Alright, let’s dive into this Bryson Bunker 18 thing. It was a bit of a head-scratcher at first, but I think I’ve finally cracked it.
So, it all started when I was messing around with some data I had lying around. Just some random numbers, nothing special. I thought, “Hey, what if I tried to make something cool with this?” My initial thought was some kind of data visualization, but that seemed kinda boring.
Then, I remembered this crazy idea I had a while back about simulating a golf shot. Not like a full-blown golf game, but just the physics of the ball leaving the club and landing somewhere. And Bryson DeChambeau? Dude bombs it, so I thought, why not “Bryson Bunker 18”? As in, what are the odds he’d land in a bunker on the 18th? Total random, I know.
First, I needed to figure out the basic physics. Angle of launch, ball speed, wind resistance, all that jazz. I spent way too long Googling formulas and watching YouTube videos. Got the basics down, though. Found a decent enough simplified equation for trajectory.
Next up, I wrote a little Python script to simulate a bunch of shots. I’m talking thousands. Each shot had a slightly different launch angle and speed, simulating a bit of variation in Bryson’s swing. I even threw in a random wind factor. It was messy code, I’m not gonna lie, but it got the job done.
The tricky part was figuring out the bunker situation. I didn’t have actual course data, so I just made it up. I defined a hypothetical 18th hole with a few bunkers in the landing area. I basically just said, “If the ball lands within these coordinates, it’s in the bunker.” Crude, but effective.
Then, I ran the simulation. Let the script churn for a few minutes, spitting out data on where each simulated ball landed. I tallied up how many balls ended up in the bunkers, and BAM! Got a percentage. A completely made-up, statistically insignificant percentage of how often Bryson might end up in the bunker on a hypothetical 18th hole.
I wouldn’t bet the farm on the results, obviously. This was purely for fun. But it was a cool little project that combined my love for coding with my fascination for golf. And, hey, I learned a thing or two about physics along the way.
What did I learn? Honestly, the importance of simplifying problems. I could have gotten bogged down in super-realistic physics and detailed course maps, but I kept it simple and had fun. That’s the key, right?
- Got some basic physics down.
- Wrote some janky Python code.
- Made up some data.
- Had a laugh.
That’s the Bryson Bunker 18 story. Maybe I’ll try simulating a whole round next time… Nah, probably not. But it was fun while it lasted.
