Dealing With Wind On The Golf Course (Video) - by Pete Styles
Dealing With Wind On The Golf Course (Video) - by Pete Styles

So playing golf on a hilly golf course, one that undulates up and down, leaves you lots of shots where you got to hit high, lots of shots where you got to hit down. Playing at a golf course like that, might feel difficult enough on its own, but guaranteed the first time you go out on a really hilly golf course, you are probably going to get a really windy day to go with it. And then suddenly you have got lots of different ideas going on in your head about club selection in terms of what the wind is going to do and what the hills are going to do as well.

And we are going to investigate four different options here, basically all four corners if you like. So we are playing a downhill shot down wind, a downhill shot into the wind and then uphill shot downwind and an uphill shot into the wind. Well let’s have a look at the consideration about what the club would do and what the ball would do, to get this ball on the green. Now we have to have a little bit of proviso here as well to sort of talk about the subtly of the slopes and of the wind because you might play on a day where there is a slight slope and a slight wind, it might not make a big deal of difference or a very big slope and a very strong wind is going to make a much bigger difference. But let’s imagine, we are playing downhill, downwind, this one should be one of the easy ones because everything is working in your favor to help you hit the ball further. So the first consideration is, throwing some grass up in the air, check the wind direction, think about what club you would take for the wind direction and the distance you are hitting. Then look at the slope as a separate entity and subtract maybe another club. So it might be a club less for the wind and the club less for the hill, take the right club, but then make a smooth swing, don’t try and batter the thing you know if you are 150 yards away downwind, downhill you might think well that’s two clubs less, I am hitting 99, but hitting 99 from 150 that feels like a long way, you might then over hit it, force yourself to over hit it and make bad you are better off with the correct club just be nice and smooth as you are making nice control swing. Next option would be downhill but into the wind. And you might consider that downhill is going to take a club off, into the wind is going to add the club back on; so therefore I can just make the same normal swing. Fine, if that’s your decision, go with that, commit to making a nice, smooth swing, don’t try and over hit it. Then you have got your other options of playing uphill, downwind. Same thing as that downhill into the wind really here, you might think, well I need one more club to get up the hill but one less club because it’s downwind, that’s fine if that’s your decision commit to that club, swing nice and smooth. And then the uphill into the wind, now this is a bit of a tricky one because we want to hit the ball hard enough to get it up the hill, you tend to find that the harder you hit the ball, the higher it is going to rise as it rises high the wind is going to hit it a little bit more. So you are going to need plenty of club here because you need to get up the hill but without skying the ball too high. The one thing you will notice with this ball when its uphill and into the wind is the way it lands on the green it’s going to stop which is a good thing because generally a raised shot won’t stop very well on the green but because you are playing into the wind, when this ball lands on the green it’s going to stop quite nicely. So it might sound as a lots of information in this tip, and lots of different variations and that’s exactly the concern, exactly the problem that the wind can be blown in all four different directions, a slide can be up and down on different severities off so there is no hard and fast thing I can tell you that always do this or always do that. But read the situation well, throw a bit of grass up into the air, look at the wind direction and the wind strength, and make a consideration of the club. And then add in the every 15-feet that we rise or we descend we need to change one club up or one club down depending on the distance. Use all those ideas to make the right club selection. The key thing when you’ve made that club selection is stand over the ball with confidence, I have the right club, make a good swing. There is no point selecting the right club and then making a bad swing because you didn’t trust your club selection. Hopefully you can work on all of that, and next time you go out in the windy, hilly day, you will still play well. 2016-10-17

So playing golf on a hilly golf course, one that undulates up and down, leaves you lots of shots where you got to hit high, lots of shots where you got to hit down. Playing at a golf course like that, might feel difficult enough on its own, but guaranteed the first time you go out on a really hilly golf course, you are probably going to get a really windy day to go with it. And then suddenly you have got lots of different ideas going on in your head about club selection in terms of what the wind is going to do and what the hills are going to do as well.

And we are going to investigate four different options here, basically all four corners if you like. So we are playing a downhill shot down wind, a downhill shot into the wind and then uphill shot downwind and an uphill shot into the wind. Well let’s have a look at the consideration about what the club would do and what the ball would do, to get this ball on the green.

Now we have to have a little bit of proviso here as well to sort of talk about the subtly of the slopes and of the wind because you might play on a day where there is a slight slope and a slight wind, it might not make a big deal of difference or a very big slope and a very strong wind is going to make a much bigger difference. But let’s imagine, we are playing downhill, downwind, this one should be one of the easy ones because everything is working in your favor to help you hit the ball further.

So the first consideration is, throwing some grass up in the air, check the wind direction, think about what club you would take for the wind direction and the distance you are hitting. Then look at the slope as a separate entity and subtract maybe another club. So it might be a club less for the wind and the club less for the hill, take the right club, but then make a smooth swing, don’t try and batter the thing you know if you are 150 yards away downwind, downhill you might think well that’s two clubs less, I am hitting 99, but hitting 99 from 150 that feels like a long way, you might then over hit it, force yourself to over hit it and make bad you are better off with the correct club just be nice and smooth as you are making nice control swing.

Next option would be downhill but into the wind. And you might consider that downhill is going to take a club off, into the wind is going to add the club back on; so therefore I can just make the same normal swing. Fine, if that’s your decision, go with that, commit to making a nice, smooth swing, don’t try and over hit it. Then you have got your other options of playing uphill, downwind. Same thing as that downhill into the wind really here, you might think, well I need one more club to get up the hill but one less club because it’s downwind, that’s fine if that’s your decision commit to that club, swing nice and smooth. And then the uphill into the wind, now this is a bit of a tricky one because we want to hit the ball hard enough to get it up the hill, you tend to find that the harder you hit the ball, the higher it is going to rise as it rises high the wind is going to hit it a little bit more. So you are going to need plenty of club here because you need to get up the hill but without skying the ball too high.

The one thing you will notice with this ball when its uphill and into the wind is the way it lands on the green it’s going to stop which is a good thing because generally a raised shot won’t stop very well on the green but because you are playing into the wind, when this ball lands on the green it’s going to stop quite nicely. So it might sound as a lots of information in this tip, and lots of different variations and that’s exactly the concern, exactly the problem that the wind can be blown in all four different directions, a slide can be up and down on different severities off so there is no hard and fast thing I can tell you that always do this or always do that. But read the situation well, throw a bit of grass up into the air, look at the wind direction and the wind strength, and make a consideration of the club. And then add in the every 15-feet that we rise or we descend we need to change one club up or one club down depending on the distance.

Use all those ideas to make the right club selection. The key thing when you’ve made that club selection is stand over the ball with confidence, I have the right club, make a good swing. There is no point selecting the right club and then making a bad swing because you didn’t trust your club selection. Hopefully you can work on all of that, and next time you go out in the windy, hilly day, you will still play well.