Airport security worldwide has become stricter, with many items being restricted or banned from being carried onto a plane. Golf balls are not one of those items, so they are not on the restricted list to the relief of golfers.
You can bring golf balls on a plane, as they pose no risk in flight. Of course, you would only be able to bring a quantity that complies with the carry-on luggage weight if you are taking them on board, or you could check them in for transit in the cargo hold along with your golf bag.
How Many Golf Balls Can You Bring On A Plane?
There are no industry limits on how many golf balls you can bring on a plane, so if you have your special close-to-your-heart brand and marked balls that you cannot live without, you can carry them close to you when traveling.
There are no TSA regulations that determine the maximum number of golf balls you can bring on a plane, and regardless of what carrier you fly, whether Southwest, American Airlines, and United Airlines, you can take as many golf balls as you like – provided you don’t exceed the luggage weights as stipulated by the carrier.
Can You Put Golf Balls In Your Carry-On Luggage?
As far as objects you can take on planes go, golf balls are allowed by the TSA, so you can pack as many as you want into your carry-on until you hit the weight limit or the number of bags you can take on board.
Regarding cargo, you can pack every suitcase you own with golf balls and leave your clothes at home! If you exceed the maximum weight limits for check-in, you may spend a few more dollars to cover that excess weight.
But, since golf balls are freely available everywhere and online, you wouldn’t need to take that many with you – unless you anticipate losing most of them on your golf tour, and you got them cheaply!
How Many Golf Balls Could You Pack In A Suitcase?
Now that you know that you can take golf balls on a plane, the question now is how many could you fit in a suitcase?
To calculate that, we will calculate the volume of the golf ball and then the volume of a standard-size suitcase.
We know that the volume of a golf ball is 2,48 cubic inches and the standard suitcase is around 22” x 18” x 10”, which will give us a volume of 3960 cubic inches.
If we take the total volume of the suitcase and divide it by the volume of the golf ball – 3960/2,48 =1596 golf balls in a suitcase, the calculation does not end there.
Golf balls are round, and when you pack them together, you have spaces in between the balls that take up space. The packing coefficient – the optimum use of space when packing – would be 0,74. This means that due to the shape of the ball, you would lose about 25% of your available space.
So if we take the number of golf balls we could fill with absolute efficiency – 1596 and then multiply it by the packing coefficient of 0.74, we will get a result of 1181 golf balls.
You could fit 1181 golf balls in a standard-size suitcase.
Can You Bring Golf Balls Through TSA?
Golf balls would be easily identifiable on airport security scanners, so it’s unlikely you would have any issues with those as you move through airport security. It may be wise to declare them upfront so TSA officials know what they could look at when they scan your bags.
As golf balls pose no threat of any kind to aircraft or passengers, you can safely take them with you wherever you travel, and most countries, including Canada, Australia, and the UK/ EU, will have no problems with you bringing golf balls in or out of those countries.
