You're standing on the green, looking at that tiny white dimpled sphere, and for some reason, the thought hits you. How much liquid would actually fit inside that thing? Or maybe you're trying to settle a weird bar bet. It sounds like a trick question because, honestly, a golf ball is tiny. A pint of beer is... not.
When people ask how many pints are in a golf ball, they usually have the scale backwards. You aren't fitting a pint into a golf ball unless you’re working with some sort of Ant-Man physics. Instead, we’re talking about what fraction of a pint a golf ball actually represents. It’s a tiny, tiny fraction.
The Brutal Math of Golf Ball Volume
To get the answer, we have to look at the official standards set by the USGA (United States Golf Association). According to their equipment rules, a standard golf ball must have a diameter of at least 1.680 inches (42.67 mm). Most manufacturers stick pretty close to that minimum because a smaller ball flies further, though they can't go below that legal limit.
Using the geometric formula for the volume of a sphere, which is $$V = \frac{4}{3}\pi r^{3}$$, we can find the cubic inches. With a radius of 0.84 inches, the volume of a standard golf ball is approximately 2.48 cubic inches.
Now, let's look at a pint. In the United States, a standard liquid pint is 16 fluid ounces, which translates to roughly 28.87 cubic inches. If you do the quick division, you’ll find that a golf ball occupies only about 8.6% of a US pint.
Wait.
That means if you wanted to fill a pint glass to the brim using only the volume contained within golf balls, you would need about 11.6 balls. Since you can't have point-six of a ball in a practical sense, you'd need 12 golf balls to exceed the volume of a single pint.
Why Dimples Actually Mess With the Math
Here is where things get nerdy. That 2.48 cubic inch number? That’s for a perfectly smooth sphere. But golf balls aren't smooth. They have between 300 and 500 dimples.
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These dimples aren't just for aesthetics; they create a thin turbulent boundary layer of air that clings to the ball's surface, reducing drag and allowing it to travel much further than a smooth ball would. But for our volume question, dimples mean the ball is actually "missing" some of its volume.
Most engineers, including those at Titleist or Callaway, will tell you that dimples account for about a 1% to 1.5% reduction in the total volume of the sphere. It’s a negligible amount when you’re swinging a driver at 110 mph, but if you’re trying to be scientifically precise about how many pints are in a golf ball, it matters. If the ball is 1% "less" than a sphere, you actually need slightly more golf balls to fill that pint glass.
Think about it this way: the dimples are little scoops taken out of the plastic. You’re losing a tiny bit of displacement.
The Imperial vs. US Customary Confusion
We also have to talk about where you are in the world. If you're at a pub in London asking this question, the answer changes completely.
The British Imperial pint is significantly larger than the American pint. An Imperial pint is 20 British fluid ounces, which is about 34.68 cubic inches.
- US Pint: ~11.6 golf balls.
- Imperial Pint: ~14.1 golf balls.
It’s a massive difference. You’re looking at nearly three extra golf balls just to match the volume of a British pint compared to an American one. If you’re trying to visualize this, imagine a standard sleeve of three balls. You’d need almost five of those sleeves to equal the liquid volume of one British Guinness.
Displacement vs. Packing Factor
There is a huge difference between "volume" and "how many golf balls can I fit in a pint glass." This is where most people get tripped up.
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If you poured water into a golf ball (assuming it was a hollow shell), you are measuring internal volume. But if you drop golf balls into a pint glass, you run into the "packing fraction" problem. Because golf balls are rigid spheres, they cannot fill 100% of the space in a container. There will always be gaps between them—the "air" in the glass.
Even with the most efficient packing (called hexagonal close packing), spheres only occupy about 74% of the available space. In a random pour into a pint glass, it's usually closer to 60-64%.
So, if you take a 16-ounce American pint glass:
- You can’t even fit four whole golf balls in there comfortably without them sticking out over the rim.
- Even though the volume of 11 golf balls equals a pint, you could never actually fit 11 golf balls inside a pint glass.
It’s a classic physics brain teaser. It’s the difference between displacement and physical capacity.
Real-World Comparisons: Golf Balls vs. Other Liquids
To put this into perspective, let's look at other common items. A standard shot glass in the US is 1.5 ounces. A golf ball’s volume is roughly 1.37 fluid ounces.
Basically, a golf ball is almost exactly the size of a standard shot of espresso or a slightly "short" shot of whiskey. If you ever see a golf ball and think, "Man, I'm thirsty," just know you're looking at about 40ml of potential liquid.
That’s nothing.
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Compare that to a tennis ball, which has a volume of about 9.6 cubic inches. You only need about three tennis balls to fill a pint. The scale jump is massive because volume increases cubically relative to the radius. A small increase in the width of the ball leads to a huge increase in how much "stuff" is inside.
Does the Brand Matter?
You might wonder if a Titleist Pro V1 has a different volume than a cheap Top Flite you found in the woods. While the USGA sets the minimum size, some "distance" balls are marketed as being slightly larger to help beginners make contact, though this is rare in professional play.
Generally, the volume remains incredibly consistent across brands because of the strict manufacturing tolerances required for aerodynamic consistency. If a ball was even 2% off in volume, its flight path would be unpredictable. Professionals wouldn't touch it.
The Practical Takeaway
So, what do you do with this info? Honestly, it’s mostly for trivia, but it helps in visualizing volume and displacement in sports science.
If you are ever tasked with filling a container with golf balls—maybe for one of those "guess how many are in the jar" contests—remember the 60% rule. Take the total volume of the container in pints, multiply it by 11.6 (for the total number of balls that could fit in that volume), and then multiply that by 0.60 to account for the air gaps.
Steps to calculate volume displacement for golf balls:
- Determine the container volume in fluid ounces.
- Divide by 1.37 (the fluid ounce equivalent of a golf ball's volume).
- Multiply by 0.62 (the average packing efficiency for random spheres).
- Adjust slightly upward if the container is very large, as "edge effects" matter less.
Calculating how many pints are in a golf ball reminds us how deceptive volume can be. We look at a pint glass and it feels huge. We look at a golf ball and it feels substantial. But the math doesn't lie: it takes nearly a dozen of those little white balls to displace the same amount of liquid as a single craft beer.
Next time you're on the 19th hole, look at your drink. You’re holding the equivalent of a whole lot of missed putts and lost balls in that one glass.
To refine your understanding of sports equipment dimensions, you can always check the latest USGA Equipment Rules or the R&A standards, which define these measurements to the thousandth of an inch. Knowing the physics won't necessarily fix your slice, but it'll definitely make you the most interesting person at the clubhouse bar.