"My Own Ball Marking"..."Why Draw Lines on a Golf Ball?"

Male players use simple marks or initials, female players show distinct personality with illustrations, recent trend is 3-line "Target Passion Assist"

Bae Yong-joon is marking a golf ball during a Korean Tour event. Photo by KPGA

[Asia Economy Kim Hyun-jun, Golf Specialist Reporter] "My own ball marking."

Golf balls have brand names, models, and numbers from 1 to 4 printed on them. Golf is played by up to four players. This helps easily distinguish your ball from your playing partners'. Titleist, favored by professionals, even offers high numbers like 5 to 8. Players can naturally order their preferred numbers. Nowadays, amateur golfers can do this too. This is the Titleist ‘Special Number Service,’ where you can choose a special number between 00 and 99, such as your age or birthday.

It is interesting that the ‘Golf Emperor’ Tiger Woods (USA) uses only number 1, symbolizing being the best in the world. He also has ‘TIGER’ printed on his ball. Male players often simply mark dots or initials. Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa), the 2010 Open Champion, placed a single dot below the logo, and world number one Jon Rahm (Spain) uses ‘JR.’ Jack Johnson (USA) has ‘three crosses’ for religious reasons, and Nick O’Hern (Australia) uses a ‘kangaroo marking’ representing his homeland, which are unusual cases.

In Titleist's 'Special Number Service,' you can choose a special number between 00 and 99.

Female players, on the other hand, show distinct individuality. Yang Soo-jin (30) once gained attention with a ‘Snoopy marking.’ The perfect coloring was almost at the level of an art piece. Jang Ha-na (29, BC Card) is also known as a ‘marking master.’ She has great talent for drawing various pictures, including cartoon characters. She introduced it saying, "It seems to increase my concentration." Choi Na-yeon (34) uses cute emoticons, and Yoo So-yeon (31, Mediheal) has a pig drawing as her trademark.

The recent trend in markings is the ‘3-line mark.’ It started as a straight line and evolved into three lines. It is worth noting that it helps reduce scores in real play, such as tee shots and putting aiming. Callaway Golf even created a 3-line golf ball. It is based on the ‘Triple Track technology’ developed by the neuroscience research team at Saint Louis University in the USA. There is one thick red line in the center and thin blue lines on both sides. The explanation is, "This color combination, which the eyes and brain recognize most clearly, is even more powerful on the green grass."

Volvik’s ‘V-Focus Line’ expanded the area to five lines. There is a thick line in the middle and two lines of different thicknesses on each side. The central circle (O) point especially focuses the gaze during tee shots, helping prevent head-up and assisting accurate impact. It is applied to three urethane models: Tour S3, S4, and New XT SOFT. Separate stickers (one for driver, two for putter) are provided, and attaching them to the driver and putter heads doubles the aiming effect.