Week Seven: Lift and Drag

Warm-Up: Quiz 7

Rule of the Day: Standards of Player Conduct (Rule 1.2)

Core Value: Responsibility

Clinic: Full Swing: Lift and Drag

Skills Challenge: Lag Putting

Application: On-Course Play

Wrap-Up: Turn in scorecards, stats

Homework: Standards of Player Conduct Worksheet (due week 8)

Standards of Player Conduct:

Rule 1.2, the second rule in the USGA rules book, covers standards of player conduct. You, the player, are ultimately responsible for playing the game honestly and correctly. You should know the rules and etiquette of golf and be able to apply them as needed when on the golf course, with or without the Committee present. The spirit of the game is the idea that you are the one responsible for following the rules of golf, and you should be willing to call penalties on yourself when needed in the absence of a referee.

There are three key elements to the spirit of the game:

Acting with integrity: follow the rules and etiquette even when no one else is watching
Showing consideration towards others: keep a good pace of play, treat your opponents with respect
Taking care of the course: leave the course in a condition better than that in which you found it, by raking bunkers, repairing divots, and fixing your ball marks

The Committee can penalized you for violating standards of player conduct with a 1- or 2-stroke penalty, or disqualification in extreme cases.

The Aerodynamics of Ball Flight

Today we're going to discuss what makes your ball fly once you make contact with it. Aerodynamics is the science of how objects move through the air. When you hit the ball, you provide momentum that causes it to head along its flight path toward the hole. As it flies, wind resistance pushes back against the ball, called drag, which is the force that causes a moving object to slow down. Most balls have backspin in flight, and because of this, air moving over the top of the ball moves faster than air under it. The faster the air moves, the less drag the ball flight experiences, called Bernoulli’s Principle. The lower pressure air above the ball creates lift, which is the force that pushes the ball upwards and creates more distance. The dimples on your golf ball reduce drag and increase spin.