Forums

aiming for wind

• genorb 1,255 Posts

  Sat, Jun 25 2011 5:30 PM

  ESTIENNE:

  Hi

  i was wondering if anyone that knows the answer, to how to accurately aim off, for wind,directly from left or right,is willing to share that info.In other words how far left or right do you aim .Is there a proven method?

  Now i can help myself around ,but still i cant get it worked out  perfect.Maybe there is not a perfect way,but any info would be appreciated.

  maybe some of the legend guys can also give some advice

  thanks

  Hi Estienne,

  Indeed, missing the ding on purpose is a way to counter the wind as explained by YankeeJim. I used that method up to Tour Master Tier and then I changed to the other method, namely moving the aim flag. You have to try to see which method is best for you. Moving the aim is disturbing at first because you don't know by how much you have to move it. To my knowledge there is no rules published on this forum. I personnaly use pattern recongnition heavily based on memory (depending on the distance from the target and the strength of the wind I "know" how much to move the aim, but of course sometime it doesn't work as expected. Because of this, I cannot really share any hint about how to move the aim).

  I stopped to miss the ding on purpose for several reasons:

  1) Clicking at the right time to ding a shot is not easier or more difficult than to stop the meter at the right position at the left/right of the ding. In both case, you have to stop the meter at a given position.

  2) When you don't ding a shot it affects direction (good to counter the wind) but it affects distance also. So you play on two parameters at the same time (direction and distance) which make shots harder to evaluate. I use a lot of backspin, in this case, missing the ding can lead to way too short shots.

  3) The deviation produced by missing the ding on purpose is not always consistant because of forgiveness. You have certainly experienced that sometime you don't ding a shot but the direction is not really affected and sometime you miss the ding by an hair and still the deviation is huge. In the first case, forgiveness was large on the other case forgiveness was drinking biers with some friends and forgot to do his job because this is a random process. (Of course even when you ding a shot, some deviation can occur, this is related to the precision of the club. This is why it is desirable to use clubs with high precision)

  4) When you play with heavy wind on St-Andrews (30 mph wind or so), then it's hard to counter such a lateral wind by missing the ding on purpose. I do not say it's impossible, but quite hard (at least it was for me) because you have to click quite far from the center line and then it affects a lot distances.

  Hope this helps,

  Regards

• Joshjrn 93 Posts

  Sun, Jun 26 2011 2:16 PM

  I like to use a combination of the two. 

  I find that missing the ding can cost you quit a bit of distance at times. Alternatively, I find that in really heavy winds on a heavy rolling course like StA, there are times that, by time my ball hits the fairway, it has a serious sideways trajectory to it. I've hit "perfect" shots (barely made it over the rough) that ended up in the rough all the way on the other side of the fairway because of how much drift it had.

  By combining the two, I find that you get a straighter shot than moving and dinging and a more consistent shot than simply mishitting. It takes a bit more work before you have it figured out, but it's not terrible. 

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Sun, Jun 26 2011 2:40 PM

  genorb:

  I use a lot of backspin, in this case, missing the ding can lead to way too short shots

  Backspin exaggerates deviation. More often than not it helps the carry. Aiming accordingly and missing big with the wind gets the R11 up in the air and it flies. Against the wind that drive in the example went 289. Aiming way right, like in the right rough, and pulling that drive would probably have put the shot a shorter wedge away.

  Keep in mind this isn't advised as a routine, just a way to have fun with deviation. Genorb's way is better when it's crunch time.  :-)

• genorb 1,255 Posts

  Sun, Jun 26 2011 3:34 PM

  YankeeJim:

  genorb:

  I use a lot of backspin, in this case, missing the ding can lead to way too short shots

  Backspin exaggerates deviation. More often than not it helps the carry. Aiming accordingly and missing big with the wind gets the R11 up in the air and it flies. Against the wind that drive in the example went 289. 

  Hi YankeeJim, 

  Actually when I wrote my post I had approach shots mainly in mind and not driving. This is why I was writing about accuracy etc. You have to be accurate on driving but not as much as for approach shot obviously. So most of my comments do not really stand with respect to driving.

  I have to try your method for driving (but will not use callway at first, because I am pretty sure the balls will go all over the place on my first tries :) )

  Regards

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Sun, Jun 26 2011 5:21 PM

  genorb:

  Actually when I wrote my post I had approach shots mainly in mind and not driving.

  Thank you for pointing this out,G. I should have made that distinction because I never try this with anything other than a drive. Oiy! Try missing to aim with the better clubs and balls and you will definitely be miserable. Everything you pointed out comes true.  :-)