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Playing into the wind

Now that summer is here it’s time for the sunscreen and umbrellas to come out. The sun is hot and weather for golf is spectacular, (if you‘re not in Cape Town…). In the Cape of Good Hope the wind is the one thing that reminds us of the true aspects of the game. It makes us feel like we are walking on St Andrews without the cold weather and rain.

Let’s talk about the factor that the wind has on a golf ball when it is blowing straight into your face. What makes a ball fly? Spin. What makes a ball go left or right? Side spin. What gives spin? The angel of attack with which you hit the ball gives some spin on the ball, the steeper you swing the more spin is put on the ball. Combine that with the speed at which you swing and you produce a low trajectory with lots of back spin.

Now when the wind blows 30 - 50 km/h (as regular Cape Town wind tend to do) straight into your face and you have 130m to the pin, are you going to hit your 9 or 8 iron harder than usual? No. why? As hitting it harder produces more spin and when a ball is hit into the wind, the spin is nearly doubled. What happens is that a 8 iron becomes a wedge, going high, high, high… and you have to hit your approach shot from nearly the same spot, as your ball went just a few of metres in front of you.

What should you do? Next time you are on the golf course and you have a 8 iron in your hand and the wind is howling into your face, put the 8 iron back into the bag, grab a 6 or 5 iron (depending on the strength of the wind) grip down a inch and make a smooth swing. Don’t force it. Swinging easy puts less spin on the ball and in doing so reduces the chance of the ball ballooning on you, resulting in a low trajectory shot with not much spin.

Next time you are out on the course in the South Easter, remember this saying:

“When breezy, swing easy”

Article Contributed by PGA Pro, Christo Pistorius

Part of the WGT Media Network