Average Distances - How Far Do You Hit Each Club? (And Don't Lie!)

[Patch]

Age was brought up in this thread.

I will be 70 in a few weeks. When I was 60, I could still hold my own against most single digit cappers. 

I have lost 30-35 yards per club due to injuries that won't let me swing with the vigor, or force I had 10 years ago. I still have that faster swing speed in me, but medical repairs to joints, won't let me use it. I am pobably 70% of my 80% swing speed, I had  10 years ago.  

Age itself has nothing to to do with lost swing speed. I have a buddy who is 72, and can still drive the ball 240-250 with his 12*, fitted driver. The fact that he's 6'-5, weighs 225, and is a retired Navy Seal might have something to do with his longevity with a golf club.

It's one's wear, and tear on their body, and how they took care of themselves, earlier in their life, as they aged, that causes lost yardage per club.  

[Double Mocha Man]

55 minutes ago, Patch said:

Age was brought up in this thread.

I will be 70 in a few weeks. When I was 60, I could still hold my own against most single digit cappers. 

I have lost 30-35 yards per club due to injuries that won't let me swing with the vigor, or force I had 10 years ago. I still have that faster swing speed in me, but medical repairs to joints, won't let me use it.

According to my Dad you're just a young pup!  Have you ever had any injuries to your right elbow?

[Lihu]

52 minutes ago, Patch said:

Age was brought up in this thread.

I will be 70 in a few weeks. When I was 60, I could still hold my own against most single digit cappers. 

I have lost 30-35 yards per club due to injuries that won't let me swing with the vigor, or force I had 10 years ago. I still have that faster swing speed in me, but medical repairs to joints, won't let me use it. I am pobably 70% of my 80% swing speed, I had  10 years ago.  

Age itself has nothing to to do with lost swing speed. I have a buddy who is 72, and can still drive the ball 240-250 with his 12*, fitted driver. The fact that he's 6'-5, weighs 225, and is a retired Navy Seal might have something to do with his longevity with a golf club.

It's one's wear, and tear on their body, and how they took care of themselves, earlier in their life, as they aged, that causes lost yardage per club.  

Interesting... and hopefully encouraging, but not many Ex-Navy Seals around, I’d guess?

I guess I do know some mid-70s golfers still averaging 250 too, but generally in the hot summer months with no wind and dry fairways?

[Lihu]

6 hours ago, djake said:

No off the shelf Driver could handle his swing speed

How fast did he swing? This usually happens to people with swing speeds north of 140mph and 48” shafts? Or cold weather...

[Patch]

23 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Interesting... and hopefully encouraging, but not many Ex-Navy Seals around, I’d guess?

I guess I do know some mid-70s golfers still averaging 250 too, but generally in the hot summer months with no wind and dry fairways?

Your guess is wrong.

[Lihu]

15 minutes ago, Patch said:

Your guess is wrong.

You mean my guess that out of the general population of golfers, probably 6’5” Navy Seals are an outlier? There aren’t that many even if thousands, then at 6’5” probably a lot less? Then divide by 50M golfers?

Or that I’ve known a mid-70s golfers who might with ideal conditions might possibly average 250 off the tee?

Either way, those folks are seriously outliers. On the driving range, I hear some older players utter “220 yards” after they hit a drive that barely carries the 160 yard flag. The uttering doesn’t happen that much, but I’m pretty sure many folks think they hit that far when the truth is 10%-20% less?

I think this thread was all about someone new to the game wanting some kind of metric for his own game? I’d guess he didn’t achieve his goal? 😂

[kwjewell67]

Man this topic is still going?

[dagolfer18]

15 hours ago, Double Mocha Man said:

Hmmm... don't you always want to get one close???

Okay, I think I worded that wrong. Here’s what I mean: let’s say I’m 40 yards out with my third shot on a par-5. I do not have to stick it to just a few feet, although that would be great. I just have to put it where I have a good look at birdie, even if it is 10-12 feet. On the other hand, I’ll assume that the shot I’m about to hit is the sixth or seventh on that hole. I’ll feel that I absolutely have to stiff it, because I need to get up-and-down so my score isn't inflated as much. But then again, with a double or triple on a par-5, or anywhere for that matter, my score is already inflated a bit, isn’t it?😂. But seriously, that’s what I meant when I posted that.

[Casualgolfer]

I know a guy that can go over 130mph swing speed and shot a 96 yesterday... 

[Double Mocha Man]

7 minutes ago, Casualgolfer said:

I know a guy that can go over 130mph swing speed and shot a 96 yesterday... 

His driver needs airbags in the event of a crash at that speed.

[Casualgolfer]

10 hours ago, Double Mocha Man said:

His driver needs airbags in the event of a crash at that speed.

Yeah I didn't want to fess up to that score when I generally shoot in the 80's no problem. I couldn't get anything going at all. 

[Lihu]

23 minutes ago, Casualgolfer said:

Yeah I didn't want to fess up to that score when I generally shoot in the 80's no problem. I couldn't get anything going at all. 

Sure, 96 is totally possible, just not your norm 😁

[Inferno2ss]

On 10/5/2019 at 10:35 AM, Lihu said:

116 is pretty fast for a 55 year old. Don’t know many who are that fast for all age groups, much less at Champions Tour age?
 

He didn’t say straight, and I didn’t read the 55 year old part. They’re probably playing in Australia where the dollar and yards are only 0.68 times the US 😂

Nope we are in the US and both have Garmin GPS watches that track every shot and record the distance. He has always been a good athlete and pretty strong.  He hits his 3 wood about 10 to 20 yards further than my driver and I avg 267.  He started taking lessons at the end of last summer and is finally starting to hit his irons a bit better but he still goes through spurts of hitting it off the heal which sends it straight to the right, usually out of bounds or into the water 🙂

I am the opposite, I struggle with my driver, but hit my irons better than most.

Edited October 7, 2019 by Inferno2ss

[Lihu]

4 hours ago, Inferno2ss said:

Nope we are in the US and both have Garmin GPS watches that track every shot and record the distance. He has always been a good athlete and pretty strong.  He hits his 3 wood about 10 to 20 yards further than my driver and I avg 267.  He started taking lessons at the end of last summer and is finally starting to hit his irons a bit better but he still goes through spurts of hitting it off the heal which sends it straight to the right, usually out of bounds or into the water 🙂

I am the opposite, I struggle with my driver, but hit my irons better than most.

Got it, his good shots are 300 yards and not his average. Even so, he’s very rare indeed. I’ve seen plenty of younger players hit that far, but I haven’t yet seen any 55+ yet. Even watching the Champions tour players over 55. Their shots look like they’re going 300 yards but they generally average about what you do at 267 yards. The top 10 are 110 to 115 with Freddy Couples in his earlier 50s still at 115-118 I think? I don’t watch that much golf, but my older playing partners are constantly talking about it and looking these statistics up while we’re waiting to make our shots.

Your brother is extremely rare, and you’re basically driving as far as the average champions tour player.

[Inferno2ss]

On 2/4/2010 at 2:38 PM, chilly said:

 

I doubt most guys, myself included, were averaging in every shank they hit. I believe guys are simply stating the "stock distance" they hit each club. Somebody asks me how far I hit my 8 iron, I'm not going to say "Well, 70% of the time I hit it 150, 3% of the time I nut it 157, 20% of the time i fat it 140, 7% of the time I shank it 70yds...so I guess that's 132.7yds weighted average" or whatever. No, I'll tell them that I expect to hit it 150yds, or whatever my standard shot may be.

Exactly, I use a garmin watch, if I totally shank it I choose the miss hit club because I want to track my distances with normal contact to see where I am at and what ranges I hit each club on the course.  My drives typically go from 245 to 285 with an occasional 300 yard drive and some 210 yard ones when I slice it.  It all averages out to 267 yards. 

[CharlieB]

I’m 76 years old. If I hit my drive right on the sweet spot I don’t hear it land. A not so perfect shot, I can hear it land.

I hit my driver between 160 to 170, pretty consistently straight except this past Wednesday.

[topoftheline89]

The results are in.

      Today I went to the range with a specific goal of ranging in my new to me Cleveland TA7 irons. I have always known I don't get a lot of distance out of my irons, now I know exactly how little. All measurements are in yards carried. All with range balls. 

4i=  140-145

5i= 135-145

6i= 130-150

7i= 110-140

8i= 130-135

9i= 90-100

pw= 50-75

Didn't hit driver today but usually I carry about 200-220 driving with a 9 degree driver, plenty of roll out resulting in 220-250 drives.

 

I am thinking swing speed and lack of hips have much to do with these results.I'm  6'1 225# large framed person.

Edited October 16, 2019 by topoftheline89

[mcanadiens]

10 minutes ago, topoftheline89 said:

The results are in.

      Today I went to the range with a specific goal of ranging in my new to me Cleveland TA7 irons. I have always known I don't get a lot of distance out of my irons, now I know exactly how little. All measurements are in yards carried. All with range balls. 

4i=  140-145

5i= 135-145

6i= 130-150

7i= 110-140

8i= 130-135

9i= 90-100

pw= 50-75

Didn't hit driver today but usually I carry about 200-220 driving with a 9 degree driver, plenty of roll out resulting in 220-250 drives.

 

I am thinking swing speed and lack of hips have much to do with these results.I'm  6'1 225# large framed person.

I remember a time when every club I hit over 9I went exactly 140 yards. It wasn't that long ago.

Golf is hard. Keeping working and you'll get there.