Temperature and sim golf

[iloveplywood]

Hi all,

I have my setup in a partially insulated garage in Wisconsin and am starting to face the realities of cold weather golf. I have a small space heater right now but it's currently struggling to get the temperature up to 40 degrees. It's honestly not that bad, but I was wondering if I'm losing any distance doing this. My game is so bloody inconsistent that I can't tell if it's me or the the weather, but I seem to be hitting my irons at least a half a club shorter than usual. My driver actually seems just about the same frankly (maybe I've just gotten longer though . . . it could happen) so it makes me wonder if it's the cold or just a swing malaise. Anyway, just wonder if any other garage golfers notice a drop off in distance as the temperature drops.

[DS12]

Purely anecdotal, but I'm sure there's science behind it, I do believe you will see lower distance in the cold garage. It could be wearing more layers of clothing limiting flexibility and swing range, it could be not being able to compress a cold golf ball as much (do you keep them inside or in the garage?). Some people outdoors switch to a softer golf ball to get some of the distance back. I wouldn't be shocked if that was similar in a cold garage too

[Ronsc1985]

The main thing that causes distance drop off in the garage is possibly additional clothes restricting your swing. The difference in golf ball performance is minimal, less then 1%, at 32 vs 90F. Outdoors you see a fairly large difference entirely due to the increased air density and therefore increased drag on a flighted golf ball..

This is not idle speculation. I have compared cold vs room temp balls in my garage a few times back to back where I kept some balls in the cold garage and some inside and then hit them both alternating shots. When done on a Foresight GC2,, using Prov1 balls, any differential in ball speed, launch angle and spin was swamped out by my shot to shot differential. When I did this I had a 3 handicap which was not a result of a good short game i.e. my ball strike consistency was fairly good.

If you are using a sim program, some allow you to input air density via the atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature

One note about hitting cold golf balls. They are more likely to crack when hit cold. I was going through Prov1's fairly fast until I started keeping them inside. They take a fairly ling time to cool off so bringing them out when you are starting a sim session will probably eliminate excessive cracking.

[bubbtubbs]

I believe hollow clubs are also at a slightly higher risk of cracking when they and the balls are cold, though don't take my word for it.

[iloveplywood]

Good info. Thanks guys!

It was strange that my driver ball speed was fine. I think there might be a mental block of swinging my irons hard when my hands are cold.

[bubbtubbs]

As far as clothing goes, I've played outdoor rounds at -3C in nothing but a long underwear (preferably some kind of activewear/jogging style) top and bottom under golf pants with a short-sleeved golf shirt and vest. Barely feels like you're wearing anything more than what you would have on in the spring or fall, I'm comfortable and mobility doesn't suffer at all - far better than a coat or jacket, IMO.

[iloveplywood]

As far as clothing goes, I've played outdoor rounds at -3C in nothing but a long underwear (preferably some kind of activewear/jogging style) top and bottom under golf pants with a short-sleeved golf shirt and vest. Barely feels like you're wearing anything more than what you would have on in the spring or fall, I'm comfortable and mobility doesn't suffer at all - far better than a coat or jacket, IMO.

I'll have to try this -- I've always had major issues even wearing a sweatshirt golfing -- I'm sure it's mostly mental but I end up playing in short sleeves no matter what the temp. I'm finally getting addicted to playing sim golf right in time for the cold snap here. The nice thing about a launch monitor is that I can see if it effects my ball speed instead of just getting paranoid about it.