Thanks. The spiral curve approach could work, but I haven't seen that pattern on a real golfball. But it may eliminate most of the problems I had during modeling.

You could also use MoI. Just model the cell, then snap lil spheres to the surface. Here's a post by MG that shows how to make a blobby-cel shape:

http://www.moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=415.2