The Wind

[njcl13]

A question about the effect of a strong wind on shots,i'm familiar with facing a wind,its as though your hitting into a wall,not so familiar with being down wind and the effect it has on yardage,E.G if i hit a 5w 215 yds with a 20MPH gust behind me how much of that distance is wind responsable to that yardage??,just trying to figure out what to deduct when hitting woods and irons downwind

[k-troop]

Depends on your ball flight, the ball, spin, etc.  If you hit the ball low, it's less likely to be affected by wind.  If you hit it with less spin, also less likely to be affected.  Higher spin balls will be more affected.  Also, with modern multi-layer balls, shots hit very solid--in the middle of the clubface--are going to be less affected also.

Also, a tailwind doesn't have a directly proportional affect on distance that can be translated from MPH to yardage.  A steady 10-15 MPH tailwind will be very helpful for distance, but a strong (30 MPH +) tailwind might actually rob the ball of spin, which will knock it down early.

Wind is all about feel and experience.  You just have to play in lots of different kinds of wind to know how it's going to affect your shots--and even then, you never really know.  Look at the pros--when the wind is up, they can put up some pretty amateurish looking numbers.  It's one of the reasons why golf is hard.

[njcl13]

5 wood,high trajectory,i dont know about spin,very well struck as well,as most of my golf shots are similar,ie high etc,would it be safe to assume if i hit 215 yds,then 10 yds of it will be because of the 20MPH wind??,that would make my normal shot with a 5 wood 205 yds???

[GaijinGolfer]

A strong tailwind will add distance.  How much depends upon how high you hit the ball but Id estimate a different of 5-10 yards depending upon the wind.  You also have to figure rollout of the shot too because the wind can effect the speed of the ball and cause it to not check up as much.

[njcl13]

Thanks for the info,no rollout as the grass was a schoolfield where i practise so its over 2 inch long {until they mow it},so i'll assume 5w is 200 yds for me in normal conditions,anybody workout my driver distance from that??,have not hit the driver for a long long time,i pray its not over 240 yds,thanks

[Mattplusness]

In Raymond Floyd's book, he addresses this issue. He says for every 15 MPH head wind, club up two clubs. For the equal tail wind, club down 1 club.

[darkhunter139]

I have not played in strong winds that often but I will never forget one day I was playing a par 3 course by the beach in NJ and it was very windy that day.  The hole was about 120 yards so I figure my pitching wedge would be fine, hit a nice shot and it just dies right when it gets up into the air.  I think I would have needed a 7 iron to get it there!!

[njcl13]

Reason i dont want drives over 240 is that i have terrible eyesight,i'm nearing 50,and any further and the ball becomes none existant,just included that in case people were thinking i was asking for other reasons