Golf ball cover composition

#This invention relates to golf balls and, more particularly, to balata covered golf balls where up to 40% of the balata used to form the cover has been replaced with polyoctenylene rubber.

#Typically, golf balls are made by forming a cover about a core. Cores are either wound or solid and measure about 1.4 to 1.6 inches in diameter, generally. The cover is formed about the core to produce a golf ball having a diameter of about 1.68 inches and weighing about 1.62 ounces. Both the weight and diameter are set by the United States Golf Association (USGA). British golf balls, generally, have a smaller core, about 1.35 to 1.55 inches in diameter and a finished size of about 1.62 inches in diameter.

#Generally, solid cores are made by mixing components such as polybutadiene with zinc diacrylate or zinc dimethacrylate and adding to this mixture a free radical initiator to cause cross-linking between the polybutadiene and the diacrylate/dimethacrylate. From this mixture solid, hard cores are molded.

#These and other aspects of the present invention may be more fully understood with respect to the following examples.

#This example illustrates making eight dozen golf balls with the composition of the present invention. One dozen conventional balata covered balls were made for purposes of comparison. Each set of twelve balls were made by molding the compositions as listed in Table I below about wound cores.

#TABLE I ______________________________________ Polyoctenylene Ball No. Balata (Parts) Rubber (Parts) Total (Parts) ______________________________________ Control 100 -- 100 1 97 3 100 2 95 5 100 3 94 6 100 4 88 12 100 5 85 15 100 6 76 24 100 7 75 25 100 8 60 40 100 ______________________________________