Women’s Driving Distance

[bones75]

4 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

The part I'm amazed at is the part about not having any females in the league who can hit 200 yard drives.

Perhaps people experiences with this are correlated to where and when they play. The majority of my time on the course the last 5 years is spent on twilight rounds after cutting out of work early. And I've lived in San Diego, LA and Northern California all where school golf programs are abundant and competitive. I run into HS and college players regularly, and at better schools, the entire team can drive 200+. Even Jr. HS girls are often driving almost 200 yds.

And I don't know if women's softball is big thing in California or something, but I've run into many softball players who can smash it. One I mentioned in a previous post was an ex D1 softball player now in her early 40s, and she carried a few drives 260. But driver was like the only club she could hit.

[Lihu]

1 hour ago, bones75 said:

Perhaps people experiences with this are correlated to where and when they play. The majority of my time on the course the last 5 years is spent on twilight rounds after cutting out of work early. And I've lived in San Diego, LA and Northern California all where school golf programs are abundant and competitive. I run into HS and college players regularly, and at better schools, the entire team can drive 200+. Even Jr. HS girls are often driving almost 200 yds.

And I don't know if women's softball is big thing in California or something, but I've run into many softball players who can smash it. One I mentioned in a previous post was an ex D1 softball player now in her early 40s, and she carried a few drives 260. But driver was like the only club she could hit.

Yeah, there are many women who are 5’10” or taller and quite of few of them are athletic too. Doesn’t mean they can hit far, but it certainly improves the odds of finding one that does.

That said the longer hitting a ones I see these days are 5’3-4” and strongly built for lack of any better word that won’t get me killed 😁

I’m not by any means saying there are a ton, just seems like CA has its fair share of female athletes and obviously male ones.

[shanksalot]

17 hours ago, ncates00 said:

In the right conditions.  Remember, the LD comps, for both men and women, are usually ideal for LD hitting, but not always.  The LD women are topping out at 170, maybe 180 mph ballspeed with LD-spec equipment.  That ball speed is somewhat close to the upper ranks on the PGA Tour at 180.

The fact they can match the best in the PGA in ball speed says it all. 

[NM Golf]

19 hours ago, Mr22putt said:

I assume these LPGA pros were not overly successful?

One was not, the other one was quite successful with 4 tour wins and was rookie of the year.

[ncates00]

51 minutes ago, shanksalot said:

The fact they can match the best in the PGA in ball speed says it all. 

I don't understand the point you're trying to make.  Remember, LD players are seeking only distance.  So while the LD ladies can get 170 to maybe 180 ball speed using equipment and technique with (mostly) distance as the sole priority, the PGA tour guys are trying to hit a target.  The LD men are easily over 220 mph ball speed, again with distance being the goal.  

I'm no fast player or that particularly good at hitting target (155-162 driver ball speed), but the average LPGA golfer's driver doesn't even touch my hybrid.  

[shanksalot]

The point was to show that some women can hit the ball a long way. Yet the average women probably only hits the driver less than 175. You may hit your hybrid further than the average women on the LPGA hits her driver, but she can more than likely beat you any day of the week on the course. Unless you are a +4 handicap.

[Mr22putt]

2 hours ago, NM Golf said:

One was not, the other one was quite successful with 4 tour wins and was rookie of the year.

In recent years, I think the only 2 LPGA pros that meet the above 2 criteria are:

1) Seon Hwa Lee

2) Dorothy Delasin.

I'm guessing it was Delasin who you played golf with.

Edited October 30, 2019 by Mr22putt

[ncates00]

37 minutes ago, shanksalot said:

she can more than likely beat you any day of the week on the course

You're off-topic, but I never argued to the contrary.  I know that I can't beat any of them.  That said, I doubt it would take being +4 to compete with any of them, especially not from the tees from which they play.

Check the title of the thread; we've been talking about distance in case you missed it.

Also, @shanksalot, use the "@" or "quote" if you are talking to someone directly.

Edited October 30, 2019 by ncates00

[ChetlovesMer]

51 minutes ago, ncates00 said:

You're off-topic, but I never argued to the contrary.  I know that I can't beat any of them.  That said, I doubt it would take being +4 to compete with any of them, especially not from the tees from which they play.

Check the title of the thread; we've been talking about distance in case you missed it.

Also, @shanksalot, use the "@" or "quote" if you are talking to someone directly.

@shanksalotHere's the thread for your topic:

 

[leftybutnotPM]

4 hours ago, shanksalot said:

The fact they can match the best in the PGA in ball speed says it all. 

Which is a bit like saying that Koepka, DJ, Rahm  and Rory are not particularly long hitters. In fact quite short off the tee (If you are think about LD players).

It doesn't say it all. It says a very tiny thing that is essentially irrelevant to the discussion.

[Mr22putt]

1 hour ago, ncates00 said:

That said, I doubt it would take being +4 to compete with any of them, especially not from the tees from which they play.

 

Here's some info of what kinda cap might be required to be competitive against a LPGA pro. (info up to the latest BMW event)

I'm going to try to extrapolate a cap for the pros based on a men's rating for them....a typical LPGA course set-up is let's say approximately 6400-6600 yards at 71.2/130.

1) an average LPGA pro....I'll use Charley Hull as an example...she's the 'mean' at 80 in 2019 scoring average. In her last 20 rds...her best 10 rds averaged 69...with the highest score of 70 in those 10 rds.

(69-71.2) x (113/130) = +1.9 cap

2) leading scoring average in 2019....is Jin Young Ko.....in her last 20 rds...her best 10 rd scoring average is 66.7....with 68 as her worst score in the best 10 rds

(66.71.2) x (113/130) = +3.9

These gals are ballers and can flat out play.

[ncates00]

6 minutes ago, Mr22putt said:

These gals are ballers and can flat out play.

Again, I never said that they couldn't.  I only brought that up because @shanksalot is conflating the issues of a) distance (the topic of this thread) and b) ability of a golfer.  As you point out, they can play; but, it doesn't require a +4 handicap to compete with them, per your analysis that I'm taking at your word.

See @ChetlovesMer's post above, if you want to post on b).

Let's get back to distance in this thread.

[Vinsk]

7 hours ago, Mr22putt said:

These gals are ballers and can flat out play.

Yep. But they’re not bombers. I’m sure someone can present the stats but a question is: is the average gap in distance greater in comparing LPGA vs PGA or amateur ladies vs amateur men?

[ChetlovesMer]

8 hours ago, Vinsk said:

Yep. But they’re not bombers. I’m sure someone can present the stats but a question is: is the average gap in distance greater in comparing LPGA vs PGA or amateur ladies vs amateur men?

According to Golf Digest

The average male amateur hits his driver 195 yards. The average female amateur hits her driver 146 yards.

The average PGA tour player hits his driver 287. The average LPGA player hits her driver 246. 

An average male amateur hits driver 68% as far as a PGA pro.

An average female amateur hits her driver 59% as far as an LPGA pro. 

An average female amateur hits driver 75% as far as an average male amateur.

An average LPGA player hits driver 85% as far as an average PGA tour player. 

I have no idea what all that means? … Males it farther than females? … Tour players are better than amateur players? … I guess? …  We probably already knew that. 

[NM Golf]

19 hours ago, Mr22putt said:

In recent years, I think the only 2 LPGA pros that meet the above 2 criteria are:

1) Seon Hwa Lee

2) Dorothy Delasin.

I'm guessing it was Delasin who you played golf with.

Yes Dorothy lives here. Its been years ago 2000-2001. She hit it great, just wasn't all that long and the course we played was almost 7300 yards. She still beat me. Since you are interested the other player was Katie Kempter. She's been on the LPGA and Symetra Tours on and off for 10 or so years. I actually played a few rounds with her, her instructor was a pro at my course.

[Patch]

I read some where that the average drive for a female amateur is around 150 yards.

The article went on to say the average drive for a  women with a 6 handicap was just shy of 200 yards. It didn't mention what handicap averaged 150 yards. 

Our 14 year old Granddaughter who now takes lessons with our local course pro is hitting 150 yards consistently, but will need more work on accuracy at a later date. Her pro tells me she will be hitting in the 170 -180 range by the start of her sophmore year. I jokingly told him at $60 an hour she better be.  She just finished her third month of highschool golf play/instruction. She is 5'-8" tall. 

I met a young lady up in Eugene Oregon at the Fiddlers Green course who was hitting the 250+/- yard (?) back fence high up, on the fly. She was a 6'-5" volleyball player for the local university. She only owned one club, and only hit driving range balls for the exercise. 

There was about 10 of us guys who were shamed considerably by this tall youngster. . 

[Buckeyebowman]

On 10/29/2019 at 3:39 PM, Killa said:

My 4 iron of the tee is in the 205-210 range. 
 

140 yards is somewhere on the top end of my 9 iron - I’m probably (trying to) hit a flighted 8 iron to that distance. 

Which begs the question, why is your HI 31?!

Someone earlier mentioned more accomplished women's golfers, such as college players. For the past 4 years I've gone out to watch the Youngstown State University Fall open challenge against about 7 or 8 other teams! There are women playing in that tournament who can really bomb it! 

i also go out to watch the AJGA (American Junior Golf Association) tourney that's held there as well. I've seen 14 year old girls who can smash it out there a mile! Let's face it. It's the vast majority of low end players who bring the average down! 

[Vinsk]

19 minutes ago, Buckeyebowman said:

It's the vast majority of low end players who bring the average down! 

But are you really that impressed with the average drive, or irons for that matter on the LPGA? I’m not. I certainly respect how good of golfers they are...but distance is the last thing that intrigues me when I watch an LPGA tournament.