pga tour average from 75 yards

Golf Swing Speed Chart: Averages By Age, Skill, and More

Swing speed charts can tell you the average speeds by age, skill, gender, and more. You can also compare how club head speeds compare to distance.

As a PGA-certified golf coach, I know I am not alone in being a numbers and statistics geek. Many of my students are hungry to compare their numbers with their favorite pro golfers using charts, graphs, and other visual representations.

Many swing speed charts exist today. Some break down clubhead and ball speed by a golfer’s handicap, gender, age, years playing, and many other areas. What many may find surprising by some of the data is that most golfers do not swing as fast as they think nor hit the ball as far as they claim to.

My goal in this article is to share all of the latest information and statistics regarding swing speed in golf. I’ll also share other related information, such as the distance at which golfers hit the ball. Other information relevant to this topic will be shared as well.

Here is a breakdown of what you can find if you read on:

• Average Swing Speed By Age and Gender
• Average Swing Speed By Handicap
• Average PGA TOUR Club Head Speeds and Distances
• PGA TOUR Average Club Head Speeds and Carry Distance Per Club
• Average LPGA TOUR Club Head Speeds and Distances
• LPGA TOUR Average Club Head Speeds and Carry Distance Per Club
• The Fastest Swingers In Golf

Tips To Improve Your Swing Speed

So get ready, and make sure to buckle up. Things are going to get fast!

Average Swing Speed Chart By Age and Gender

Average swing speed chart by handicap, pga tour fastest 10 driver swing speed averages.

• PGA TOUR Slowest 10 Driver Swing Speed Averages

Fast Swing Speed Does Not Always Equal Longer Drives

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*Estimates due to a lack of participants in this age and gender group

** The data in the chart was compiled from a Titleist Performance Institute  (TPI) study conducted in 2019.

Club head swing speed contributes to the distance a golfer can hit a golf ball. Countless factors contribute to how fast a golfer can swing, such as age, flexibility, strength, gender, and the efficiency of their swing mechanics.

The first factor I wanted to chart concerning swing speed is age and gender. The following chart represents the average swing speeds with a driver for several different age groups and by male and female golfers within them.

Age significantly affects how much clubhead speed a golfer can produce on average.  Here is the main observation about swing speed versus age and gender:

• As you age, swing speed generally gets slower

However, as you can see from the chart, age does not necessarily have to slow you down completely. Some golfers in the 50 – 59 and 60+ age groups can still swing significantly fast. It all depends on how flexible someone can stay as they age.

Check this out: What Are the Golf Club Distances for Each Club? (Charts for All Skill Levels)

*Data from PGATour.com  as of 7/9/23  

**Data from PGATour.com  as of 7/9/23

Average swing speeds by handicap data from TrackMan

Let’s look at average swing speeds by handicap level for male golfers.

A golfer’s playing ability and how efficiently they swings the club also directly impact how fast their swing speed is. When golfers understand how the swing is supposed to work and can execute those fundamentals correctly, the result is a much more efficient swing. That efficient swing will lead to an increase in swing speed.

Read on: What Driver Loft Should You Use? (Full Chart Based On Swing Speed)

Average PGA TOUR Club Head Speeds

PGA TOUR professionals are among the best golfers in the world, so many golfers look to them as guides to playing the game correctly.

Note: Even though these speeds happened on a specific date in 2024, they’re still applicable today since swing speeds don’t rise significantly over time.

*Compiled through Rocket Mortgage Classic, 7/2/23

• Tour Pro Golfer Average Swing Speed – 115.24        
• Tour Pro Golfer Average Driving Distance – 299.40

PGA TOUR Slowest  10 Driver Swing Speed Averages

*All data from PGATour.com

**Compiled through Rocket Mortgage Classic, 7/2/23

As you may have noticed, some of the PGA TOUR pros in the top 20 in swing speed with the driver are outside the top 20 in average driver distance. This is because of a stat called Smash Factor, which measures the efficiency of a swing.

Smash Factor  is calculated by dividing the ball speed by the clubhead speed. Additionally, where the ball comes in contact with the clubface matters quite a bit as well.

Here are some examples of players with fast swing speeds who are outside the top 20 in driving distance.

Of those short knockers in the bottom 10 on the PGA TOUR this season in swing speed, and many of whom are very near the bottom in driving distance, all but two have a PGA TOUR victory on their resume.

*Data compiled from TrackMan’s 2017 PGA TOUR Data Points

I use data from TrackMan all the time with my students as a reference for what peak performance stats look like.

Above, I have pulled out the club head speed and carry distances for each club, on average, on the PGA TOUR.

TrackMan notes that these AVERAGE stats from 2017 have mostly stayed the same over the last six years.  The top players on the PGA TOUR have gotten faster and carry the ball longer, but, on average, the chart above still holds close to today’s average.

Average LPGA TOUR Club Head Speeds

The LPGA does not keep data on swing speed. However, the average swing speed with the driver hovers around 95 mph, per TrackMan. As we noticed in the statistics above for the PGA TOUR, there is somewhat of a correlation between swing speed and driver distance, but not necessarily always.

The current top drivers on the LPGA Tour shake out as follows:

Driving Distance Averages from LPGATour.com

Swing Speed Estimates Via TrackMan

Data compiled through 7/9/23

As noted previously, TrackMan is a go-to source for swing and club data for many coaches and players. I use data from TrackMan with my students all the time. For my female students, as well as slower-swinging male students, one of my go-to charts is TrackMan’s 2017 LPGA TOUR Data Points .

Compiled data from TrackMan

As noted previously, TrackMan notes that these AVERAGE stats from 2017 have mostly stayed the same over the last six years. The top players on the LPGA TOUR have gotten faster and carry the ball longer, but, on average, the chart above still holds close to today’s average.

In 2012, Ryan Winther set the world record for swing speed at 167 mph, and that swing produced a ball speed of 225 mph.

Recent long-drive phenom, Kyle Berkshire, has come close to Winther’s record, recording a swing speed of 160. Berkshire does however have the highest ball speed ever recorded at 236.8 mph… Say What?!?

More from Golf Span: The 10 Best Drivers for Slow Swing Speed

Swing speed and distance have become one of the most talked about topics in the game over recent years. It seems that everyone in golf has a need for speed! There is no denying that swing speed is a hot topic in golf.

Golfers are always looking for tips and tricks to improve their swing speed. I will break down my tips for you in two different ways. The first is the more traditional ways we, as instructors and coaches, point students toward when working on improving their swing speed.

The second will come from my friend, Michael Romatowski, founder and creator of the revolutionary Mach 3 Golf Speed Training System. Mike’s system is really helping 1,000’s of golfers get faster with their swing.

Some of the more traditional tips for golfers to help them increase their swing speed include the following:

• Train Your Body to Get Faster-  If you can increase your flexibility and mobility, reaching faster swing speeds will be more realistic. How a golfer moves their body, in terms of how much they can rotate their hips and upper torso, will play a big part in their production of swing speed. Getting yourself into the habit of stretching your body regularly will help your ability to swing faster.
• Equipment can make a difference- Having the right equipment for you can make a big difference in your ability to swing faster. Some of the critical things you need to consider in terms of equipment include:
• The overall weight of the club-  The lighter the club, the faster you can swing it. That is straight-up science, folks.
• The type of shaft you use-  The shaft matters in golf. From the length, to the flex, and where the kick-point is, all of these things equate to your ability to swing at your maximum speed.
• The head of the club-  Golf equipment technology has made massive gains over the last two decades. The clubheads on today’s drivers can offer maximum forgiveness and create a “trampoline effect” with the ball coming off the face. Test different drivers, and you may be surprised at what gains you can make by simply having the right club.

I have recently become a massive fan of a speed training program called the Mack 3 Golf Speed Training System . It was developed by Michael Romatowski. Mike is a multi-certified personal trainer, golf fitness expert, and post-rehab exercise specialist. I have spent a lot of time talking with Mike recently; he was a recent guest on my Quite Please Golf Podcast. You can listen to that episode here.

Mach 3 is a year-round speed training protocol that has produced an average gain in clubhead speed for program participants of 11.5 miles per hour. The tools used in Mach 3 are dynamic and unique, allowing golfers to experience the sensation of “Speed Out in Front,” which is the hallmark of Mach 3.

Some of the critical points of Mach 3 that I like include:

• It’s Open To All –  The Mach 3 program is for golfers of all ages, genders, and playing abilities.
• It’s Fun & Safe –  Workouts are fun, non-exhausting, safe, and athletic in nature.
• It’s Accessible to All –  Speed training workouts can be held indoors or outdoors.
• It’s Optimized –  Train for golf without “bulking up” and using natural golf body motions.

The overarching theme of Mach 3 is the “Speed out in front” concept. “Speed out in front” means that a golfer needs to become much more target-oriented when swinging. Anything after impact and up to the end of your swing is “out in front.”

Because the golf swing is such a fast movement, taking roughly only 1.25 seconds, it is essential to think in your mind to be a few steps ahead. Golfers often think of the ball and impact with the ball as the finish line when, in reality, it is only the mid-way point. If you focus on the ball as the ultimate goal, you will move slower into it at impact.

Mach 3 trains golfers to think of the finish line of the swing as being the top of your finish. You become hyper-focused on the target, the finish of the swing, and getting all of your energy, momentum, and speed “out in front” and past the point where the ball is at impact…well past it.

Mach 3 will help any and all golfers that give this concept a try. As mentioned earlier, program participants’ average gain in clubhead speed is around 11.5 miles per hour. That is significant!

If you’re a golfer seeking to improve your game, understanding the insights a golf swing speed chart can provide is invaluable. These charts break down swing speeds by various factors such as age, gender, and skill level, offering a wealth of data that helps golfers understand where they stand. My extensive experience as a golf coach has shown me that these statistics are crucial for those aiming to improve their performance. Surprisingly, many golfers discover they don’t swing as fast or hit as far as they initially thought.

The charts reveal that factors like age, gender, and skill level profoundly impact your swing speed and, subsequently, your driving distance. However, it’s important to note that age doesn’t necessarily have to slow you down. Many golfers in the 50 – 59 and 60+ age brackets can still generate impressive swing speeds, particularly if they maintain good flexibility and employ proper swing mechanics.

To boost your swing speed, you can rely on tried-and-true methods and cutting-edge techniques. On the traditional side, improving your body’s flexibility and selecting the right equipment can make a significant difference. For instance, lighter clubs and the right shaft type can notably increase your swing speed. On the innovative front, training systems like the Mach 3 Golf Speed Training System have helped thousands of golfers achieve faster swings by focusing on functional training tailored to golf performance.

To wrap up, a golf swing speed chart is an essential tool for anyone serious about upgrading their golf game. Combining this data with top tips for improving your swing speed can set you on the path to becoming a more formidable golfer. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to fine-tune your skills, a strategic approach backed by sound data can help you reach new heights in your golf career. Stay tuned for the latest updates and trends in golf statistics and training techniques.

More from me on Golf Span: How to Increase Swing Speed: 10 Tips

Brendon Elliott

Brendon is Class A PGA Professional and founded Little Linksters, LLC, and its nonprofit arm, the Little Linksters Association for Junior Golf Development. He won 25+ prestigious industry honors, including the 2017 PGA National Youth Player Development Award. He graduated from the PGA of America Management Program and has a handicap index of 7.8.

He has played golf for over 40 years and currently plays twice a month at the Eagle Dunes Golf Club near Sorrento, Florida. He loves Srixon clubs and plays a ZX5 driver with Z 585 irons. He's written over 60 articles on GolfSpan and specializes in sharing tips to improve your golf game. You can connect with Brendon at  LinkedIn , X , IG , FB , his website , or [email protected] .

• Best score : 69
• Favorite driver : Srixon ZX5
• Favorite ball : Srixon Z Star
• Favorite food at the turn : Turkey and cheese on white
• Brendon Elliott https://www.golfspan.com/author/brendon-elliott How Far To Stand From A Golf Ball: A Simple Rule To Follow
• Brendon Elliott https://www.golfspan.com/author/brendon-elliott How Much Golf Is Too Much For Marriage? Tips From A Pro
• Brendon Elliott https://www.golfspan.com/author/brendon-elliott Why Is Golf So Hard? 10 Reasons & How To Address Them
• Brendon Elliott https://www.golfspan.com/author/brendon-elliott How To Stop Topping The Golf Ball

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Pros v. amateurs: shots from 100 yards and 150 yards.

I read a great article on a golf blog recently about what distance people think they hit their drivers versus how far they  actually do, and it made me think… what is the reality of the 100- and 150-yard shots for the average player? How does this compare to a Tour Professional hitting from the same distance, with the same target, under the same conditions?

So I enlisted the help of a buddy of mine, William McGirt, who finished 85 th  on the 2014 PGA Tour’s Money List making just over $1.25 million (Hey, William, can you throw me a few bones, pards!?).

For the test, I asked three golfers to hit 100- and 150-yard shots, then charted their CARRY distance results. I know this is a very small sampling of players, but I just wanted to show you the basic idea of what I see on a daily basis with amateur golfers.

Below is the Trackman Analysis of the four players:

• William McGirt, PGA Tour Player
• Tom Stickney, Teaching Professional/Scratch Player
• John, 10-Handicap
• Howard, 15-Handicap

William McGirt (100.6, 98.6, and 103.6 yards)

The Tour Player was much more consistent with his average shot at 100.9 yards, and his “big miss” was only off 3.6 yards. This puts William next to the hole and on the correct tier more often than not, unless he gets unlucky or spins the ball too much once it lands.

Tom Stickney (100.0, 101.2, and 94.2 yards)

The teaching professional did fine, but his “big miss” was off 5.8 yards. This is what we tend to see with the single-digit players. They can hit all the shots, however, their consistency lacks when compared to the Tour Professional.

Howard (93.5, 104.3, and 100.2 yards), and  John (102.1, 102.9, and 107.7 yards)

As your handicap goes up, so will the variance of the shots hit from this distance. Both Howard and John hit the ball around 100 yards, but not consistently. Howard had an average of 99.3 yards and John had an average of 104.2 yards. But it’s not the average that is the issue here; it’s the lack of distance control with both short and long shots by both.

Howard’s shortest shot went 93.5 yards and longest went 104.4 yards, giving us a gap of 10.9 yards or 32.7 feet!

John’s shortest shot was 102.1 and his longest was 107.7 giving us a gap of 5.6 yards or 16.8 feet.

Now if the pin was always in the middle of the green, it would not be that big of an issue. But when the pins are in the front or back, which shot is going to show up? This is the difference between chipping on and having a long two putt for par.

For the single-digit player, you must not lose your focus when you have the feel. If you lose your focus, you have the big miss potentially taking away a good birdie chance. For the average player, grooving solid contact is the key. Hitting the ball solid will help you to accurately predict what shot you’ll hit and how far it will go.

Now let’s examine the 150-yard shot from each group of players.

William McGirt  (151.4, 149.9, and 151.0)

As a PGA Tour Professional, you would assume that the yardages would again be perfect — and they’re close, with an average of 150.8 yards. But one thing I want to point out is how TIGHT the dispersion is from this distance. You can see his blue dots are clustered very tightly around the 150-yard target. Once again, this gives him the best chance to be around the pin with the most accuracy. Also look at what club he hit versus the other players.

Tom Stickney (151.9, 150.7, and 149.8 yards)

As a scratch player, the talent is there to hit the shots but the dispersion is not even in the same ballpark as the Tour Player. This shows us once again why I should teach golf for a living! I get strokes from the pro, but never enough.

Howard (141.5, 141.3, and 145.9 yards), and  John (143.2, 151.9, and 139.6 yards)

With the handicap golfers, we saw a large difference between the shortest and longest shot. However, as the distances get longer, you will see that most players base their 150-yard shot on the one out of “X” that they hit that yardage, not their average!

Howard’s closest was 145.9, but the actual average was around 141, if you took out the last shot. John indeed hit his best one 151.9, but his other two were around 141 as well.

Now let’s look at carry vs. total yardage for these two players. 

Howard’s TOTAL distance was 147.4 yards while John’s TOTAL was 152.7. And these are what most average golfers depend on — the total yardage to get the ball to the distance they want it to go. Sometimes this works, but other times it does not. I will say that it is very difficult to judge what is going to happen once the ball hits the ground and it’s best to understand your carry distances. Sadly, most amateurs do not.

So what do I want you to take from this article?

• Tour Professionals carry the ball the same distance every time with the same club within reason.
• Tour Professionals have tighter dispersion patterns than all of us with each club.
• Single-digit players can have flashes of brilliance as it pertains to distance and dispersion control, but the “big miss” is always lurking. It could be due to a lack of focus or a swing flaw that creeps up. It’s your job to figure out what it is so you can be better in the end.
• Average players are OK with shorter clubs in regard to carry distances, but once they get outside 100 yards they focus only on total distance.
• Average players based their overall distances on the one perfect shot they hit out of “X” number of shots instead of the real averages.
• Average players have huge swings in distance due to unsolid shots (fat and thin) that can hamper their distances.
• Average players try and hit the same club as the Pros with little success. Both Howard and John needed one more club to actually carry the ball 150 yards in the air, but never did so on average.

Failure is crucial: Make your practice sessions more difficult

Dr. Gupta: The Secret To Finding YOUR GAME

Tom F. Stickney II, is a specialist in Biomechanics for Golf, Physiology, and 3d Motion Analysis. He has a degree in Exercise and Fitness and has been a Director of Instruction for almost 30 years at resorts and clubs such as- The Four Seasons Punta Mita, BIGHORN Golf Club, The Club at Cordillera, The Promontory Club, and the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. His past and present instructional awards include the following: Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher, Golf Digest Top 50 International Instructor, Golf Tips Top 25 Instructor, Best in State (Florida, Colorado, and California,) Top 20 Teachers Under 40, Best Young Teachers and many more. Tom is a Trackman University Master/Partner, a distinction held by less than 25 people in the world. Tom is TPI Certified- Level 1, Golf Level 2, Level 2- Power, and Level 2- Fitness and believes that you cannot reach your maximum potential as a player with out some focus on your physiology. You can reach him at [email protected] and he welcomes any questions you may have.

75 Comments

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Feb 12, 2015 at 4:24 pm

Let me share with you my numbers tested on TrackMan this Saturday 7 Feb 2015 and my hcp is 14:

Dispersion on 140 yards was 33 yards (min:114 – max:147) or a score of 67 on the Trackman Combine, equivalent of a 5 Hcp .

Dispersion on 160 yards was 24 yards (min: 148 – max:172) or a score of 67 on the Trackman Combine, equivalent of a 5 Hcp.

I believe that the scores of Howard and John in your example are still pretty good as the dispersion is lower than 10 yards, right ?

Feb 11, 2015 at 11:22 am

I’m missing one thing from this. How does the carry actually matter? I always hear that phrase “no photos on the scorecard.” In this case, it actually seems as if the higher handicappers understood what their rollout was, therefore they understood their carry.

Your point was they didn’t account for carry. I’m trying to square that still…

Barry Martin

Feb 4, 2015 at 12:27 pm

Great article Tom and many useful takeaways. I have only one point of contention…

The point you make about amateurs consistently under-clubbing isn’t quite the whole picture in my experience. As a a regular Joe, there is NOTHING more tragic than saying “gee, I’m going to be smart, club up, and put a nice smooth swing on this one.” You know what happens next – my tension free swing makes great contact and airmails the green by 10 yards. And on most courses I play, I am penalized FAR more harshly for being long than short.

As a mid-80s guy I hit very few perfect shots, and I’ve been burned so many times with this “Humble Long” miss I can’t tell you. It’s why I’ll keep hitting 8i from 150, even if I do it only 5 out of 10 times. With a short miss, I’ll usually have a fair chance at bogey (and a fighting chance to get up and down for par), where the longer club I am just asking for a particularly cruel double (or worse).

Kit Alexander

Jan 30, 2015 at 8:14 am

A nice read but I do have one issue. It states at the beginning that you asked the players to hit 150-yards shots and judged them on carry. This seems a little unfair, given you say the handicap players consistently under-clubbed even though their total distances were both around 150 yards. Either you asked them to carry the ball 150 yards – in which case you need to re-word the introduction to the article. Or they were asked to hit 150-yard total distances and did exactly that (more or less) but were unfairly judged on their carry distances. This may seem a bit pernickety but it’s pretty essential to the results and conclusions.

Feb 2, 2015 at 5:33 pm

no problem with the article and the test: it is accuracy test where you have specific targets. would like to pull a driver to increase your average distance? it is actually funny that you think your club 7 carry 150yrds but you can hit it only 1:3 and the rest is club shorter.

random dude

Feb 4, 2015 at 4:24 pm

Kit, what you’re referring to is IOA (Inter Observer Agreement), in that, was your data and Toms data similar. The problem is, Kit, you weren’t involved in the experiment, and there for, had no say in clearly defining what YOU though would be acceptable range for the dependent variable (the behavior, or in this case, what people hit their shots to) for the experiment. Tom could go out and do this experiment over and over and it would likely (predictability) yield very similar data, meaning this was both accurate, valid and reliable. To be fair to you, Kit, if you and Tom together conducted the experiment, then you could hash out and define a different scale for the dependent variable.

tom stickney

Jan 29, 2015 at 6:57 pm

Al– I feel you pain sir

Jan 29, 2015 at 6:55 pm

Dave and Drew…thank you for your comments

Jan 29, 2015 at 4:41 pm

you’re

Jan 28, 2015 at 8:14 pm

Try the same tests, with range balls the amateur hits most. I’m a hack, but I’ll find 2 (or more) shots I never saw in the sun with 1 or 3 yards between them. I amaze myself all the time with my consistency of terribleness. It’s a putrid swing, but I seem to duplicate it pretty close with practically no effort.

Jan 28, 2015 at 2:04 pm

Great article Tom! This motivates me to chart my own data and adjust my practice plans.

Jan 28, 2015 at 12:41 pm

Enjoyed the read, even if it basically told us what we already knew to be true. I don’t think a person can truly appreciate just HOW good Tour players are until they see it in person. As a 13 hcp, I’ve hit some shots that a TP would be happy with, but the difference is I do it about 1/100 swings… they do it about 90/100 swings. The talent gap is just incredible. I’ve played rounds with a few guys who are run-of-the-mill mini-tour grinders and they will mop the floor with a typical weekend warrior… but they’re not even CLOSE to the talent level of a PGA Tour Pro. And then think about guys in the top 10 – the Rory’s/Scotts of the world – they are worlds above the average Joe.

Jan 27, 2015 at 10:13 pm

Do you have record of what club each of them hit from each yardage ?

Jan 27, 2015 at 8:51 pm

I tend to be shorter on my carry with irons. That’s by design. As an intermediate player with an index of about 14, I play for par. My goal is fairways and greens in regulation. two putt and move on. I go for the middle of the green. Safest place to be for a chance at par. If I get it close and have a opp for birdie, so be it. Where as my regular playing partners are trying to muscle an 8 iron to a back pin from 155 yds to the middle, I will pull my 7, make a smooth move through the ball and have a much better chance at being on the green in regulation. I don’t normally play distance. I hit shots. If the distance calls for a 6 but the shot calls for a 5, I hit the 5…I have no ego. Far is fun. Scoring low is better.

Jan 29, 2015 at 4:40 pm

sounds like your not scoring that low

Jan 27, 2015 at 8:19 pm

Vintage and Scott…wish I had time to do more shots but this article was just meant to be a sampling of sorts

Scott Fawcett

Jan 28, 2015 at 6:20 pm

Tom, I certainly knew you weren’t representing it as iron clad fact. I was simply letting the other reader know that their point was likely lost due to the sample size.

Jan 27, 2015 at 5:55 pm

http://www.thecaddiecard.com Here’s a handy little tool I use to keep my distances on hand. It really works will all the different wedge distances I have…half swing, quarter swing and choke downs.

vintage1976

Jan 27, 2015 at 1:39 pm

Am I the only one who finds it interesting that the Tour guy had better dispersion from 150 than he did from 100?

I wonder when he was last fitted for his wedges?

Jan 27, 2015 at 2:04 pm

With three trials per shot I’d hardly say those results are definitive. If the results were proven to be valid it would likely be the result of 150 being “perfect 9” vs the 100 being a 3/4 56* or something.

Jan 27, 2015 at 1:00 pm

Jamie– couldn’t agree more!

Jan 27, 2015 at 12:59 pm

Super– Brandon is a great guy for sure…William is a ole good county-boy

Jan 27, 2015 at 12:09 pm

The golf course is the one place that perception is not reality

superfido25

Jan 27, 2015 at 11:12 am

Pretty interesting (but not surprising) results. Classy of William to partake in this study. My cousin is his caddy, and says he is one of the most down to earth pro’s he has ever worked for.

Jan 27, 2015 at 10:52 am

Jan 27, 2015 at 10:51 am

The– good call on how to find your yardages

Low– Both…but on the course is the real test!

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Jan 27, 2015 at 8:19 am

Awesome article. As a single digit player, you hit the nail on the head. As I get into my wedge play my yardages become more solid as was your example. You are correct again as with my 8 iron, the yardages are consistent but my dispersion becomes greater. As I get into my longer irons, both my distance and dispersion suffer a little more. I think the fact that many a times, we are left not hitting the mid to longer irons that frequently where we are as comfortable as say hitting the shorter/wedges since we tend to play them more. What I notice though in watching the tour players on television is that since they play from the tips, even though they hit it a long ways, a see more of the 6-5 iron shots being used on some holes due to the par 4’s being around 460 plus yards. Could this be a factor. I usually play the back tees and find I am around the 8 iron on in yardages. Yes I know I can practice my 6-5 and 4 iron more on the range but to actually use it in playing conditions more often is my question? What would you suggest.

Jan 27, 2015 at 9:35 am

Hit less than driver on more par 4s.

The Infidel

Jan 27, 2015 at 7:55 am

Great point, but also something easy to rectify. Whether it’s on a BYOB (bring your own balls) range, a quiet corner of the course or just a field where you can hit find a level or flat spot and hit 10 balls. Then set a mark with a GPS, I’ve got a $30 sky caddie 2.5, then walk to the middle of the cluster of 10 balls. Mark it, that’s your average distance.

With more than 10 balls you’ll inevitably form a closer dispersion pattern all things being equal. So what you’re looking for is that one number for that one time you pull the 7i from the bag.

I managed to chart my 4-PW over the course of 3 rounds on a quiet course. It’s not the TrackMan experience but “some” data is better than no data. Good luck.

Marty Griffin

Jan 26, 2015 at 11:44 pm

I had the opportunity to interview Tom and one of the things we talked about was consistency. So it was really cool to read all of these trackman data sets (I love stats). 14 hole good, that sounds about right Tom 🙂

Jan 26, 2015 at 10:21 pm

Sorry, I did not track that information, but I will tell you that the irons of McGirt are not set up stronger as are ours. I use the RSI’2 so you can find my specs on-line.

Jan 26, 2015 at 10:19 pm

Taylor- yardage finders help 100%

Chris– where there is a will there is a way…

Jan 26, 2015 at 10:18 pm

Awedge- Agree…thanks!

Kirby– both

Jan 26, 2015 at 10:17 pm

Steve– any tour player is pretty good up close, some just win more than others

Bill Belicheck

Jan 26, 2015 at 9:34 pm

Jan 26, 2015 at 9:17 pm

Imagine the difference if you had a good tour player

Jan 26, 2015 at 7:10 pm

This was a very interesting article. I went from a 7 handicap to a 2 within a few weeks after buying my first laser range finder.Tom, in your opinion was the amateurs inconsistencies due to strike or mechanics or both?

Jan 26, 2015 at 7:03 pm

Being a high handicapper, I charted every club in my bag. I know my average and that’s what I play. Helps with shot dispersion, confidence and common sense. My scores are dropping because I know (within reason) what I can hit. My game is getting better and I’m getting longer with every club. In the spring, I’ll re-chart.

Good article as always!

Jan 27, 2015 at 2:14 pm

About 6 months ago I purchased a “Swing Caddie” from Voice Caddie and have been using the averages stored in the device for each club and have dropped my HCP by minimum 3 strokes. Best $195 I ever spent.

Jan 26, 2015 at 6:25 pm

The ultimate question is not about what the results show, but how we as amateur players can get better at learning our distances? The obvious answer is “consult your PGA pro for lessons”. This is great to work on your swing and get more consistent. However, as your swing becomes more consistent how can we learn our real distances. We cannot afford a trackman or flightscope to measure each shot, driving range balls are generally limited distance which make determining distances impossible, and hanging out on a hole on your local golf course is generally frowned upon.

Jan 26, 2015 at 6:53 pm

After I got a laser for distance my club selection has become much more honed in. It’s not the slope version so there is still some guessing when it comes to big drops, but overall, I really know how far I hit my clubs through trial and error. More importantly, I figured out what distance I hit most from (150 yards), so I practice my 9 iron a lot more than other clubs. This really has lowered my score as I know when it comes to 150 I’m dancing.

Double Mocha Man

Jan 26, 2015 at 5:01 pm

Any chance of telling us what club (loft in degrees, not club number) each player hit on both the 100 and 150 yard shots???

Jan 26, 2015 at 4:38 pm

Good article thanks for the info. If you think this is useless information you’re probably not trying to improve. If you want to be better why not compare yourself to a pro? See how far you have to go to do something like shoot under par. That kind of accuracy from 150 is impressive and something to strive for. I know a lot of amateur golfers that can probably outdrive a tour pro…..i don’t know many that can stick it from 150 within 15 on avg.

number crunch

Jan 26, 2015 at 4:12 pm

I’m getting to the point where I’m going to stop watching golf broadcasts and stop digesting the nonsense written on mere mortals compared to a touring pro.

I do not cluster my 9i’s in a 2′ circle from 150y. I do not stop 100y shots within feet of the pin. I also do not book $1+ million in prize money on the tour on an annual basis.

How many times do we have to hear about how @#$%ing good these guys are at golf?

And the industry sits around and wonders why participation is on a negative slide. People who write these articles are shaming the average golfer…the guy who is on tour already knows he’s better than 99.99 percent of the world…this article just reminds the decent player that he will still never be as good as the guy on TV (or the guy teaching him for that matter).

on a positive note…the spelling looked good…keep up the good work!

Jan 26, 2015 at 3:45 pm

I’m not going to say these are useless numbers you crunched. But the results and findings seemed to be too simple and generally intuitive to most any half wit. As an 11, I can hit it 2 feet from the flag (occasionally) or I can hit it 20 yards from it (more likely). Would I have thought that kind of lame consistency from a tour player before reading this? Or even a scratch golfer? And now through your study we know that with empirical evidence to back up what we knew. Sadly it won’t do me any good tho holding a club in my hand at 150 yds out…

Jan 26, 2015 at 3:30 pm

Nice article, Tom. Can’t wait for the snow to melt here in Montana so I can get back after it!

Jan 26, 2015 at 3:22 pm

This article is a great example of the fact that Pros (a vast majority of the time and only unless the shot requires them to release the ball), hit the ball to or past the flag. Amatures so often, forget to factor in release or in some cases spin. A big part of this is knowing course conditions and how they affect (effect?) the ball. It’s all part of creating consistency.

Jan 26, 2015 at 3:08 pm

Great, Great, article!! Kevin-This is extremely useful data because of the conditions. This was done under ideal conditions, and these results are the absolute best they could hope for. On the course under “real world” conditions, with the pressure of a “not middle” pin (which is 2/3 of pin placements on an average course set up), the numbers are just going to get worse. That my friend is useful data, if they are willing to learn.

Jan 26, 2015 at 3:07 pm

Useful info. I am not as consistent as your two amateurs, let alone a pro. I love to play golf but hate to do poorly. Practice practice practice. Thanks.

Robert Cadnor

Jan 26, 2015 at 2:54 pm

Great article! Two questions. For William’s 150 yard shot, you mention “Also look at what club he hit versus the other players”.

1. Isn’t he using the same 8iron as you and Howard?

2. What were the carry/total for William and your 8irons?

Thanks for the great read. It’s interesting to see the dispersion differences.

Jan 26, 2015 at 2:15 pm

Talk about a pile of lame and useless info!

Jan 26, 2015 at 3:28 pm

How can you deem this “useless info”? It really digs into why tour pros are so good week after week after week, and leaves us with practice implications, ideas to ponder, etc.

i could say the same about your comment

Kevin Taglione

Jan 26, 2015 at 2:09 pm

This was cool test but I feel like the data is kind of un-useful. Because they were hitting on the range and same lie every time. not like a golf course. I would have more interesting to track a couple rounds of golf for these 4 players and see their GIR reg % from various yardage ranges (>100, 100-120, 120-140, ect.) Becasue most their misses from what I could see would still be on the green as long as they weren’t going at tucked pins.

Jan 26, 2015 at 1:46 pm

Mark– I did that article a few months ago, check my archives on Golfwrx and you’ll find it. Thx

Jan 26, 2015 at 1:45 pm

Golf- Yes, be mindful of how far you fly the ball, but do remember how the ball usually reacts when it hits the greens you tend to play

Jan 26, 2015 at 1:44 pm

Teaj– Glad you liked the article, take a golf vacation ASAP

Jan 26, 2015 at 1:42 pm

Jason– Agree, but at least this gives you some information to audit on your own

Jan 26, 2015 at 1:41 pm

Thanks Ryan

Jan 26, 2015 at 1:30 pm

glad to see someone breaking down small things like this. But for the guy who goes to the range to try and do this I don’t think it will reflect the correct data they are after. Your players use balls on the range that is the same ball they play with. From what I know range balls we common people use do not fly the same as the ball I play with.

Jan 26, 2015 at 1:17 pm

this makes me want to hit balls for hours to see what my carry and total distances are for each club, because you bring up a good point that all we think about is the total distance. I started doing this with wedges, finding the carry distance but why would we not do this for all of our clubs. if you have a bunker that you need to carry in front of the green on a long par 4 id like to know if I should club up and hope the ball stays on the green and not roll of the back. Oh how I am missing golf up hear in the great white north.

Jan 26, 2015 at 1:15 pm

what I take from it is to be more concious of total distance especially to pins. Often I take the right club for the distane but don’t take the roll into account – well we don’t spin it as well. Hitting it both 100 and 15o yards is key – now I see how I struggled on the 100 yards mark.

Mark Littlejohn

Jan 26, 2015 at 1:03 pm

Very interesting. It would also be interesting to see something like this done for single digit handicappers with hybrids vs 3/4 irons. Hybrids may be easier to hit and get airborne, but I suspect that the average single digit player would spray them as much or worse than they do the 3/4 irons…most hybrids have a built in draw bias. I hit my Mac 1025m 3 iron way better than my 21 degree hybrid, but I use a 17 degree Titleist 909H hybrid as a 2 iron just fine.

Ryan @Front9Back9

Jan 26, 2015 at 12:15 pm

Nice analysis. These kinds of breakdowns are cool to see

Tom Stickney

Jan 26, 2015 at 12:12 pm

Jafar- not right now…sorry

Jan 26, 2015 at 12:11 pm

Matt– no chance. I’ll be last! ????

Jan 26, 2015 at 11:50 am

Oooooo! Do drivers! DO DRIVERS! Haha!

Jan 26, 2015 at 11:40 am

I like these kinds of articles. Shows what I might be doing myself. Is there gonna be one for 150+ yards or drives?

Jan 26, 2015 at 11:30 am

Nice article, with just one ticky-tack comment. McGirt’s “big miss” on the 100yd shot would be 3.6 yards…not 1.4, correct?

Zak Kozuchowski

Jan 26, 2015 at 11:57 am

That appears to be our “big miss.” Thanks for the edit, sir.

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Clement: stop ripping off your swing with this drill.

Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?

How a towel can fix your golf swing

This is a classic drill that has been used for decades. However, the world of marketed training aids has grown so much during that time that this simple practice has been virtually forgotten. Because why teach people how to play golf using everyday items when you can create and sell a product that reinforces the same thing? Nevertheless, I am here to give you helpful advice without running to the nearest Edwin Watts or adding something to your Amazon cart.

For the “scoring clubs,” having a solid connection between the arms and body during the swing, especially through impact, is paramount to creating long-lasting consistency. And keeping that connection throughout the swing helps rotate the shoulders more to generate more power to help you hit it farther. So, how does this drill work, and what will your game benefit from it? Well, let’s get into it.

You can use this for basic chip shots up to complete swings. I use this with every club in my bag, up to a 9 or 8-iron. It’s natural to create incrementally more separation between the arms and body as you progress up the set. So doing this with a high iron or a wood is not recommended.

While you set up to hit a ball, simply tuck the towel underneath both armpits. The length of the towel will determine how tight it will be across your chest but don’t make it so loose that it gets in the way of your vision. After both sides are tucked, make some focused swings, keeping both arms firmly connected to the body during the backswing and follow through. (Note: It’s normal to lose connection on your lead arm during your finishing pose.) When you’re ready, put a ball in the way of those swings and get to work.

Get a Better Shoulder Turn

Many of us struggle to have proper shoulder rotation in our golf swing, especially during long layoffs. Making a swing that is all arms and no shoulders is a surefire way to have less control with wedges and less distance with full swings. Notice how I can get in a similar-looking position in both 60° wedge photos. However, one is weak and uncontrollable, while the other is strong and connected. One allows me to use my larger muscles to create my swing, and one doesn’t. The follow-through is another critical point where having a good connection, as well as solid shoulder rotation, is a must. This drill is great for those who tend to have a “chicken wing” form in their lead arm, which happens when it becomes separated from the body through impact.

In full swings, getting your shoulders to rotate in your golf swing is a great way to reinforce proper weight distribution. If your swing is all arms, it’s much harder to get your weight to naturally shift to the inside part of your trail foot in the backswing. Sure, you could make the mistake of “sliding” to get weight on your back foot, but that doesn’t fix the issue. You must turn into your trial leg to generate power. Additionally, look at the difference in separation between my hands and my head in the 8-iron examples. The green picture has more separation and has my hands lower. This will help me lessen my angle of attack and make it easier to hit the inside part of the golf ball, rather than the over-the-top move that the other picture produces.

Stay Better Connected in the Backswing

When you don’t keep everything in your upper body working as one, getting to a good spot at the top of your swing is very hard to do. It would take impeccable timing along with great hand-eye coordination to hit quality shots with any sort of regularity if the arms are working separately from the body.

Notice in the red pictures of both my 60-degree wedge and 8-iron how high my hands are and the fact you can clearly see my shoulder through the gap in my arms. That has happened because the right arm, just above my elbow, has become totally disconnected from my body. That separation causes me to lift my hands as well as lose some of the extension in my left arm. This has been corrected in the green pictures by using this drill to reinforce that connection. It will also make you focus on keeping the lead arm close to your body as well. Because the moment either one loses that relationship, the towel falls.

I have been diligent this year in finding a few drills that target some of the issues that plague my golf game; either by simply forgetting fundamental things or by coming to terms with the faults that have bitten me my whole career. I have found that having a few drills to fall back on to reinforce certain feelings helps me find my game a little easier, and the “towel drill” is most definitely one of them.

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How Driving Distance Has Evolved on the PGA Tour

• BY Sean Fairholm
• Mar 1st 2024
• Read all comments

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In case you haven’t heard, driving distance has been a major discussion topic within golf over the past few years. 

We have our own opinions for what increased hitting distances mean for the game of golf, but we thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at driving distance numbers in golf’s modern era. 

It’s clear that a mix of better technology, better athletes and more pristine agronomy have paved the way for where we stand now—but how exactly did it evolve to reach this point? 

The Early Years of Recorded Distances

The PGA Tour has kept driving distance stats dating back to 1980 when Dan Pohl led with a 274-yard average. 

While methods for tracking distance have grown more advanced over the years because of ShotLink, the PGA Tour has continued to use only two holes per round to measure driving distance. They are both holes where players are basically guaranteed to be using a driver off the tee. 

“Care is taken to select two holes which face in opposite directions to counteract the effect of wind,” the PGA Tour states. “Drives are measured to the point at which they come to rest regardless of whether they are in the fairway or not.”

In 1980, Tour players averaged 256 yards per drive—about 44 yards shorter than last season. 

Only one PGA Tour player from the 2022-2023 season (Brian Stuard) would have ranked behind Pohl. Said another way, Pohl would have been second-to-last for driving distance on Tour last season. 

Of course, Pohl and his fellow competitors were using persimmon drivers and hitting balatas. That accounts for a significant chunk of the difference. 

There was little increase in driving distance throughout the 1980s. Tour average was between 256 and 263 yards every year and there were no meaningful trends in driving distance leaders. 

The top driving distance leader in that decade was a familiar name: Davis Love III. He averaged nearly 286 yards per drive in 1986, about 25 yards ahead of Tour average. 

1980 — Average: 256.89 | Leader: Dan Pohl (274.3)

1981 — Average: 259.66 | Leader: Dan Pohl (280.1)

1982 — Average: 256.89 | Leader: Bill Calfee (275.3)

1983 — Average: 258.65 | Leader: John McComish (277.4)

1984 — Average: 259.61 | Leader: Bill Glasson (276.5)

1985 — Average: 260.18 | Leader: Andy Bean (278.2)

1986 — Average: 261.58 | Leader: Davis Love III (285.7)

1987 — Average: 262.50 | Leader: John McComish (283.9)

1988 — Average: 263.50 | Leader: Steve Thomas (284.6)

1989 — Average: 261.81 | Leader: Ed Humenik (280.9)

Late 1990s’ Distance Boom

Average Tour driving distance stayed stagnant from 1990 to 1995, between 260 and 263 yards. 

Everything was status quo—except for the emergence of John Daly, a player who would be the “driving distance champion” of the PGA Tour for 11 years throughout his career. 

Daly averaged about 289 yards in 1991, a record at the time. He would stay around that mark for the next few years until we start getting into the late ‘90s. 

We really see distance jump starting in 1996 as the Tour average goes up three yards. By 1999, the average distance shot up another six yards. This coincides with persimmon drivers fading from the game as better technology takes its place. 

Daly went from averaging 289 yards per drive in 1996 to almost 306 in 1999. 

Impressively, that would be well ahead of PGA Tour average (299.9) for the 2022-2023 season. 

Throughout the decade, only Tom Purtzer (1990) and Love III (1994) steal driving distance “titles” from Daly. 

1990 — Average: 262.75 | Leader: Tom Purtzer (279.6)

1991 — Average: 261.44 | Leader: John Daly (288.9)

1992 — Average: 260.52 | Leader: John Daly (283.4)

1993 — Average: 260.36 | Leader: John Daly (288.9)

1994 — Average: 261.84 | Leader: Davis Love III (283.8)

1995 — Average: 263.55 | Leader: John Daly (289)

1996 — Average: 266.49 | Leader: John Daly (288.8)

1997 — Average: 267.67 | Leader: John Daly (302)

1998 — Average: 270.63 | Leader: John Daly (299.4)

1999 — Average: 272.45 | Leader: John Daly (305.6)

An Even Bigger Leap in the 2000s

What we saw in the ‘90s was a harbinger of what was to come as driving distance exploded in the following decade. 

As the Titleist Pro V1 and other revolutionary technology came on board early in the 2000s, we saw an incredible spike. Driving distance averages went up six yards from 2000 to 2001; there was then a seven-yard jump from 2002 to 2003. 

At that point, PGA Tour driving distance average was 286 yards. Remember that Love III had led the Tour in driving distance with that same mark back in 1986—only 17 years earlier. 

However, the rest of the ‘00s don’t see a ton of movement. Average hitting distance creeps another few yards but lacks the massive jump we saw early in the decade. 

In fact, there is no other sequence of years that matches the 2000-2003 time period where average driving distance climbs 16 yards. 

Daly starts the decade as the longest player in golf (still) but other players emerge to steal that crown. 

Hank Kuehne (2003, 2004) and Bubba Watson (2006, 2007, 2008) earned multiple driving distance titles in the decade. 

Kuehne’s 321-yard average in 2003 was a record that lasted for 17 years until Bryson DeChambeau came along. 

Where was Tiger Woods in driving distance during the prime of his career? He placed second (2000), T3 (2001), sixth (2002), 11th (2003), ninth (2004), second (2005), sixth (2006), 12th (2007), N/A (2008) and 21st (2009). 

2000 — Average: 273.18 | Leader: John Daly (301.4)

2001 — Average: 279.35 | Leader: John Daly (306.7)

2002 — Average: 279.84 | Leader: John Daly (306.8)

2003 — Average: 286.30 | Leader: Hank Kuehne (321.4)

2004 — Average: 287.32 | Leader: Hank Kuehne (314.4)

2005 — Average: 288.88 | Leader: Scott Hend (318.9)

2006 — Average: 289.35 | Leader: Bubba Watson (319.6)

2007 — Average: 289.08 | Leader: Bubba Watson (315.2)

2008 — Average: 287.74 | Leader: Bubba Watson (315.1)

2009 — Average: 288.07 | Leader: Robert Garrigus (312)

A Small Uptick During the 2010s

You might be surprised to learn that average PGA Tour driving distance didn’t move much in the 2010s, a decade that saw the emergence of weight training and better athletes. 

Between 2010 and 2019, the average distance increased by about six yards. 

There were eight different players who had the longest average for the season, a departure from the 1990s and 2000s when Daly, Kuehne or Watson was usually on top. 

J.B. Holmes (2011, 2016) and Watson (2012, 2014) were the only players to be the longest for multiple years in this decade. Superstars like Dustin Johnson (2015) and Rory McIlroy (2017) emerge on this list as well. 

2010 — Average: 287.49 | Leader: Robert Garrigus (315.5)

2011 — Average: 291.14 | Leader: J.B. Holmes (318.4)

2012 — Average: 290.07 | Leader: Bubba Watson (315.5)

2013 — Average: 288.00 | Leader: Luke List (306.3)

2014 — Average: 289.85 | Leader: Bubba Watson (314.3)

2015 — Average: 290.21 | Leader: Dustin Johnson (317.7)

2016 — Average: 291.06 | Leader: J.B. Holmes (314.5)

2017 — Average: 292.79 | Leader: Rory McIlroy (316.7)

2018 — Average: 295.29 | Leader: Trey Mullinax (318)

2019 — Average: 293.90 | Leader: Cameron Champ (317.9)

Bigger Gains So Far in the 2020s

There have been a couple of eye-catching numbers so far in the 2020s. 

One is that we saw the all-time driving distance record set twice, most recently by McIlroy. He averaged more than 326 yards last season. 

The other is that the average distance on the PGA Tour reached almost exactly 300 yards two years ago. That repeated last season. So far in 2024, the average is down to 295 yards—but that is a normal winter fluctuation. We have yet to hit the warmer months where the ball goes farther. 

Young players coming up now have been training to swing out of their shoes, maximizing the technology at hand, so it makes sense why we would see that number get slightly higher. 

It looks to be short-lived, however, as the 2028 rollback could bring us closer to averages we saw in the 2010’s. We’ll have to wait to find out. 

If you are wondering how LIV compares to the PGA Tour, we have you covered there . The PGA Tour’s longest hitters are slightly longer than bombers on LIV but it’s pretty close. 

Bryson DeChambeau, however, looks to have lost a step from where he was a couple years ago. 

2020 — Average: 296.40 | Leader: Bryson DeChambeau (322.1)

2021 — Average: 295.30 | Leader: Bryson DeChambeau (320.8)

2022 — Average: 299.80 | Leader: Cameron Champ (321.4)

2023 — Average: 299.90 | Leader: Rory McIlroy (326.3)

Final Takeaways

The short summary is that driving distance has increased a significant amount in the 44 years since the stat was first tracked by the Tour. 

Average distance is up almost exactly one yard per year over that time. 

The ‘80s and early ‘90s were stable but changes in equipment caused an explosion in distance during the late ‘90s and early 00s. 

Since then, we’ve seen a steady creep of driving distance. 

My goal here is not to argue whether distance in the pro game is a problem—I just wanted everyone to see the evolution over the years. 

One thing on which we can all agree: the game is completely different than it was in 1980.

Mar 29, 2024

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• about the author
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Sean Fairholm

Sean is a longtime golf journalist and underachieving 8 handicap who enjoys the game in all forms. If he didn't have an official career writing about golf, Sean would spend most of his free time writing about it anyway. When he isn't playing golf, you can find Sean watching his beloved Florida Panthers hockey team, traveling to a national park or listening to music on his record player. He lives in Nashville with his wife and dog (of course the dog's name is Hogan).

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1 month ago

I know the ball had something to do with the distance gains, but the driver is where the USGA/R&A lost control. Allowing the larger club heads and longer shafts contributed more to the gains. Because of this younger players are able to go all out with their swings. I’m not an equipment expert, but I think if drivers had been limited to 300cc heads and a maximum shaft length of 44″-44.5″ you would not see these gains. These limitations would have little affect on the average golfer.

4 weeks ago

Don’t understand how this would not affect the average golfer? But until courses set up multiple sets of tees, too many players egos won’t allow them to play the proper tees.

PHDrunkards

Well, the COR and CT aligned to Spin Loft have lots more to do with than just lengths and head sizes. We could even go farther if they let COR and CT even more, coupled with stronger materials

If that’s not a perfect picture of Daly, I don’t know what is. Huge mullet, cigarette, and the world’s best shirt.

Does the tour track dispersion as well? Obviously a much hard metric to pin down vs raw distance, but it would be really interesting to see how accuracy has paced in relation to the increase in distance.

These distance measurements include only the ones that hit the fairway. As for shot to shot specified dispersion off the tee with drivers on those fairways when take the distance measurements, no. They only count fairways hit percentages overall but that won’t tell you the exact dispersions

The way the PGA tour measures “driving distance, is they pick two holes at each event… Usually that run an opposite direction to account for the wind, and those numbers are used in the calculation. The problem is that some of the Whole selected encourage players to use Less club than driver. I know for a fact that the PGA tour uses the fourth hole at TPC Summerlin, which is the host of the Shriners open, as one of the measuring holes. Out of the 20 people I have personally watched tee off on that hole, only 25% hit driver … Others hit Fairway woods, and even sometimes long irons. The other problem is if a player hits a driver, and it flies into the Fairway bunker on the right side of the fairway, the measurement is taking to that point in the sand, rather than the additional 40 yards that ball may have run out , had it not landed in the bunker. So really, they are not measuring driving distance… They are measuring the average of the first shot on two given holes each week as you can imagine, a dynamic like this can significantly impact these “driving distance averages” that are used in the technology debate. Golf course design is now completely outdated because the ball goes so far, but most always come back to this tour distance average metric, which is really a false indicator.

Great article! But your first graphic is incorrect- it’s showing the tour average in 1993 (260.4y) instead of Daly’s individual average as the tour leader (288.9y). The other three shown all have their individual averages on the graphic.

286 with persimmon??!! That’s crazy considering you’re effectively hitting a golf ball with a baseball on a stick.

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In Between: How to Hit a Wedge Shot 50 to 75 yards

Did you know that in the 2021 PGA Tour season, the average proximity to the hole from 50-75 yards was 25 feet, five inches? 

Hard to believe, right? Here are the stats from the   PGA Tour website  to prove it. 

It’s very hard to believe that they don’t get closer in proximity from such a short range. But that goes to show, this distance isn’t easy, even for the best of the best golfers on the planet.

Ideally, you would never leave yourself this distance as it’s so challenging. But golf is not a game of perfection and you are bound to find yourself in this tough distance from time to time. To help you hit it closer and take the fear out of this shot, let’s get into it.

How to Hit a Wedge Shot 50 to 75 Yards

Chances are you’ve asked a coach or solid player you golf with,  “How do you hit a 50 yard wedge?”

It’s a good question because the 50-75 yard range is a challenging shot, even for scratch golfers and professionals. Heck, I’m a scratch player myself but remember struggling with this shot myself and have a specific memory that still sticks with me.

In a one-day qualifier I found myself with this awkward distance on the first hole. My tee shot found the right fairway bunker and I hit a decent 7-iron out of the sand, but left myself 60 yards to a front pin. There was water long too but not in play… or so I thought.

I had no idea what to do. Do I go low and bump it? Do I hit it high with spin ?

All I remember is decelerating on my downswing, thinning the shot in the water, and making double bogey to start the round (on an easy par 5). Needless to say, I didn’t advance in the qualifier. 

The next week I saw my coach and asked him how to hit the shot. His answer,  “Play smarter so you don’t have that distance… especially to a front pin.”

The truth hurts and he’s 100% right. My course management was lacking on my second shot and left me with a terrible distance to a tough pin position. Luckily, we worked on the shot and I learned from my mistake. 

As you know, weird stuff happens on the golf course as you know so it’s important to learn how to hit this shot so you’re prepared for anything. Here is the step-by-step plan to play the 50-75 yard shot. 

Step 1: Assess the Shot

The first step in learning how to hit a wedge shot 50 to 75 yards is assessing the shot before committing to a club or target. Just your basic approach shot strategy applies here.

Here are five things to think about;  total   distance, pin position, lie, green conditions, and wind . Each factor will dictate the type of shot you should play and where you want the ball to land.

Do not skip this step! I know it feels like a lot of analyzing for such a short shot, but you need to have all of this to make a confident swing on your wedge shot.  

Total Distance

Before picking a club for the shot, first use your rangefinder or golf GPS to find your distance to the flag. Then, get your number to the front or back of the green depending on the pin position. 

Now you have the pin number and the distance to the front or back of the green.

Pin Location

Next up, you need to figure out where the pin is located on the green as it dictates the club and landing spot.

For example, if you have 65 yards to a back pin, how much room do you have to the back of the green? If you’re in a tournament, this is easy to figure out with a pin sheet. If not, take your best guess as you’re close enough to the green you should be able to take an educated guess. 

A middle or back pin is usually easier to get close as you can play a variety of shots. While a front pin is the most challenging since you won’t get a ton of spin. Since you’re hitting a half or three quarter shot, you won’t get nearly the type of spin as you would with a full swing wedge.

Once you have your two distances (one to the pin and one to the front or back of the green), you need to assess your lie . Your lie plays a huge role in deciding the type of shot to hit and where you want the ball to land.

If you’re in the fairway cut of grass, you will get the most spin and the shot will be easier to make solid contact. If you’re in the rough, you will need to swing harder (depending on how deep the rough length) and won’t get as much spin in the 50 to 75 yards range. 

Don’t forget about the greens themselves either as the conditions dictate your landing spot. Are the greens firm and fast? Or, are they slower and more receptive?

If the greens are firm and fast , you  might  need to play more bounce and forward spin. But if the greens are soft, the shot is generally easier as you can expect it to land and stop quickly on the green.

Lastly, make sure you double-check the wind too.

If you’re hitting into the wind , the shot is easier as it’ll stop quickly. But if you’re hitting downwind, the ball will bounce forward more as you don’t get as much spin.

Once you do your due diligence in assessing the shot, it’s time to pick the target and club to make it happen. 

Step 2: Choose the Right Shot and Golf Club

Pick your shot.

Once you have all the details to analyze the shot, it’s time to pick one shot and commit. Do you want to hit it high, medium, or low trajectory? 

This should be based on the five factors above. Here are a few scenarios on how to play different types of shots.

• Front pin, downwind, firm conditions : This is arguably the hardest shot from the 50 to 75 yards range. When you find yourself here, try to land the ball near the pin and it should release to the middle of the green. This isn’t the time to get cute and leave it short of the green.
• Middle pin, no wind, soft conditions : A middle pin is much easier as you have some green to work with. You can take a high LW and when the greens are soft, it shouldn’t roll more than a few feet once it hits the green. Or, you can take a lower lofted wedge (GW or SW) and land it on the front and release it back to the pin.
• Back pin, no wind, medium conditions : With a back pin, I like to take a lower approach and land it in the middle of the green. A higher approach shot isn’t ideal to a back pin and can result in missing long which is short siding yourself. Instead, use a SW or GW as it makes the shot easier and there is a larger margin for error. 

Pick the Right Wedge 

If you’re like most golfers, you probably think that you should automatically hit LW from this distance. Since it’s inside 75 yards, you don’t need much club… right?

Wrong. Sure, sometimes a LW is the right play from this distance, especially if you’re short sided and don’t have much green to work with. Or, if the greens are firm and not very receptive.

But you shouldn’t hit LW 100% of the time for a few reasons.

First, a lob wedge isn’t the easiest club to hit consistently. While it’s the shortest club in the bag, it’s easy to hit it high on the face due to the loft unless you have perfect form. That’s why I don’t even recommend this club to someone who can’t break 90 yet. 

Second, I don’t recommend the average golfer to hit a “hard” LW for a few yards extra. Meaning, if you hit it 80 yards full, don’t try to hit one 85 or 90 yards. It will likely throw off your tempo and can lead to poor contact and big misses. 

Plus, if you do hit it perfectly when you try to “step on” a wedge, it’s going to spin a lot. This extra spin might land close to the pin but then suck back or completely off the green.

Instead, the play is sometimes using less club like an SW and take a half swing. It’s almost always better to hit a SW, choke up , and take a shorter, half swing. The ball will be flighted down , should hit once, then bounce, and stop. 

Play the percentages with partial wedge shots for a more consistent short game !

Step 3: Confirm Your Carry Distance and Landing Spot 

Once you have the right shot and wedge, confirm your distance and landing spot. Please remember, your distance isn’t the distance to the flag.

You have to play for the golf ball to release, especially from short range.

Since you won’t spin a golf ball as much from 40 or 50 yards, you need to anticipate the ball to roll out 5-10 (or more) feet. For example, if you have a 65 yard shot, the number you want to confirm to yourself might be “59 or 60 yards.” 

The more you can make a full swing with a golf club, the more spin you will get!

After you pick your number, try to find a spot or area to land the shot. This will give your mind a clear picture of where you want the ball to land and then release like pitch shots.

So many golfers look at the flagstick, not the pin, and then end up hitting it too hard. When in reality, it’s confusing to the mind as you’re focusing on the pin, not your landing spot.

Try to find something; a ridge, dark or light colored spot of grass, or a shadow. The more clear a picture you can give your mind, the better. Remember, 25 feet is the average for elite players so don’t feel like you have to force it to a tucked pin either. 

Step 4 – Nail Your Pre-Shot Routine

The pre-shot routine is one of the most important parts of any shot in golf; whether it’s a pitching wedge or any golf club. But specifically with tricky shots like this one as they are intimidating wedge shots. It’s vital that you go through your routine and rehearse the shot with your practice swing. 

Try to clip the grass like you will on your swing. Pick your target, hone in on it, and execute the shot.

My final piece of advice?

Make sure to accelerate through the shot.  So many golfers decelerate from short range which leads to chunking or skulling it over the green . 

Don’t forget, speed equals spin (and solid contact) which you need both to hit a wedge shot well. Commit to the shot and hit it with conviction! 

Step 5: Practice on the Driving Range

Finally, to learn how to hit a wedge shot 50 to 75 yards, you need to practice. I’ve found this type of shot is one of the first to go after a break from the game so make sure it’s something you incorporate into your practice routine.

It’s hard to put the golf bag in the garage for a few months and still expect to pull it off. Make sure you hit plenty of balls so you have more options and better distance control on the course.

Go here to read about how a wedge swing differs from an iron swing.

Now that you know the mindset to hitting these types of shots, chances are you want some mechanics too. Let’s get into it… 

How do you hit a 50 yard wedge?

50 yards isn’t an easy shot as it’s not a full club distance for pretty much any golfer. Since it’s more like a half or three quarter swing, it’s harder to generate spin and get it close to the hole. But remember, the goal isn’t always to get to tap in, as the pros don’t even hit it that close consistently.

Instead, you want to hit a high percentage shot and try to get inside 25 feet (the PGA Tour average). The last thing you want to do is miss the green from this distance and waste shots from close range.

To play the 50 yard shot, here are two options, neither of which requiring you to have an open clubface. I think that an open club face adds more variables and ultimately makes the shot quite a bit more difficult.

Option 1: Front Pin, High Shot

As I discussed earlier, a front pin is the hardest pin position from short range.

In this case, you want to land it close to the hole and it will release depending on the green speed. Do not try to land it short of the green in the rough and “hope” it will bounce up! 

Always play the higher percentage shot, which is landing it on the green. Here’s how to hit the 50-yard shot:

• Choke up one inch on your most lofted wedge.
• Move 60-70% of your weight on your lead foot to help hit down on it.
• Keep the ball position off your front foot to promote a higher ball flight.
• Cock your wrists quickly on the backswing and take a less than full swing to accommodate for the shorter distance.
• Finish with a high follow through to promote a higher ball flight, which should land softer due to the launch.

If you find yourself in this position, take your medicine (aka the middle of the green) and move on. Don’t try to force it and get too cute by leaving it short as you invite a big number on the scorecard. 

Option 2: Middle or Back Pin

A middle or back pin is much easier from 50 yards and can play it a number of different ways. Some players like to use the approach for a front pin but move the ball back slightly in their stance. While other golfers prefer to use a 56 degree sand wedge and hit it lower. 

This is 100% your choice. My only advice here is to make sure to commit to the shot and landing spot. Then, take practice swings that mimic your upcoming swing to get your mind and body on the same page.

How do you chip 75 yards?

If you have a lot of green to work with, sometimes “ chipping ” it is better than a full swing. Pitch shots like these give you great distance control and a pitching wedge is usually much easier to hit shots with than higher lofted clubs.

For example, let’s say you have 75 yards to the pin but the front of the green is only 45 yards. You can play this shot a lot of different ways, one of which is sort of like a bump and run from longer range.

Personally, I think the higher percentage play is going lower so the shot releases like a putt. It’s always a good idea to keep the ball low to the ground and get it rolling on the green. 

For this shot, a good idea might be to try a GW or PW as it has less loft. This will flight it lower and make it easier to get forward spin and have the ball release it to a back pin. If you’re more of an advanced golfer, you can opt for an LW or SW but if contact isn’t great, you’ll have a much longer putt.

If you go the low route, choke up on the club and stand closer at address. Move the ball to the center or just back of center of your stance. 

Then, take a half swing about waist high on the way back and through. This should create a low flying shot that hits with less spin, and releases to the back pin.

Make sure to hit these shots on the driving range to test the trajectory and get comfortable before taking it to the golf course.

How do you hit a 70 yard wedge?

A 70-yard wedge shot is much easier than a 50 or 60 yard shot. For most golfers, a 70 yard shot is nearly a full lob wedge distance so not much changes from a normal swing.

But if you find yourself with some wind or a tough pin position, you might want to opt for a GW or SW instead. Since your lob wedge is meant to go high, it’s not always a great option to hit it into the wind as it’ll likely end up short. 

How do you hit wedges under 100 yards? 

You must know your distances first and foremost. So many golfers have vague ideas of carry distance with each club but not clear numbers which makes it harder to score well on the course. 

Step one is using a launch monitor or app to track how far you hit each club. Then, you can have a benchmark that makes it easier to decide what club to use on the golf course.

For example, let’s say you hit LW 75 yards and SW 95 yards. For 85 yards, choke up an inch and hit your sand wedge. If it’s 60 yards, follow the advice above, choke up on the LW, and hit your shot. 

Knowing your distances is key to playing your best golf and scoring well from inside 100 yards. 

How far do pros hit their wedges?

PGA pros can hit wedge shots in a variety of ways with tons of different distances. But for reference’s sake, this  Trackman study  found the average PGA distance of PW is 136 yards. Sadly, they don’t include distances for other wedges like LW, SW, or GW.

But the point is that distance doesn’t matter with wedges. You should play the right club to get it close, whether it’s a pitching wedge or LW. Most PGA players love to hit knockdown, half swing shots to better control trajectory and spin.

Don’t feel like you have to use one club always or take a full swing on every wedge shot!  Practice hitting balls on the range to find a consistent shot with a wedge you feel comfortable with on the golf course.

Make sure to read our full article on how far you should hit your wedges .

Does the clock system work?

Phil Mickelson says no and he’s the king of wedges in my opinion. Why does he not like this system for tricky in between yardages?

Because he says the clock method promotes deceleration. In theory, it’s a great idea to chop up a normal swing into hands on a clock. But the clock method assumes you have absolute perfect timing and tempo, which most golfers do not.

You can improve your short game tempo after reading this article.

Meanwhile, a partial wedge shot with a shorter swing on the way back will help promote acceleration. Which is needed to hit a wedge with consistency and better than the clock system as you will always create speed through the shot.

How do I get better at 100 yards?

I’m convinced you can’t practice your short game enough.

Whether you want to learn how to hit a wedge shot 50 to 75 yards or just want a few more shots in your game, spend more time inside 100 yards.

Learning how to hit shorter shots comes from spending more time working on it. Give yourself time to experiment with different wedges, trajectories, and distances.

Final Thoughts 

The 50 to 75 yard shot is not the easiest but it’s achievable with the right strategy and shot selection. But remember what my coach said,  “Don’t leave yourself this distance if possible.”

Use your course management skills to lay up to a better distance for a closer chip shot or full swing wedge. This should make it easier to get the ball close and give yourself a good putt to drain it.

Also, don’t feel like you need to try to stick every wedge shot from this distance to close range. Remember, even PGA pros only hit it to 25.5 feet to the flag. And these are the best guys in the world, playing on the best greens, with brand-new custom fit wedges. 

So if you find yourself in this distance and get inside 25 feet, congratulate yourself instead of berating yourself! 

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• Instruction & Academy

Proximity to the Hole from Various Distances

By Obee October 6, 2020 in Instruction & Academy

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Here are Tour Pros proximity stats. Fascinating stuff, courtesy of Scott Fawcett and Lou Stagner.

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October 7, 2020

Proximity to the computer require read this chart past 40?   2"

October 6, 2020

Here are Tour Pros proximity stats. Fascinating stuff, courtesy of Scott Fawcett and Lou Stagner.   Discuss...  

scott_Donald

make you realise how good they are at putting!

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From 15 yards away (which is 45 feet), 4% of the time they wind up outside 45 feet. That's insane! 

I think the other thing is we all get so used to watching the golf on the TV that we only ever see the highlights from the guys playing well that week. You don't see all the guys who are barely making the cut and are making these averages what they are. I think the important thing to understand from these numbers is that if you are 180 out in the fairway and hit it to 30 feet, that's better than average. Now - bear in mind the PGA tour players are playing tough courses with pins cut tight to the edges, so from 180, they might well be aiming it 20 feet away from the hole. 

One of the Es in DECADE is expectation management. It's also why Scott talks a lot about how it's much easier to avoid making bogeys than it is to make birdies. 

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I want to see that curve graphed.  I am on a laptop at the moment or I would pull that over into excel or minitab and see what we can gather.  Just how much correlation between distance and proximity and then see where the relationships start to wain on the short end and the long end.  Curious if it follows my hypothesis that it is around 170-180 yards on the long end and 120 on the short end.

4 hours ago, smashdn said: I want to see that curve graphed.  I am on a laptop at the moment or I would pull that over into excel or minitab and see what we can gather.  Just how much correlation between distance and proximity and then see where the relationships start to wain on the short end and the long end.  Curious if it follows my hypothesis that it is around 170-180 yards on the long end and 120 on the short end.

Can you have this done by 8:00am tomorrow?   🍻

The answer to better golf is work your butt off and learn how to hit it better, farther, and make more putts.

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Proximity to the computer require read this chart past 40?

18 hours ago, 2bGood said: Proximity to the computer require read this chart part 40?   2"

Ain't that the dang truth!!

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It's interesting data!  Are the pros really firing at pins? Is that what causes some of the surprising data points? Makes me wonder what the stats would look like if tour players aimed at the middle of every green.

It's easy to picture one of those very front-edge pins with closely-mown fairway around the apron. A lot of guys might come up short of that or spin it back off the green which takes away a GIR but probably leaves them a better putt than coming downhill from the back of the green. 

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i get this doesn't follow the pga tour motto of 'these guys are good', but wish the tv crew would run an early round sunday lowlight package of all the bad shots for the week. show us these guys are human. 

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TLUBulldogGolf

When considering the difficulty of pin placements they deal with these numbers are pretty amazing. Even at 175 averaging a 25 footer when hitting the green seems nuts. 

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41 minutes ago, FairwaysToHeaven said: i get this doesn't follow the pga tour motto of 'these guys are good', but wish the tv crew would run an early round sunday lowlight package of all the bad shots for the week. show us these guys are human. 

The biggest difference would be putting, almost every week. It's not like there are duffers out there to fill the field. 

They miss the green 1 out of 10 times from 40 yards; . From 60 yards, 1.5 out of 10.  That seems surprisingly poor to me. Even accounting for tougher greens, pin locations, etc. What drives that? Can't be a skills issue

On the other hand, their percentages hitting the green from long distances is amazing. 

8 minutes ago, acekun said: They miss the green 1 out of 10 times from 40 yards; . From 60 yards, 1.5 out of 10.  That seems surprisingly poor to me. Even accounting for tougher greens, pin locations, etc. What drives that? Can't be a skills issue   On the other hand, their percentages hitting the green from long distances is amazing.     

I would say they aren't generally trying to leave themselves in those positions, so it could be awkward shots where they can't get the spin needed. 

dubbelbogey

And yet, we still hear the refrain - "leave yourself a full shot in for your favorite club". Madness. It never made sense to me when I was a beginner a long time ago, and it makes even less sense now since there is some hard data around this.

Get it as close as you can without putting trouble into play.

Exactice808

On 10/6/2020 at 9:00 AM, Obee said: Here are Tour Pros proximity stats. Fascinating stuff, courtesy of Scott Fawcett and Lou Stagner.   Discuss...  

Thanks OBEE, this needs to be pinned both the Equipment and the Instruction side LOL.  It amazes me how critical some of us are on our game and how some of us are not realistic about their abilities.

120y Proximity - 20' 6"

150y Proximity - 25' 3"

To me these 2 numbers are my personal critical yardages meaning target yardage that I assume to get close.  I swear I can stick these flags to 3-6ft LOL... Yeah right.... Tour Proximity average is 20'6" meaning I might get 1 at 3-6 feet but likely miss a green completely the next 60ft LOL.

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On 10/6/2020 at 10:09 PM, 2bGood said: Proximity to the computer require read this chart past 40?   2"

No kidding.  Even the "click to expand" barely enlarges it. 

If someone does have a method....

8 hours ago, me05501 said: It's interesting data!  Are the pros really firing at pins? Is that what causes some of the surprising data points? Makes me wonder what the stats would look like if tour players aimed at the middle of every green.   It's easy to picture one of those very front-edge pins with closely-mown fairway around the apron. A lot of guys might come up short of that or spin it back off the green which takes away a GIR but probably leaves them a better putt than coming downhill from the back of the green. 

Which data points are surprising? 

On 10/7/2020 at 5:01 PM, Ri_Redneck said: Ain't that the dang truth!!   BT

2 hours ago, Bluefan75 said:   No kidding.  Even the "click to expand" barely enlarges it.    If someone does have a method....

Hold down your CTRL key (or command for a MAC) and hit the + sign one or more times.

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8 hours ago, dubbelbogey said: And yet, we still hear the refrain - "leave yourself a full shot in for your favorite club". Madness. It never made sense to me when I was a beginner a long time ago, and it makes even less sense now since there is some hard data around this.   Get it as close as you can without putting trouble into play.

IMO, generally speaking, higher cappers will score better leaving themselves those full shots into the greens. Better players get as close as they can.

8 minutes ago, nsxguy said:       Hold down your CTRL key (or command for a MAC) and hit the + sign one or more times.   CTRL/command and - to get back to where you were.

wow I would not have guessed you were a gen-x er - you are pretty good at this inteweb stuff. 

24 minutes ago, 2bGood said: wow I would not have guessed you were a gen-x er - you are pretty good at this inteweb stuff.     

Showing my age - turns out gen x-er ar old too - Millennial? 

1 minute ago, 2bGood said: Showing my age - turns out gen x-er ar old too - Millennial? 

11 hours ago, acekun said: They miss the green 1 out of 10 times from 40 yards; . From 60 yards, 1.5 out of 10.  That seems surprisingly poor to me. Even accounting for tougher greens, pin locations, etc. What drives that? Can't be a skills issue   On the other hand, their percentages hitting the green from long distances is amazing.     

If they are 40 - 60 yards out, it likely means that they have missed a GIR and they are trying to hit it close to get up and down to save par.  Think, out of position pitch out.

3 hours ago, 2bGood said: wow I would not have guessed you were a gen-x er - you are pretty good at this inteweb stuff.     

Hey man, Gen Xers like me BUILT this internet, dammit!  🤣

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20 minutes ago, aenemated said:   Hey man, Gen Xers like me BUILT this internet, dammit!  🤣

I know met the boomer that 'invented' the internet. 

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PGA Tour Averages: Proximity To Hole 50-200 Yards

You guys asked for it, so here you go. I wonder if there’s anything there that caught you by surprise?

PGA Tour averages – Proximity to hole:

50-75 yards: 16’ 6” 75-100 yards: 17’10” 100-125 yards: 20’ 4” 125-150 yards: 23’ 8” 150-175 yards: 28’ 9” 175-200 yards: 35’ 9”

PGA Tour: 2022-2023 Season – Through the John Deere Classic

Are You One of the 9 Out of 10 Golfers Getting It Wrong?

Are you tirelessly hitting balls at the driving range, jumping from one tip to another, hoping to find that magic fix? If this sounds familiar,

Avoid This Simple Error to Stop Three-Putting

Struggling with three-putts more often than you’d like? The solution could be as simple as the golf balls you practice with. Many golfers don’t realize

10 Looks at GIR After Your Tee Shot – Explained!

Have you ever heard the term “10 looks at GIR after your tee shot”? This concept is crucial for those trying to break 80, yet

Two PGA Tour Scrambling Stats: Crucial to Your Game!

Golf’s a game of precision and smarts, especially when scrambling to save par. Today, we’re diving into two key PGA Tour scrambling stats that can

Why Your Driver and Irons Never Seem to Agree!

Ever find yourself in this peculiar conundrum — your irons are spot on, but the moment you pick up your driver, it’s as if you’re

5-Step Pre-Round Putting Routine to Build Confidence!

Try this proven warm-up to enhance your putting confidence and prime you for success.

Three Gates to Make More 10-15 Footers!

Try these three key drills for accuracy, speed control, and sinking more 10-15 footers.

Striking a Balance – Training vs. On-Course Play

Striking the right balance between training and on-course play is crucial for improvement!

Discover more from Mike Bury Golf

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Analyzing the 50-Yard Wedge Shot

Using hard data to make a complex golf shot easier.

The 50-yard wedge shot reveals the intrinsic complexity of golf. At first glance, it seems easy, but it’s much harder than it looks. Using shots from the Arccos database, we can pinpoint exactly how hard: Whether it be from the fairway, rough or bunker, amateurs often leave themselves outside the range of an easy two-putt when faced with this short wedge shot. With the massive Arccos dataset, we have access to insights from more than 120 million shots taken by players on over 40,000 courses around the world. Using Arccos’ precise course mapping, we zeroed in on shots taken from 40-60 yards and broke them down into three groups based on their origin: fairway, rough or bunker. We further segmented each group based on handicap brackets.

Say an 18 handicapper faces a 50-yard shot from the fairway and his opponent, a 3 handicap, faces a 50-yard shot from a fairway bunker. Arccos data shows the resulting proximity to the hole for the two players will be almost identical, on average. The 3 handicapper will hit the green 62.10% of the time with an average distance to pin of 43.87 feet.  The 18 handicapper will hit the green 61.75% of the time with an average distance to pin of 44.01 feet. That situation reversed – the 3 handicap in the fairway and the 18 handicap in the bunker – would result in a difference of more than 22 feet!

Of the three conditions, the bunker is the worst for every handicap group in terms of greens hit and proximity to the hole. And that makes sense: Bunkers provide the most unpredictable lie. You could have a fried egg on soft sand or be sitting in a footprint on wet sand. Varied lie conditions combined with the reality that most amateurs don't spend much of their practice time on bunker play, explains why results across all handicap levels can vary greatly.

Additionally, the drop off in results from the fairway to the rough is dramatic for all handicap brackets. For the 1-5 handicap, trickling into the rough means their odds of hitting the green go down by 10.3%, with the average proximity to the hole moving 7.55 feet further away. Their drop off from the rough to the bunker is less severe, with their odds of hitting the green going down only 4.92% and landing 4.37 feet further away.

A Digital Golf Accessory to Analyze Your Swing

Since we, as amateurs, don’t have ShotLink data – and most don’t have routine access to a Trackman – Arccos is an ideal golf shot tracking solution . Users of the system can analyze distance, dispersion, green in regulation percentage and distance to the pin for each club in their bag.

“The best example of what data can do for a 15-20 handicapper is Dustin Johnson,” Harmon said. “Two years ago, Dustin’s wedge play was lacking, and he hated practicing his wedges. So he got a Trackman and now uses it mainly for carry distance. DJ will hit wedges for an hour of his warmup, because he doesn’t need to hit drivers. And he’s gotten better by practicing and turning a weakness into a strength with data. With amateurs, we can do what we do with Tour players and hone in on weaknesses. And through all the data Arccos sensors track, we don’t have to guess anymore. The data tells the story for them.” Armed with this information, any amateur can make smarter decisions, which lead to lower scores, which means you can start scoring like DJ, even if you don’t drive it like him.

PGA TOUR Player Stats 2022-23

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• DDIS : Driving distance (in yards)
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DISTANCE LEADERS

You simply will not believe how many players averaged more than 300 yards in driving distance on the PGA Tour this season

Kevin C. Cox

The PGA Tour season is over and Rory McIlroy walked away with the biggest prize , topping Scottie Scheffler in the Tour Championship last week at East Lake to collect $18 million.

So, before the next season starts in just two weeks, there’s time to scour the tour’s final statistics from the 2021-2022 season and look for interesting nuggets.

Look no further than driving distance.

For the first time in PGA Tour history, more than half the tour averaged at least 300 yards off the tee. A whopping 99 players out of 193 registered in the statistic eclipsed the magic number.

Sure, there are several factors for increased distances over the years, but we’re simply looking at the numbers. No more, no less.

RELATED: A drill that will have you hitting longer drives right away

Cameron Champ topped the list this season at 321.4 yards and McIlroy was close behind in second place at 321.3 yards. Scroll down the list and you’ll find both Hayden Buckley and Chris Kirk tied for 98th place at a 300.1 yards per drive average.

Alex Noren, at 100th, is the first player on the list sub-300 at 299.8 yards. Players Championship and Open Championship winner Cameron Smith is 101st at 299.7 yards.

Brian Stuard rounds out the list in 193rd place at 277.4, which coincidentally is the exact same average that tour leader John McComish recorded in 1983 during a season in which he made 13 of 27 cuts and collected two top-25 finishes.

John Daly was the first player in history to top a 300-yard driving average for the year when he did so in 1997 at 302.0 yards. He did not reach the mark the following year, but then did the next four consecutive years when he topped the overall statistic.

The list of leaders since 1980 can be found below, but here are some other comparisons from over the years.

In 1982, the 100th-ranked players in driving distance—Ben Crenshaw and George Archer—were at 254.9 yards. Ten years later it was 259.4 with Jeff Sluman and Leonard Thompson. In 2002, when Daly averaged over 300 yards, the 100th-ranked players—Brad Elder, Shigeki Maruyama, Mike Weir—were at 280.0. Ten years ago in 2012, Bubba Watson topped the list at 315.5 yards per drive and the 100th-ranked players—Tim Herron, Marc Leishman—were at 289.4 yards.

RELATED: First step in a rollback? Governing bodies announce plan in curtailing distance

Last year 61 players averaged at least 300 yards although 72 did so in 2020. Fifty reached the number in 2019, and only 27 did back in 2016.

As far as sheer drives of 300 or more yards on tour this last season, the PGA Tour supplied data to Golf Digest saying that 56,930 drives went at least that distance. For more context, that is 27.67 percent of drives on tour that went more than 300 yards.

Once you move up to the 350-yard mark, there were 3,775 drives of at least that distance. There were 74 drives of 400 yards or longer and yes, there was one recorded drive of at least 450 yards. Scott Stallings hit a mammoth shot of 460 yards on the 15th hole in the second round of the WM Phoenix Open. He tied for 21st place that week at TPC Scottsdale.

Here is a look at the driving distance leaders for each year since 1980:

2022: Cameron Champ (321.4 yards) 2021: Bryson DeChambeau (323.7) 2020: Bryson DeChambeau (322.1) 2019: Cameron Champ (317.9) 2018: Rory McIlroy (319.7) 2017: Rory McIlroy (317.2) 2016: J.B. Holmes (314.5) 2015: Dustin Johnson (317.7) 2014: Bubba Watson (314.3) 2013: Luke List (306.3) 2012: Bubba Watson (315.5) 2011: J.B. Holmes (318.4) 2010: Robert Garrigus (315.5) 2009: Robert Garrigus (312.0) 2008: Bubba Watson (315.1) 2007: Bubba Watson (315.2) 2006: Bubba Watson (319.6) 2005: Scott Hend (318.9) 2004: Hank Kuehne (314.4) 2003: Hank Kuehne (321.4) 2002: John Daly (306.8) 2001: John Daly (306.7) 2000: John Daly (301.4) 1999: John Daly (305.6) 1998: John Daly (299.4) 1997: John Daly (302.0) 1996: John Daly (288.8) 1995: John Daly (289.0) 1994: Davis Love III (283.8) 1993: John Daly (288.9) 1992: John Daly (283.4) 1991: John Daly (288.9) 1990: Tom Purtzer (279.6) 1989: Ed Humenik (280.9) 1988: Steve Thomas (284.6) 1987: John McComish (283.9) 1986: Davis Love III (285.7) 1985: Andy Bean (278.2) 1984: Bill Glasson (276.5) 1983: John McComish (277.4) 1982: Bill Calfee (275.3) 1981: Dan Pohl (280.1) 1980: Dan Pohl (274.3)

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Drive Distance

TrackMan Average Tour Stats

Tour stats include:

Club Speed, Attack Angle, Ball Speed, Smash Factor, Launch Angle, Spin Rate, Max Height, Land Angle and Carry.

TrackMan Average Stats Taken From The PGA TOUR

TrackMan LPGA Tour Average Stats

80 comments

So the average male Tour pro hits down on the ball slightly with the driver? Should attack angle vary with clubhead speed?

The attack angle for the pros varies on woods, but it’s more or less negative when it comes to hybrids and irons. For the average player, the attack angle on drivers varies and in general so should the ball that is hit from the ground always have a negative attack angle in order to get a better margin of error for the impact.

However, in order to get the longest carry possible, the ball should launch high with low spin. The optimal numbers are individual based on club speed – and that type of flight can easier be achieved if the spin loft is low together with a high dynamic loft. The more the attack angle is negative, then the higher the spin loft gets => the attack angle should be closer to 0 if anything IF the goal is to carry as long as possible.

But generally, the attack angle for irons should be from -2 – -5 for almost all players, but for drivers you can hit it further with a positive attack angle, no matter the club speed.

Niklas Bergdahl Support Manager EMEA & Asia

Can you send me the optimal numbers across the board that players and coaches should be looking for in lessons and trackman sessions

Strangely enough, with a driver you can achieve a carry of 300 vs 275 with the same clubhead speed of 113. Adam Young tries to get people to convert to this method. Attack angle = +8 degrees Launch angle = 19 degrees Backspin = 2,000 Smash Factor= 1.5

Hi. I can only confirm. I achieve those positive angles and l can carry the driver (9 degr loft) 245 yards with a club speed of 95mph. Rollout is average 20 yards.

No, it is 3° and that means the clubhead is movin upwards. – is downwards.

You are reading the LPGA (ladies) numbers Tim. The PGA (men) average is -1.3.

Looks like the average LPGA players trackman swing speed is more or less the same as an average 10 hcp male player. Though the ladies are a lot more skilled in hitting it on the right angles and in the right spot on the clubface. Would an average 10 hcp male player have a advantage or disadvantege using graphite shafts?

Harry, any player of any handicap can benefit from graphite shafts. More often than not, the memory in most players’ minds from graphite stems from a very long time ago when graphite was ONLY graphite. It was whippy, and not very accurate. Material advances and composite technology have nearly rendered steel obsolete. I say nearly, mind you. There are a number of outstanding graphite shafts out there that are super stable and responsive, enabling a lighter club and longer distance without sacrificing accuracy. Fujikura makes some really nice iron shafts that fuse both steel and graphite technologies called MCI. In fact, i have Fuji PRO 95i shafts in my irons and my iron game is better now than it ever was with steel. I’m a 3.5 index and relatively strong but it allows me to play all out without getting tired on the back 9 from heavy clubs. Being a club builder, i can tell you that in golf equipment there’s a trade-off in everything. wether it’s length, weight, or feel so your advantage or disadvantage is dependent on how precisely you build your piece of equipment.

Hey Chris thanks for the info below i find it very interesting. Curious do you have those same shafts in your wedges or do you have steel in your wedges? I played SteelFiber i95 shafts last year in all my irons including wedges. I liked them in my irons but i felt like it hurt my game in wedges. Do you have any thoughts on this? Thanks

Agreed. Shallow your angle of attack to match the LPGA players.

I have had a number of sessions on a Trackman, (the latest on Aug 22, 2015, at “Modern Golf” in Mississauga On.). My clubhead speed and distances are about the same as LPGA averages. I was doing wedge work, and see that for a pitching wedge, (48°), my angle of attack -about 7.5° – is n=much higher than LPGA average. My accuracy is good, (only 3 0f 19 shots more that 20′ away, and all when the face angle was over 4° closed). I’m thinking that I should weaken my left hand a bit, (it’s a little strong on pitch shots), and play the ball farther forward- 2″ ahead of centre. Am I on the right track, or will these changes introduce new problems?

I’m 74 years old, and am a long-time PGA of Canada member. Thanks for any feedback…. love Trackman outings.

I would recommend that you visit one of our certified coaches, he/she would be able to help you and find what numbers are best for you.

See our TrackMan Locator here.

I don’t disagree with these stats but I do it;s kinda weird. 87 miles mph with an 8 iron should produce 177 yards of carry not 160 that’s a lot of mph. Iv’e seen high school kids hit 9 iron 165 and they don’t swing 100 mph with a 9 iron. When I swing hard I hit my 8 iron 155 and my legit radar read 72 mph so logic would dictate at 88 mph you would get more like 180 yards carry again that’s a lot of mph.

Remember that’s a carry number not total distance. Also since the pros produce significant more back spin, their ball flight is higher, landing angle loftier producing minimum roll whereas your total distance might be benefiting from maximum roll. One more thing to check would be launch angle where you might be hitting a low ball flight to maximize distance which in my opinion is “cheating.”

The PGA Tour 8-iron goes 160 in the air for a couple of reasons. One, they usually hit weaker lofts than high school players (like I) do. Secondly, they spin their 8-iron at 7998 RPM to stop the ball on fast greens. I believe this is the combination that makes the 8-iron go so much shorter.

I’ve hit thousands of balls on Foresight simulators, and what I’ve found is that backspin significantly influences carry distance. Holding club head speed constant, greater backspin reduces carry distance on all clubs.

For mid-irons, I’d estimate that you lose roughly 5-7 yards of carry per 1,000 RPM in additional backspin. And with the driver it’s easily 10+ yards of carry lost per 1,000 RPM.

This explains why poorly struck balls will often fly as far, if not further, than a well-hit shot. The key to backspin is crispness of contact – a poorly struck shot simply won’t spin as much. Unless the impact is absolutely terrible, the lack of backspin on poorly struck shots will cause those balls to carry further than a well-struck ball. So if you’re flying balls over the green with your irons, the culprit could be too little backspin caused by poor contact, cheap balls, a dirty club face, etc.

I think this is also the key reason why fades don’t carry as far as draws. It’s not that a draw swing is any faster/more powerful – it’s simply that fades have more backspin due to the impact geometry/physics involved with that swing.

Now I may be wrong on some of this, so I’d love to get a true expert’s take.

One thing I forgot to add to my comment above is that you need a minimum of backspin on all golf shots just to get the ball up in the air. That may be 1,500 RPM for woods and maybe 3,000 for irons.

My point is that increasing backspin beyond this base level will generally reduce carry. For example, I can guarantee that increasing the backspin on your 7 iron from 5k to 7.5k will reduce your carry with that club, even if your swinging faster at 7.5k.

I totally disagree with your premise. Draws carrying further than fades? That makes no sense.

Bare in mind tour players play with proper golf clubs which are weak lofted so the people you see hitting a 9 iron further than tour average 8 it’s probably because that 9 iron is closer to a 7 iron loft

Spin determines weather you hit a draw or fade so logic would dictate distance will also be effected. In my experience draws do tend to be further for 2 reasons and both have to do with spin. With a draw you will usually get more roll out as well as flight because of the decrease in spin. This is especially true with a driver.

Depends what clubs you are using. There can be as much as 7 degrees of variation between a ‘standard’ loft on a 7 iron. If you’re playing the Callaway Mavrik irons, you’ll get 27 degrees of loft on a 7 iron. If you’re playing the Callaway Apex Pro then its 34 degrees. That’s a two club difference.

I was custom fit recently for the Apex 21’s and currently play Apex MBs. With the MBs my 7 iron has 34 degrees of loft and flies 165yds with 89mph average club head speed. Same swing with the Apex 21s (30 degrees of loft) flies between 177 – 180 yds. Big difference.

Larry , I would highly recommend you see Mark Evershed . Buy him lunch and get the answers your looking for .

Hi guys this was a recent session with a cobra 3 wood 16 deg loft.my question is my launch angle seems a little low ,interested in your thoughts .thanks Shot # Club Club Speed (mph) Ball Speed (mph) Smash Factor Launch Angle (degrees) Direction Back Spin (rpm) Carry Distance (yards) Total Distance (yards) 1 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 2 3 Wood 98 148 1.51 9.10 Straight 4096.00 223.00 240.00 3 3 Wood 94 142 1.51 9.10 Straight 3904.00 213.00 230.00 4 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 5 3 Wood 96 145 1.51 9.10 Straight 4000.00 219.00 236.00 6 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 7 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 8 3 Wood 93 141 1.52 8.80 Straight 3826.00 212.00 229.00 9 3 Wood 92 129 1.40 12.40 Straight 4138.00 190.00 207.00 10 3 Wood 94 142 1.51 9.10 Straight 3904.00 213.00 230.00 11 3 Wood 94 142 1.51 9.10 Straight 3904.00 213.00 230.00 12 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 13 3 Wood 96 145 1.51 9.10 Straight 4000.00 219.00 236.00 14 3 Wood 93 140 1.51 9.10 Straight 3856.00 210.00 227.00 15 3 Wood 96 146 1.52 8.80 Straight 3970.00 220.00 237.00 16 3 Wood 92 140 1.52 8.80 Straight 3778.00 210.00 227.00 17 3 Wood 95 144 1.52 8.80 Straight 3922.00 216.00 233.00 18 3 Wood 96 145 1.51 9.10 Straight 4000.00 219.00 236.00 19 3 Wood 94 142 1.51 9.10 Straight 3904.00 213.00 230.00 20 3 Wood 91 137 1.51 9.10 Straight 3760.00 204.00 221.00 21 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 22 3 Wood 95 144 1.52 8.80 Straight 3922.00 216.00 233.00 23 3 Wood 95 144 1.52 8.80 Straight 3922.00 216.00 233.00 24 3 Wood 96 146 1.52 8.80 Straight 3970.00 220.00 237.00 25 3 Wood 96 146 1.52 8.80 Straight 3970.00 220.00 237.00 26 3 Wood 96 145 1.51 9.10 Straight 4000.00 219.00 236.00 27 3 Wood 94 137 1.46 10.60 Straight 4054.00 204.00 221.00 28 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 29 3 Wood 98 142 1.45 10.90 Straight 4276.00 213.00 230.00

What kind of balls were you using?

Brent. This was at a driving range with srixon range balls

Ok the one number that really stood out to me was the smash factor. Usually anything above a 1.50 indicates something is illegal. There’s a reason not even the PGA tour players aren’t averaging 1.50 off the tee. Other than that your numbers look good.

Brent what about the launch angle

Yes the launch is a little on the low side. But seeing how you’re still getting decent distance I wouldn’t worry too much about how it’s coming out. But try hitting down on the ball more to get it up in the air faster.

I frequently get above 1.5 on trackman with longer irons and my woods (I have raised this with your tech teams already). This is because your machine measures club speed just before impact and doesn’t detect acceleration through impact

Trackman doesn’t detect acceleration through impact on solidly struck shots so you can post smash factors above 1.5. It’s best to just rely on ball speed with Trackman

Brent in one of your comments you said my smash factor was high ,had a session last night at range and some of my smash factors were 1.53 is this something to try and change and if so how do I change it

Like you had said you were using range balls correct? If so the smash factor will be a little off since they aren’t a legal tournament ball. What the smash factor (as explained to me by the Carolinas PGA rules committee chairman) is, is a measurement of how well the ball comes off the face. There’s a specific calculation for it but I’m not positive of it and anything over a 1.50 usually is a tell tale sign that either the club or ball is illegal. What I would recommend doing is using the ball you would normally play a round with and get some readings off that ball.

I read not long ago that Rory Mcilroy had a smash factor of 1.53 as well . If Willie can hit it 380 the way Rory does, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Larry. I’m 55 years old 280 is my distance not 380 Like Rory

Ball speed divided by club head speed is smash factor

I’m currently doing my university project on green-side bunker shots, I was wondering if you have any shot data for a short bunker shot or flop shot? Thanks.

Sorry but we do not have any official data we can share, but it would be interesting to see your final research :)

Blair, My assumption would be that the cleaner a ball is picked out of a bunker the more spin it will have and vice versa. The more sand you use to move the ball the less spin.

Do you have TrackMan data for AoA and DL for greenside bunker shots?

Sorry we do not have any official bunker shot data.

In looking at the tour pro stats for men – the max height reading for all clubs is about 30 plus or minus 2. I am trying to understand how/why are the heights the same for all clubs? My assumption would be the more lofted the club the greater the height! Is 30ish the optimum figure for best distance? Because in my last stats my longest 9.5 degree driver shot was max height of 56!

Is there any data available from the Senior tour?

We do not have any official charts for the Senior Tour. But you can login on mytrackman.com and use the combine section and filter, to show only Senior Tour players.

Thanks Christian!

what month/year is this data from?

Is there any data on typical club path for a tour pro?

Can you please post stats for average path, club face, and face to path numbers for PGA tour?

Could you please post average path, club face, and face to path numbers for several top Tour Players?

Before all the hype about hitting up on the ball came about, I hit down on a driver anywhere from -2 to -4 degrees and swung 1-2 degrees left.

Once I started to try and swing up on it. I lost direction big time. An easy swing for me is 112, swinging hard at it I can get it up to 123. Does Trackman recommend those that have higher swing speeds to hit down on it for straighter direction?

There is no physics logic backing up that hitting up on the ball will give a decrease in accuracy. However to go from hitting down to hitting up you have made some changes to your impact obviously. The way you made the changes could well be the problem as this could have affected your impact location, swing path, clubface and the way you release the club

Can pga tour players carry the ball 293 yards.

A Question: Were some data change on this site? I ask because I’m quite sure to have read other data for the men’s driver trajectory. Am I wrong or can someone confirm this?

kindly zorro

Is my impression right, that the data for the men driver were changed from

[Daten alt: 112mph 165mph 11,2° 2685 31y 39° 269y] to [Daten neu: 113mph 167mph 10,9° 2686 32y 38° 275y] ?

Why did TM do that?

For the tour pro stats – mainly carry distance, launch angle and spin rate for the driver, you have the averages, could you supply the max and min (filtered for outliers)? I am going to run an experiment with Trackman at my golf academy and need a starting range for each item. The tour max and min range is a starting point versus having to create this from scratch.

Anyone know where I can find raw data of clubhead speed? It is for a College project. Thanks!

You know what would be great to see – average miss from target – left and right – for each club. Of course short and long from target matter as well, but solid contact isn’t really my issue – left and right misses is my challenge

I’m about a half club off of PGA Tour average distance wise. Technically I’m a 1 handicap, but more like 4 or 5 when the tourney pressure is on. I know from playing with better players the difference between me and them is pretty much how much more accurate they are from a left and right perspective.

You can find all this info from Mark Broadie. He has tracked all the shots on the us tour for years and also written a book Every Shot Counts about it

I have been playing Golf for less than 19 months. I must admit I was damn tired of the same Golf Lesson producing varying results with inconsistent instruction(s) which seemed contradictory to the previous lesson. I take Golf perhaps a little more serious than others and my “approach” to this game may be viewed as extreme due to my focus on Fitness/Strength Training combined with my Yoga and Nutritional regimen.

That notwithstanding I would like to formally THANK the Trackman Developers and Support Staff for FINALLY producing a “Standardized” curriculum eliminating the traditional random quick fixes and circumventing the often inconsistent and contradictory methods being taught today.

I currently own a Trackman 4 and although I DO NOT wish to teach, I am Certified as an Operator and successful in obtaining my Professional Level 1 & 2 Certifications and shortly will be submitting my Thesis to be considered for review. These Certifications have greatly assisted me in understanding Flight/Ball dynamics and greatly assists my Coach and I in our 4-5 hour daily Putting-Wedge-Iron-Wood and Driver Sessions providing the data necessary to produce a more consistent and …. I have a hard time with this next word…… F U N game. (There I said the word “fun” in the same sentence as “Golf.” I’m so proud of myself!!!

Seriously, I simply CANNOT thank Nathan Meyer for coming to my hometown and demonstrating the enormous benefit(s) of purchasing the Trackman 4 product.

Kym Fontana [email protected]

It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you! Your work ethic, attitude, and kindness are all things that I can look up to. very excited for 2017 and I am looking forward to seeing you again soon!

-Nathan Meyer [email protected]

Are there numbers posted for an average 5 HCP player or 10 HCP player similar to the charts above for the ave tour player?

What is the #1 PGA Tour player in “Carry Distance” average carry distance??

I understand this data is pretty old, released soon after the time when trackman first came out. I’m sure things have changed since then. Any update?

Actually, we haven’t seen any huge changes over the past years, it’s more about roundings. For example, Avg. Club Speed for a driver: 2014: 113.0 mph 2015: 113.3 mph 2016: 112.9 mph And it’s pretty much similar with the other numbers.

We do have a graphical updated version of the Tour Stats here.

Not really. Lee Westwood was interviewed recently and advised that apart from his driver he hits everything else almost the exact same he has his entire career.

I’m looking for PGA tour averages for dynamic loft for different clubs. Does anyone have this data to share? Thanks!

Are there tour averages for club path?

Are all these stats full swings? Example: Would the avg tour pro hit a 6-iron further, if he turns fully and tries to hit it as far as possible (with a natural movement like on a driver – not with an unnatural swing that creates most possible power, but result in very unconsistent ball flight)?

Currently I practice indoors because of the winter. I do my practice with Trackman and I carry my 7 iron about 177-180 yards and total distance of 188-192 yards with my TaylorMade PSi irons. Lots of my shots with the 7 iron has a smash factor of 1.50-1.51.

This is a example of one of my shots with 7 iron.

Club speed: 80.2 | AoA: 1.3 | Ball speed: 120.5 | Carry: 164 meter | Total: 176 meter | Dyn Loft: 19.6 | Smash Factor: 1.50

Is that normal number for a 7 iron with a that club speed?

Averages are useful, but knowing them would be more useful if we knew the median and mode, as well as the range.

Hello, Are there updated PGA Tour Trackman stats?

On Trackman this week using 7i I noticed the spin rate I had was well below that of a pro by nearly 3,000 rpm but similar club speed and attack angle. How can I get my spin rate up?

It can vary a lot due to the ball and clubs you are using. For example driving range balls are normally very hard and will have much lower spinrates than a quality ball like a Titleist pro v1. Modern day irons are also built to higher the lauch angle and lower the spinrate so that the average golfer will achieve more distance

It would be great to know the average loft for each club, especially the irons!. I think 21-24-27-30-34-38-42-46 (3-Pw) are reasonable specs. What do you guys think?

What loft are the irons? A modern 7i is now 30°

Is this still the original data from 2015 or has it been updated?

I’d be very curious to see if the how the average attack angle has changed over this time in the PGA.

Please update this data from over the years of more testing.

Do you have any numbers on tour averages numbers on dynamic loft and spin loft?

I am a 2 handicapper and I hit my driver 280 yards on an average. What is the attack angle with driver of the best players on the pga tour?

these yardages are no doubt well below reality.

6 iron only 183yds carry? Most high handicappers hit it equally far.

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Scouting the Routing: 2024 Valero Texas Open

O rdinarily considered a tame opening act for the year's first Major Championship, the Valero Texas Open now features a field with 11 of the OWGR's Top 25 -- an exciting prospect not just for the city of San Antonio, but for golf bettors looking for one last data point ahead of Augusta. The course they'll face this week is far from a mid-major cupcake either, as TPC San Antonio has routinely ranked inside of the top 15 in Scoring Difficulty on the PGA Tour.

Before we get into the illustrious odds board on tap for golf bettors later in the week, this piece will serve to break down every key trend and statistic I'm weighing to project a player's viability in the outright market, and set you up to make the crucial decisions necessary before the market shifts later in the week. Without further ado, here is my comprehensive scouting report on TPC San Antonio and the 2024 Valero Texas Open!

The Golf Course

TPC San Antonio (Oaks Course) - Par 72; 7,438 yards

Past Champions

• 2023 - Corey Conners (-15) over Sam Stevens
• 2022 - J.J. Spaun (-13) over Matt Jones and Matt Kuchar
• 2021 - Jordan Spieth (-18) over Charley Hoffman
• 2019 - Corey Conners (-20) over Charley Hoffman
• 2018 - Andrew Landry (-17) over Trey Mullinax and Sean O'Hair

TPC San Antonio by the Numbers (Off-The-Tee):

• Average Fairway Width -- 31.3 yards; 12th narrowest on the PGA Tour
• Average Driving Distance -- 297.2 yards; 14th highest on Tour
• Driving Accuracy -- 56.2%; 10th lowest on Tour
• Rough Penalty -- 0.11; Lowest on Tour
• Non-Rough Penalty -- 0.48; 4th highest on Tour
• Missed FW Penalty Fraction -- 2.3%; 12th lowest on Tour
• Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee Difficulty: (-0.020); 11th toughest on Tour

After four days in Houston which afforded bombers ample room to operate off of the tee, TPC San Antonio provides a much more nuanced driving test for the game's best. Similar to what we saw last week, the rough around this Greg Norman venue is as benign as you'll ever see on the PGA Tour: ranking inside the bottom five in rough penalty in all but one season since 2015.

However, for players with dispersion patterns wide enough to miss both the fairway and intermediate cuts of rough, TPC San Antonio begins to bear its true teeth. From dense treelines, to rocky outcrops, and lowland Texas brush, peril is lurking everywhere you look outside of these manicured confines, and over the last eight seasons, only Sedgefield, Innisbrook, and The Renaissance Club have issued harsher penalties to missed fairways outside of the rough lines.

This punitive approach to exceptionally wayward tee shots provides a lot of context for the recent successes of Corey Conners, Matt Kuchar, Lucas Glover, and Kevin Streelman (all of whom rank inside the top five in SG: Total here over the last five seasons). With only four of the 10 par 4's here measuring over 450 yards, distance won't be nearly the same asset as we saw around last week's demanding set of two-shotters in Houston.

Instead, I'll be leaning far more into accuracy-intensive metrics like Fairways Gained and Good Drive Percentage, as priority one around this Greg Norman design will be to avoid the hazardous waste areas lurking around every corner.

TPC San Antonio by the Numbers (Approach):

• Green in Regulation Rate -- 59.7%; 6th lowest on the PGA Tour
• Strokes Gained: Approach Difficulty: (-0.028); 7th toughest on Tour
• <125 yards (accounts for 27.6% of historical approach shots)
• 150-175 yards (20.2)
• 175-200 yards (18.4%)

With a past champions list that includes Corey Conners (x2), Jordan Spieth, Kevin Chappell, and Charley Hoffman, you can bet that approach play ranks as one of the top through-lines among TPC San Antonio's most prolific performers. In fact, over the last six Valero Texas Open iterations, only J.J. Spaun (+2.8), managed to attain this title whilst gaining less than 7.5 strokes with his iron play.

That sort of ball-striking upside hasn't manifested without a few warning shots of incoming form, either, as each of the last eight Valero Champions entered the week having gained at least 3.5 strokes on approach in one of his last three prior starts.

In terms of specific proximity ranges to account for, TPC San Antonio isn't what I'd call a "specialists" course. Only one 25-yard range has historically crested the 20% mark in approach distribution (150-175), and only the 75-100 yard range comes in substantially above its year-long baseline.

Wedge play is the one specific stat I'll be paying the most attention to at a micro-level, as over 27% of historic approach shots have come from inside 125 yards (5.5% above Tour Average), but generally, this is a week where I'll be leaning on more all-encompassing iron stats (SG: Approach, Opportunities Gained, Green in Regulation Rate, etc.). Players will have to hit a multitude of different clubs into these greens over the course of the week, so long-term prowess throughout the bag is much more meaningful than an elite ability in one particular subset of approach play.

TPC San Antonio by the Numbers (Around the Greens):

• Scrambling Percentage -- 58.7%; 1.2% above Tour Average
• Sand Save Difficulty -- (-0.050); 3rd toughest on Tour
• Up-and-Down Difficulty (Fairway) -- (-0.009); 11th toughest on Tour
• Up-and-Down Difficulty (Rough) -- (+0.052); 7th easiest on Tour
• SG: Around the Green Difficulty: (-0.003); 12th toughest on Tour

Although the Valero isn't the first tournament that comes to mind when ranking the PGA Tour's most demanding tee-to-green tests, a sub-60% green in regulation rate does point to a venue where even the game's most reliable ball-strikers will have to lean on their short games. In my modeling, I'm treating TPC San Antonio much how I treated Memorial Park last week -- as the difficulty around the green complexes here is largely dependent on where you leave yourself.

With the surrounding overseeded rough measuring just 2.25" in length, TPC San Antonio's rough difficulty rates out very similarly to a venue like Houston last week or PGA West earlier this year -- simply not enough variables to test the best players in the world. From the more tightly mown fairways, it gets a bit tougher to create consistent outcomes, but the bunkers have historically stolen the show when it comes to the greenside hazards that players fear most in the Alamo City.

Since 2015, only Riviera and PGA West have featured a lower sand save percentage -- so unlike most weeks on the PGA Tour, an approach shot that ends up in one of these greenside bunkers will be a true sweat for those of us refreshing shot tracker. This is one of the few weeks all year where Sand Saves will be a true tie-breaker in my modeling (superseding general short game metrics like SG: Around the Greens or Bogey Avoidance), as not only are the bunkers difficult here around TPC San Antonio, but only one green on the entire property (9), goes unguarded by these treacherous traps.

TPC San Antonio by the Numbers (Putting):

• Average Green Size: 6,400 sq. feet
• Agronomy -- Poa Trivialis overseed
• Stimpmeter: 11
• 3-Putt Percentage: 2.9% (0.2% below Tour Average)
• Strokes Gained: Putting Difficulty: (-0.002); 14th toughest on Tour

Although it's never a good idea to completely undersell the value of a hot putter, TPC San Antonio has done a good job historically of deemphasizing putting putting performance within its layout. Ball-striking has outweighed putting in predictiveness by a factor of over 3:2, and these slower, relatively benign green surfaces do rank as some of the easiest to putt on from inside of 15 feet.

Unlike next week, I don't believe the greens here in San Antonio are nearly nuanced enough to require a prolific historic track record to navigate, and we've routinely seen some pretty substandard putters perform well above baseline here in recent years (Corey Conners, Sam Stevens, and Aaron Rai immediately come to mind). I will be weighing recent proficiency on similarly overseeded green complexes (there have been a lot over the last two months), but don't let the Valero's relative lack of stature fool you: this is far from a putting contest. I'd much prefer to lean on more predictive metrics (listed below), and play the odds that at least a few of my guys can find the requisite touch required on these in-exacting surfaces.

Key Stats Roundup (in order of importance):

• Recent Approach Form (using general stats like SG: Approach, Birdie Opportunities Created, Greens in Regulation, etc.)
• Driving Accuracy/Good Drive %
• Par 5 Scoring/Birdie or Better Percentage
• Recent Putting Splits on Overseeded Poa Greens (most notably: Memorial Park, Innisbrook, TPC Sawgrass, TPC Scottsdale, PGA West)

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The Sunday Shortlist

Before the odds come out on Monday morning, here are two to three names I've identified as significant targets upon my initial research.

Ludvig Aberg

Many in the industry (myself included), were quick to pencil in Ludvig Aberg as a main threat on some of the PGA Tour's most demanding venues (Torrey Pines, Bay Hill, Riviera, etc.). However, in his first lap around the top level, it seems as if the Swedish sensation has found it easier at venues that require a more strategic approach with the driver. Three of his best off-the-tee performances to date have come at the likes of Sedgefield (narrow fairways, high miss penalty), Oakdale (similar story), and in his last start at TPC Sawgrass, where he ranked third for the week in Total Driving around one of the most treacherous driving venues on Tour.

The accuracy-intensive confines of TPC San Antonio would seem to set up very similarly to the venues of many of his past triumphs, and when you take into account his recent developments in the other areas of his game, it becomes clear that Aberg is primed to capture his second Tour victory only three months after his first.

Over his last 36 rounds, Ludvig ranks leads this field in four of my key categories: (Birdie Opportunities Created, Birdie or Better Rate, Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, Total Ball-Striking), and three weeks ago, he recorded his best-ever approach week as a professional (+5.8) in a 8th-place finish at the PLAYERS Championship.

Unfortunately for bettors, Aberg's recent run of form has caused his world ranking to surge past all but two players in this field (Rory McIlroy/Brian Harman). However, this week's field isn't nearly as top heavy as what we've seen over the last two weeks and there are enough marquee names/course horses in attendance for me to carry some level of faith in a bettable number. I'd be comfortable backing him at prices as high as 16-1, as this feels like a prime spot for one of the Tour's most in-form commodities.

Billy Horschel

A Sunday 64 spoiled any chances Billy had of staying under the radar this week, but even at an inflated price, it will be difficult to argue against the merits of our 2014 FedEx Champ. His 7th-place finish in Houston marked the third top-twelve result Horschel has recorded this month, and maybe more impressively, Billy managed to gain strokes in each of the four strokes gained categories for the third time in four starts.

This recent surge in form comes at a perfect time for Horschel, as although he's unlikely to earn a spot in next week's Masters without a victory, upcoming stops in San Antonio, Hilton Head and New Orleans have all been happy hunting grounds for the Florida Gator. Here at Valero, Billy has recorded three top-five finishes in seven starts since 2013, and has never lost strokes off of the tee around this layout. These lofty baselines should come as no surprise for such a reliable driver of the ball, and if Horschel can maintain his momentum in other the game's other facets (rates out 6th over his last 36 rounds in GIR Percentage, 4th in SG: Putting, and 9th from Tee-to-Green), it's hard to envision anyone with a higher floor.

Again, I don't expect us to receive much of a discount on an in-form player with this sort of resume around TPC San Antonio, but if the multitude of bigger names up top allow Horschel to drift down into the 40-1 range, I'd have no problem taking a shot on a guy who undoubtedly would love nothing more than to win his way into next week's illustrious field.

From J.J. Spaun two years ago, to Andrew Landry in 2018 and Monday-qualifier Corey Conners in 2019, the Valero Texas Open has been known to produce its fair share of long-shot winners. And there is perhaps nobody in this field that complements this set of off-the-wall champions quite like 41-year-old Ryan Moore. Already a five-time winner on the PGA Tour (most recently in 2016), Moore has found his footing in the month of March -- recording three straight made cuts, and more importantly, some of the most prolific ball-striking splits of anyone in the field.

In three appearances from Sawgrass, to Innisbrook, and in Houston last week, Ryan has gained an incredible 19.7 strokes with his irons. This incredible figure would lap the next best player in that span (Corey Conners), by 2.6 shots, and ranks as far-and-away the best ball-striking stretch of Moore's illustrious career.

Of course, before a string of injuries put him on the verge of retirement, Moore was known as one of the PGA Tour's most reliable tee-to-green entities: ranking inside the top 30 in Driving Accuracy every season from 2012-2020, and gaining nearly a full stroke per tournament with his irons. Four years later, it seems the 41-year-old vet is returning to peak form, and with three top-ten finishes already to his name here in San Antonio (2012, 2018, 2019), I wouldn't be at all surprised to see his name pop up on a fourth successive leaderboard.

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Samuel Stevens Betting Profile: Texas Children's Houston Open

Betting Profile

SAN DIEGO, CA - JANUARY 29: PGA TOUR logo is seen during the second round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines South on January 29, 2021 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)

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Samuel Stevens looks for a higher finish in the 2024 Texas Children's Houston Open after he placed 57th shooting +5 in this tournament in 2022.

The Texas Children's Houston Open Tournament & Course Info

• Date: March 28-31, 2024
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Course: Memorial Park Golf Course
• Par: 70 / 7,435 yards
• Purse: $9.1M
• Previous Winner: Tony Finau

At the Texas Children's Houston Open

• Stevens has played the Texas Children's Houston Open once recently (in 2022), posting a score of +5 and finishing 57th.
• When Tony Finau won this tournament in 2022, he had 4.236 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee (second in the field), 5.299 SG: Approach the Green (ninth), and 7.931 SG: Putting (second).
• Finau also posted numbers of 302.4 in average driving distance (20th in field), 77.78% in terms of greens in regulation (first), and 28 putts per round (seventh).

Stevens' Recent History at the Texas Children's Houston Open

Stevens' recent performances.

• Over his last five appearances, Stevens has finished in the top 20 once.
• Out of the last five tournaments he's entered, he made the cut twice.
• Over his last five appearances, Stevens has finished within five shots of the leader one time and finished with a better-than-average score once.
• He has finished with an average score of -5 those two times he's made the cut.
• Samuel Stevens has averaged 304.6 yards off the tee in his past five tournaments.
• Stevens is averaging -0.953 in terms of Strokes Gained: Putting in his past five tournaments.
• Looking at Strokes Gained: Total, Stevens has an average of -3.244 in his past five tournaments.

Stevens' Advanced Stats and Rankings

• Stevens has a Strokes Gained: Off the Tee average of 0.252 this season, which ranks 56th on TOUR. Meanwhile, his average driving distance (304.3 yards) ranks 29th.
• In terms of Strokes Gained: Approach, Stevens ranks 123rd on TOUR with a round-by-round average of -0.224. Additionally, he ranks first with a Greens in Regulation mark of %.
• On the greens, Stevens has delivered a -0.041 Strokes Gained: Putting mark this season, which places him 101st on TOUR, while he ranks first with a putts-per-round average of . He has broken par % of the time (first on TOUR).

Stevens' Best Finishes

• Stevens is still seeking his first top-10 finish this season (he has taken part in nine tournaments).
• In those nine events, he made the cut six times (66.7%).
• As of now, Stevens has accumulated 103 points, which ranks him 113th in the FedExCup standings.

Stevens' Best Strokes Gained Performances

• This season, Stevens put up his best Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee effort at the WM Phoenix Open, ranking seventh in the field at 3.884. In that tournament, he finished 28th.
• Stevens' best Strokes Gained: Approach effort this season came at the Mexico Open at Vidanta in February 2024, as he posted a 1.535 mark, which ranked him in the field. He missed the cut in that tournament.
• In terms of Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green, Stevens' best effort this season was at the Farmers Insurance Open, where his 3.117 mark ranked sixth in the field.
• At the WM Phoenix Open in February 2024, Stevens posted his best Strokes Gained: Putting mark so far this season (1.759, which ranked 27th in the field). In that event, he finished 28th.
• Stevens recorded his best Strokes Gained: Total mark this season (4.751) in January 2024 at the Sony Open in Hawaii, which ranked 24th in the field. He finished 24th in that event.

Stevens' Strokes Gained Rankings

Stevens' past results.

All stats in this article are accurate for Stevens as of the start of the Texas Children's Houston Open.

Note: The PGA TOUR has created this story via a machine-learning model using data from ShotLink , powered by CDW, in addition to player performance data. While we strive for accuracy and quality, please note that the information provided may not be entirely error-free.