PITTSBURG, Kan. — Researchers at the Kansas Polymer Research Center at Pittsburg State University are partnering once again with the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council to create an eco-friendly version of an “everyday product” and this time it’s golf balls. “We have developed some eco-friendly batteries using the soybean and we thought ‘hey what is next’ and we thought golf could have use for bio-based materials,” PSU chemistry professor Ram Gupta said. “Golf balls are a pretty big industry; it’s about a 3.8- or 4-billion-dollar industry.” Last month Gupta and graduate students embarked on a new project in ecofriendly design — making golf balls out of biodegradable soybean polymers.