How much does weather and/or shaft affect shot distance...

[senorchipotle]

went to the range today, it was 68* and incredibly humid(my apologies to all of you up north) and my balls seemed to be going quite a bit shorter their normal distances. i just got a new set and i'm trying to find my iron distances. with my last set, i hit my 7 iron avg. 175 with a normal stroke, today i was hitting the new one about 155. my 3 iron, normally my ~225 club was only going 190. not too sure the model of my old shafts, but they were true temper steel. my new ones are rifle 5.5. could either, or both of these factor into my hitting the ball shorter? cause i'm pretty sure i'm hitting the the ball just as hard as i was with my old irons, but not getting the distance.

all help appreciated.

[Shanks A Million]

Weather, altitude, and shafts all make a difference. However, it sounds like you got new clubs, and that's a huge factor, much more than shafts. You see, a 7 iron is not a 7 iron. Every set is different. Odds are, your older set was stronger lofted. Golfsmith's forged muscle back clubs are somewhat weak. The pitching wedge is only 49°, compared to modern pitching wedges which are as low as 46°. This is because better players are not stupid, and are not sold by "look how much farther you can hit your new 7 iron!" Well, that's just ridiculous. It's so out of control, some sets now have two gap wedges (Wilson Di9). The TaylorMade Burners have an 11° gap between PW and SW, just once again proving that people will do anything to hit it farther. So just remember that your new 7 iron is more like an 8 iron from any other set.

[senorchipotle]

Weather, altitude, and shafts all make a difference. However, it sounds like you got new clubs, and that's a huge factor, much more than shafts. You see, a 7 iron is not a 7 iron. Every set is different. Odds are, your older set was stronger lofted. Golfsmith's forged muscle back clubs are somewhat weak. The pitching wedge is only 49°, compared to modern pitching wedges which are as low as 46°. This is because better players are not stupid, and are not sold by "look how much farther you can hit your new 7 iron!" Well, that's just ridiculous. It's so out of control, some sets now have

i'm not entirely sure about the specs because i acquired them as a gift from a relative who got two sets and decided not to use this set. these are probably 3 or 4 years old, whereas my old set was 10, which were blades as well. so theoretically the older ones should be weaker, right? it's bugging the hell out of me though, cause there's a huge gap between my 3 iron and my 3 hybrid whereas before it was only 10 yards. thanks!

[Shanks A Million]

i'm not entirely sure about the specs because i acquired them as a gift from a relative who got two sets and decided not to use this set. these are probably 3 or 4 years old, whereas my old set was 10, which were blades as well. so theoretically the older ones should be weaker, right? it's bugging the hell out of me though, cause there's a huge gap between my 3 iron and my 3 hybrid whereas before it was only 10 yards. thanks!

Try and give me the exact make and model of both sets, and I can look them up. But suffice to say, the Golfsmith irons are as weak as irons from the early 80s, so irons from 10 years ago would be much stronger.

[senorchipotle]

Try and give me the exact make and model of both sets, and I can look them up. But suffice to say, the Golfsmith irons are as weak as irons from the early 80s, so irons from 10 years ago would be much stronger.

new set: golfsmith 'pro forged.'

old set: wilson staff 'gooseneck' forged.

[oogiesfaded]

i can hit my goose's farther then i can hit my brothers nike forged irons. the goosenecks have some omfh to them because of the design. im not sure what it is, maybe something with the longer kneck that would give you some more leverage.. or maybe your just used to swinging the older ones so the newer set needs to be perfected. if i switch sets i tend to loose a little distance just tryin to regain tempo.

[senorchipotle]

i can hit my goose's farther then i can hit my brothers nike forged irons. the goosenecks have some omfh to them because of the design. im not sure what it is, maybe something with the longer kneck that would give you some more leverage.. or maybe your just used to swinging the older ones so the newer set needs to be perfected. if i switch sets i tend to loose a little distance just tryin to regain tempo.

yeah, the gooses are great clubs. imho, the best wilson ever made. they are a bit lighter, but one would think that would make them lose distance with respect to a heavier club.

[Shanks A Million]

yeah, the gooses are great clubs. imho, the best wilson ever made. they are a bit lighter, but one would think that would make them lose distance with respect to a heavier club.

Depends if you're talking about swingweight, or actual club weight. Many people confuse the two. I can take a club that weighs 100 grams, and a club that weighs 200 grams, and make the 100 gram club feel heavier. Lighter clubs go farther though, you can swing them faster. I think it's just a case of getting used to the new irons. Irons always lose about 20 yards at first, but once you get them fitted and get used to them, you get it back.

[luckyluke699]

Out of interest I just looked up the angles on those Wilson Di9s after reading this thread.... 42 degree pitching wedge, WTF?!? That's a huge difference to the 48 degree pitching wedge on my clubs!

[dbuck]

As Shanks and others said, there are many variables and the what the number on the club means varies from set to set.

On the one variable of temperature, Frank Thomas article on another site said effects on ball and body from temperature alone is about 2-2.5 yards for every 10 degrees. So at 68* that would be half a club+ from your peak season Big D temps.

[DavidFehertysBike]

Its just harder to get the ball up into the air and carry in colder weather. I dont really know the physics of it. The coldest ill play in is about mid 30's sunny with no wind and i find i lose two full clubs or more in distance compared to a average summer day of 85 degrees. When i play this time of year, ill use an old 10.5 degree driver i have just to get the ball in the air.

[chilly]

I'm still sorting out the issue of humidity, I've seen the arguments that the air is physically lighter when humid, but my personal experience is that shots seem to fall a bit short. Could well be that it is lighter, but drag is increased, I don't know. Either way, I find it's about a half club change on irons, nothing too significant.

As far as temperature, I have been getting more experience there. I am down a solid 1.5 clubs going from 80 to 30* weather, talking irons there, roughly 15yds in mid irons, maybe 10yds with a 9 iron. I'm pretty confident that a drive is down 30yds. We've had crazy weather in the Richmond area and I've played basically back to back weeks going from 30s to 60s so it wasn't a swing or equipment change, and I'm consistently 30yds longer on all drives, good and bad, now that it's hovering around 60. Interesting to see if it picks up more some more going to the 80s, I think it will a bit but not quite as drastic a change.

[Shanks A Million]

Out of interest I just looked up the angles on those Wilson Di9s after reading this thread.... 42 degree pitching wedge, WTF?!? That's a huge difference to the 48 degree pitching wedge on my clubs!

Yeah, they have

two gap wedges in that set!

Its just harder to get the ball up into the air and carry in colder weather. I dont really know the physics of it. The coldest ill play in is about mid 30's sunny with no wind and i find i lose two full clubs or more in distance compared to a average summer day of 85 degrees. When i play this time of year, ill use an old 10.5 degree driver i have just to get the ball in the air.

The physics are surprisingly simple. When it's colder, the ball doesn't compress as much. Which one can you hit farther with a tennis racket, a tennis ball, or a baseball? Same thing. A cold golf ball is like a baseball, it does not compress as much. A warm one is more like a tennis ball, it compresses easily. Heavier air also takes its toll, but even warming up a golf ball, even in cold air, makes it travel quite a bit farther.

Challenger was destroyed for the same reason. The rubber O rings were made from the same rubber golf ball covers are made from (elastomer), and it was unable to expand to create a positive seal.