There are some things a player can control on the golf course. From alignment to club speed, to playing from the bunker or reading greens. But one thing no one can prepare for is the weather, as Mother Nature will sometimes throw a serious wrench in how a course must be played.
To help address that dilemma, Marty Jertson — a PING engineer — put together some helpful information during last fall’s GOLF Top 100 Teacher Retreat.
Jertson put together an informative (and in-depth) presentation exploring how both wind and aerodynamics impact a player’s shot selection. He broke things down into several categories like ball flight, ball performance, what optimal means, and, finally, whether a player should fight it, flight it, or ride the wind. For those wondering how to maneuver windy conditions, it’s a must watch.
Jertson goes on to explain how golf balls are tested, describing how robot-testing works.
“We can use a robot to do very controlled experiments, where we want to control impact location really well,” he says. “We might want to introduce water or moisture on to the golf ball, or between the ball and the club face to study friction.”
Next, Jertson poses a simple question: What are optimal launch conditions?
Adds Jertson: “As you go up in speed, you need to launch it lower with less spin. As you go down in speed, you need to launch it higher with more spin. But the problem with this [old formula] is that it didn’t fit all the outliers.”
Check out the entire video above to see more about how a player’s shot selection is impacted by wind and aerodynamics.
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