Corey Conners has a card in his yardbook that helps him calculate carry distances at Castle Pines using his stock yards.
Ping/Getty Images
The PGA Tour returns to Castle Pines, home of the BMW Championshipfor the first time since 2006 after two decades hosting The International. For most pros on the field this week, it’s one of the few times they’ll have to get out the calculator and crunch the numbers before taking a swing.
At about 6,200 feet above sea level, every golfer on the course will be blessed with more distance across the board, due to the lower air density. The pros aren’t up to the challenge of tackling the longest course in PGA Tour history (8,130 yards), because Castle Pines would play 7,350 yards at sea level, which doesn’t seem so daunting.
When it comes to calculating yards? This is another story. General percentages provide a rough idea of how far the ball will carry in elevation, but those formulas generally don’t meet the exacting standards the pros demand. Guessing is not an option in the thin mountain air.
Ping
To help Ping staff calculate their ranges, the tournament team distributed custom, laminated cards that take into account everything from wind speed and direction to trajectory and temperature to produce an accurate number “like games” for each shot.
According to for Marty JertsonPing’s vice for fitment and performance, the cards have been used in the past by former Ping employee Jim Knous – who joined the equipment maker as a fitment and education engineer earlier this year – and the pros who used it on the Ferry Tour in Colorado Korn event. But this week represents the first time they’ve provided the cheat sheet to all Ping staff on the ground at Castle Pines.
“The sheets are individual to each player and that helps them in two ways,” Jertson told GOLF.com. “One, with their height adjustments. We also change the temperature. So if you start at 75 degrees and end up at 90, the ball will go 4 yards further when you end up at that temperature. It’s much more accurate than what players generally use, which is setting their distances in meters or using a fixed percentage across the board.
“At altitude, because the air density is lower, the wind affects your shot – and it depends on the player and the golf ball – about half as much as at sea level. So if you have a 10 mph wind that hurts at sea level, if you hit a fairway high and soft, it can hurt your 7-iron about 25 yards. At Castle Pines, it can only damage that hit with the same wind 15 yards. It will help the players in a few different ways.”
To create each sheet, Ping had professionals hit a driver to capture ball speed, launch and spin, then hit a 7-iron. The golf ball they were currently using was also included in the formula. From there, the Gapping app on Ping Co-Pilot helped create player-specific transport strings at Castle Pines altitude based on their custom numbers.
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“It gives the golfer a similar number of putts for a variety of different distances,” Jertson said. “They are very individual to the player. For example, Corey Conners has very low spin with his driver, but is our highest spin iron. These are things we can count on.”
While it’s still unclear who will rely on the cards once the tournament begins, Jertson and Ping Tour representative Kenton Oates confirmed that Conners is more likely to use it after verifying the numbers during the final practice rounds.
“Corey told me the sheet was accurate and perfect,” Jertson said. He has been using it in practice rounds and really liked it. And the player doesn’t even need to hold it; caddy can and will just make things a little more accurate. I’ve actually used it on the game side and the caddy side as well. It’s the equivalent of Point of Aim, but for wind.”
Of all the features the card possesses, Jertson is quick to point out the wind graph at the bottom that takes into account “help” (downwind) and “harm” (downwind). The first iteration created by Jertson had numerical simulations for each different wind condition, spacing and position around the clock. But it’s hard to lug around a giant binder with a bunch of numbers and do quick calculations on the fly.
Once Jertson was able to distill the wind direction numbers into a simplified version, he added distance zones and the ability to calculate quarter winds and different trajectories for a more complete picture.
For now, laminated cards remain a Tour option, but Jerston hinted that could change in the future.
“We’re working on it,” Jertson said. “We want to be able to pass this on to people. What I’ve enjoyed is getting down to that number playing in my head. I’ve factored in wind, temperature and elevation – and I have 178 yards to the hole. I want to know it’s playing like 197, after factoring everything. That’s the only number in my head. It just helps you as a golfer, especially as a tournament golfer.”
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