Improve your performance and shave a few strokes off your game by
keeping your golf balls warm. Tiger Woods. Arnold Palmer. Lee Trevino.
Jack Nicklaus. Any one of these legendary golfers could tell you that
hitting a cold ball is like hitting a rock. Golf balls with high
compression - whether they're hard when they are cold as compared to
golf balls that have been warmed. Test results show that golf balls
heated to an internal temperature between 100F/37C to 120F/49C provide
approximately 15% longer drives than balls chilled to 55F/12C or lower.
The Hot Ball Golfer's Hot Bag is an insulated canvas bag with heating
elements powered by 2AA batteries which keeps your golf balls heated to
over 100 degree/F for more than 6 hours... even when the outside
temperature is below 40F/5C! And, unlike other golf ball warmers, the
Hot Bag is cordless: just insert the batteries, turn it on and you're
off to the links.
Well, now that the golf season is in full "swing", you often hear golf announcers talk about the "carry of the golf ball". This basically means, how long the ball remains in the air after it leaves the clubface. The question is, can weather affect the distance a golf ball travels. The answer is yes. It's really a combination of physics and meteorology..
A golf ball will travel less distance in colder temperatures for two reasons. First, when the golf ball and golf club are colder, the transfer of energy is not as efficient, so the ball speed will be less. Second, colder air is more dense than warm air, so there is more friction and drag. This will slow the ball down after impact and it won't carry as far. The same can be said about the human body. Muscles are more flexible and responsive when the temperature is warm than when it's cold, so we are able to move more efficiently.
Now as for the golf ball itself, when its warmer, the rubber materials used to make the balls respond better. So, a warmer ball will come off the clubface with more velocity and spin than a colder ball. Golf ball selection also plays a part. If you are playing golf and the air temperature is below 50 degrees, a higher compression golf ball won't travel as far as a low compression ball. Pro tip, men, don't be afraid to use a woman's (low compression) golf ball if you are playing when the air temperature is below 50 degrees.
Finally, while club selection is an integral part of golf, it is easily overlooked when playing in colder weather. Basically, you need to use more club when playing in the cold weather versus warmer weather. For about every ten degrees, the average golfer (90 mph swing speed) will see a difference of 2 yards in distance. So, if you hit your 9 iron 130 yards in 90 degree weather, you're only going to hit it about 122 yards when it's 50 degrees. That is about one club shorter, so your club choice would be an 8 iron in that situation. While there isn't a huge yardage distance when playing in the cold versus warm weather, golf is a game of precision and a few yards either way can absolutely make a difference, especially with your irons. Case in point, you hit your driver when its 50 degrees, it travels about 230 yards, when it's warm, maybe it goes almost 240 yards. But usually you aren't looking for distance precision with the driver. But, let's say your next shot to the green is 130 yards and there is water just in front. Well if you hit your 9 iron at 50 degrees, your ball is wet, so that "extra" club would have been needed to clear the water and land safely on the green. Here is a helpful table to show you the differences.| Weather | Driver | 5 Iron | 9 Iron |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 Degrees | 227 yds | 167 yds | 122 yds |
| 52 Degrees | 235 yds | 175 yds | 130 yds |
(Based on a 90 mph golf swing)
There are a few other factors to take into consideration, but these are the main "drivers" when it comes to how weather can and does affect the golf ball. Fore !!
A: Golf balls are made from a solid or liquid core with tightly-wound materials, and require a certain amount of elasticity in order to release kinetic energy during a collision bounce. The property of elasticity is affected by temperature. Warm balls have a greater ability to flex during a collision, thereby recovering more kinetic energy than golf balls at colder temperatures.
This scientific principle is called the coefficient of restitution. Simply put, the ball's 'bounciness' is dependent on the elasticity of the materials, and the bouncier the ball, the farther it will travel when struck by a golf club.
A: Yes. Most popular golf balls on the market today are constructed similarly, usually in three or four layers over a core consisting of a small rubber ball. Some brands use a liquid or hollow core to achieve varying performance levels. Using warmed balls will consistently produce greater drive distances, although better quality balls may outperform lesser quality balls. Any performance variation based on quality, however, has little to do with the warming process.
A: Increased performance is achieved not just by warming the outside of the ball, but by warming the inside layers and core of the ball as well. If the inner core or layers are colder than the outside of the ball, the core will not compress adequately. This will result in less kinetic energy being released and will affect the ball 's speed off the clubface.