Keep your balls warm
Warmer golf balls travel through the air further than cold ones. This is mainly because the core gets harder when it’s cold so you need to generate more swing speed to hit the ball your usual distance.
It takes a number of hours for cold to penetrate to the core so make sure you store your golf balls in the house and not in the car or garage overnight.
To help overcome this, ensure you arrive at the first tee with at least two warm golf balls. Even put them on a radiator the night before and then keep them in your pocket until you get to the first tee.
You must not, however purposefully warm the golf ball in your pocket using a handwarmer or other such device as you play – this would be in breach of rule 14-3.
Did you know?…
A golf ball loses approximately 2 yards in carry for every 5˚C that the air temperature drops.
Switch to a low compression ball
The golf ball you play can, or maybe should, change from Summer to Winter. No longer is extra spin around the greens so beneficial due to the greens being much softer in the winter. This means you can play a ball with a firmer, distance inducing, cover. Distance becomes a greater priority as the soft ground and cold conditions will mean much distance is lost compared to summer.
If you normally play a ProV1 or other premium soft cover ball then consider switching to something with a lower internal stiffness (compression) like; Titleist DT Trusoft, Srixon Soft Feel or the new Srixon Ultisoft. The lower compression is really beneficial as the core gets stiffer in the cold as mentioned earlier. In actual fact many ladies golf balls are the best for winter golf.
