Dynamics of Golf Ball-Hole Interactions: Rolling Around the Rim

Abstract

A previous study of a golf ball rolling on the rim of a cup neglected the spin of the ball about a line perpendicular to the plane of contact. The capture process is studied here by numerically solving the equations for rolling without slipping on the rim. The boundary in the velocity-impact parameter space separating roll-in and roll-out trajectories corresponds to initial conditions for a set of near guasi-equilibrium trajectories. Stability of the equilibrium trajectories is investigated using symbolic linearization of perturbation solutions from them. Although the locally unstable equilibrium trajectories themselves are not attainable from the two-space of pure rolling initial conditions, the boundary is nevertheless a “barrier” in that it corresponds to long contact times and large roll around angles.