Rajat Mittal, an aerodynamics expert and professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, used Newton’s second law of motion and computational modeling to predict the trajectory of a golf shot in a variety of wind conditions. The results of the study, published in the June 2017 edition of Sports Engineering, the journal of the International Sports Engineering Association, found that the tree canopies (up to 30 meters, about 98 feet, high) around the 12th hole at Augusta National affect the average wind speed along the flight path of the ball.
A series of simulations with eight wind patterns and various wind speeds showed that a headwind at No. 12 created the largest uncertainty in the landing spot of the ball, and that winds from the northwest and southwest could cause a perfectly struck ball to be pushed up to 12 feet off line. The study also revealed that tossing grass to gauge the wind at the tee produced little correlation to the wind at the green, and it debunked another long-held belief.
“At least from a mathematical point of view and from our analysis, there is nothing one can learn from the 11th green that can be applied to the 12th hole,” Mittal said in a telephone interview.
Too much information and overthinking, he concluded, are counterproductive.
