277yrds Off the deck!!!!!

[mddubya]

OMG, Tiger just hit his driver 277 yards off the deck. I'm happy if I can tee it up and get that kind of distance.

[Clugnut]

Originally Posted by mddubya

OMG, Tiger just hit his driver 277 yards off the deck. I'm happy if I can tee it up and get that kind of distance.

All relative, man. Justin Leonard, who really isn't longer than I am, hit a three wood from 280 yesterday that finished about thirty yards past the flag. Lots of elevation, hot air and wind in Tuscon this week.

[zaphod]

Just got back from playing in Tucson. Fairway grass is short and tight now with hard clay. The ball runs and is almost impossible to hit it fat. With heat and wind and altitude it is possible by us mere humans.

[eli_yates]

when its hot i have driven short par 4s with a 3 wood and on the same note come up short with a driver... darn temperature... but the heat makes everyone more flexible lol... you know whos really good with a driver off the deck.... jason day. hes good.

[Rockford35]

Originally Posted by eli_yates

when its hot i have driven short par 4s with a 3 wood and on the same note come up short with a driver... darn temperature... but the heat makes everyone more flexible lol... you know whos really good with a driver off the deck.... jason day. hes good.

Humid air makes the ball fly further because it's thinner/lighter air. Seems backwards, but it's physics. The water molecules are larger and don't slow the ball down as much as when they are tightly packed in cold air.

R35

[King Par]

Would the same go for elevation?

I was in Jasper and had a hard time with my irons flying farther than I was used to. This course was higher in elevation, is this what caused it?

[Wi-Golfer]

Originally Posted by King Par

Would the same go for elevation?

I was in Jasper and had a hard time with my irons flying farther than I was used to. This course was higher in elevation, is this what caused it?

Yep, balls will fly farther in higher elevation...that's one of the reason so many homeruns are made in the Colorado Rockies ballpark.

[Jules150]

Originally Posted by Rockford35

Humid air makes the ball fly further because it's thinner/lighter air. Seems backwards, but it's physics. The water molecules are larger and don't slow the ball down as much as when they are tightly packed in cold air.

R35

What? Humid air would be heavier because it would have the weight of water added to whatever gas its mixed with. So if humid air is heavier because theres more particles in a given space your ball would hit more particles thus increasing friction and making it fly less.

The second part i have trouble understanding but i think your trying to say is when you increase temperature, the air will spread out and become "thinner" (actually no matter what the temperature is the air would get "thinner", in an open space, but a higher temperature makes it happen faster), but the earth is a closed system so these particles dont spread out they stay at the same general place just moving faster so there is the same friction so the flight of the ball wouldnt be effected.

But when the air is hot we can compress the ball better, which allows us to hit it farther.

[warbirdlover]

When the air (or "anything") gets warmer the atoms move farther apart. Doesn't matter if it's in an "enclosed" system (there's no "dome" keeping the atmosphere from going up some). It doesn't matter much if there is water "vapor" in there. Warm, dry air should let the ball carry even farther then warm, humid air though. And in high altitude the atoms move even farther apart. Less friction.

And we compress the ball better because the ball is warmer.

[warbirdlover]

OMG, Tiger just hit his driver 277 yards off the deck. I'm happy if I can tee it up and get that kind of distance.

mddubya

Today on one of the last holes Cink hit his driver 305. Tiger hit his 3-wood 277 or more. Must be nice...

[zaphod]

Today on one of the last holes Cink hit his driver 305. Tiger hit his 3-wood 277 or more. Must be nice...

It's a real ego boost hit a ball in a mountain-dessert environment. Mortals (yes even shot talkers) can hit 300 yard drives from those elevated tees.

[WildCatGolfer17]

Originally Posted by Clugnut

All relative, man. Justin Leonard, who really isn't longer than I am, hit a three wood from 280 yesterday that finished about thirty yards past the flag. Lots of elevation, hot air and wind in Tuscon this week.

In the practice round Tiger hit a 3w out of the rough from 310 and put it 8 feet away on 17...

it wasent windy that day,

but the weather cant be beaten the last 4 days.. It hit 87 yesterday I got a sun burn

[Bignose]

Originally Posted by Jules150

What? Humid air would be heavier because it would have the weight of water added to whatever gas its mixed with. So if humid air is heavier because theres more particles in a given space your ball would hit more particles thus increasing friction and making it fly less.

The second part i have trouble understanding but i think your trying to say is when you increase temperature, the air will spread out and become "thinner" (actually no matter what the temperature is the air would get "thinner", in an open space, but a higher temperature makes it happen faster), but the earth is a closed system so these particles dont spread out they stay at the same general place just moving faster so there is the same friction so the flight of the ball wouldnt be effected.

But when the air is hot we can compress the ball better, which allows us to hit it farther.

No. Humid air is lighter. Water, H2O, has a molecular weight of 18, oxygen, O2, has a weight of 32 and Nitrogen, N2, has a weight of 28. If you take a certain volume of air it will have a certain number of molecules in it, 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, a little less than 1% Argon and tiny %'s of everything else. Now, take out 1 out of every 100 molecules and replace them with water. This is really what happens, there aren't just more molecules in the air, the air takes in water vapor and then spreads out to accommodate them. There aren't just extra molecules in the air. Locally there can be extra molecules in the air, but through collisions with the other molecules, they spread out a certain amount based on their temperature -- this happens pretty quickly actually. The end result is that in essence a certain amount of the molecules in air end up being replaced by water molecules. The water is lighter or the same (Argon and water are about the same molecular weight) than all of the molecules it replaces. Humid air is lighter.

Warmer air is lighter because given that the molecules are warmer, they bounce around faster, and that spreads them out. You are right in that the molecules don't leave earth, but they do spread out and contract in. There are temperature gradients all over the planet, and low and high pressure fronts everywhere. The atmosphere is not uniform.

[Jules150]

Hmmm, im still not buying humid air is lighter, i'll bring it up in physics tomorrow.

Anyway now that i think about it water vapor in the air shouldnt make much a difference anyhow since it takes up less than 1% unless at the surface it takes up a larger percentage than 1% or somehow puts alot of friction on the ball.

But the real reason we hit the ball longer in warm weather is our ability to compress the ball more, no?

[Dusty90]

But the real reason we hit the ball longer in warm weather is our ability to compress the ball more, no?

That is part of it, but that can also be achieved by using a softer ball. Like WBL said, when the air is warmer, the molecules move faster meaning that the air is actually thinner. And since the air is thinner, there is less air resistance acting on the ball meaning that it will be able to carry farther.