Swing Speed

[Double Mocha Man]

Just now, CNM said:

I wouldn't think anything of it.

No problem. I prefer it. Keeps people from asking me to help them move furniture.

[snapfade]

Interesting tour stats, for the 2019 season Cameron Champ had the fastest ball speed average with 190.70 with the fastest being 198.91. Second place went to Seth Reeves with an average of 183.52.

 

Categories – Off the Tee

---

Accuracy | Distance (All Drives) | Distance (Measured Drives) | Other | Radar | Scoring | Strokes Gained

 

[ncates00]

20 minutes ago, snapfade said:

Interesting tour stats, for the 2019 season Cameron Champ had the fastest ball speed average with 190.70 with the fastest being 198.91. Second place went to Seth Reeves with an average of 183.52.

 

Categories – Off the Tee

---

Accuracy | Distance (All Drives) | Distance (Measured Drives) | Other | Radar | Scoring | Strokes Gained

 

Dude kills it.  It's incredible how fast he is.  No idea how he does it.

[Casualgolfer]

Think Cam Champ had a lot of fast twitch muscles. Seen a lot of pitches in my day that weren't very big either but could throw mid 90's or harder. 

[TRUCKER]

20 hours ago, iacas said:

Dude.

😆...

[Rippy_72]

On 1/19/2020 at 11:28 AM, TRUCKER said:

There have been a few guys on here, HC 17, and above, claiming that their swing speed is in excess of 105 MPH. One was 110, another was over 110, another 118 MPH, etc. Is this possible? Or is this similar to the guys that claim to drive the ball, on average, 280 yards.

105 mph for a young man is not fast.  118 mph for anyone is fast.  110-112 mph hitting it solid and launching it properly will get you 280 yards in the air, all carry.  Striking the ball on the screws at the proper angle will yield more fruit than more speed in most cases.

I do agree though, HC over 18 tends to be slower speeds (under 100 mph).  In all my years playing and caddying, not too many 18 handicaps hitting it 280 and many golfers have no idea how far 280 is.  I think this is the problem although chopping down with the right side, reverse weight shift, losing the lag, slapping and flipping doesn't help them, either.

[TRUCKER]

[Buckeyebowman]

On 2/16/2020 at 3:55 PM, billchao said:

It was meant as a comparison for outliers. Data points exist on both tails of a bell curve.

But since you brought it up, I absolutely believe there is a genetic factor to swinging the club fast. Even if I dedicate the rest of my life to it, I doubt I will ever be able to hit a golf ball 190mph.

Here's a couple of examples. The first is Dustin Johnson's caddie, who just happens to be his Brother. I've heard on the golf telecasts that he has higher clubhead speed with the Driver than DJ! But, who knows where it goes? So DJ plays and his Bro caddies.

The other example is me. A few years ago, we were playing a local upscale, daily fee course. The hole was a 399 yard par 4. We were still playing the white tees, even though I had lost a bit of speed. If I could pump a drive out there 230, I was good! My buddy was still fooling himself, thinking he was hitting it 260-270. He hit his usual drive, and somehow, I really blasted one! 

Before we left the tee I asked my buddy how long he thought he hit that drive. He said 250-260. We get to his ball and he has 179 in, meaning he hit that drive 220! This is verified by GPS btw. I pointed it out to him and he got pissed! Meanwhile I can see my ball much further down the fairway. When we drove up to it the GPS read 100 yards. Meaning I had hit that drive 299 yards, at 63 years of age! 

This is the greatest example of an "outlier" that I can imagine! Somehow, by accident, I had done everything perfectly and really launched one! Hadn't happened for years before that, and hasn't happened since! But it illustrates that it CAN happen.

[Killa]

On 2/15/2020 at 7:52 PM, TRUCKER said:

Now I know where these SS and driver distance numbers are coming from. There's a conversation going in the My Swing forum, and the OP is saying he will take his 10 best shots to determine his average. That's not your average, that's your 10 best shots. Another member quickly responded, and explained to be careful doing it that way.

Like billchao said, you cannot play golf that way. Yes you are supposed to remove the outliers both ways, so if you hit 2x 175, 6x 160 and 2x 50 yards it’s much better for your golf score if you use 160 as your carry average rather than 141 as you will hit 160 6/10 times and 141 0/10 times

[Killa]

Just one more thing to add. I’d say in golf (maybe excluding driving) for every shot the most important number is your typical distance, not your average distance. Especially for us hackers...

[ncates00]

24 minutes ago, Killa said:

(including driving)

Fixed it for you.  Unless you have a wide open fairway with no bunkers or water to carry or you don't want to have some planning for your approach shot distance, then your typical driver carry distance very much matters.

Edited February 21, 2020 by ncates00

[klineka]

22 minutes ago, Killa said:

Just one more thing to add. I’d say in golf (maybe excluding driving) for every shot the most important number is your typical distance, not your average distance. Especially for us hackers...

I'd consider it to be fairly important for driving too, especially carry distance. 

If there are fairway bunkers, trying to figure out how much of a hazard you can take on off the tee, trying to cut a corner of a dog leg, determining if you'll run out of fairway, etc it's important to know your typical carry distance to know where you should aim or if you need to club down.

Edited February 21, 2020 by klineka

[Darkfrog]

13 hours ago, Buckeyebowman said:

Before we left the tee I asked my buddy how long he thought he hit that drive. He said 250-260. We get to his ball and he has 179 in, meaning he hit that drive 220!

Golfers on course without the help of electronic measuring devices are terrible at estimating distances, especially on tee shots. I used to think it was an ego thing (I'm sure it contributes some, not many people admit they're short hitters), but lately I've started to think it has more to do with poor perception of distance and speed.

1 hour ago, Killa said:

Just one more thing to add. I’d say in golf (maybe excluding driving) for every shot the most important number is your typical distance, not your average distance. Especially for us hackers...

Very true, average is completely meaningless until you reach a level of ball striking where there isn't a 50 yard gap between best and worst shots. When I first started lessons, my instructor told me to base my club selection and aim on my stock distance from a good swing and impact, and to understand possible misses and account for that as well, kind of like an extremely simplified shot zone concept from LSW. Of course, misses like topped shots, chili dips, and shanks are excluded from this sort of decision making process.

[NZ Golfer]

On 2/22/2020 at 7:11 AM, Darkfrog said:

Golfers on course without the help of electronic measuring devices are terrible at estimating distances, especially on tee shots. I used to think it was an ego thing (I'm sure it contributes some, not many people admit they're short hitters), but lately I've started to think it has more to do with poor perception of distance and speed.

Very true, average is completely meaningless until you reach a level of ball striking where there isn't a 50 yard gap between best and worst shots. When I first started lessons, my instructor told me to base my club selection and aim on my stock distance from a good swing and impact, and to understand possible misses and account for that as well, kind of like an extremely simplified shot zone concept from LSW. Of course, misses like topped shots, chili dips, and shanks are excluded from this sort of decision making process.

Yes makes sense Maybe my average distance isn't right ???.. after getting hard time on here for putting up distances I'm finding "I believe" I'm getting I decided to use the Golf Shot app again in yards (we use Metrics down-under)just to be sure to be in the right page...

Now I'm pretty confident in the GPS app as its pretty much dead on from tees .. I tracked many of my drives over a rounds after I blew the cobwebs out on the first few holes ...what I got using the track shot from the tees (No wind ,soft early morning play)

1W -Mizuno ST180-tenesi 60g blue stiff-

289Y on target (Fairway etc)

254Y Missed Right (slice)

284Y on target

276Y on target

Also tracked a good shot off the ground with Ping G hybrid -that landed in a bunker 

235Y on target (I'm sure that would have been 240Y if it wasn't for Bunker)

My 4i from the tee .. higher traj-

209Y

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DuckhookDenny]

I would say in my experience, people do not swing as fast on the course, as they do in the vacuum environment of a driving range or into a net with a launch monitor.

A swing of 105mph is not slow in my opinion. That would be significantly faster than the average LPGA tour player who can flat out play, and i would imagine quite a few champions tour players are in the 105mph region and they can play courses of 6,700-6,800 yards very well.

I think its easy (ish) to record a high swing speed when making a free pass at it OR with the objective of trying to record a high swing speed, but on the course you are trying to put the ball into a certain area, not record a high swing speed.

Throw in bunkers, deep rough, water and OB into the equation and most peoples swing speed goes down (in my experience)

[iacas]

23 minutes ago, DuckhookDenny said:

I would say in my experience, people do not swing as fast on the course, as they do in the vacuum environment of a driving range or into a net with a launch monitor.

My experience is the opposite: people swing harder outside, on the golf course.

[DuckhookDenny]

3 minutes ago, iacas said:

My experience is the opposite: people swing harder outside, on the golf course.

Really? not saying your experience is wrong but im surprised.

I guess theres a distinction between swinging harder and faster too though.

And also, law of diminishing returns.....swing faster, miss middle of face, get lower ball speed than a slower more solid strike

[iacas]

Just now, DuckhookDenny said:

Really? not saying your experience is wrong but im surprised.

Yeah, really. People are much more likely to make their "practice swing" indoors. Then they get on the golf course and see the fairway way out there, and swing harder/faster.

Get yourself an avatar and some other things too here soon, @DuckhookDenny.