The interaction between a golf club and golf ball is fundamentally mediated by electromagnetic forces at the atomic level, making the exchange of virtual or real photons a textbook physical reality that requires no specialized citation.
The claim states that photons are transferred during electromagnetic interaction between a golf club and a golf ball. Electromagnetic interactions are fundamentally carried by photons (specifically virtual photons in force-mediation or real photons in thermal/optical emissions). Because this is a direct application of fundamental physics (quantum electrodynamics) to a macroscopic collision, it is a matter of common knowledge and basic physical principles rather than something requiring specific empirical studies from the provided literature (none of which discuss golf club-ball photon exchange).