I used to play a lot of golf spending five years on a golf team while in school.

If you have ever stood next to a green with someone hitting up to play through, the golf ball because its compressed upon contact does not necessarily fly round, it flies egg shaped. It flies egg shaped (essentially end over end however slightly) until it looses contact energy then recovers to round at which time it slows and descends. That is why the ball appears to kind of shake or wobble at the apex of flight as it nears the green while recovering to round. Golf balls are made in different degrees of hardness or compression valves. The higher the compression the greater the club head speed has to be to compress the ball to knock it out of round. Once compressed the harder ball takes longer to come back to round so it flies further if the golfer can compress it. Pro golf ball compressions are valued in the 100+ range with average golfers ball generally below 90 compression, women's golf balls generally below 80. Range balls are really soft almost marshmellow like shortening flight distance significantly on the practice range.

The number and shape of dimples do effect the flight characteristics of the balls the number being controlled by golf's governing body. The ball dimples control to some extent the trajectory of the ball and the amount of spin that can be placed on the ball. The same is true of the design golf clubs its controlled as to what materials, length of club, and so forth. Today's golf clubs and ball technology is out distancing many existing golf courses. In the hay day of Arnold Palmer a long drive would have been 265-280 yards with a wooden headed club, today its 325-350yds + with metal woods. Pro golfers are hitting a five iron 200yds with the improved equipment and balls.

So there is a lot to the technology, with all the major manufacturers making excellent equipment and balls.