The wind and other weather conditions is just one more factor that can affect your golf game. Although you could have the perfect stance, the correct address position, and the right club selection, if the wind blows too hard in one direction or there’s a cross wind, your ball won’t fly where you think.

Beginner Golfers

Windy conditions can be truly annoying for the beginning golfer. Though the weather is perfect for golf, beginners can have problems controlling the ball, so you can imagine their discontent when the wind strengthens. To become a better golfer, you’ll have to discover how to golf in diverse conditions. Your regular course could be wet or dry throughout the year or it could be affected by high winds. Also, if you play other courses in a different region, you could face different wind and conditions.

Links Courses

If you really want to become a good golfer then you will have to find out how to adjust your game to suit the conditions. As you can imagine, the links courses of Scotland and England can be very challenging because of their exposed position. That is why it took sixty years for an American to win The Open. Those first American Open Champions are still household names because they changed the history of golf evermore. American golfers like Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, and Ben Hogan all came across the Atlantic and mastered the blustery links courses. Since then, The Open has had Champions from many different countries.

The Wind Direction

As golf courses are not laid out in a straight line, each hole can be orientated in a different direction which makes it hard to judge where the wind is coming from. So, the 1st step is to feel where the wind is coming from. On the links you usually get a prevailing wind direction that can be unvarying. Sometimes though, the wind direction changes throughout the day so you have to take that into concern.

On many woodland courses where there are low and high areas to the course, you could face with swirling wind conditions. Also, you could be playing your approach shot from a sheltered point but the green is exposed to high winds. So it’s not always sufficient to check the wind direction and speed where you are playing from, you have to also look to the flag or the trees around the green to get a feel for the wind conditions.

Club Selection

The next step is to select the correct club. The first thing to realize is that a head wind will affect the distance that the ball flies but not as much as a tail wind. Many people believe that a tail wind will help their golf ball fly further than it really does. Actually, you will only gain about 10% distance when playing with the wind but you will loose approximately 20% distance when hitting into the wind. The key to hitting into the wind is to select a lower lofted club and to not strike the ball harder than normal and to adopt a stance with your feet closer together for extra stability. When hitting with the wind choose a higher lofted club than customary.

The wind can be a golfer’s worst enemy, even the pros can have a hard time predicting the wind and how it will affect their ball. Doubtless the most difficult wind condition is the cross wind; it takes a lot of experience and practice to be able to estimate how much you have to compensate in your aim to the target. Playing golf in the wind is just one more factor that makes golf such a interesting and challenging game. To be a great golfer you will just have to learn how to control your ball in the wind, and that implies playing more golf in windy conditions.

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