Golf course management during poor weather
golf course management during adverse weather doesnt have to mean an automatic poor round of golf.
Golf course management is very important to a golfer, whether you are a experienced player or a beginner. Understanding how far you have to the hole and which club to use can be the deciding factor in whether you have a good round or a bad round. Another substantial consideration is the weather when you’re on the golf course playing your favorite sport.
Wet or dry, Hard wind or calm breeze, these weather conditions are all very important things to think about when deciding how to navigate a golf course. A major decision in choosing the proper golf club is the wind, the direction the wind is blowing will have a big influence on the outcome of a round of golf more than any other weather related element. when faced with a stiff wind a golfer has to decide the strength and direction in order to choose the right club to use and proper approach shot.
Facing into the wind a player may choose to either choose a different club or they may decide to hit their normal club harder, hitting the club harder can generate very unpredictable results. When a player chooses to hit a club harder than usual more often than not the wanted ball flight is not achieved due to the increased effort in hitting the club harder, this approach introduces to many more chances for the swing to go badly.
A swing that goes wrong is a swing that has left the proper swing plane and does not contact the ball properly causing miss hits, slices, and pulls. An affective way to not make this mistake when facing a strong wind is to simply choose a higher club, instead of a six iron try a five iron. The results of choosing a lower club means that you can use your normal swing and still achieve the same distance.
This is also true of golf shots that have your backs to the wind, in this case the wind can actually help a golfer achieve greater distance than is common and so selecting a higher club may get the results desired. Lets say a golfer usually uses a six iron to achieve a distance of 150 yards, with a strong wind at your back, you may want to consider changing to a seven iron to achieve the same shot distance.
The same kinds of considerations need to be taken when the wind is coming at the player from the sides, adjustments in aiming have to be made because the wind can push a ball from side to side if it is strong enough. Other considerations such as water hazards and sand bunkers come into play with a strong wind. A sand bunker that usually would not cause a player trouble may come into play if the wind is blowing the ball in the bunkers direction.
Another major factor in golf course management is moisture, or how wet or dry the golf course is. Show up in the morning while the sprinklers are still running, or show up after a good rain and you can expect mushy fairways and very soft greens. For the mushy fairway many players have a hard time hitting a golf ball off the wet fairway, striking the ball with a clean stroke and getting the ball up in the air becomes much harder due to the added resistance of the wet grass.
At the other end of the fairway is the putting green, and a putting green that is very wet will be very slow. This means putting becomes more difficult due to the added resistance of the grass to the golf ball, so a player has to strike the ball with much greater effort than normal to push the ball along and keep it rolling to the hole. As the sun comes out and dries the fairway and putting greens a golfers game can change very quickly.
Hard fairways will cause the ball to roll farther off the drive and will help the player to strike the ball more firmly for their second shot helping them to get more distance. The big change comes on the putting green, a wet putting green where the ball required a very firm to hard stroke can now be pushed along very quickly with only a soft stroke causing the player to tailor their stroke to the new conditions.
Whether windy or calm, dry or wet, golf course management is very important and poor golf course management can add many unnecessary strokes to a players round. Careful considerations about the weather and golf course conditions is crucial to your game. Take your time and play smart, and you will have an enjoyable game no matter which way the wind blows.
Written by Jerret Bonds, Writer for Banana-ball.com
