Golf Wind Chart: How Many Yards Wind Actually Costs You

Into the wind, add roughly one yard for every mile per hour. Find your club and the wind speed; the figure in brackets is the yards to add.

A 15 mph headwind turns a 150-yard 7-iron into a 165-yard shot. That is a club and a half, and it is why so many approach shots into the wind come up short — golfers take one more club when they need two.

Downwind, you only get back about half a yard per mile per hour.

The same 15 mph wind that cost you 15 yards into it gives back only about 8 with it. Most golfers subtract too much downwind and fly the green.

A crosswind does not change your club, it changes your target. Aim about 1.2 yards into the wind per mile per hour on a full shot. A lower, knockdown flight is in the air less and drifts about 30 percent less.

If the wind is helping your natural shape — a left-to-right wind on a fade — expect more drift than the table shows, not less. Two effects stacking is how a fade becomes a slice.

This is the part worth internalising, because it changes how you play a round in wind rather than a single shot.

Into the wind, the ball climbs. The headwind increases the effective air speed over the ball, which increases lift as well as drag, so the ball balloons — and a ball that goes up steeply lands steeply and short. You lose distance twice: to drag, and to the higher, shorter trajectory.

Downwind, the opposite happens but weakly. The tailwind reduces air speed over the ball, which reduces drag but also reduces lift. The ball flies flatter and lands hotter, which recovers some distance on the roll, but you have given up carry height to get it.

That asymmetry is why the practical rule is 1 yard per mph one way and half a yard the other. On a windy day with an out-and-back nine, you do not break even.

The chart is calibrated for mid and long irons, which is where most approach shots live. Three things shift it.

Flight time. Wind acts on the ball for as long as it is in the air. A 50-yard pitch is barely affected by a wind that moves a 4-iron 20 yards. If you hit the ball noticeably low or high, scale accordingly.

Your trajectory. A high ball flight is punished harder into the wind and helped more downwind than these figures suggest. The knockdown column in the crosswind table exists for the same reason.

Everything else, which stacks. Wind combines with elevation and temperature rather than replacing them. Our slope chart covers uphill and downhill shots, and the temperature chart covers cold. A cold, uphill shot into the wind is all three at once.