Playing Golf in Wet Conditions

By April 5, 2019Tips & Tutorials
playing in wet conditions

Wherever you play golf in the world, there will be occasions when the weather is not on your side.  A downpour before or during a round of golf can change the conditions dramatically and playing in wet conditions can be troublesome.

Today, we have some tips which will help you when playing golf in wet conditions.

Wet conditions can lead to some players ‘trying harder’ with their shots.  As the ball will not roll as far on the fairway from tee shots due to the wet grass, it can be tempting to swing that little bit harder to try and make up for the reduced roll.

This is a mistake and will more often than not lead to reduced distance and less accuracy off the tee.  Poor quality shots can often be exaggerated in wet conditions so instead of trying to hit the ball harder off the tee, concentrate more on getting a good contact and maybe even swinging a little less than 100% to achieve that goal.

Having better control of your swing in wet conditions is more important than trying to compensate for a potential loss of roll on the fairway.

Even if you are a player who rarely achieves any back spin on the ball when playing approach shots to the green, you should be prepared to see some when the greens are wet.  Much like the fairways, the ball will not roll as far on the greens when they are wet and this means you should consider taking an extra club.

You will need to hit the ball further into the green to compensate for the lack of roll and taking an extra club will help.

When putting, you may need to hit your putts a little harder in wet conditions.  A putt which you know breaks a little in dry conditions may not break at all or see very limited break when the greens are wet.

However, not all greens on the course will play the same when wet and if there are some greens which have a significant slope, they may have dried quicker than others.  The rain water may have drained away and this will make the putting conditions faster than the flatter greens, forcing you to adjust your putting expectations again.

Talking of expectations, you should not expect to play to your usual level when the course is wet.  The likelihood of making a bad shot increases but you need to keep a positive attitude.  If you start blaming the fact the course is wet for everything that goes wrong, it is going to be a long round.

Don’t let one poor shot or hole get you down and enjoy the challenge.