WATCH: How are golf balls made and tested? (1966 style)

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Time – and technology – have changed but the mystery of how golf balls are made and tested remains unsolved.

Back in 1966 British Pathé news visited the golf laboratory to reveal to cinema viewers the secrets of golf ball making and it’s a few minutes of amazing footage.

“Why do you want to hit a golf ball with a six-foot mechanical club?” The narrator asked.

“It’s not the swing of Arnold Palmer or Gary Player,” he adds. “But it puts a small white ball on a test plane that ends with a measuring tape.”

There are great scenes on screen as the boffins remove the tape, like a school play day to balance the dialogue with the shot.

“The story begins in this factory in Liverpool,” the narrator continues, “with the plastic fabric that is the hot but strong core of the golf ball.

“When this gooey substance hardens it becomes a ball of rubber that stretches over 80 feet for the ball to bounce.

“The cover is made of two shapes that must fit together exactly.

“This is where the ball gets small dimples. 332! No more, even the paint is made of plastic.”

The boffin is peering at the ball in Professor Brawnstorm’s type of instrument.

“Every dimple is carefully scrutinized because it’s the secret to golf ball flight.”

So far the film is pure nostalgia and has little relevance to the modern world.

But the words spoken next are as true now as they were then.

“They (dimples) catch air like a tire catches the road.”

The film then shows a strange machine that blasts balls at 125mph.

“Tests like this give the Sunday morning putter the same chance as Arnold Palmer,” the voice over claims carefully adding: “About the ball.”

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