What causes hands to sting on poorly struck golf shots/batted balls when its Cold?

Most of us who played baseball or golf have experienced the painful sting from a poor contact. And the pain seems to get exponentially worse as the temperature drops.

I have not played baseball in years but I remember getting my hand stung with wooden bats, not so much with aluminum bats especially in cooler temperature

But I have played a lot of golf in 40-50 deg temperatures and I get the same pain when I struck an iron thinly.

What vibrations are transmitted through the golf club/bat to my hands to magnify the ‘sting’ so intensely?

As tempertures drop, all the cushioning materials stiffen. You can google vibration dampners for temperature effect. On a golf club, the adhesives, tape, and grip composition all stiffen. The grip has the most effect. On a human level, your hand gets reduced circulation and less dampening between the grip and bone/nerves. Less blood = not so fluffy fingers. There is a condition related to this called Raynauds Syndrome. They make special gloves for sufferers.

I wear thicker gloves and use my graphite shafted irons in the winter. I also have some nifty microwaveable hand warmers that work well for the first 5/6 holes each nine.

There is something for sure that makes nerves send stronger pain signals when cold.

Where I have noticed this the most is when working on cars in the cold. When a wrench slips and your cold hand slams into a automotive frame member it hurts WAY more than in the summer.

It also helps to make sure you’re hitting at the Sweet Spot if you want to avoid stinging hands:

http://www.angelfire.com/ia3/littleleaguerules/sweetspot.htm

They always told me this was the same as the Center of Percussion, but the Wiki page castrs doubt on that: