#1 HOT & COLD

HOW MUCH DIFFERENCE CAN A SUNNY SKY REALLY MAKE?

playing between winter and summer could be as much as two clubs – and that’s before you take any other conditions into account, including the fact that the ball will run further once it lands on firmer fairways and greens in the summer than it will in softer winter conditions.

However, one of the key findings uncovered during our research was that the more loft on the club, the less the shot is affected by temperature. Temperature will alter the flight of all shots, but it stands to reason that the faster the ball is travelling and the longer it stays in the air, the more it’s going to be affected. The disparity in carry between 0° and 35°C was 14.6 metres with driver, 12.5 metres with 7-iron, and 5.5 metres with 54° sand wedge. You can easily see the relation between loft on the club and how much the carry distance changes.

You can use this information to alter your expected carry distances in different temperatures for each club. Work out how far you typically carry each club at a certain temperature and then use these ratios to adapt those numbers for different temperatures in 10°C or 15°C increments so you can easily adjust on any given day. The most obvious and basic weather condition that will affect how your golf ball flies is the temperature. It’s not uncommon to play in temperatures up to 35°C if we’re lucky in the summer or travel to warmer countries, while many brave souls who carry on playing through the winter will often venture out in temperatures close to freezing, so there’s a significant variance.

In simple terms, the hotter it is, the further the ball will fly. When we dug down into the specifics, the data suggested that a 15°C difference will alter your carry distances by about one club (5-8 metres) in the middle to longer end of the bag, and a little less with the wedges.

Therefore, the difference between