You're Correct!

Always adapt, never fight the wind, you will never win.

If you are playing in windy conditions and you are finding it tough to score, one thing you want to learn to do is to adapt your game more to the fact that it is windy. For example, if you are playing into the wind on a hole, you need to learn to be able to hit the ball at a much lower trajectory, so that you can control the height you hit the ball at and keep the ball low and under the wind. The wind will have far less influence on the shot if it is hit at a low trajectory and that means you will be able to get much more accurately into the green and at the pin.

To hit a lower golf shot you need to change a few things at set up that will help you promote a lower ball flight. The first thing you want to do is play the ball further back in your stance than usual and you want to have your hands further forward than usual. If you are a right handed golfer, work on creating a straight line down your left arm and extend this line down the shaft of the club. From your left shoulder to the club head should be one continuous straight line. This will help you to de-loft the club face slightly, promoting a lower flight and also with the ball further back in your stance than usual, you will strike the ball slightly on the downward part of the club heads swing arc, meaning that it will promote a lower ball flight.

You also want to work on putting your left foot back from its usual position to about halfway down the shoe laces of your right foot and set your feet up as you normally would for your stance, shoulder width apart. The reason you want to put your left foot back is so it slightly opens your hips, which enables you to swing through the shot and encourages you to turn your body towards the target, meaning you can swing the club head down the target line more easily – promoting accuracy in your shots.

You now have a great opportunity of playing a lower shot from this start position. As you move the club head away from the ball on your back swing, you simply need to maintain the straight line of your left arm and the golf club. Swing back and maintain that line. You will find that you swing to just over waist height on your back swing, a much shorter and more restricted back swing length than for your usual golf shots. But with low shots you do not want to hinge your wrist during your golf swing, as this promotes height in the club head and as a result, the club head will attack down at a steep angle towards the golf ball, producing a high flight. Just above waist height is the maximum distance you can go back on the back swing.

As you swing through, maintain that straight line and then rotate your body towards the target maintaining the straight line as you swing through the shot. You want to finish with the club head very low compared to the hands - this is known as a laid off position when the club head is lower than the hands. Maintain that straight line from the left shoulder down to the shaft of the golf club all the time and you will find that you have hit a much lower controlled trajectory shot. Learning to do this will allow you to hit the ball into the wind and maintain your accuracy and scoring ability.

If you are playing down wind, so that you have got the wind with you, you want to get the wind helping you, so it makes the golf hole a lot shorter. If you are playing off the tee, really tee the ball up, so get the ball up on a much higher tee peg and hit the ball upwards into the wind, so that the wind pushes the ball along, allowing you to hit much further than normal. You want to hit the ball higher than usual when playing down wind.

For your second and third shots, hit a slightly higher shot than normal and to achieve a higher trajectory you need to move the ball slightly further forward in your stance as usual. Set your hands back slightly, so this is completely the opposite that you would do for hitting a low trajectory shot. With the ball further forward, the hands slightly back more than usual and what you want to work on here is getting the shaft of the club to point at your belly button – that is a good check point knowing your hands are over the ball and in the correct place. Place your weight slightly further back, so slightly on the right foot.

All of these alterations are going to allow you to hit a higher trajectory golf shot and to get the ball up into the wind and get the wind doing some of the work for you on the hole that you are playing.

If the wind is strong and no allowances are made, shots will lose accuracy and distance control even though they may be well struck.

The wind is a natural phenomenon and nature is always going to win. It will be very difficult to control the ball if you are trying to hit at your usual trajectory and just ignoring the wind, because the wind has such an influence over the ball. It will either hold the ball up more in the wind and you will not achieve your yardage, or you will get a lot more yardage if you are down wind. If it is a cross wind, the wind is really going to blow the ball off line, so if you are just aiming straight at the flag it will just not work, the ball will miss the target.

Learn how to adapt to the conditions and rather than fighting the wind adapt using your golf shot – that will really help you lower your scores the next time you are faced with those conditions.