driving into the wind

[Oqvist]

Close the club face? You deloft it so even if you dont manage to draw it it should go lower and maybe at least start more left if you still get the fade. I also grip down on mine do help me get around in time. Easy to overdo so well sometimes just living with a predictable fade is just better. 

[pinestreetgolf]

Reporter, after the British Open: "Tom, you can really hit it well into a breeze.  What is your secret to playing in the wind?"

Tom Watson: "Well, see, there is a secret.  You have to know the secret and I'll it to your right now.  Right now.  So, see, when there is no wind, what I like to do is pick a good target, line up well, and then make the best golf swing I can.  But when the wind is blowing - and this is important - when the wind is really blowing, what I like to do is pick a good target, line up well, and make the best golf swing I can."

[WidespreadPanic]

Tee it low and use a 3/4 kind of punch shot swing. I fade my driver, but it’s a much straighter flight when I do this. I’ve had a number of rounds where I do this throughout, wind or not, and it surprisingly can go further than my full swing.

Edited September 13, 2020 by WidespreadPanic

[dsturnic]

Typically the wind isn't coming in perfectly in line with my target line, so I try to shape my shot with/against it.  Hurts my bad shots all the same, but the mental intention helps avoid any hesitant thinking.

[Jack Pearsall]

The loopy arm swing, low spin, lower flight, take one extra club

[DaveGoodrich]

On 9/13/2020 at 10:12 AM, pinestreetgolf said:

Reporter, after the British Open: "Tom, you can really hit it well into a breeze.  What is your secret to playing in the wind?"

Tom Watson: "Well, see, there is a secret.  You have to know the secret and I'll it to your right now.  Right now.  So, see, when there is no wind, what I like to do is pick a good target, line up well, and then make the best golf swing I can.  But when the wind is blowing - and this is important - when the wind is really blowing, what I like to do is pick a good target, line up well, and make the best golf swing I can."

This is awesome.  Into the wind, the enemy is spin.  Hit something smooth and solid.  Doing anything that is significantly different than your normal drive is more likely to result in poor contact.  A low tee, back in the stance, is especially likely to produce spinny mishits, unless it is something you practice a lot.    I just hit driver, with an emphasis on making solid contact, not maximizing speed.  I choke up a bit (1/2"ish) and just focus on making center-face contact.   

[VA_Astra]

I like these 2 videos from TXG boys. I now grip down and tee my ball lower into the wind...works awesome! As a high ball and high spin player, Wind sucks for me...this method explains the best on what it takes to play into the wind...and you dont loose distance you think you would.

 

 

 

 

[James the Hogan Fan]

I have a Tour Edge XCG5 hybrid, 19°, that I use on links courses. It is a low launch high roll club. 

 

Look at TEE for wind-beaters

[puttingmatt]

Old saying that works,

When Breezy, Swing Easy,

In windy conditions, spin is not your friend ,

Big emphasis on adding to much balloning spin, as well as side spin.

Solid mid face contact is answer, YMMV

[Doyouevenblade]

The best tip I've ever got was to try to sweep the ball off the tee. You want to minimize spin loft in the technical talk.  Tee it a bit lower, swing easy and try to have a level AoA (however you accomplish that, it doesn't matter). 

 

you can't overpower wind. It will always win. 

[Stinger83]

On 9/9/2020 at 4:39 PM, cliche said:

as the titel suggests, i just cant.

as a fader of the ball, the shot either ballons or it powerslides into the woods, water or the OB. 

the next club in the is a 5wood and i still got two spots left.

is anyone successful with a 3wood, that he just uses off the tee and its better into the wind than the driver? 

what would be some options? ping lst?

 

I would recommend teeing your driver down significantly and practicing that. IT is the easiest way to hit a "stinger" type shot and most people don't do it. 

[ZacR88]

My thought process would be to just focus on solid contact and to get through the ball, maybe tee it down a little. I will always go to my go to shot shape into the wind as I have the best chance of making solid contact doing so. 

 

Forget about how far you want it to go all together. Number one though is solid contact and a good swing. Other than that its not much different. I may play it a bit more off the to right side to fade in more just in case it does spin a bit more into the wind. If it a balloons up it doesn't bother me either as it will most of the time fade back in and just be a little shorter than usual, but still a fairway. 

 

No need to over complicate it. Just focus on hitting the fairway. 

[DoubleEagle08]

I’ve had more success with just ignoring the wind with respect to how I swing. Trying to hit a shot with a manufactured swing or technique is not helpful to me. I just tee it the normal height, try to hit it upper 1/3 of the face, as those are lower spin anyway, and play my normal try to hit it straight shot . To me, it’s akin to when you are playing so-so on a narrow course and always having a minimal obstruction in the way of your normal shot shape (let’s say height window or taking away your comfortable draw/fade option). Having to ever so slightly change the height/shape/etc always is much harder and almost universally ends up worse than a normal swing would if I had the normal option. So if I’m on the tee, probably best to give it my best normal swing. 

[LoopySwing13]

On 9/11/2020 at 9:53 AM, Valtiel said:

When it comes to headwind, it is all about spin. A lower flight is nice as well, but controlling spin is the more important of the two. If your natural shot is a higher spinning fade that just takes off with the wind then you either need to learn to control that to some extent or use a different club altogether. The aforementioned driving irons or low lofted hybrids may be a good bet here. 

I disagree with everyone saying "tee it low" though. All this will do for most people is lower their strike which will decrease ball speed and increase spin, two things that will NOT help you into the wind. The holy grail driver into the wind shot is the one where you can lean it forward and present less loft while striking higher on the face. This creates a flatter, penetrating flight with low spin that will pierce through the wind very well. However, you need to keep the ball fairly straight with that flight, and if that is too difficult then simply raising your strike point to drop spin is a the next best option, or simply using one of alternate clubs above. 

I agree with this. I have really been focused on swinging from the inside on my downswing Overall, but I work on two shots for into the wind.

 

1) tee it slightly higher and really focus on sweeping it. As you mentioned, higher on the face typically comes out flatter and less spin. I usually do this for more open holes since I will still swing full.

2) I do tee it down slightly and play it a ball or so farther back. On this swing, I focus on a bit of a sweeping draw where I feel my hands exit slightly lower left, but not letting the club go past my hands. This is usually for a tighter hole, or if I can’t miss right. 
 

Different strokes for different folks, but I enjoy both of these options. 

[Rtkelly2183]

As others have said tee a little lower. I swing normal when I do that and catch it low on the face and it tends to have a low piercing flight and rolls a lot. I play a 17* 4w (5wood turned down) and 21* hybrid and both launch decently high but absolutely straight so that'll be my backup if the driver ain't working on a given day. Also my 22* 5iron (LOL) shoots missiles off a very low tee barely raising the ball off grass and ever so slightly a hair more forward in my stance to catch it a lil thin. 

 

I don't play a 3w cause I can't launch it well off a fairway with my swingspeed and I don't think it's worth the $$ for maybe 2shots a round on short par 4s. 5w might come up 15yds shorter in that case but you're probably still within a 6 iron of the green worst case

[Billfitz]

Agree on teeing lower to hit with the lower part of the face, keeping the launch angle low. On the flipside when playing with a significant wind at my back I tee a smidge higher, to maximize carry.

[GoGoErky]

On 9/10/2020 at 5:53 AM, weavs2 said:

 

 

On 9/11/2020 at 9:53 AM, Valtiel said:

When it comes to headwind, it is all about spin. A lower flight is nice as well, but controlling spin is the more important of the two. If your natural shot is a higher spinning fade that just takes off with the wind then you either need to learn to control that to some extent or use a different club altogether. The aforementioned driving irons or low lofted hybrids may be a good bet here. 

I disagree with everyone saying "tee it low" though. All this will do for most people is lower their strike which will decrease ball speed and increase spin, two things that will NOT help you into the wind. The holy grail driver into the wind shot is the one where you can lean it forward and present less loft while striking higher on the face. This creates a flatter, penetrating flight with low spin that will pierce through the wind very well. However, you need to keep the ball fairly straight with that flight, and if that is too difficult then simply raising your strike point to drop spin is a the next best option, or simply using one of alternate clubs above. 

Everyone agreeing about teeing it lower missed these two posts explaining why that’s not the way to approach it.

 

The first couple minutes of the TXG video explain the samething Valtiel talks about 

 

[Ri_Redneck]

Growing up playing in Texas, I got plenty of time playing in the wind. I found what worked best for me with the driver is doing nothing different EXCEPT using a lower lofted driver. Dropping a couple of degrees in loft helped get spin down and lower trajectory without needing any swing changes. I still do this today playing my modern low spin drivers. When confronted with high winds, I lower the setting on my driver from 10.5 to 8 and try my best to hit the ball solid and apply as little side spin as possible. When I get to a downwind hole, I'll usually hit my 3w as it tends to ride the wind well with the added backspin and it will typically go further than my down-lofted driver.

 

BT

[Ri_Redneck]

delete duplicate post.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Ri_Redneck