Before buying the first golf ball, one will probably do a lot of research. From the design, feel to even the place a golf ball is made, everything becomes a concern. But keep in mind, there is a certain situation where the golf ball will perform a certain way.
And even if it’s the best brand balls, the behavior is kind of fixed. You may consciously look for the details of where Titleist golf balls are made with what technologies, and bring one home thinking it’s from one of the best brands. But notice eventually, that it’s dragging and not going a lot of distance. If you pay more attention, you’ll find out that it’s a colder day usually. And that’s the catch, the cold air is making golf ball travel less distance.
Now if you are wondering how far does a golf ball travel in cold weather, then today’s discussion, hopefully, shall help you.
The Temperature Shall Decide How Far Does a Golf Ball Travel in Cold Weather.
And if you think about it, warm air is not as dense as cold air. So, there should be some additional drag going on the golf ball. This difference was measured to be approximately one yard for each 10-degree change.
For example, you are playing at 40 degrees, which is twice less than your regular 80 degrees temperature. The loss of yards in this scene would be around 4 yards. So, yes there’s a good difference of winter vs summer golf distance that you will notice.
Does Cold Weather Affect Golf Ball Distance in Any Other Way?
Well yes! During the colder times, you are more likely to wear quite a few extra layers. It would depend on how cold it is, right? And with each extra layer, you are basically limiting your backswing. As a result, there will be quite a bit of impact on the distance.
Then again, your body dealing with low temperatures will also react to the ball differently. So technically, your play and performance could be affected as your body is feeling cold.
The Flight Impact – How Far It Will Fly?
Basically, you’ll find golfers being very aware of the fact, that during colder days, the golf ball won’t travel as it would have on warmer days. And that’s something quite anyone in the golfing thing would agree with.
However, someone might also want to know, exactly how much impact does cold temperature has on the flight? Well, most manufacturers of golf balls would test their made balls for seeing the flight changes in various situations.
And from that, it’s said that in cold weather, the ball would travel less distance due to drag but also have additional lift making it go higher. On the flip side, with warmer weather, the distance would be more but flight shall see less lift.
Eyeing A Study to Understand the Distance Impact.
Well, there was a golf ball temperature experiment done by Andrew Rice in 2018 seem to have the answer:
- At a 150-mph ball speed, golfers going for 250 yards drives shall experience 2 yards loss for each 10-degree temp drop.
- With a 150-mph ball speed, golfers going for 250 yards drives shall experience 2 yards gain for each 10-degree temp rise.
Here’s a table to understand the distance difference according to the above-mentioned formula.
| Temperature | 110 ° F | 100 ° F | 90 ° F | 80 ° F | 70 ° F | 60 ° F | 50 ° F | 40 ° F | 30 ° F |
| PW | 135.2 yards | 133.9 yards | 132.6 yards | 131.3 yards | 130 yards | 128.2 yards | 126.4 yards | 124.6 yards | 122.8 yards |
| 7-Iron | 166.8 yards | 165.1 yards | 163.4 yards | 161.7 yards | 160 yards | 158.2 yards | 156.4 yards | 154.6 yards | 152.8 yards |
| Driver | 257.6 yards | 255.7 yards | 253.8 yards | 251.9 yards | 250 yards | 248.1 yards | 246.2 yards | 244.3 yards | 242.4 yards |
| 4-Iron | 197.2 yards | 195.4 yards | 193.6 yards | 191.8 yards | 190 yards | 188.2 yards | 186.4 yards | 184.6 yards | 182.8 yards |
The Golf Ball That You Should Use in Cold Weather.
All that discussion shall bring you to this question eventually. Well, then what golf ball should I use in cold weather? Now that’s a tough one to answer because as I said, the golf balls are usually this way and there’s not much you can do about it.
This is not a simple battery replacement matter where you figure out 6V battery is needed, grab the cost of 6V golf cart battery and make a purchase.
But yes, some features of golf balls may make the issue seem less obvious. And to do so, you should pick a ball that comes with:
- Drag reduction ability to attain high speed.
- Have better lift to get through the dense cold air.
- A cover made of Surlyn (softer would be better).
- And a core that allows low compression as well as enhanced feel.
Let me make your chase a bit shorter, Bridgestone e6 would be my recommendation. It comes with a huge dimple that helps with the drag reduction as well as other characteristics we just talked about.
Wrapping Up
The idea of how far does a golf ball travel in cold weather is a few times misunderstood as a fault of the brand for producing bad golf balls. However, it’s not actually that way.
The weather does have an effect on sports like golf, and it will cause some changes in speed, velocity as well as distance. You might be able to minimize that to a certain extent. But changing conditions are going to make you feel the difference, even if it’s the slightest.
Hopefully, now you know things better than before.
