The distance your ball travels after hitting depends on multiple factors, including the unevenness of the green. If these terms sound like Chinese, don’t worry! Here we explain what is the difference in altitude, what is the flight distance and how to take advantage of them to make more accurate shots when you play on your golf course in Majorca:
What is the unevenness?
The drop in golf is when the hole is not in a straight line with the place where we hit the ball.
That is to say, imagine that you are on a completely smooth green, without hills, without ascents, or descents … The place where the hole is located is at the same height as the place where you are going to make the shot, in that case we would say that the slope is 0.
Now imagine that the hole is at a slightly higher point of the place where you are going to make the shot, either by a hill, by the shape of the green or by the obstacles, in that case if there is unevenness, specifically a slope upward. The same if the hole is in a point located in a descending line of the place where we made the swing, or more simply said “downhill”.
What is the flight distance in golf?
The flight distance in golf is the length that our ball travels after being hit. Based on the blow we make, the ball can travel a shorter or longer distance, and among the factors that determine how EXACT distance that ball will travel is the unevenness (although many more are involved than we will talk in future articles).
How does the slope affect your flight distance in golf?
To better understand how the slope affects your flight distance in golf, let’s look at the two main examples, the ascending green (or uphill) and the descending green (or downhill).
– The flight path in a descending green:
Contrary to what less experienced golfers usually think, in a descending green we must make a stroke where the ball barely ascends, that is, we will draw a path as flat as possible if we want to cover a longer distance with a single shot.
If, for whatever reason, we need to cover a shorter distance, we will perform a swing that raises the ball very high, that way after reaching the maximum point of height it will begin to descend without advancing too much, in this way the meters travelled with the same swing will be less than drawing the straightest path. Depending on the height of our ball, there may be a difference of almost 10 meters. Be careful with this issue that is much more important than it seems if we want to improve our handicap!
– The flight path in an ascending green::
In order not to complicate this matter much, we will simply say that the flight path to cover greater distance in the ascending green is when the ball reaches a higher flight point, in this way it can reach a more distant place. Just the opposite of the previous point.
In summary:
Whenever we are in a descending green, we must perform a swing that draws a line of trajectory of the ball as flat as possible, to travel a greater distance. In an ascending green we will do the opposite.
