How to Play Golf on Windy Days
The wind and other weather conditions is just one more factor that can affect your golf game. Although you could have the perfect stance, the correct address position, and the correct club selection, if the wind is blowing excessively hard in one direction or there’s a cross wind, your ball won’t fly where you wanted it.
Golf Beginners
This can be really annoying for the beginning golfer. When the weather is ideal for golf, beginners can have problems controlling the golf ball, so you can picture their annoyance when the wind starts to blow. To develop into a better golfer, you will have to learn how to play in diverse conditions. Your regular course could be dry or wet throughout the year or it could be affected by strong gusts. If you also play other courses in a different state, you might experience different wind and weather conditions.
Links Golf
If you are serious about becoming a better golf player then you will have to learn how to adjust your game to suit the conditions. As you probably know, the links courses of Great Britain can be really challenging due to their exposed position. Probably, that’s why it took 60 years for an American to win The Open. Those first American Open Champions are still well known names as they changed the story of golf forever. US golfers like Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, and Ben Hogan all came across the Atlantic and mastered the windy links courses. After that, The Open has had Champions from many different countries.
The Wind Direction
Because golf courses are not arranged in just one direction, different holes can face a different direction which makes it tricky to calculate where the wind is coming from. So, the first step is to feel where the wind is coming from. On the links you usually get a prevailing wind that can be constant. Now and again, the wind direction changes throughout the day so you have to take that into consideration.
On some woodland courses where there are high and low areas to the course, you could face with unpredictable wind conditions. What’s more, you could be playing your approach shot from a sheltered point but the green is exposed to high winds. So it is not always enough to check the wind speed and direction where you are playing from, you also have to check the flag or the trees near the green to get a sense of the wind conditions.
Choosing Your Club
Next, you have to select the right club. First you must know that a head wind will affect the ball’s distance but not as much as a tail wind. Many golfers think that a tail wind will help their golf ball fly further than it actually does. In fact, you will gain only approximately 10% distance when playing with the wind but you will loose about 20% distance when playing into the wind. The key to hitting into the wind is to select a lower lofted club and not to hit the ball harder than normal and to adopt a stance with your feet closer together for added stability. When playing with the wind choose a higher lofted club than usual.
The worst adversary of a golfer can be the wind, even the professionals can have a hard time predicting the wind and how the ball will be affected. Possibly the more difficult wind condition is the cross wind; it takes a lot of experience and practice to be able to know how much you have to compensate in your direction to the target. Playing golf in the wind is just another factor that makes golf such a challenging and interesting game. To be a great golfer you will just have to learn how to control your ball in the wind, and that means golfing more on windy days.
Mick Euan Tait has been golfed for more than 35 years but had to change his swing due to lower back surgery. Find out about the Golf Swing Guru that taught him a Simple Golf Swing that is easier on the back than the traditional swing.
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