Science Fair Projects: Why Do Young Girls Out-hit The Big Guys On The Golf Course?

By Author: Mort Barish
Total Articles: 15
Comment this article

Science Fair Project: Why Young Girls Out-Hit Big Guys on the Golf Course

by Mort Barish

Word Count: 659

Perhaps a science fair project will help you to determine why a 14 year old girl who is only five feet tall and weighs but 100 pounds can hit a golf ball 250 yards, perhaps even as far as 300 yards. This is all the more alarming when a six foot man, 35 years old, 185 pounds, with 10 years of experience playing golf can only hit the ball 165 yards.

Just go to the local golf driving range or the local golf course and see for yourself. Time after time, grown men with decades of golf experience will only get a little over 150 yards off the tee. They have paid $400 for the most technically advanced 460 cc, 10 degree driver, complete with space age shaft and grip. They have taken lessons with the pros. They practice several times a week and play several times a month. But they are 70 to 100 yards behind many young girls of high school and grade school age. What a project for science fair.

The men are bigger, stronger, more experienced and more powerful. The answer lies in the ability ...
... to generate club head speed in a consistent manner. The young women have learned how to use their bodies as a coil or a spring, and how to wind it up to unleash amazing power. On the backswing, they shift their weight all the way to their right side while keeping their head over the ball. They take the extra large club way back and their left shoulder goes all the way to the right side of their chin. Their arms are straight and stiff with no bend at the elbow.

This powerful windup prepares the body for the pendulum effect, when they begin the down swing. Several things have to take place in the proper sequence. On the downswing the weight shift from the right to left begins before the arms start to move. Then with stiff arms the downswing ensues and just before the point of contact of the club head with the ball, the wrists snap at the precise moment that the downswing, weight shift, and stiff arm pendulum swing take place. This swing looks effortless compared to the older men who huff and puff and swing with all their might. Watch the men. Look at their elbows. They are invariably bent. Watch the men and the young girls on the backswing. Observe how far the girls do a backswing and compare it to the men. Record all of your findings for your science fair project.

This extra distance off the tee sets up the shot for a possible par for the young girls, while the men cannot reach the 400 yard par 4 hole in regulation two strokes. The young women can now use four or a five iron to reach the green in two, while the men have to use a three wood and still cannot reach the green in two strokes.

The men end up shooting somewhere around 110, while young girls break 80. Distance off the tee is not the only important factor in getting a low score. Your short game, pitching to the green and putting are also critical. But you cannot even begin to consistently get low scores unless you drive far and consistently.

Most grown men have learned to play the game improperly. They never did learn how to properly drive a golf ball. Then after many years of practicing their mistakes, they get so comfortable in their bad swing that they really do not want to change it. It takes a lot of attitude and practice to give up your old comfortable, inadequate swing to learn how to do it properly.

There are over 400 more kid friendly science fair projects available to be seen and accessed online at http://www.terimore.com.

###