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How do you gauge the wind?

Phil75070

Phil75070

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The thread on what is a 1-club wind got me to thinking. How do you gauge the wind? How do you determine if it is 5, 10, 20mph, etc? Obviously that is critical in determining if you need one or more clubs playing into it. Tahoebum uses a formula, 1% for each mph. Can anyone tell the difference in even just a couple of mph? Do you use an app while playing? Is it how the flag or trees are moving? The weather forecast before the round? Experience?
 
Phil75070 said:
The thread on what is a 1-club wind got me to thinking. How do you gauge the wind? How do you determine if it is 5, 10, 20mph, etc? Obviously that is critical in determining if you need one or more clubs playing into it. Tahoebum uses a formula, 1% for each mph. Can anyone tell the difference in even just a couple of mph? Do you use an app while playing? Is it how the flag or trees are moving? The weather forecast before the round? Experience?
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Wind, air temperature, humidity etc... are all factors which influence golf shots. So, throughout the round a player should be aware of how these factors are changing.
To answer your question specifically; it's helpful to watch tree branches move, flags blowing, toss into the air blades of grass, what your playing partners shots are doing through the wind, how your own shots on previous holes have been affected by the wind etc...
 
You judge it by playing hundreds of rounds in windy conditions. After time you get a sense for what a 1, 2, or 3 club wind feels like. Clubbing and hitting good shots into a wind is relatively easy, it’s the crosswind and quartering wind shots that are difficult to get close to the hole.
 
I mainly watch the trees and flags, but also a sense of wind from how it is hitting me.
 
Yeah this is a tough one, I think it’s just an experience and feel thing mainly. I hit the ball HIGH so a par 3 I’m hitting 9i in no wind may have me club as far down as 5i if I’m hitting into a 20-25mph. Most of my efforts in learning to hit a knockdown have been fruitless. It sometimes works but sometimes I hook it off the planet.
 
Mostly look at the tops of the trees. How it feels down where I am won't really reflect on what it will do to the ball up there. To me, at least.
 
If it feels windy to me on the ground, it is much windier higher up where the ball is flying. I can't hit a knockdown shot to save my life. I almost always just go with a club higher or lower no matter how windy it feels and deal with the consequences of how off I am. Only once have I been in a situation where the wind impacted my ball considerably by going off one club. Usually I am not too far short or long to where I am left with anything more than a chip
 
I have been playing this game for over 40 years, so I know EXACTLY how much the wind effects my ball.....when it's a worm burner :bulgy-eyes:

In all seriousness, I have been playing the game that long and judging the wind and what it will do to my shots is still a mystery to me.
 
Flags, trees, feel, experience. I'll sometimes look at the hour by hour forecasts before I head to the course too, or hear a forecast on the drive in.
 
tahoebum said:
You judge it by playing hundreds of rounds in windy conditions. After time you get a sense for what a 1, 2, or 3 club wind feels like. Clubbing and hitting good shots into a wind is relatively easy, it’s the crosswind and quartering wind shots that are difficult to get close to the hole.
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Totally agree. It gets easier to judge once you've put in the time. Like anything else in golf, practice and experience will make you much luckier ;)
 
I take a guess based on experience and then crowd source any information I can too (if someone plays first, I look at their club selection and see the result)
 
Normally I check the forecast before I head our but thats all, on course I would mainly use the trees to judge wind speed and direction. It is rare for us not to have some level of wind although we have a prevailing wind so it tends to be the same direction although strength fluctuates. I guess it would be difficult if you played in locations that only have breeze rather than wind!!
 
Usually check the forecast beforehand to get a general idea. But we play a course that is hard against the bay, so wind will generally pick up through the afternoon. But as mentioned- playing for a long time you get a feel for what is needed. A few holes that might have water can give a better idea than the flag or what you feel on the tee. The ripples and their sizes across the surface can give a clue as well.


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As DG and others pointed out, there are a number of factors you have to consider. Wind, direction, temperature, elevation change, shot shape, and trajectory to name a few.

We've got a par 3 at the club I'm a member of that is a great example.

It has trees behind the green in the direction where the wind comes 95% of the time. You rarely feel it from the tee, and even if you do, you aren't feeling nearly as much as is 'up there'. It's only about a 140-yard hole, so most people hit it way up in the air. For that, you better pay really good attention to the tops of the trees. Their movement will tell you how much pushback you'll get from the wind. Wind alone will make it a standard to 2-club adjustment. But even with a lot of wind, you can choose to play a knockdown shot and make no adjustment for the wind. The temperature may cause up to a 1-club adjustment. It's a 3-tiered green and fairly deep, so you might need a 1-club adjustment based on the pin location and elevation change.

Shot shape won't factor a lot on a short hole like this. But if you are trying to reach the green with a 3-fairway metal or hybrid it can be a significant factor. Into the wind, a fade is going to be held up more than a draw. A cross-wind is going to affect both distance and sideways movement depending on whether your shot shape is riding with the wind or against it.

There is a lot to factor.
 
Dustin_J said:
The Beaufort scale and associated visual indicators can be helpful. I use roughly 1% loss per mph into the wind and 1/2 % gain per mph downwind.
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That link to the Beaufort scale is perfect (I had never heard of itr before)! Especially for people like you who use a "formula", my real question was how do you determine what is a 10mph wind vs a 12mph wind to apply any formula used. That Beaufort scale comes the closest to being able to determine the precise wind speed. Thanks!
 
I have been playing golf a long time and still get plenty on approach shots short due to not knowing what the wind is doing. Sometimes, you dont really feel it on the ground but there may be a 10mph+ wind above the trees.

As the OP stated, when I actually want to calculate the wind, I use the 1% per MPH. I just notice that many times, there's a different wind where you are standing and wind where the ball peaks.
 
I throw some grass in the air and go with my gut feeling

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In a former life, I was a glider pilot and learned how to pick up visual cues to determine wind speed and direction, mostly using trees and flags. That has given me a pretty well tuned gauge to wind speed, and I am usually within 2MPH with my estimate.

Every 10 MPH = 10 Yards to me. SO I make my educated guess, then round up to make sure, if flying the shot isn't overly penal. I round up because I normally overestimate the wind and my ability to hit the shot, LOL.
 
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