THE EFFECT OF BALL TEMPERATURE ON BALL SPEED AND CARRY DISTANCE IN GOLF DRIVES Carlsson, T.1, Nilsson, J.1,2, Hellström, J.3, Tinmark, F.2, Carlsson, M.1. 1: Dalarna University (Falun, Sweden), 2: The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (Stockholm, Sweden), 3: The Swedish Golf Federation (Stockholm, Sweden).
Introduction
Previously it was reported that golf-ball temperature has influence on the golf balls’ coefficient of restitution, impact duration, and maximal deformation (Allen et al., 2012). They concluded that their research was the first step in a process for determining the effect of temperature on a golf drive. However, how large influence the golf-ball temperature has on golf drives remains to be investigated. The purpose was to investigate the effect of ball temperature on impact ball speed and carry distance during golf drives in a blind randomized test design.
Methods
The balls were exposed to a temperature-controlled environment (4°C, 18°C, 32°C, and 46°C) for twenty-four hours prior to the test, and each of the four different ball-temperature groups consisted of 30 balls. The 120 drives were performed by an elite male golfer (handicap: 0.0) in an indoor driving range. All drives were measured by a Doppler-radar system to determine club-head speed, launch angle, spin rate, ball speed, and carry distance. Differences between the four ball-temperature groups were investigate using a one-way analysis of variance.
Results
The results indicate that there are ball-speed and carry-distance differences within the four ball-temperature groups (P < 0.001 and P < 0.01, respectively). The post-hoc analyses showed that the ball temperatures 18°C and 32°C had both greater ball speeds and carry distances compared to the balls in the ball-temperature groups 4°C and 46°C (all P < 0.05); the intervals for the between-group differences were 2.0 to 2.4 km/h and 2.9 to 3.9 m for ball speed and carry distance, respectively.
Conclusion
The novel results of the current study show that the ball’s temperature has a significant effect on the ball speed after club-head impact and carry distance for drives performed by an elite golfer. The ball temperatures 18°C and 32°C gave significantly increased ball speeds and carry distances compared to the ball-temperature groups 4°C and 46°C. This knowledge could be used to maximise the carry distance and/or to minimise the carry-distance variability related to ball temperature.
REFERENCES: Allen T, Bowley A, Wood P, Henrikson E, Morales E, James D. (2012) Procedia Eng, 34, 634-639.
2018.
23rd annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, Dublin 4-7 July 2018