The mechanics of golf ball impacts

A dynamic finite element model was eveloped to simulate impacts of golf balls on turf. A two-piece ball was modelled consisting of 2304 elements. The turf system consists of three layers with a total of 5200 elements. Golf balls were dropped vertically onto a constrained steel block and an artifical turf system and compared to FE results. Rebound velocities from the finite element model agreed well with the experimentally determined velocities, It was found, however, that the model overestimated the rebound velocities on both turf and steel as the angle of incidence was varied and this was probably due to poor extimates of the coefficient of friction. Further analysis of the finite element results for a non-spinning oblique impact showed that the topspin of the ball increased. As the velocity of the ball decreased, however, the ball started to slip in the opposite direction opposing the build up of spin. This caused the ball to rebound with a spin less than that expected for the ball to have rolled off the surface.