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For many golfers across the country, cooler weather has arrived, and the ball is starting to fly shorter, for a handful of reasons: the ball is colder, your body is stiffer, and the air is denser. But one variable that is often overlooked is how extra layers of clothing affect swing speed and distance.

Could it be that that the ball flies shorter in colder weather in part because we are wearing base layers, pullovers and jackets which prevent us from moving? And if the temperature has you debating whether to throw on a pullover or go short sleeves, are you giving up distance by opting to stay warm?

Our test

To determine how layers of clothing affects swing speed and distance, two Golf Digest staffers—Drew Powell (+2.4 Handicap Index) and Sam Weinman (11.2 Handicap Index)—hit a series of shots wearing different amounts of clothing at Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, Conn.

Powell and Weinman each hit 32 drives—eight each with a normal short-sleeve shirt, then adding a base layer, then a base layer plus a pullover, and then with a base layer, pullover and a jacket. To control for our energy levels changing throughout the test, we rotated between the outfits after every two shots.

With each shot, we measured clubhead speed, ball speed, carry distance and smash factor, the latter of which reflects how solidly a shot was struck by dividing the ball speed by the clubhead speed. We also removed the strongest outlier from each group, meaning that only seven shots from each are counted.

What we found

Of course, there is a plenty of data here. First, we’ll take a look at it in chart form, but scroll on to see a more visual representation in the graphs below. In the chart, the green numbers indicate the best-performing value in the group, while the reds show the worst.

What does it mean?

The results are surprising. Conventional wisdom figures the more layers of clothing, the slower you swing and shorter you hit it, but our data shows a more complex outcome. In fact, both Powell and Weinman had the slowest swing speed and ball speed while wearing no extra layers. In other words, we got faster once the base layer was added.

Both of us observed that our swings with the base layer felt more controlled and efficient than with no added layers. I felt that with no layers, my swing was a little longer and more armsy, while adding a base layer seemed to activate my core, back and chest muscles. In turn, I gained nearly eight yards. Weinman says that he felt disconnected with no layers.

Putting our swing feelings aside, it is also possible that our increased speed is due to our muscles being warmer with additional layers, which suggests the importance of staying warm and mobile in between shots on the course in cold temperatures, whether by wearing layers, walking or doing brief exercises such as jumping jacks.

Adding an additional layer, a quarter-zip pullover, had little effect on clubhead speed, ball speed or carry. I swung fractionally slower—about 0.7 mph—with this added layer, but my ball speed increased, along with my smash factor, meaning I hit the shots more solidly. My carry distance remained the same.

Interestingly, Weinman recorded his fastest average swing speed of all four groups with the base layer plus pullover combo. He notes that since his arms were a little more restricted with these layers, he used more of his core muscles, which might have contributed to his increased speed. He did, however, see a notable drop in ball speed and carry distance, meaning that while he swung faster, he didn’t strike these shots as solidly.

Finally, when we added the jacket on top of the three existing layers, both of our swing speeds dropped. However, this decrease was less than 0.5 mph for both of us, which is negligible. Each of us carried the ball 2-3 yards shorter with the jacket on compared to a base layer and a pullover.

Given our data, it seems that there is a sort of bell curve when analyzing how layers of clothing affect swing speed and distance. Some additional clothing, whether it be a long-sleeve base layer or a light pullover, may increase speed, but once you get too many layers on, speed and distance decrease.

We will get into the limitations of our test in a moment, but the biggest takeaway is that if you’re noticing decreased distance in cooler temperatures, it very likely is not because the layers of clothing are making you swing slower. If you’re cold on the course, don’t worry that adding one or two layers will hurt distance—our test shows that it may actually help.

What it doesn’t mean

A close reader will notice that we conducted this test on a warm summer day in Connecticut—hardly the brisk temps that warrant adding additional clothing. Our findings do not refute the idea that you swing slower and hit it shorter in colder temperatures. It is quite likely that your body is not as mobile when the temperatures drop, leading to a loss of speed and distance.

What we do show, however, is that this performance decline is not necessarily due to wearing additional layers of clothing. In fact, while this warrants further study, one hypothesis might be that additional layers might have even more benefit in colder temperatures (as opposed to a summer day like we tested), since the clothing keeps the body warm and loosens you up.

This test did also not study the effects on compression with a colder golf ball or the flight in denser air, which may contribute to decreased distance in brisk weather.

It is also important to note that this is, in some ways, a golfer-specific question. While we aimed to solve for this by having two golfers of varying abilities conduct the test, how you swing with layers on might affect your speed and distance differently than it did ours. That said, both Powell and Weinman had similar results, suggesting some credence toward the bell-curve-of-layers finding.

Verdict

Wearing one or two additional layers of clothing doesn’t appear to hinder swing speed, ball speed and carry distance. However, wearing a jacket as a third additional layer may decrease speed and distance.

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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com