Photo Courtesy of Ken Aschliman

70% of golf balls today are made of a rubber core with a durable plastic cover. The rubber core is made from a runny, milky-white liquid, called latex, that oozes from a tree species called Hevea brasiliensis, also known as a rubber tree. There are actually over 200 plants in the world that produce latex, but 99% of the world’s natural rubber comes from the rubber tree. The chains of molecules in the latex can be pulled apart and untangled fairly easily, but when released they spring back together—which is what makes rubber elastic.