[Thomas Dai]

Two tee shots are hit from near the same position but.......
....one is hit from a tee location that is 10 ft higher than the other.
How much further will the shot hit from the higher positioned tee carry?
I've heard there's a 'rule of thumb' that 1 ft higher equates to 1 yd more distance but...
....is there a more accurate equation, ie a formula for calculating this (ie not just conjecture and estimates)?
atb

[Tom_Doak]

There is indeed an exact formula, which I was supposed to have learned in my first-semester Physics With Calculus class at M.I.T.  But you'd need to provide the launch angle and velocity as well. 😮


The ball travels in a parabolic arc, and if you are playing well downhill, the added yardage is dampened because the ball will start to fall straight down.  But it will keep hooking or slicing every second it's in the air!!

[JESII]

The range finders that provide an adjustment for elevation use some version of the calculation Tom mentions...their shortcoming is that they do t adjust for your own personal trajectory on the shot.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Thomas,


I have always used yard per yard.  20 yards downhill, 20 more yards.  Some pro golfers (and probably those distance finders) calculate a per cent of uphill and add that, it seems to come out the same, i.e., 18 yards uphill over 180 yards, = 10%.  10% of 180 yards = 18 yards, etc.

[Joe_Tucholski]

Two tee shots are hit from near the same position but.......
....one is hit from a tee location that is 10 ft higher than the other.
How much further will the shot hit from the higher positioned tee carry?
I've heard there's a 'rule of thumb' that 1 ft higher equates to 1 yd more distance but...
....is there a more accurate equation, ie a formula for calculating this (ie not just conjecture and estimates)?
atb

I think to find the exact answer you need a lot more information.  Here's a paper that seems to discuss golf ball flight dynamics pretty well in a short and fairly easy to understand manner (but beyond assumption of parabolic flight).


http://www.math.union.edu/~wangj/courses/previous/math238w13/Golf%20Ball%20Flight%20Dynamics2.pdf

[Bryan Izatt]

Dai,


The flight of the golf ball is apparently complicated to model with a formula.  There is launch velocity, launch angle, spin, tee height, and weather conditions to consider.  You could try the Excel-based calculator (based on a model developed at the University of Sydney) from the following link.  It says it uses a 4th-Order Runge-Kutta Numerical Integration model. No idea what that means. I think the results from the calculator will tell you that Jeff is pretty close with his yard-to-yard rule of thumb.  I expect there might be some variation depending on spin as spin helps keep the ball in the air longer and the angle of descent is not straight down.


www.physics.usyd.edu.au/teach_res/excel/golfball.xls

[Thomas Dai]

Thanks for the thoughts and the link. Time to get the slide-rule out!
atb

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