In the course of a year on the European Tour, the players have visited 31 countries in all different weather. They have played in cold, windy conditions in Scotland and Ireland, under searing sun in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and let the ball fly into the thin mountain air on courses in Switzerland and South Africa. There have been plenty of perfectly sunny days, too.
Their golf journey culminates this week in the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai. The event will determine who wins the European Tour’s season-long Race To Dubai.
While anyone playing the tour certainly accumulates frequent-flier miles, all that travel means constant adjustment to new conditions, temperatures and elevations that affect a golf ball.
The ball does not fly as far in windy, cold Scotland, but it does fly in the dry heat of Dubai. But there is also the grass to consider. It fluffs the ball up in South Africa one week, making it higher and easier to hit, and swallows it up or twists it around the next on the Bermuda grass of Dubai, a grass great for heat that can also redirect putts at the last second.
There are elevation changes, too. The ball in the Swiss mountains flies farther than it does at sea level.
Throw in the affects of jet lag and heat or cold on the players, and you have the potential for very different playing conditions each week. And while the best golfers in the world figure things out, players, caddies and coaches said adapting takes time and is a learned skill.
“A lot of the pros struggle to come to terms with the changes in distance, particularly the young pros,” said Alan Burns, a professional caddie who works for Justin Harding.
“They get out there and bomb it, and there’s no calculation to it. After they’ve been out there a bit they want to learn, and they ask how conditions influence ball flight.”
Burns said that he gave Harding two yardages: the actual one and the “Bryson.” The second he named for the PGA Tour pro Bryson DeChambeau, who studied physics in college and has brought scientific accuracy to his game. Burns credits DeChambeau with showing what a golf ball does in different conditions.
“Let’s say it’s 170 yards,” Burns said. “I’ll say our Bryson number is 180. I used to call it the elevation number, but he said I don’t understand that one.”
The variation in distances based on temperature and altitude can be wide for the same club. Sam Horsfield, who has been on the European Tour since 2017, said he had to adjust his yardages from growing up in Orlando.
In normal conditions — 75 degrees, near sea level — he hits a 6-iron 200 yards. When he is playing in the mountains in Johannesburg or the Swiss Alps, that same club can send the ball 225 yars. But if he’s in cold conditions in Scotland or Ireland, he said he might hit that 6-iron 165 yards. “It just all depends on the climate,” he said.
In Dubai this week, the heat will allow the ball to fly a little farther, with temperatures predicted in the mid-80s, but the bigger concern among some players was the Bermuda grass.
“When you’re playing on Bermuda, you get a lot of fliers,” said Richard Sterne, a European Tour professional who will play in the DP World Championship, referring to shots that jump out of the rough and travel farther than expected. “You’re technique has to be pretty good.”
Mr. Burns, the caddie, said some players like Mr. Harding had two sets of wedges to adjust to the different grass: one set for Bermuda and rye grass, the other for normal and softer conditions.
Mr. Sterne, who turned pro in 2001, said he generally adjusted in a day or two to different conditions. But it takes work on the practice range and on the course. For him, rest may be the most important variable.
“Our tour is all over the world,” he said, noting that the flight home to South Africa from the Turkish Airlines Open was about 10 hours. “We have to adapt a lot quicker to the traveling and food. The guys in the U.S. don’t have to do that. It’s hard on the body.”
Michael Bentley, a performance coach with Paradigm Performance Group, said playing consistently in different conditions required extensive preparation beyond the yardage books. He breaks it down to four components: physical condition, mental state, swing technique and tactical approach.
When it comes to the tactical, preparing could mean practicing in three layers of clothes to get used to colder conditions or in a rain suit even on a sunny day.
“If I can get some emotion tied to those simulations, I can get something pretty powerful,” Mr. Bentley said.
“A player can think, ‘I know I’m 80 percent effective with this shot in these conditions’. He’s not standing up there saying, ‘This is a brand-new 1-iron, I’ve never worn these pants before, these shoes are stiff, this ball is brand-new.’ That guy’s stress level is through the roof.”
It is that mental component where different conditions can affect even the best players. Ben Kimball, senior director of championships at the United States Golf Association, set up the United States Women’s Open in 2011 and the United States Senior Open in 2018 at the Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, a course that is 6,000 feet above sea level.
“It brought in an element that I had no control over,” Mr. Kimball said. “It set up a test of golf, forcing them to use their brain without me manipulating anything on the ground.”
The altitude’s effect on the golfers showed itself in the scores, he said. The winning score for the 2018 Senior Open was three under par. It was 16 under the year before and 19 under the year after, both courses near sea level.
“It becomes so much more mental on the altitude side,” he said. “You have to trust what you’re hitting. Is my 8-iron really going to fly 200 yards?”
