A numbers game - Players tackle altitude at Omega European Masters

The biggest on-course factor affecting players this week at the Omega European Masters is altitude.

Located on a mountain plateau in the Alps in Switzerland, Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club is notable for being 1,500m above sea level.

As a result, the ball travels further because the air is thinner.

This in turn means players have to adjust their yardages, and in some cases their equipment set-up.

While a common feature at tournaments, launch monitors become a particularly useful resource on the range and during practice rounds in weeks like these.

Depending on the time of day, and the temperature, the stock carry number for a club can differ significantly from what players are generally accustomed to.

A host venue of what was originally the Swiss Open since it became a founding event on the DP World Tour in 1972, accuracy rather than length is paramount over the Severiano Ballesteros Course.

Marco Penge, a three-time winner on the DP World Tour last season and tied eighth at this event last year, is among those who has been dialling in his numbers ahead of Thursday's opening round.

Second only to Jon Rahm for driving distance so far this season on the DP World Tour, clubs for the Englishman are playing from five per cent to seven-and-a-half per cent longer.

Speaking to the DP World Tour, he said: "At the moment, it is about five percent in the wedges. Seven-and-a-half per cent in the nine, eight, seven and six iron and then five per cent for the rest [wooded clubs].

"But it will change when it gets hotter."

Explaining the process for a player in making their adjustment, Penge's caddie Max Bill added: "We'll take the number [to the pin] and take off what percentage we think it's playing and play that number as if it was that."