Inclement Weather, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Inclement Weather, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

So, here are five points of playing in the bad weather. We want proper preparation, to prevent poor performance. Now, when you're playing on a rainy day which inevitably happens to most golfers at some stage in their careers, you just got to prepare properly. If you can prepare better than the next guy, you can actually play better golf than them. Nobody enjoys playing in this weather when it's raining, you just got to get all the stuff in your bag that's actually going to help you out.

So, I want you to go through your bag next time you're about to set out for the round, then make sure you've got everything sorted out. One of the biggest issues with playing in the rain is the grips and the glove. Any bad contact between your glove and the grip is really going to affect how you feel about hitting the shot and then your confidence to swing through and aggressively hit through the ball when there's a bad contact, it could be a real big problem.

So, the first thing, make sure you got decent grips. If your grip is more than a season old, give them a good clean, bit of a sort of soapy water, give them a good rub down or even a sort of a brush just to make sure the grips will actually give you plenty of traction. And then your glove, don't necessarily buy loads and loads of new gloves and definitely don't throw away your old ones. If the glove is getting a little bit worn out, maybe has a bit of a tear in the palm, just put it in the bottom of your bag because one day you might actually require that glove. You know if my gloves getting wet through, I'd much rather put on a dry old glove than a wet new glove.

So, keep three or four old spare gloves, just tucked in a little plastic bag wrapped in the bottom of your bag and then one day when it's raining, you'd be really glad to have those.

The other thing is a couple of extra big towels. You know, we normally have the little golf towel on the side just to wipe the mud off if it's tied to the side in your bag, that's okay but if that's on the side of the bag, it's going to get wet very quickly. So again, maybe wrap up an extra couple, maybe three or four more towels back in your bag as well so that if you do find it towards the bag now, your grip is to go and your gloves go and you still got something dry to wipe your hands or your grips when you're playing.

If you can put on a nice water-proof suit and maybe a little hat just to stop the rain going down the back of your neck, that will actually make you feel better about life as well,. When you're actually playing the shots, there's lots of different considerations in the rain, maybe there's mud on the ball, that's going to affect the flight, maybe they're going to get a flying lie because there's wetness on the club face or on the back of the golf ball but then likewise, if you're playing in a water-proof suit on a wet day, on a cold day, you might not be hitting the ball quite so far as well.

So, there's lots of different things that can affect things and it's difficult to judge the ball. So often, you'll see the better plays. Well, actually play more conservatively. Somebody like Tom Watson is a really good example of how he thrives in the bad conditions. He knows that everyone else is finding it more difficult. So, if he can go around and still have a reasonable game maybe one or two shots more than he would do on a sunny, everyone else in the field is affected by four or five shots more than they would do on a sunny day. He's actually playing better even though he scores a couple more than it would normally be. He's beating the rest of the field.

So, if you can take that mindset on a rainy day, level to your handicap or one or two over your handicap, you still have a great score. That's a nice way of thinking about it. So, play the golf course a little bit more conservatively. Take less drives off the tee, take less par fives on in too. Play more conservatively around the water hazards. Keep your score down on those rainy days. You'll actually feel the rest of the golf course, the rest of the field, will shoot the highest score above the handicap and you could still have a good result, maybe you are winning the competition just with a stand, sort of level to your handicap round.

So, play conservatively in the rain. Get prepared before you go out and play. Look after your hands and your grips and that's the key to playing in inclement weather.

 2012-05-30

So, here are five points of playing in the bad weather. We want proper preparation, to prevent poor performance. Now, when you're playing on a rainy day which inevitably happens to most golfers at some stage in their careers, you just got to prepare properly. If you can prepare better than the next guy, you can actually play better golf than them. Nobody enjoys playing in this weather when it's raining, you just got to get all the stuff in your bag that's actually going to help you out.

So, I want you to go through your bag next time you're about to set out for the round, then make sure you've got everything sorted out. One of the biggest issues with playing in the rain is the grips and the glove. Any bad contact between your glove and the grip is really going to affect how you feel about hitting the shot and then your confidence to swing through and aggressively hit through the ball when there's a bad contact, it could be a real big problem.

So, the first thing, make sure you got decent grips. If your grip is more than a season old, give them a good clean, bit of a sort of soapy water, give them a good rub down or even a sort of a brush just to make sure the grips will actually give you plenty of traction. And then your glove, don't necessarily buy loads and loads of new gloves and definitely don't throw away your old ones. If the glove is getting a little bit worn out, maybe has a bit of a tear in the palm, just put it in the bottom of your bag because one day you might actually require that glove. You know if my gloves getting wet through, I'd much rather put on a dry old glove than a wet new glove.

So, keep three or four old spare gloves, just tucked in a little plastic bag wrapped in the bottom of your bag and then one day when it's raining, you'd be really glad to have those.

The other thing is a couple of extra big towels. You know, we normally have the little golf towel on the side just to wipe the mud off if it's tied to the side in your bag, that's okay but if that's on the side of the bag, it's going to get wet very quickly. So again, maybe wrap up an extra couple, maybe three or four more towels back in your bag as well so that if you do find it towards the bag now, your grip is to go and your gloves go and you still got something dry to wipe your hands or your grips when you're playing.

If you can put on a nice water-proof suit and maybe a little hat just to stop the rain going down the back of your neck, that will actually make you feel better about life as well,. When you're actually playing the shots, there's lots of different considerations in the rain, maybe there's mud on the ball, that's going to affect the flight, maybe they're going to get a flying lie because there's wetness on the club face or on the back of the golf ball but then likewise, if you're playing in a water-proof suit on a wet day, on a cold day, you might not be hitting the ball quite so far as well.

So, there's lots of different things that can affect things and it's difficult to judge the ball. So often, you'll see the better plays. Well, actually play more conservatively. Somebody like Tom Watson is a really good example of how he thrives in the bad conditions. He knows that everyone else is finding it more difficult. So, if he can go around and still have a reasonable game maybe one or two shots more than he would do on a sunny, everyone else in the field is affected by four or five shots more than they would do on a sunny day. He's actually playing better even though he scores a couple more than it would normally be. He's beating the rest of the field.

So, if you can take that mindset on a rainy day, level to your handicap or one or two over your handicap, you still have a great score. That's a nice way of thinking about it. So, play the golf course a little bit more conservatively. Take less drives off the tee, take less par fives on in too. Play more conservatively around the water hazards. Keep your score down on those rainy days. You'll actually feel the rest of the golf course, the rest of the field, will shoot the highest score above the handicap and you could still have a good result, maybe you are winning the competition just with a stand, sort of level to your handicap round.

So, play conservatively in the rain. Get prepared before you go out and play. Look after your hands and your grips and that's the key to playing in inclement weather.