How We Score Golf Weather
The formula, weights and data behind every golf playability score on this site.
Every course and destination gets a golf playability score from 0 to 100 for each month of the year, plus each day of a live 16-day forecast. The score answers one question: how good is the weather for actually playing golf? We publish the full method below — unlike most golf-weather tools, nothing is hidden.
The Five Factors
Feels-like temperature
40%Apparent (feels-like) daytime high. Full marks 62–80°F, tapering to zero below ~38°F or above ~100°F. Using apparent temperature folds in humidity and wind chill — research shows it predicts golf comfort better than air temperature alone.
Dry-day frequency
25%The share of days with less than 0.1" of rain — days you can actually play. Historically this is the long-run frequency; in the forecast it is the inverse of precipitation probability.
Wind
20%Daily-max wind speed. Full marks at or below 10 mph, falling linearly to zero by 30 mph. Wind is the single biggest non-temperature factor at exposed and links courses.
Cloud / fog
10%Derived from the share of daylight that is overcast (a marine-layer / fog proxy). Penalizes the foggy mornings that define coastal courses, without over-punishing playable cloudy days.
Humidity
5%A small additional penalty for oppressive dew points (above ~64°F), most relevant in Southeast and Florida summers. Largely already captured by feels-like temperature.
How the factors combine
Each factor is scored from 0 (worst) to 1 (ideal) against golf-tuned thresholds, then combined as a weighted average and rescaled to 0–100. If a factor is unavailable for a given input, its weight is redistributed across the others, so historical and forecast scores stay comparable. Ratings: 85+ Ideal, 72–84 Great, 58–71 Good, 42–57 Fair, below 42 Poor.
Data Sources
- Historical climatology: ERA5 reanalysis (1991–2024) via the Open-Meteo Historical Weather API.
- Live forecast: the Open-Meteo Forecast API (16 days).
Reanalysis is sampled on a roughly 9–25 km grid, so scores capture the seasonal pattern and regional character of a location rather than hole-by-hole microclimate. Treat them as planning guidance.