2016 Distance Data from Game Golf (and "How Far do Ams Hit the Ball?")

[nevets88]

Table shows medians by handicap and age. It doesn't distinguish between male/female, but guessing data is skewed towards males who probably predominantly use Game Golf although you'd think data from women might skew the numbers lower.  250 median from 5 handicap and under. Obviously, the table isn't anything near representation of internet distances.

Quote

Game Golf, a wearable real-time shot-tracking system that received Golf Digest's Editors' Choice for Best Game Analyzer, provided data regarding the average driving distance from rounds played in 2016 (April to September). Breaking it down in two divisions -- age and handicap -- here are the median driving distances from golfers across the world:

http://www.golfdigest.com/story/how-far-do-average-golfers-really-hit-it-new-distance-data-will-surprise-you

[Jeremie Boop]

What the "average" golfer does is of absolutely no interest to me. What I care about is what my stats show and where I need to improve. I can see that this may be another thing to throw out at someone who claims they hit the ball further than others think is possible though.

[dennyjones]

Maybe I missed something in the article but I didn't see the sample size.   I realize this was all of the Game Golf data in 2016 but what percentage of golfers does this represent?   I personally only know one person that uses Game Golf.  The numbers to me, seem a little low for my age.

[Kalnoky]

I would say those median driver numbers are very accurate for my current age and handicap. 

[RandallT]

I respect that the chart they used is about as basic as you get.  File..New. Paste data into cells.  No formatting.  Leave a couple columns blank. Props on them for not making it a slick info-graphic!

Hopefully the data is good.  We all know that garbage in means garbage out. When they start talking about GAME GOLF user data, you have to wonder if they've cleaned it up such that they're only using rounds that were entered properly.

Since it is a median, not an average (that can be massively skewed by outliers), my thought is to consider it representative of reality. Definitely a bit lower distances than I'd have guessed.

 

[bkuehn1952]

Nice find @nevets88.  Individuals will find they don't match up perfectly since the handicap ranges are large and the numbers shown are median numbers.  Still, is does tend to support the idea that a 15 handicapper who averages over 250 yards off the tee is atypical.

 

I like the tag line to the article.

"Of course, these figures are just for show. The only number that really matters resides at the end of your scorecard."

 

[mcanadiens]

Not that it really matters, but it's a bit heartening since my numbers are more or less in line with what they had there. I'm not that short. The people I play are just too damn long.

[cutchemist42]

Remember seeing something similar except with clubhead speed in LSW, compared to HI. This actually seems in line with what I was expecting.

 

[iacas]

6 minutes ago, cutchemist42 said:

Remember seeing something similar except with clubhead speed in LSW, compared to HI. This actually seems in line with what I was expecting.

We had a tee shot distance chart. Honestly I'd have to check whether it was our data or the data from FlightScope or Trackman (the company - our data would be from a FlightScope). They were all so close it almost didn't matter which we used in the end.

That's carry yardage.

[DeadMan]

Seems about right to me. People really don't have an appreciation for how difficult it is to hit a golf ball 250 yards. I can't tell you how many times people have seen a drive I've hit and said, "wow, that must be over 300 yards easily!" But then I get up to the ball, and it's nowhere near 300 yards.

[p1n9183]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

We had a tee shot distance chart. Honestly I'd have to check whether it was our data or the data from FlightScope or Trackman (the company - our data would be from a FlightScope). They were all so close it almost didn't matter which we used in the end.

That's carry yardage.

In my case this graph is really accurate. My carry it´s 250 yards with 1 handicap.

[cipher]

I think there is a pretty clear tee it forward argument in those GG numbers.

[p1n9183]

The magic World is Average and i think everyone is using it the wrong way.

If my good hitted driver goes in total (carry + roll) 280 and my poor goes 260 my average it´s not 270 !

Lost of my drivers hit trees, or carry directly into a hazard for 0 roll. In the 2nd case.. it all carry, between 240-260 but the first one depend on how soon i hit the three... maybe at 200.. 150 or just 50 yards.

So my driving average í´m sure it´s less than 270. Obviously for strategy pourposes i use 270 yards as my "average" distance from the tee.

In the stats of the 1st post we all agree that they are lower than we spected but 2 things come into play, that they are the real average distances and we always think we hit it longer than we actually do. (yes, one time i hit a driver 340 yards.. 320.. 310 some times in summer with the wind... but i also hit 200 in winter against the wind with 0 roll.       

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

The magic World is Average and i think everyone is using it the wrong way.

I think they used the median value, not the mean.

[Hazsa]

Seems pretty bang on to me. 26 years old with a HC of 12, I invariably find my ball anywhere between 215 and 240 yards down the hole.

Before I got my GPS Watch I'd tell people 250 was my average.  

[cutchemist42]

Yeah ever since getting GG, I've been way more realistic about all of my shots including driver. I've reached high 280s only twice, and I still had a friend at a Christmas party say I'm a bomb off the tee. (He thought both were 300 during the round)

 It just so happened I hit those two on the same round with that friend and had to tell him what I actually plan for 220-230 for my tee shots.

I play with only 1 guy  I know  that actually gives an honest driver assessment on his 250 average claim..

[JonMA1]

I carry quite a bit longer per handicap and a bit longer per age compared to the charts. Still, I've got to be leaving a lot of yardage out there. My swing just isn't very good, though you could say the same about anyone in my HC range.

For the most part, I agree with @Jeremie Boop. What others do shouldn't be of that much concern. I'm not athletic and I don't have good form. Can't do much about the lack of athleticism and can only try to improve the other.

[Braivo]

This is hauntingly accurate. @iacas has been saying something similar for a long time. I always thought my drives were "around 250" until I started tracking stats, turns out they are about 220 on average, hence my mid-teens handicap.