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There was guy who we met the other day who claimed that depending upon how you set up the alignment arrow, it gave a certain type of ball flight or affect the type of spin (more or less backspin).

He gave one of my playing partner's ball a try. He was not a Titleist rep.

Is this true? I never read this before. If so, where is the link for this?

No....but I'm going to use that...

This has been called "seaming" for a while now. Pull out a cheap ball, especially one from a few years back, and you should definitely be able to find the seam -- the line around the ball where the two halves were joined to make a ball. A lot of times, there was a strip of the ball, right along the seam, where there were no dimples. It was flat to make it easier to join the halves of the ball.

Today, they usually aren't flat and straight. The 2007 model of the ProV1 balls have a "staggered" seam ... that is, the joining together of the two balls was done via a zig-zag instead of a straight line. That way, there was no straight dimpleless line --- the dimpleless parts of the ball zigzagged back and forth.

Bridgestone has been touting their balls as seamless for quite some time now. It's a bit of a misnomer, because the balls still have a seam -- the outer layer of all balls is made by joining two halves together -- but the seam goes right through some dimples so the result is a ball completely covered by dimples.

Nevertheless, even when there were significant seams in the ball, its effect was pretty small. Firstly, you better be able to hit a perfectly straight ball, otherwise the seam-line is going to tumble with the sidespin and it won't matter anyway. Secondly, and I don't have an exact citation for this, but if I remember the test done with a robot, the difference between a seamed ball flight, a random flight (seam aligned randomly), and an anti-seamed (seams opposite of the "seamed" orientation) flight was a grand total of about 4 yards. The pros are good, but even they aren't good enough to notice a difference of 4 yards on their drives. 4 yards in 300 yards is a 1.3% difference -- 1.3% difference gets muddled up in all of the other things that can affect a drive as well (angle of attack, spin, loft of the head, technique, swing speed, etc.).

This doesn't stop people from believing in it, though. Obviously, this guy you met believed in it hook, line, and sinker. What does he do when the ball is in the fairway? Did he look to see what way the seam was orientated and decide how he wanted to play that next shot? If he thought the ball flight changed that much, how the ball lies in the fairway -- what way the seam is pointing when the ball rolled to a stop -- is going to be a big factor then.

Anything can be a good luck charm. Before the 2007 model, there were several pros that lined up the seam where there were hitting their drives and putts, and several who lined the seam up perpendicular to their drives and putts. They swore they could see the difference in the ball flight. I'm going to call it placebo effect. Because the physics just don't change that much. They do change a little, but it is an awfully tiny amount. Certainly nothing that any amateur with a handicap worse than scratch even needs to consider.

But, if this guy really thought it helped, golf is such a mental game, that it is fairly possible that his drives were better. More confidence, and the line on the ball helping align his body all could have been significant improvements over what he did before he was seaming.

edited to add: Oh, I also think that the alignment arrow in most balls is random compared to where the seam is. At least the last time I looked... some times the alignment line was right next to a seam, sometimes it was on a "pole" compared to the seam-equator, and all the spots in between. I think in terms of manufacturing, the ball's halves are joined, then the ball is allowed to cool. Then it is tested to make sure it has the correct weight, size, shape, etc. Then it is printed. How the ball lands in the printer determines where the alignment line is -- not where the seams were joined.

I don't usually play the Titleist Pro V1 but when I do I always tee it up on the "seem" line. I have no idea if this makes a difference but it has become a habit with Pro V1 balls for me.

As Said above by nose, now people are making the" seamless " design. Which just means a staggered line, basically interlocking to prevent this.