Golf project for science?

Question

I am doing a project in physical science about the game of golf. In what circumstances is friction desirable? Undesirable? What kind of friction? And what could you do to improve your golfing skill?

Answer 1

Friction is usually never desired, especially on tee shots (shots with a driver).  With this club, we are trying to get as much distance out of our shot as possible, hence less friction=more distance.  Friction is desired most often on wedge shots and short iron shots (7,8,9,pw,sw,lw).  With these shots players strive to put the ball close to the pin by have the ball run up the face on impact, creating spin, and then once hitting the green, check up and preferably sit in one spot.

Oh and to improve golfing skill, P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E!!!

Answer 2

First off, the golf ball does not run up the face to create backspin.  Friction and angle of impact create spin.  With higher lofted clubs such as wedges, backspin is created by the friction of the club face gripping the soft cover of the golf ball.  The face loft forces an angle of impact on the ball, creating a moment (force applied to an object resulting in rotational movement around a pivot point) around the center of the ball resulting in spin.  The greater this force, the higher the rotations per minute.  More backspin leads to straighter ball flight due to centripetal force.

The friction itself is kinetic friction (sliding or dry friction).  The ball sticks to the club face and creates this friction because the force does not exceed the coefficient of kinetic friction of the two surfaces.  Once the coefficient of friction is exceeded, the forces are too great and the two surfaces can no longer hold onto each other.

I could go on much longer, but I'll call it a day on that for now.