- Joined
- Jul 18, 2015
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
- HCP
- 12
- Local club/country
- USA
- Irons
- MP5 4-PW KBS Tour 90, MPH5 2-iron, Titleist 716 T-MB 3-iron
- Driver
- JPX-900 w/ 569 shaft
I'm about to embark on a driver fitting, but I play about 3/4 of my rounds in the summer at very high elevation (about 7000 ft) and the remaining 1/4 of my golf at only 1500 ft elevation. I know from reading that the optimal launch angle and spin rate both increase as altitude increases, but does anyone have any idea how to find out how much? I got this from Tracman's website where they summarize observed data, but not with enough detail for me to make a conclusion. My simplistic explanation is that as the air gets thinner, the spin doesn't provide as much lift so to maximize carry you ideally launch the ball higher and with more spin (which is both more needed to replace lift lost by the thinner air and is more allowable because the spin will produce less drag in thin air).
Part of it is curiosity, but part of it also is wondering if the 7000 vs 1500 ft is such a big difference that I should consider different drivers or at least different setups on the same driver depending on which location I'm playing. To add to the difficulty, my high altitude course often has soft, wet fairways which favor carry over roll while my low altitude courses most often are hard and allow for a long roll. Both conditions are pointing to very different setups on my driver.
Part of it is curiosity, but part of it also is wondering if the 7000 vs 1500 ft is such a big difference that I should consider different drivers or at least different setups on the same driver depending on which location I'm playing. To add to the difficulty, my high altitude course often has soft, wet fairways which favor carry over roll while my low altitude courses most often are hard and allow for a long roll. Both conditions are pointing to very different setups on my driver.