Design your own plastic golf ball stamp

A freshly stamped golf ball smudges if it is handled in the first minute, because the ink sits on the cover while it dries rather than soaking in. Press once, lift straight up, and give the ball a minute on the tee or the towel before it goes in the bag. Once dry the mark survives a round of handling and a damp fairway, though a hard rub with a wet towel will lift it.

A stamped mark on a golf ball lasts one to three rounds before it fades enough to want doing again, less where the club strikes it. It sits on the surface of the cover, so it wears faster than a permanent-marker line drawn through a stencil. Stamping it again takes a second, which is the trade: quicker to put on, quicker to come off.

You can put your own logo, badge or line drawing on a Ball Buddy golf ball stamp: upload it in the designer, it is traced to a clean single-colour mark, and you tick to confirm it is yours to use — a photograph will not work, because a die presses one colour of ink with no shades. What we cannot make is a football club crest, a ball maker's mark or any other brand that belongs to someone else, however small. Initials, a name, a simple drawing and the built-in ornaments are all fine.

The plastic and metal golf ball stamps press exactly the same mark: the same die, the same ink and the same design, so nothing about what lands on the ball changes. What you pay more for in metal is the barrel — it is heavier, so it presses under its own weight and takes years of being thrown in a bag. Pick plastic to spend less and carry less, metal to keep it a long time or to give it as a present.

A 16 mm die holds two or three initials with a ring round them, a short name, or a simple logo or drawing — all of it reading clearly from a putt's length. It is the size most golf ball stamps are, because it is the largest mark that still sits inside the flat of a golf ball's curve with a margin to spare. The designer fits your letters to the die as you type and tells you if you have asked for more than will fit.

Black ink reads on any golf ball and is the safe choice for a yellow one; blue and red stand out best on a white cover and are easier to spot on the green from a few paces. The ink is built into the die when the stamp is made, so there is no pad to buy or carry. When it eventually fades, after a few hundred presses, a few drops of stamp ink on the back of the die bring it back.