Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.
Every golfer knows how far they hit their driver (or at least has a general idea). But did you know that environmental factors can have a huge impact on how far the ball flies? Wind, temperature and elevation are all factors that can influence how your golf ball flies — and if you don’t know how these things affect your ball, it can have a huge impact on your game.
If you play a majority of your golf in one place, this may come as a surprise. When you are hitting your driver at your home course every day, the conditions will likely be fairly uniform from day to day. But when you take your game on the road, the conditions tend to be different, and you need to adjust your game accordingly.
Elevation is a particular environmental factor that can have a huge impact on how far your ball flies. So, how much does elevation affect your distance? For more on that, we dive into the Arccos Annual Driving Distance Report.
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How elevation affects driving distance
You’ve probably heard that playing golf at higher elevations means your drives will fly farther — but by how much exactly? It’s probably more than you think.
According to Arccos’ data, 10 handicaps hit their driver just over 220 yards on average at sea level. However, when playing at over 5,000 feet of altitude (think Denver), that number jumps up to 239.7 yards. That’s a nearly 20 yard jump simply by virtue of higher altitude.
“Most golfers who play in Denver, Albuquerque, or anywhere in the Mountain West have experienced this intuitively,” Arccos wrote. “But 19.2 yards is not intuition — it is a precise, real-world figure derived from millions of actual shots at elevation, and it changes club selection in ways most golfers never fully account for.”
If you’re a golfer who plays a majority of your golf at sea level, this can be a huge boon for your game when you head to higher altitudes. Conversely, if you’re typically a mountain golfer, playing at sea level will make courses play a heck of a lot longer.
Next time you play golf in a new locale, be sure to take note of the elevation. It can have a huge impact on how far your drives fly.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: golf.com
