How to stamp a golf ball so it doesn't smudge
A golf ball stamp is the quickest way to get your initials onto a ball, and the easiest to make a mess of. The cover is glossy plastic, the surface is covered in dimples, and the ink has nowhere to soak in. Here is what kind of stamp to buy, which ink actually takes, how to press it so the mark lands whole, and how long to leave it before the ball goes back in the bag.
Quick answer
Buy a pre-inked stamp with an oil-based ink made for plastic, not an office stamp. Stamp a clean, dry ball: seat the stamp on the cover, press straight down for a second without rocking, lift straight up, and leave the ball alone for a minute before it touches anything. When the mark goes faint, re-ink from the back of the die. Want a putting line as well? That is a stencil's job, not a stamp's.
In this guide
Which kind of golf ball stamp should you buy?
There are three kinds of stamp sold for golf balls, and the difference is where the ink lives and what the die is made of.
- Pre-inked (flash) stamps. The die is a fine foam that has been flashed to your design under a xenon lamp: the exposed parts seal, the rest stays open and holds ink. The ink is in the die itself, so there is no pad, it re-inks from the back, and the soft foam follows the curve of the ball and the dimples better than anything else. This is what the best golf ball stamps are, and it is the kind we make.
- Self-inking stamps. The office kind: a rubber die on a spring that flips onto a built-in pad between presses. Convenient, but the rubber is firm and lands flat, so it touches the tops of the dimples and misses the hollows, and the pad dries within a season. Fine for a joke, poor for initials.
- Rubber stamps with a separate pad. A traditional stamp and an ink pad in a tin. They work if the pad is loaded with the right ink, but you are carrying two things and the pad lid always comes off in the bag.
If you are shopping for one, "pre-inked" or "flash stamp" is the phrase to look for. Whichever you buy, the ink matters more than the handle.
Which ink works on a golf ball?
A golf ball's cover is urethane or ionomer, which is to say plastic: smooth, glossy and non-porous. Ordinary stamp-pad ink is water-based and made for paper; on a ball it beads up, dries slowly, and wipes off with a thumb. What you need is a quick-drying oil-based ink made for plastic, metal and glossy surfaces — the kind sold for marking packaging and CDs. It grips the cover, is touch-dry in under a minute, and stands up to a round.
Be realistic about the word "permanent" on the label. No stamp ink is permanent on a golf ball: it sits on the surface and wears where the ball is struck, cleaned and rolled. A well-inked pre-inked stamp gives a mark that lasts one to three rounds, which for most people is the point at which the ball has been lost anyway. A permanent-marker line through a stencil lasts longer because the solvent bites into the cover; our pen guide explains why.
Colour is a simpler choice. Black reads on any ball and is the one to pick for a yellow one. Blue and red stand out best on white and are the easiest to spot on the green from a few paces.
How do you stamp a golf ball without smudging it?
Almost every smudged stamp comes from one of three things: a damp ball, a rocked press, or a ball that went back in the pocket too soon. Take them in order.
- Start with a clean, dry ball. Wipe it and let it dry properly. Damp dimples hold water, and ink on water is a smear waiting to happen. A brand-new ball sometimes carries a trace of release agent from the mould; a rub with a dry cloth deals with it.
- Pick the spot. Most golfers stamp over the side stamp or the pole opposite the ball number, where the cover is plainest. Whatever you choose, keep it consistent so you can find your mark at a glance.
- Seat the stamp. A stamp with a handle that sits down on the ball — ours is shaped to — takes the guesswork out of this; otherwise hold the ball still against a towel and bring the stamp down to it, not the ball up to the stamp.
- Press straight down, once, for a second. Firm, even pressure; the foam needs to reach into the hollows. Do not rock, roll or wiggle. Rocking is what doubles the edge of every letter.
- Lift straight up. A sideways lift drags the wet ink. Straight up, and the mark stays whole.
- Leave it alone for a minute. Set the ball on the tee, the towel or a table. Do not put it in a pocket, do not stack it on the others in the sleeve, do not check it with your thumb.
If you are stamping a whole box before a society day, line the balls up on the lid of the box and work down the row; by the time you reach the twelfth, the first is dry.
How long should a stamped golf ball dry?
Touch-dry is about a minute with a proper oil-based ink, and that is enough for the ball to go into a sleeve or a bag pocket without transferring. Fully set is closer to a quarter of an hour, after which a towel or a wet fairway will not shift it. If you are stamping the night before a wet round, leave the balls out overnight and they will take everything the course throws at them short of a hard scrub.
Cold slows it down. Stamping in the car park on a January morning, give it two or three minutes rather than one. A hairdryer works but is more effort than the problem deserves.
How long does a golf ball stamp last, and how do you re-ink it?
Two different lifetimes here. The mark lasts one to three rounds before it fades enough to want doing again, and it goes fastest on the side the club strikes. Re-stamping takes a second, so most golfers do it whenever they open a new sleeve. The stamp lasts years; only the ink runs down, and a pre-inked die is good for a few hundred presses before the mark goes faint.
Re-inking a pre-inked stamp is done from the back. Turn the stamp over, drop three or four drops of the same oil-based stamp ink onto the back of the foam, and leave it flat for an hour to soak through; do not flood it, or the next few presses will bleed. A self-inking stamp is re-inked on the pad instead, and the pad eventually needs replacing outright. A small bottle of ink — sold as a golf ball stamp ink refill or simply as flash stamp ink — costs a few pounds and does dozens of refills. Match the type: oil-based die, oil-based refill.
When is a stencil the better tool?
A stamp is the right tool for a name, initials or a small picture, put on fast with nothing else to carry. It is the wrong tool for a putting line. A flat die can only touch a small patch of a curved ball, so any line it leaves is short and slightly bent; a line you can aim with needs to run well round the side, and only something that wraps the ball — a stencil — draws that. A stencilled mark in permanent marker also outlasts stamp ink by a few rounds and lands in exactly the same place every time.
Our stamp vs stencil comparison goes through the two honestly, and how to draw a straight line on a golf ball covers the line itself. Plenty of golfers end up with both: the stamp for their name, the stencil for the line.
A pre-inked golf ball stamp, made to your design.
Your initials, a name, your own logo or drawing, in a flashed foam die with the ink built in and a nylon handle that seats on the ball so the press lands square. Black, blue or red.
Questions people ask
Do golf ball stamps smudge?
Golf ball stamps smudge when the ball is handled in the first minute or goes into the bag wet, because the ink dries on the cover rather than soaking into it. Press once, lift straight up and let the ball sit for a minute and it will not. Once dry the mark survives a round of normal handling, though a wet towel rubbed hard will still lift it sooner than it would a permanent-marker line.
What ink is used in a golf ball stamp?
A golf ball stamp uses a quick-drying oil-based ink made for plastic, because a ball's urethane or ionomer cover is non-porous and a water-based office ink simply beads up and wipes off. In a pre-inked flash stamp the ink is held in the foam of the die itself; a self-inking stamp keeps it on a separate pad. Either way it is the same family of ink, and a small bottle of it re-inks both.
How do you re-ink a golf ball stamp?
To re-ink a pre-inked golf ball stamp, turn it over, put a few drops of the same oil-based stamp ink onto the back of the foam die and leave it flat for an hour to soak through. A self-inking stamp is re-inked by dropping ink onto its pad instead. Too much ink makes the next few presses bleed, so add a little, test on paper, and add more only if the mark is still faint.
Is a pre-inked stamp better than a self-inking one for golf balls?
A pre-inked stamp is better for golf balls because its die is a soft foam that follows the curve and the dimples, and it carries its own ink so there is no pad to dry out in the bag. A self-inking stamp has a firmer rubber die on a spring that lands flat, misses the hollows and fades as its pad dries within a season. A rubber stamp with a separate pad works too, but it means carrying the pad as well.