I was allow under the impress that you do not need dimples to produce lift on a golf ball, and the example that I was given was a baseball/tennis ball which does not have dimples. I was told there is enough friction to one side of the ball to create an area of lower air pressure which is in the direction of the curve in a curve ball, and the high air pressure side would than "push" towards the low pressure side, "pushing" the ball
I was always told that dimples allow for turbulate flow, where there is less contact with the surface, thus less friction that a ball without dimples would have laminar flow (flows like smooth water, always in cotact), but I guess to know you would have to look at the Reynolds number (not the metal company, the fluid dynaimics number)