Understanding Wind Impact on Golf Course Management Strategy
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00:00So it's interesting in hearing you talk about that sort of risk reward trade off of, you know,
00:08hey guys that are aggressive and pull it off, you know, can make the numbers I need to make
00:13to really distance themselves from the rest of the field. So much of that to me is weather
00:18dependent, right? Because if you're, you know, if it's downwind, you obviously can do a lot
00:23more in terms of carry, you know, numbers and reaching in front of the greens and giving
00:26yourselves, you know, scoring clubs or even, you know, having a putter in your hand on par fours
00:31that change the complexion of the tournament. But if that wind switches, it's a completely
00:35different ball game. And so I got the forecast. So I'm looking at, oh, it's okay. That's because
00:41I'm looking at the forecast right now for, for, well, let's start with Thursday. And so I'm seeing
00:47South to Southeast winds, um, that you're seeing South to Southeast. Yeah, that's what, if you're,
00:54if you're starting at 7.00 AM, it's South, Southeast, and then it's all South the rest
00:58of the day. And it's, it's, it's like, well, guess what it was today. It was Northwest.
01:02So that was down off the right. So one today, um, that's, that's in off the right at like one
01:09o'clock, which is, makes the back nine play easier. And it makes the front play. It, it,
01:17it just forces your hand on the front nine basically to, to lay up. Yeah. And I mean,
01:23I'm just so curious to see, cause I, in terms of the numbers, like you're seeing winds that should
01:27be between eight to 12 mile per hour, but gusts up to like 30 miles an hour on, and this is on
01:33Thursday. And then there's, it looks like rain is in between 70 to 80% chance on Thursday.
01:39There the rain chance on Friday is a lot lower. It's between 10 and 20%. Um, but the wind is,
01:45is still there. Maybe not as strong as Thursday. It's, it's, you know,
01:49saying the consistent will be between six to 10 miles per hour. And then gusts will get up to
01:53about 27 miles per hour. Uh, but the wind direction, same sort of thing. We're seeing some,
01:58some South to start the day, then going South Southwest, uh, and then later in the evening,
02:04back to South. And so, you know, is it, it, it does, again, it emphasizes the point you're
02:09making about Jack Nicklaus, where, especially here at the open championship, you can't show
02:13up with a game plan because the game plan for the North winds is a lot different from the South wind.
02:17So, um, you kind of noted there on the front nine, how that changes things. I mean, does that
02:21change if you're seeing guys today hitting four or five irons, like, is that driver in hand?
02:25If the wind's going South or is it still the way it's going to run on the ground? It's still going
02:30to be an iron or a driving iron or something like that in hand off the tee. It's, it's going to turn
02:35into the front nine playing much softer than it normally would the back nine. You're so accustomed
02:43or excuse me, the front nine, you're so accustomed to landing wedge shots at the
02:48front of the green. And a lot of times front pins, you're landing at 10 yards short of the green.
02:52So it, it, it turns it a little bit more into the ball flying towards the hole and the ball
02:58stopping quicker. So the wedge and approach shots become arguably easier to get closer to the holes
03:05in which they tuck it on the corners, which they can do on the first couple of holes.
03:09Like they can hide these pins behind pot bunkers, which I think is the risk reward factor
03:16in hitting driver when it's downwind on those holes. But if it's right to left or in on the
03:22first couple of holes or the first seven holes, I think it kind of gives you an opportunity to
03:28play aggressively.