Golf has produced a number of engineering innovations, which hopefully offset the sport’s baleful contribution to fashion. But perhaps most charming and effective are simple dimples.

The earliest golf balls were probably made of wood, but the first recognisable ‘type’ was the ‘featherie’, a hand-sewn leather pouch, stuffed, as you might expect, with feathers – in fact ‘a gentleman’s top hat full’ of goose feathers. The ‘featherie’ had some obvious drawbacks – it wasn’t usually all that round, it flew less far when wet and had a tendency to explode on contact with a hard surface, turning the game into something resembling a pillow fight.

Fortunately, in 1848, Robert Adams Paterson noted that gutta-percha, the dried sap of the Malaysian sapodilla tree, formed a hard rubber-like substance that could be moulded into balls, was resistant to damage and didn’t go soggy when wet. Of course, these balls weren’t perfect. Hit the ball at an angle and a dent or chip...