Gauging Wind

[saevel25]

So, I was watching some YouTube golf. Ryan Ruffels mentioned that the Australian National Golf Team brought in the sailing team to teach them how to read wind. They said that anything above 60-FT in-the-air basically fallows the wind currents. So, picking up any grass and throwing it in the air is basically pointless since most all golf shots are going to be above 90-FT in the air. He did make the comment that if you do play on courses where trees are routinely above 60-FT, then the swirling wind matters. That is why, like on the 12th hole at Augusta, it's a pain. The trees down there influence that shot. If your shots are getting near the top of the trees, or above the trees, look up the direction of the wind.

If you want to get a better gauge of the wind. Go to the national weather service. If you type in the zip code for the location of the course, at the bottom of the page there is a clickable image for a graph of the weather, Hourly Weather Forecast. 

The graph will have surface wind (33-FT above ground), but it will tell you the direction the wind is coming from (i.e. out of the north). If you want to be really technical about it. Going from 33-FT to 100-Ft in height, you are increasing wind speed by about 25% as well. 

Edited Saturday at 10:35 PM by saevel25

[iacas]

The wind might be different above 60 feet, but peak height for many golfers is 80-90 feet, so it's spending a good chunk of its time being affected by the wind below 60 feet.

But, yes, judging the wind is one of the toughest things. We've had a very windy spring, but it's been a bit more normal lately.

[Shindig]

I'm glad to know that picking up grass and letting it go doesn't help.  It felt like it shouldn't, but I'm glad to hear there's a good reason why.  It makes sense that wind is different higher up than it is near the surface.

For a while, I was in the habit of checking the prevailing wind direction before playing.  That helped if I wasn't sure.  However, I still am not really sure whether something is a 5% wind or a 10% wind (and, of course, I know that a "helping" wind helps about half as much as the same wind hurting).   One of these days, I'll learn how to figure out what to do differently if the prevailing wind is 10mph vs 20 mph. 

[Ty_Webb]

On 7/12/2026 at 10:26 PM, Shindig said:

I'm glad to know that picking up grass and letting it go doesn't help.  It felt like it shouldn't, but I'm glad to hear there's a good reason why.  It makes sense that wind is different higher up than it is near the surface.

For a while, I was in the habit of checking the prevailing wind direction before playing.  That helped if I wasn't sure.  However, I still am not really sure whether something is a 5% wind or a 10% wind (and, of course, I know that a "helping" wind helps about half as much as the same wind hurting).   One of these days, I'll learn how to figure out what to do differently if the prevailing wind is 10mph vs 20 mph. 

I forget the specifics (irritatingly), but I remember recently watching a video where I think it was Nick Faldo was saying you can gauge the windspeed by how many paces it goes when you drop the grass. It was something along the lines of if you drop it from shoulder height, then 3 paces is about 10 yards of hurt into and 5 yards of gain downwind. 6 paces would be double that. It's obviously a pretty wide rule of thumb and if it's really windy you won't be able to find where the grass lands, but it was (or would be if I could remember it) quite a useful way to crystallize what used to be just oh it's windy and blowing that way. Then guessing. 

I would think the helpfulness of throwing up the wind would depend on how tree-y the area is. On a flat links course with no trees around, the wind at surface I would expect to be a lot more similar to up higher, where trees around are going to whip it all over the place. Plus as @iacas said, even if peak height is 80-90 feet, that's still a large proportion of the time that the ball is below 60 feet in the air. 

[saevel25]

On 7/11/2026 at 6:52 PM, iacas said:

The wind might be different above 60 feet, but peak height for many golfers is 80-90 feet, so it's spending a good chunk of its time being affected by the wind below 60 feet.

But, yes, judging the wind is one of the toughest things. We've had a very windy spring, but it's been a bit more normal lately.

That is fair. 

So, some information is probably better than no information. 

If a golfer is going to throw grass, throw it up in the air.