Yardage Adjustments
What wind, cold, altitude, slope, and rough do to your carry number — and how to stack the corrections before you pull a club.
Your stock number is a fair-weather, flat-lie number. Everything else is a correction on top of it. Stack them — they compound. Skipping one leaves you short; missing all three is the difference between a green in regulation and short-sided in the bunker.
| Condition | Rule of thumb |
|---|---|
| Into wind | +1 club / 10 mph (~1% per mph) |
| Helping wind | ~0.5% per mph (helps less than it hurts) |
| Cold | −~1% carry per 10°F below 70°F |
| Heat (> 85°F) | +2 to 5 yds |
| Altitude | +~2% carry per 1,000 ft |
| Uphill / downhill | +1 yd / 3 ft up · −1 yd / 3 ft down |
| Flyer (rough) | +1–2 clubs, no spin, expect release |
| Late round (16+) | −2 to −5 yds (fatigue) |
Worked example — 150 yd, 50°F, 8 mph into, 15 ft uphill → +3 (cold) +12 (wind) +5 (rise) = play the 170 club, not the 150.
Two corrections people skip: wind up at ball height runs 1.5–2× what you feel on the ground, and a helping wind gives back roughly half what the same wind into your face takes. When in doubt, take the club that makes the long miss safe.
Inside full-swing range the adjustment isn't a club at all — it's swing length. See Wedge and Chip Distances. When the correction is big enough to tempt a hero number, price it first in Risk in Strokes.
Related pages
- Risk in StrokesExpected strokes to hole out from common positions — the math behind every go-versus-lay-up call.
- Wedge and Chip DistancesDistance control by backswing length across the wedges, plus carry-to-rollout ratios for chips on a firm green.
- Mid-Round FixesSymptom-to-fix table for when a miss pattern shows up mid-round — simplest fix first, one swing thought at a time.
- Know Your NumbersStat targets for a 10- and a 5-handicap, the order to fix leaks in, and how to split practice hours.