What's Your Swing Speed?

[golf_junkie27]

This was my first full year playing golf. I started in late 2006. I've played with some really good golfers, some scratch and played a round of golf with one PGA Tour pro. The highest speed I was quoted was 102MPH. The PGA Tour Average is 112MPH.

I would really love to play a round of golf with those who average 110MPH+. Especially, it seems, since those handicaps are about 20 and above.

[Golfme]

i hit it 240...so 85-87?

[Jiogolf]

Maxed out, at 100 mph, you could carry a ball 245 yards. That is with perfect launch conditions, spin and perfect smash factor.

Sorry dude. I know my carry distance. 250 carry, total yardage 280-285. By the way, there is no way you can completely trust launch monitors. All they do is give you an APPROXIMATE reading on ball speed, launch angle and spin rate. Ask any honest clubfitter and they'll tell you the same thing. Once the machine calculates these numbers, then it spits out carry distance. You want to actually get a proper fitting done, go outside and watch your carry distances. That's the best feedback as it pertains to ball flight and carry.

[lamebums]

Sorry dude. I know my carry distance. 250 carry, total yardage 280-285. By the way, there is no way you can completely trust launch monitors. All they do is give you an APPROXIMATE reading on ball speed, launch angle and spin rate. Ask any honest clubfitter and they'll tell you the same thing. Once the machine calculates these numbers, then it spits out carry distance. You want to actually get a proper fitting done, go outside and watch your carry distances. That's the best feedback as it pertains to ball flight and carry.

Also note that elevation, temperature, and humidity can play in as well. If you're playing in Denver in the heat of summer and it's dry outside, yeah, the ball's going to go further. Conversely if you're playing in say, Myrtle Beach, at sea level and extremely muggy...you'll lose 30 yards on all your shots (I can actually testify to that one...)

[niblick]

I would really love to play a round of golf with those who average 110MPH+. Especially, it seems, since those handicaps are about 20 and above.

I've never understood why some people believe there is a perfect correlation between handicap and clubhead speed. Cobra has built their entire marketing plan around it, and it baffles me.

Carry and total distance have huge variables, but clubhead speed can be tested and verified rather easily. It's absurd to think that 110 mph clubhead speed is a guarantee of a low handicap, just as much as 90 mph head speed is of a high one. I've seen people play well and poorly with both. When a club fitter observes my launch conditions and suggests an x-stiff shaft, what am I supposed to do, tell him "No, the guys on the internet say 20 handicaps can't have those"?

[NM Golf]

I've never understood why some people believe there is a perfect correlation between handicap and clubhead speed. Cobra has built their entire marketing plan around it, and it baffles me.

There is, a lot of the time, a correlation between club head speed and handicap. That is not to say that 20 handicaps cannot have higher swing speeds and low handicappers cannot have lower swing speeds. But the fact of the matter is it is difficult to have too low of a handicap if your swing speed is so low that you are unable to hit most greens in regulation. On the other end of that, a high swing speed is certainly not a guarantee of a low handicap, as one must know where the ball is going to produce low scores.

I was a 15 handicap with X-stiff shafts. In fact the change from the stiff shafts I originally started with helped my game. The difference from then to now for me, is that now I know where the balls going and I can chip and putt. That being said I got on the PING fitting launch monitor this fall after they announced the G10. They don't give you your club speed, they give you your ball speed. My ball speed was between 170 and 178 mph. That means a club head speed around 125 mph give or take.

[JaY_B]

My fastest on a launch monitor was 104/5 averging about 99 - 100, and tbh thats not slow, my mate who hits it a long way only got 109 or somthing similar, too all those high handicaps where have you got your swing measured, or anyone for that matter can you explain how you got your stats?

for the record i got mine tested at a ping custom fit centre and wentworth during the Match play PS sorry for bad spelling in a rush

[AnalogAG]

I would really love to play a round of golf with those who average 110MPH+. Especially, it seems, since those handicaps are about 20 and above.

I don't feel offended but I guess you have to differ between people who can accelerate a clubhead to over 100 mph and people who are able to hit a straight long shot with a clubhead speed over 100mph!

In my case, I don't drive 250 - 270 yards everytime I hit the ball because I have a swing flaw that causes to balloon the ball from time to time. And in addition to that, a one inch putt counts the same as a 300yard drive...

[niblick]

There is, a lot of the time, a correlation between club head speed and handicap. That is not to say that 20 handicaps cannot have higher swing speeds and low handicappers cannot have lower swing speeds. But the fact of the matter is it is difficult to have too low of a handicap if your swing speed is so low that you are unable to hit most greens in regulation. On the other end of that, a high swing speed is certainly not a guarantee of a low handicap, as one must know where the ball is going to produce low scores.

I played with a business acquaintence recently. He's a big guy, and absolutely murders the ball off the tee. But he'd be lucky to hit the green in 2 from 75 yards. His short game is a mess. He's the one that always comes to mind in these conversations.

My handicap went from god-knows-what down to 20 this year, partly as a result of getting fitted. X-stiff shafts were the biggest change to my sticks, and it's helped me too. One of my goals for next year is to get down to a 15. :)

[JaY_B]

I think its funny how all you 20+ handicappers claim you hit it further than a lot of tour pro's but then claim how everything else is useless, if your swing has the basic potential to drive the ball 280 down the middle your also going to have the basic potential to hit a green from 150, at most you should be playing off 15 if you hit 280, how ever if you play off 20 claiming you hit it 280 99% of you are chatting out your rear end!

[Jack_2251]

I think its funny how all you 20+ handicappers claim you hit it further than a lot of tour pro's but then claim how everything else is useless, if your swing has the basic potential to drive the ball 280 down the middle your also going to have the basic potential to hit a green from 150, at most you should be playing off 15 if you hit 280, how ever if you play off 20 claiming you hit it 280 99% of you are chatting out your rear end!

Very true!

I hit my average driver about 220-240 yards, with a swing speed of about 88. Ball speed is unknown. And yes, if you can drive 280 even if its not straight you would be a single figure handicap, because if you can drive 280, hit a wedge at a 400 yard hole.

[niblick]

I think its funny how all you 20+ handicappers claim you hit it further than a lot of tour pro's but then claim how everything else is useless, if your swing has the basic potential to drive the ball 280 down the middle your also going to have the basic potential to hit a green from 150, at most you should be playing off 15 if you hit 280, how ever if you play off 20 claiming you hit it 280 99% of you are chatting out your rear end!

I think it's funny that there's not one post in this thread where a 20 handicap makes that claim. Who's talking out of their rear end?

[crazy_horst]

I think it's funny that there's not one post in this thread where a 20 handicap makes that claim.

There have been many what would have to be assumed to be exaggerated claims on this thread (and any other having to do with speed and distance on this forum). I would imagine that's what he's referring to.

[niblick]

There have been many what would have to be assumed to be exaggerated claims on this thread (and any other having to do with speed and distance on this forum). I would imagine that's what he's referring to.

Perhaps, but he made a pretty pointed accusation based on something that hasn't happened. I'd ask him, and you if you're game, to be specific about the claims that "have to be assumed to be exaggerated", and give reasons why. You can't poke a finger in someone's chest without evidence. That's just bad manners.

I don't want this to become one of those lame chest-thumping Internet arguments. The original poster asked simply "What's your swing speed?". He did not ask "What's your percentage of fairways hit?", which, if we're attempting to determine the veracity of a claim relative to a person's handicap, would be much more pertinent. Swing speed, with no other factors considered, is almost irrelevant.

[AnalogAG]

Swing speed, with no other factors considered, is almost irrelevant.

That's my point!

Like it is sad in the Pirelli Advertisement "Power is Nothing without Control!"

[Harold]

As one of them's 20+ handicappers I don't know my swing speed but I'm guessing mid-high 80's. Any drive that finds a fairway that's past 200 yards qualifies as a good drive for me. And no, I'm not talking out my rear end.

[JaY_B]

I will point you in the direction of post 44, 45 (made by you i might add).

In other posts there is an annoying amount of golfer's claiming they hit it 280 + easily but there short game lets them down etc.

On the same note neither does it surprise me that you yourself are a 20+ handicap sticking up for the what i presume to be false claims.

What you have to understand is swing speeds needed to hit a 280 yard drive require a technically sound golf swing and you also have to have a fair amount of strength to swing the club fast enough. The tour average is something along the lines of 283.2 yards and the amateur average is around 220 yards, yet the 20 + (not even the low handicap members) are claiming to be nearer the tour average than the amateur average.

I don't blame them for the exaggeration however, as most of them will have paced it out wrong, or assumed that if you have X yards left to the green and the whole is Y yards long, then you have in theory driven the ball X amount of yards, however in another post on this forum this issue has been discussed and the general consensus is that this method is not accurate.

A lot of this exaggeration is of course a male ego issue, and a lot of it is to do with their playing partners, in my opinion in the average four ball you will have the good player, the bad player, the long player and the short but straight player, the long player is often praised and will undoubtedly be told how long he is and the long player in question will then get this "I'm so long" belief in himself and start believing he is hitting it 280 when in fact its a complete misjudgement of yardage from their playing partners.

More so a lot of the 20+ handicaps on this site will not be using equipment custom fitted to them, nor will they have a great understanding of the swing, nor will they have a technically perfect swing and nor will they play everyday, you lack the same commitment low handicaps do (generally speaking of course), tour pro's on the other hand are the complete opposite of the previous statement, and yet you are claiming to be hitting it the same distance as they do?

Most of the 20+ handicaps i doubt have ever swung it at 100+ mph and just assume they have, 100+ is quite fast and a faily solid swing is needed for this.

That was a bit of a rant but please don't accuse me of unjustified accusations, I know there will be the occasional player off 20 who has got a high swing speed but lets be honest, most amateurs in general don't swing the club 100+ and yet most the 20+ handicaps on here are claiming too.

You also say I am talking out my rear end, but can you honestly tell me that in this thread, and many other threads for that matter most players haven't exaggerated the distance they hit it??

You also may think i have exaggerated the 280+ yards number in my previous post, but i think its a pretty general yardage posted by a lot of people, of course if you don't agree with that maybe you could call it an ironic twist that i too am exaggerating the yardage, but on other peoples behalf.

JaY_B

[niblick]

I will point you in the direction of post 44, 45 (made by you i might add).

Post 44 by AnalogAG:

I don't feel offended but I guess you have to differ between people who can accelerate a clubhead to over 100 mph and people who are able to hit a straight long shot with a clubhead speed over 100mph! In my case, I don't drive 250 - 270 yards everytime I hit the ball because I have a swing flaw that causes to balloon the ball from time to time. And in addition to that, a one inch putt counts the same as a 300yard drive...

Post 45 by niblick:

I played with a business acquaintence recently. He's a big guy, and absolutely murders the ball off the tee. But he'd be lucky to hit the green in 2 from 75 yards. His short game is a mess. He's the one that always comes to mind in these conversations. My handicap went from god-knows-what down to 20 this year, partly as a result of getting fitted. X-stiff shafts were the biggest change to my sticks, and it's helped me too. One of my goals for next year is to get down to a 15. :)

I'm not sure how those support your argument.

On the same note neither does it surprise me that you yourself are a 20+ handicap sticking up for the what i presume to be false claims.

There aren't very many 20+ handicaps who have posted in this thread. Forgive me if I don't take kindly to being called a liar. I answered a simple question. I was not sticking up for anyone but myself.

What you have to understand is swing speeds needed to hit a 280 yard drive require a technically sound golf swing and you also have to have a fair amount of strength to swing the club fast enough.

Gosh, thanks. Glad you could enlighten me.

I don't blame them for the exaggeration however, as most of them will have paced it out wrong, or assumed that if you have X yards left to the green and the whole is Y yards long, then you have in theory driven the ball X amount of yards, however in another post on this forum this issue has been discussed and the general consensus is that this method is not accurate.

I guess the issue is this thread is about clubhead speed. Your tirade is about claims of distance, of which I made none.

tour pro's on the other hand are the complete opposite of the previous statement, and yet you are claiming to be hitting it the same distance as they do?

No, I'm not.

Most of the 20+ handicaps i doubt have ever swung it at 100+ mph and just assume they have, 100+ is quite fast and a faily solid swing is needed for this.

Agreed.

I know there will be the occasional player off 20 who has got a high swing speed but lets be honest, most amateurs in general don't swing the club 100+

Agreed.

and yet most the 20+ handicaps on here are claiming too.

I count 4 people with handicaps over 20 who have posted here. None made claims of distance. All made claims of head speed over 100 (106, 108-112, 107, 100-103). All fast speeds to be sure, but nothing that would lead me to call shenanigans. Any reasonably strong male could crack 100 mph with decent mechanics. Again, just talking speed here, not distance, not accuracy.

You also say I am talking out my rear end, but can you honestly tell me that in this thread, and many other threads for that matter most players haven't exaggerated the distance they hit it??

I apologize for saying you were talking out of your rear end. That was out of line. And for the record, as a rule, I think people think they hit farther than they do. I've been guilty of that, no question. I just don't enough evidence in this thread to justify your flaming of 20+ index players in general.