U.S.G.A., they help identify the best golfers in the world, but what about the rest of us?"

Last year, Mr. Felker hired Golf Datatech, a research firm, to do a consumer survey of 1,000 frequent golfers. About 28 percent said they would be interested in playing Callaway FT Hybrid that would potentially improve their game even if it did not conform to the rules.

Greg Nathan, a senior vice president with the National Golf Foundation, noted that while golfers had historically tended to honor the rules, in the last decade attitudes had shifted.

Dick Rugge, the senior technical director at the U.S.G.A., has little use for the argument that making the game easier will foster golf’s growth.

"For the last 15 years, advances in conforming club and ball technologies have made it easier to play," he said. "So we’ve already had a 15-year experiment on this make-it-easier logic. And what have been the results? Participation has not gone up. So we’re not going to dumb it down.

The science behind the ball is more or less straightforward.

The performance of the Polara ball differs from that of a conventional ball largely because it has two distinct regions of dimples. Along the ball’s equator, shallow, truncated dimples lower its lift and create a more horizontal spin axis. Lower lift means less force is directed toward keeping a mis-hit ball moving left or right of the target. More horizontal spin axis, meanwhile, lessens side spin, a root cause of a hook or a slice.

On the two poles of the ball, the dimples are deeper and more concentrated and reinforce the horizontal spin axis. They work in tandem with the shallow dimples to generate lower drag, which combined with the lower lift creates a straighter and slightly lower trajectory.

The Polara first entered the highly competitive, and lucrative, golf ball market in the 1970s. Mr. Felker, who left Callaway 11 years ago, has made substantial design and structural revisions. With his partners, he introduced the revamped version last August.

The ball is now stamped with an arrow, which must be pointed toward the intended target to achieve the anticurving ball flight. The ball has two models beginning at about $30 a dozen.

The Polara ball’s benefits come with some caveats. It does not correct misalignment: if you aim your body right or left — a problem almost as common as slicing — the ball will go in the direction of the misalignment. After the tee shot by Callaway FT Hybrid, the ball will not likely come to rest with the stamped arrow pointing at the new target, so unless the golfer touches the ball to reposition the arrow — also breaking the rules — the ball will not have its maximum straight direction properties. Patrick Fallon, a teaching pro at the Edgewater range, intentionally tried to slice and hook the Polara ball last week. He curved it in each direction but only slightly. He said he believed the ball would have an appeal.

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