Playing in Windy Conditions

[billchao]

53 minutes ago, Cantankerish said:

Got 18 holes in yesterday in a freaking gale.  I hit zero greens in regulation because my irons got owned by the wind.  Normally, I would use partial swings to get under the wind, but this course has an insane number of sand traps.  I lost so many strokes trying to avoid sand traps by hitting high arc shots over the traps, and then seeing the ball get pushed mercilessly.  I was using my sand wedge all day, but I only hit one trap.

Have other people found a good way out of a situation like this?  I felt powerless.

 

Not sure I understand what the problem is. You should have been playing your knockdown shots and picking your club based what you needed to carry the bunkers.

Other than that, it’s just harder to play golf in the wind.

[CarlSpackler]

My secret is...

Spoiler

I stay home. 😉

 

[Cantankerish]

58 minutes ago, billchao said:

Not sure I understand what the problem is. You should have been playing your knockdown shots and picking your club based what you needed to carry the bunkers.

Other than that, it’s just harder to play golf in the wind.

I may be misunderstanding terms.  “Knockdown” is one that I think is synonymous with “flighted”, but I may be mistaken here.

I have worked a lot on hitting flighted shots, and I love them.   But the lower arc of a 1/2 swing 9 iron versus a full swing sand wedge (same distance) means that I am likely to end up in either the front or back bunker when I try to thread that needle.  It’s either that or try to negotiate the wind.

 

It appears to be a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-dont scenario.  I am looking for an alternative.

[DaveP043]

3 minutes ago, Cantankerish said:

I may be misunderstanding terms.  “Knockdown” is one that I think is synonymous with “flighted”, but I may be mistaken here.

I have worked a lot on hitting flighted shots, and I love them.   But the lower arc of a 1/2 swing 9 iron versus a full swing sand wedge (same distance) means that I am likely to end up in either the front or back bunker when I try to thread that needle.  It’s either that or try to negotiate the wind.

It appears to be a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-dont scenario.  I am looking for an alternative.

@CarlSpackler had one of the few alternatives, but if you're out there playing, its going to be tougher.  My preference is to make mostly normal swings and estimate (guess) how much the wind will effect the flight.  I have a better chance of doing that successfully than I do when I try to hit "specialty" shots and still have to guess the effect of the wind.  If I'm playing downwind, I just have to accept that the ball is unlikely to stop really quick, so I'll miss more greens.  Most times I'd rather carry the front bunkers and go a little long.  Hitting into the wind is a lot easier from that standpoint, but the wind accentuates any curve.  Its just tougher, but I'd rather play in the wind than stay at home.

[CarlSpackler]

10 minutes ago, Cantankerish said:

I may be misunderstanding terms.  “Knockdown” is one that I think is synonymous with “flighted”, but I may be mistaken here.

I have worked a lot on hitting flighted shots, and I love them.   But the lower arc of a 1/2 swing 9 iron versus a full swing sand wedge (same distance) means that I am likely to end up in either the front or back bunker when I try to thread that needle.  It’s either that or try to negotiate the wind.

It appears to be a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-dont scenario.  I am looking for an alternative.

I will use a flighted shot with more club into the wind and just take less club with a helping wind. In a cross wind, I primarily line up at an angle towards the direction the wind is blowing while taking into account hazards. Yesterday for example, I had a hard wind from the right on a 140 yd. par 3. Of course the pin was on the right of the green and there was OB and trees with long grass right of the green. There was bunkers short left and short right of the green. I lined up between the pin and the middle of the green and played my normal club. I was just shy of pin high on the left side of the green. If there hadn't been such peril to the right of the green, I would have lined up right edge and let it come back to the pin.

[Carl3]

The 2023 Rules Change thread was discussing wind direction and speed, so I thought I would post my $0.02 on that subject here.

Before heading out to play a round I always consult an hourly weather app to see what the prevailing wind will be. On the way to my old course I would pass a couple of large flags with tall posts that would confirm what the app told me. If the course is newer to me and/or has holes that are at odd angles to the N/S, E/W axes I might open up Google maps to see how certain holes might align with the prevailing winds.

I have read that a head wind speed in MPH can generally be straight-converted to a percent reduction in distance. For instance a 15 mph headwind would result in a 15% reduction in distance. So my 150 yard 7i might me expected to go 130 yards or about the distance my 9i would go in still air. So that would be the "two club" wind.

I also read that a tailwind would only help you half as much as a headwind hurts. So if I have a 15 mph tailwind on a 150 yard hole I might expect only a 7 to 8% assist or a 1 club difference. Drop to an 8i.

Of course you can get crazy and use trigonometery for cross winds😆. I have had some sucess with this approach. When standing on the tee of a par 3 or facing my approach shot that I know to be directly up or downwind I will consider what I know to be the wind speed and take it into account. A headwind 30 feet off the ground can translate into the feeling of a tail wind on the ground of there are trees and other obstructions. I have seen people play for a tailwind when it is actually a headwind.

We get a lot of wind being just off lake Erie.