thegolfguru | The Complete A-Z Of Golf

thegolfguru The Complete A-Z Of Golf: "With the improvement of technology, newer and better golf clubs are being released. However, not all of these clubs are endorsed by the USGA. Some of them, such as hollowed out titanium clubs, have a higher coefficient of restitution and impart a greater force on the golf ball. For this reason the USGA has declared that clubs with a coefficient of restitution greater than 0.83 are not approved. A coefficient of restitution of 0.83 means that a ball traveling at 100 M.P.H. will rebound off a metal plate at 83 M.P.H. "

thegolfguru | The Complete A-Z Of Golf

thegolfguru The Complete A-Z Of Golf: "As everyone knows, there is not simply one club used for the entire game of golf. There is a huge assortment of clubs, each for a different purpose and to be used in a different situation. A common set of clubs may contain several drivers (with varying weights, head sizes, and lie angles), 2 through 9 irons, a pitching wedge, a sand wedge, and a putter. The drivers have a club head significantly heavier than that of any of the other clubs. These are generally used for the first shot of the hole and will hit the ball the furthest due to a larger transfer of energy from the more massive club head to the ball. The drivers also have a shallower lie angle (the angle between the club shaft and the club face) than most of the irons, but there is some flexibility in the angles amongst different drivers for different length fairways. The irons are ranked from 2 to 9 and the lie angle becomes greater with each. The lower irons are used to hit the ball further while still a ways from the green while the higher irons are used to hit the ball higher with a shorter horizontal displacement. The sand and pitching wedges are designed for chip shots where you are quite close to the green or simply need to get out of a deep sand trap. These clubs allow for a very vertical shot with minimal horizontal displacement. The putter has no lie angle and is simply designed to keep the ball on the ground as it travels across the green, hopefully ending up in the hole."

thegolfguru | The Complete A-Z Of Golf

thegolfguru The Complete A-Z Of Golf: "The wind effects on a ball seem rather obvious. As discussed earlier, the golfer will have to adjust for any type of wind that is present while taking a shot. If there is a tailwind, hitting the ball high will maximize distance by letting the wind do more work in pushing the ball along. However, if there is a head wind, you should hit the ball lower than normal as headwinds destabilize the ball and tend to emphasize a slice or hook. Cross-winds will make the ball drift to the side, in the direction the wind is blowing, so you will need to aim into the wind to compensate. Wind’s effects on golf are very easy to understand, it is simple vector addition. A cross wind blowing perpendicular to the ball’s intended path would be much like the physics problem we did in class involving a person trying to row a boat across a river with a current pushing them sideways"

thegolfguru | The Complete A-Z Of Golf

thegolfguru The Complete A-Z Of Golf: " Dimpled golf balls fly much further than smooth balls. Before discussing why this is true, we need to understand something called the boundary layer. The boundary layer is the thin layer of air surrounding a ball as it flies. In the boundary layer, the speed of the air varies from the air on the surface of the ball (which is not moving relative to the ball) to the air out by the mainstream airflow, at the edge of the boundary layer. The reason dimpled balls travel further than smooth balls is because the dimples on a golf ball create turbulence in the boundary layer. This actually helps because the dimples then scoop air back towards the rear of the ball. By moving more air to the rear, this helps keep the air pressure behind the ball from dropping. And by doing this, the amount of air pressure pulling backwards on the ball is decreased. Here is a diagram of the affect of dimples with varying depths on a golf ball’s distance"

thegolfguru | The Complete A-Z Of Golf

thegolfguru The Complete A-Z Of Golf: "First off, a backspin imparted on a golf ball will cause the ball to gain loft and stay in the air longer. As the ball spins in the air, it directs more airflow up over the top of it and then downward behind it. This means that the air above the ball is moving faster than the air below the ball, and because of the pressure difference, the ball has additional force pushing it up, which helps it stay in the air for a longer period of time. This spin also helps golfers produce more accurate shots because with a backspin imparted on the ball, it drops quicker toward the end of the shot. And after hitting the ground, the backspin helps slow the ball more quickly. So the path the ball takes in the air is not a simple parabola. It is a parabola that rises more gradually at first and then comes back down more quickly after reaching its peak. Here are some examples of the paths a ball would take with different amounts of backspin: "

thegolfguru | The Complete A-Z Of Golf

thegolfguru The Complete A-Z Of Golf: "Chipping out of a sand trap and putting require different swings than those of a drive or a shot from the fairway. During a chip shot out of a sand trap, the golfer hits the sand behind the ball with his club head. The sand between the club and ball provides cushioning by absorbing some of the energy. Therefore, the distance of the shot will be determined by how far behind the ball the club head hits the sand.
Aside from being able to crush the ball at the tee, a good golfer must also know how to adapt his drive according to the weather. Twelve degrees is the typical angle of flight the ball follows off a tee shot. However, if wind is present, there are ways to adjust this angle to maximize the distance of your drive. If the wind is coming from behind you you should choose a club with a greater lie angle to give the ball more loft so you can use the wind to your advantage to carry your ball further. If you are facing a headwind, however, you generally want to use a club with a smaller lie angle because wind from the front will tend to destabilize your ball and can amplify a slice or hook. "

thegolfguru | The Complete A-Z Of Golf

thegolfguru The Complete A-Z Of Golf: "A proper golf swing obviously has an enormous impact on your game of golf. The golf swing has physics written all over it and is a great example of angular motion. The twisting swing produces torque on the club. This torque force changes the angular velocity of the club, causing rotation. Most club heads weigh about the same, so the key to being able to hit the long ball lies in the club head velocity. The faster your club head is going at the bottom of your swing, the greater the amount of kinetic energy that will be transferred from club head to the ball because the kinetic energy is proportional to the mass of the club head and the square of its velocity.
Professional golfers can generally achieve a club head speed of 100 M.P.H. at the bottom of their swing. Tiger Woods, however, can reach up to 125 M.P.H. According to research done by Raymond Penner, a physicist at Malaspina University-College in British Columbia, there is an optimum lie angle (angle between club shaft and club face) of a golf driver depending on the club head speed. For example, he found that a 7.5 degree lie angle will allow Tiger Woods to maximize his drive while golfers who swing slower would probably use a club with a lie angle closer to 20 degrees.
A typical way people try to hit a ball harder is to snap their wrists at the bottom of their swing. Although this may feel like you are getting more power out of your swing, this action actually slows the club head down, according to Theodore Jorensen, a golf expert who has published works on the physics of golf. "