Patent ID: 7935285

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a golf ball composed at least in part of a spherical elastomeric body, comprising the steps of extruding a bar of an unvulcanized rubber compound for obtaining the elastomeric body, cutting the extruded bar into slugs of a given length, coating the slugs with a powder substantially comprising a saturated or unsaturated carboxylic acid metal salt having a melting point at or below a vulcanizing temperature, wherein the saturated or unsaturated carboxylic acid metal salt powder is applied to a coating weight in a range of between 0.1 and 2.0 g per slug, and hot-molding the unvulcanized rubber compound, thereby to form the spherical elastomeric body for a core having a Shore D hardness difference between the center and the surface of the core of from 1 to 10, wherein a zinc acrylate is used as the saturated or unsaturated carboxylic acid metal salt, and wherein the particle size of the saturated or unsaturated carboxylic acid metal salt is 75 μm or below.