The earliest known golf balls, as documented in the mid-1500s, were made of wood. In the 1600s, players began using the "Featherie," which was made of cow or horse hide stuffed with goose feathers. Rubber balls emerged in the 1800s, and dimples showed up in the early 20th century. Today, golf balls are made of high-tech materials.
Size
The U.S. Golf Association sets standards for golf equipment. It says that a regulation golf ball can be no heavier than 1.62 oz. and no smaller than 1.68 inches in diameter. Those are the only limits, though--the USGA specifies no minimum weight or maximum diameter. Lightweight "practice" balls that are designed not to go very far would actually be legal in competition.
Composition
The modern golf ball has a core of hard rubber, wrapped in an outer core of softer rubber. Around that is a layer of hard polymer, known as the "mantle," and an outer cover made of a layer of soft polyurethane. Golf-ball makers can adjust how hard or soft a ball is--its elasticity--by tinkering with the composition of the core and mantle.
Effects
If you've ever heard a golfer brag about a long drive by saying he really "crushed it," he was speaking the literal truth. When the club makes contact with the ball, the ball compresses by as much as one-quarter of its diameter--in other words, that 1.6-inch-wide ball becomes a 1.2-inch-thick disk, even if for just a fraction of a second. The more a ball retains its shape when struck, the farther it will go, because compression actually drains away some of the energy that the golfer put into his swing.
Features
As the ball flies down the course, it encounters resistance from the air, known as drag, that bleeds off its momentum, shortening its flight. The dimples on the surface of the ball reduce that air resistance. The dimples' effect on drag isn't so much a function of how many dimples a ball has, but how they're arranged. You can't simply say that more dimples--or fewer dimples--make for a longer ball.
Considerations
In addition to size and weight, the USGA has several technical specifications for balls, such as degree of symmetry, the initial velocity off the club face and limits on the overall distance a ball can travel under test conditions. Ball makers submit products to the USGA for testing, and the association keeps a list of all balls that conform to its standards. See the link in the Resources section for the list, which is updated once a month.
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