Josh’s Tips & Tricks: Temperature Changes

Intro

Hello golfers, welcome to this week’s tips & tricks. I hope you enjoyed Halloween and are looking forward to bonfire night. This time of year means the clocks have changed and therefore the nights are darker. With this comes a drop in temperature and the lead up to Christmas. This week I want to show you how the different seasons impact the ball flight and the distance the ball travels through the air. Lets take a look at how far the ball travels at different temperatures and how you can make the most of the dark nights on the driving range.

Very Cold vs Very Hot

In this country we do get some good variety in the weather and temperature. In the summer months you probably noticed the ball travelling further and now the weather has changed the ball is not travelling so far. The ground conditions do play a huge part here but this is not what we’re looking at. Inevitably soft, wet ground stops the ball quicker than dry, hard ground so we can already identify that. We are actually going to look at how the ball travels through the air, not when it hits the ground.

Take a look at the following video and notice the “CARRY” distance changing.

Because cold air is more dense than warm air the ball won’t travel as far through the air. This is because there is more drag on the golf ball. In the video it’s the same golf shot but with the settings adjusted to change the temperature. Trackman is a very clever bit of kit and it allows you to adjust both temperature and altitude to check yardages. Tour pros use this when they are travelling the world so they can calculate their yardages. When they play courses at high altitude the ball also travels significantly further.

You can apply this to your game as well. Whenever I do yardages I set Trackman to about 15* which is usually about average for this country in the spring and autumn. The summer obviously gets hotter (sometimes) and the winter significantly colder. I therefore adjust my yardages when i’m playing in noticeably hotter or colder conditions than normal. My usual 7 iron is about 170 yards. In 1*C it dropped down to 165 yards and in 35*C it went up to 178 yards. That’s a whole club difference from cold to hot weather!

Factoring this in could be the difference between hitting it on the green and leaving it in the front bunker. Knowing and understanding your yardages in the different seasons could be the attention to detail that you require to hit it closer to the flag every time.

Summary

Know your yardages. If you have a baseline to go off you can adjust your yardages for where and when you play. If you’re lucky enough to travel the world playing golf you will notice the ball going further in the warm weather. Then you come back and play in January in the snow and wonder why the ball doesn’t reach the green. It’s just nature and science playing a part on your golf shots.

If you don’t know your yardages, now is the time to do it. Trackman is available to hire or alternatively I can guide you through it in a yardage gapping or lesson.

If you would like to book a lesson or book Trackman then BOOK HERE NOW.

See you soon.

Cheers,

Josh