Patent ID: 8550940

Claim:
A method for evaluating golf ball designs comprising: designing a plurality of proposed golf balls, each proposed golf ball having a multi-layered construction, an outer spherical shape, and an outer spherical surface; determining, for each proposed golf ball, a proposed design mass of the proposed golf ball assuming the outer spherical surface to be smooth; designating, for each proposed golf ball, an average total dimple volume; selecting, for each proposed golf ball, a material that, when formed into a monolithic test golf ball having the outer spherical shape of the proposed golf ball with a smooth outer spherical surface, weighs the sum of the proposed design mass and the mass of a volume of the material equal to the average total dimple volume; forming, for each proposed golf ball, a plurality of monolithic golf ball blanks from the selected material, to provide an inventory of monolithic golf ball blanks for each proposed golf ball; designing a dimple design; selecting a proposed golf ball to which the dimple design is to be applied; retrieving from the inventory a monolithic golf ball blank that corresponds to the selected proposed golf ball; forming the dimple design into the retrieved blank to form a monolithic test golf ball; and testing the monolithic test golf ball.