Clubhead Speed... What's Yours?

[iacas]

Tiger cannot be 5'11 or 6 foot. Im 5-11 180 and he looks as if he is considerably bigger man than I am. I checked out the pga site and he is listed at 6'1 185, and I find that even hard to belive.

I've stood next to the guy. He's not quite as tall as the media guide wants you to believe.

The media guide lists Jerry Kelly at 5'11". Must be a two-inch bump across the boards. Or they measured everyone on concrete and with really long spikes on.

[J.P.]

You know, thats true . . .

I too have stood close to Tiger on several tee shots, and while he is bigger than life as an ideal, what strikes you when you see him live is . . . he's not that big a person. Oddly enough - I thought the same thing when I saw John Daly in person too. Not as tall nor as heavy as my TV makes him look.

Driver speed 98 mph via Hot Stix monitors in Az.

Jp

[Williamevanl]

I love reading these threads. It seems there is a huge gap between what 'real' everyday golfers think is feasable vs the average golfer. We have the carry distance, the average driver yardage, the average swing speed etc... It's strange I'm still on the fence about who is right in general and here's why.

I'm a relatively new golfer, I just started playing 2 years ago but I play 3-4 days a week now and have been for almost a year weather permitting. I'm just learning to hit the ball straight consistently and my scores have dropped from 110 to about 90 recently. The longer I play golf the more I try slow down my swing and make it more consistant. If often fight the urge to swing my clubs to fast. My home course flooded recently and a par three that is usually ~150 yards is now 185 yards. I have hit my six iron 10-15 yards past the green 'mostly carry' two times this year and just recently began to hit the 7 iron instead. I know what your thinking, I'm delofting my irons or drawing it that far and originally I figured thats what was happening too.

I changed my mind today though. I had a three hour gap between classes and decided to play the back nine. On the 18th hole I decided to just swing out of my shoes. It was a 520 yard par 5 and I ended up about 10 feet behind the 150 yard marker. It's fairly straight so initially after some quick math I thought that I had maybe drove the ball 367 yards !? I just used google earth to determine the actual distance and there is a slight bend in the fairway that accounts for ~30 yards so my drive was 'only' 337 yards.
I guess my point is that I think there is a difference between the good golfer who finds a consistent swing speed that allows them to play effective golf and the amateur who puts everything they have into every swing.

[dave39]

112 mph average

[Brokecollegestudent]

I love reading these threads. It seems there is a huge gap between what 'real' everyday golfers think is feasable vs the average golfer. We have the carry distance, the average driver yardage, the average swing speed etc... It's strange I'm still on the fence about who is right in general and here's why.

Congrats on the bomb, thats a real confidence builder right there.

[extremeld]

sorry but 139mph swing will produce way more than 186mph ball speed, when one or the other is questionable the ballspeed is the one to go with.

this clip is often used on forums etc but 1.34 smash?

me thinks the clubheadspeed has misread which can happen - the ball speed is more reliable as it is the fastest thing moving past the radar.

secondly when tiger kills it - he generates around 185mph so 186mph again that would be reasonable which would put his clubhead speed at around 125 or 126mph.

also when i swing at 80% my clubhead is only going a couple of mph slower than flat out

the point about 80% is the sensation of being relaxed and feeling like there is a lot left.

tiger generally swings at 120mph - he can go up to mid to high 120s when he jumps on it

now if 120mph were actually 80% he would then be swinging 144mph at 100%which he CANNOT do.

jb holmes currently has the fastest AVERAGE clubhead speed on the US tour of a fraction under 125mph and he is significantly longer than tiger.

k

[Brokecollegestudent]

sorry but 139mph swing will produce way more than 186mph ball speed, when one or the other is questionable the ballspeed is the one to go with.

I dont know about that one. I was watching jason z. on sports science and he was swinging at 153+ and he was just barely generating 200mph of ball speed.

[iacas]

I dont know about that one. I was watching jason z. on sports science and he was swinging at 153+ and he was just barely generating 200mph of ball speed.

The smash factor should be up to 1.5, but I could see how that might degrade when you start caving in the faces of drivers regularly.

1.5 is the max smash factor for "most" people.

[mutadayen]

Tiger's not 6'2", nor is Phil the 215 or whatever he lists in the media guide. Editing of height/weight has gone on as long as there have been media guides. 6' even is a good guess, maybe even 5'11.5".

I may have to disagree a bit. You're right, he's not 6'2", but he's a legit 6'1" and yes, smaller than you'd expect in size (as far as how he looks like on TV). I could buy 190 pounds. When he was playing at the PGA Championship at Medinah a couple years back, my ex was working at a local gym that he and Phil Mickelson both worked out at Monday through Wednesday before the tournament. She called me when he was there and i ditched work for a day. He's very nice in person. I'm 6'2" and weigh 195 and at that time, he had a slightly smaller physique than me and was pretty much eye level. I had him on both fronts, but that's pretty much where it ended (skill, money, business, travel...safe to say i fell short in those categories). I only saw Phil from a distant as he was unapproachable, but from what i could tell, he looked like he was heavier and shorter than Tiger, so I could believe 5'11" and 215. Again, this was 2 years ago, so their weights have obviously changed...

[andre112]

135mph ........... ball speed :p

can't be more honest

[extremeld]

I dont know about that one. I was watching jason z. on sports science and he was swinging at 153+ and he was just barely generating 200mph of ball speed.

where did you see that? again those numbers make no sense - at 153mph he would be way over 200mph -

[NM Golf]

Driver Swing in the 120-125 area. And.....

Yes I hit the clubface
Yes I hit it far
Yes I struggle with a Fairways hit (around 60%) but it gets better all the time.


Don't knock it just because you can't do it. What, just because I am not on tour I cannot have a high swing speed. I hit the ball just as far or farther than most tour pros. Unfortunately that is where the similarities cease.

Hitting it far is great and all but the only real way to measure your game is using a scorecard. Its not how that counts, its how many.

[tsbrewers]

114

Brew

[JonnyGolf]

97 to 102mph with up to 138mph ball speed (approx. a 1.37 smash factor).

I want to play golf with all you 115mph+ ball strikers. I've only played with one guy who I think could regularly hit it 300yds. And he hit it all over the place.

[extremeld]

was averaging around 140mph recently

dont know exact number but 147mph was fastest and 138mph was slowest on around 20 swings

k

[tmoult]

My club head speed is like 92mph, i feel so weak haha.

[sirshanksalot]

For my driver swing speed I range anywhere between 105-110mph

[DavidFehertysBike]

Im at around 90-95 for my irons, which are the only clubs i care about swing speed with. Lagging those irons is definatly an artform that is hard to master, ive discovered.