This week the DP World Tour is hosting its flagship Pro-am event, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland at The Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, and although the weather was a delight on Thursday, the same could not be said for Friday.
A storm rolled in over the links and treated golfers to strong winds and persistent rain. In order to get second-round play in as quickly as possible, the European Tour sent groups out via a shotgun start over all three courses.
For those accustomed to playing in the wind, taking more or less club just comes with the territory, but when it comes to tee shots there truly is a lot to gain and lose. Thanks to Ping’s Ballnamic fitting platform and modeling we know exactly how much.
Based on the model using the average PGA Tour launch conditions, a player can expect to loose a whopping 91 yards of total distance heading into a head wind. The same shot hit down wind is expected to gain 84 yards of extra distance — that’s a 175-yard difference on two tee shots hit in opposite directions!
Now if you’re curious about how this changes your iron performance they shared that data, too.
So whether you’re playing over on the links or at your home course dont beat yourself up too hard if you lose more than 50 yards on your next tee shot into the wind.
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