How far do you bomb it off the tee?

[Javs]

Found an interesting article that details how far the average male golfer hits their drives. https://www.golfmonthly.com/features/how-far-do-male-golfers-hit-their-drives?utm_term=CFEB69DA-8695-406A-822D-71925C4B6E39&lrh=afabd56f8788996dec1eed39e53e29756a4fe34c1aff9fa4fdfa9f254cbb042a&utm_campaign=075440B8-601C-4440-A9B1-8A7444061AA8&utm_medium=email&utm_content=6DD7577D-810F-4F6B-A198-8A5F8593E219&utm_source=SmartBrief
 

I agree with the average and handicap breakdown. I found personally that I hit it a little farther than the average for my handicap on the chart. 

[KC Golf]

Arccos data is very interesting data.  Their findings are quite insightful.  Lou at Arccos gives very good insight on his podcast ans his newsletter.  

I am not surprised by these results.  Long drives correlate to better scoring.

[fatewithabadge]

Right now i am 17.5 Handicap.  I hit my driver on average around 250 yards.  which is above the average of 211 the article refers too for my handicap.  But I also have gotten myself a launch monitor and go out to hit as many days as i can, time permitting (just started to learn truely golf this year).  The constant reps help me out a lot.  My higher handicap is more of a produce of lack of consistancy and decision making and not so much power.  

Edited Thursday at 03:16 PM by fatewithabadge

[KC Golf]

3 minutes ago, fatewithabadge said:

Right now i am 17.5 Handicap.  I hit my driver on average around 250 yards.  which is above the average of 211 the article refers too for my handicap.  But I also have gotten myself a launch monitor and go out to hit as many days as i can, time permitting (just started to learn truely golf this year).  The constant reps help me out a lot. 

I am confident that if you use the same level of effort on your 120 yard and less wedge and putting practice, you can cut your index in half quite quickly.  Hope you keep improving.  I think the Arccos stats are on your side! 

[Erin B]

45 minutes ago, Javs said:

Found an interesting article that details how far the average male golfer hits their drives. https://www.golfmonthly.com/features/how-far-do-male-golfers-hit-their-drives?utm_term=CFEB69DA-8695-406A-822D-71925C4B6E39&lrh=afabd56f8788996dec1eed39e53e29756a4fe34c1aff9fa4fdfa9f254cbb042a&utm_campaign=075440B8-601C-4440-A9B1-8A7444061AA8&utm_medium=email&utm_content=6DD7577D-810F-4F6B-A198-8A5F8593E219&utm_source=SmartBrief
 

I agree with the average and handicap breakdown. I found personally that I hit it a little farther than the average for my handicap on the chart. 

I am having similar results, but when I add in all par 4 and 5 tee shots it's closer to the 234 yards. I don't always tee off with a driver.

[funkyjudge]

Based on my handicap of 13.2, I am considerably longer than average with my driver (about 22-25 yards longer, at 245+). If you factor age into the equation (I’m 75+ years old), I am sure that I am about 40-50 yards longer with the driver than the average for golfers of my age.

[Javs]

1 hour ago, Erin B said:

I am having similar results, but when I add in all par 4 and 5 tee shots it's closer to the 234 yards. I don't always tee off with a driver.

Agree that hole design dependent dictates which club I use off the tee. However, give me a downwind par 5 that is inviting to a hard, high draw and that is go time!

27 minutes ago, funkyjudge said:

Based on my handicap of 13.2, I am considerably longer than average with my driver (about 22-25 yards longer, at 245+). If you factor age into the equation (I’m 75+ years old), I am sure that I am about 40-50 yards longer with the driver than the average for golfers of my age.

Because you are a stud Marine!

[Shifty]

lol, I hit it way further than others at my HCP according to the article.  Guess that exposes that I suck at other parts of my game.

My guess is approach shots are my weakness (not a guess really, I know).

Edited Thursday at 04:32 PM by Shifty

[Javs]

3 minutes ago, Shifty said:

lol, I hit it way further than others at my HCP.  Guess that exposes that I suck at other parts of my game.

My guess is approach shots are my weakness (not a guess really, I know).

Golf is hard!

[Indy_Oz]

I saw that article too (and I've seen other similar ones). I know I'm longer than my handicap average is and Arccos tells me my 'off the tee' handicap is around scratch or better. I know that stat comes from the shots gained due to distance and I've greatly improved driver accuracy since switching.

As my Arccos stats show, short game is currently killing my scores and overall handicap, but I've known that for a while and I'm working on it...

 

 

[Warrior42111]

It would be interesting to see what the standard deviation is by level, I also wonder if the say top 10 and bottom 10 percent were used? As a 15 handicap I can hit about 260-280, but I can also duff one with the best of them. 

So if you hit 5 260yds then hit a bad one OB 100yds well the avg is 230. 

[vandyland]

I will say that my average is probably around 260 total with the potential to hit it 290 total on occasion but also capable of hitting some spinny 240 yarders as well. 

[Off Map Oscar]

I question arccos sample size.  I looked but didn't see percentages of users by handicap. I'm a shotscope guy so I don't have any skin in the game but it seems really low numbers. Most the guys I play with are in the 18 to 10 range and we all get 250 off the tee regularly.  Sure driving distance leads to lower scores but if you're getting fairway and 220 you're well within the range to shoot even par.  It's every  else that seems to screw my friends up. 

 

I'd like to see #of putts per round by handicap and what their demographic numbers are. I know lots of guys at our league that are scratch or single digit and none of them use arccos or any logging data. It would be curious to see if the distance data is short cause maybe the higher handicaps are more plentiful and the propencity to flub a shot cuts the average dramatically. For example if 50% of the user group is a 20 handicap and they top a tee shot 50 yards 20% of the time numbers will be heavily skewed lower than say a performance average. That throws out everything under 150 yards.

 

[Shapotomous]

I am assuming this is total yards rather than carry since it is arccos data.  I am surprised that the top end isnt longer but only 252.  All the + cappers on forums that write about their 300+ yard bombs must not be using arccos.  

The 245 average for 0-4 is about my carry so with a little rollout i might be slightly longer than average.   I am playing in a state sr tourney in a few weeks with a bunch of 0-4's.   It will be interesting to see if these 60+ yo's in the super senior bracket are moving it farther than 245.

[Shankster]

Depends.  Into the wind a bomb is 233.  Down wind, 315+.  No wind a 270-290 yard drive is a well struck drive.  There are outliers that I miss hit badly that end up at around the 255 mark, but those are less and less nowadays.  I plan to start working on swing speed again.  I got upwards of 120+ CHS speed when I was doing it regularly, but the ball ballooned so bad with my driver/shaft combo that it was useless, way too much spin, never had it on a monitor but I bet it was close to 4000 or more.  
 

Now, I have a driver/shaft combo that will allow for the speed.  Just hope my body can take the training… 

[Javs]

8 hours ago, Shapotomous said:

I am assuming this is total yards rather than carry since it is arccos data.  I am surprised that the top end isnt longer but only 252.  All the + cappers on forums that write about their 300+ yard bombs must not be using arccos.  

The 245 average for 0-4 is about my carry so with a little rollout i might be slightly longer than average.   I am playing in a state sr tourney in a few weeks with a bunch of 0-4's.   It will be interesting to see if these 60+ yo's in the super senior bracket are moving it farther than 245.

I have never used arcoss or shot scope. I do think most people over estimate how far they are actually hitting it. I’m in the 60 plus category and can still hit it pretty far with the occasional bomb. I do believe that being able to pound it and keep it in play is a great advantage. 

[Javs]

9 hours ago, Off Map Oscar said:

I question arccos sample size.  I looked but didn't see percentages of users by handicap. I'm a shotscope guy so I don't have any skin in the game but it seems really low numbers. Most the guys I play with are in the 18 to 10 range and we all get 250 off the tee regularly.  Sure driving distance leads to lower scores but if you're getting fairway and 220 you're well within the range to shoot even par.  It's every  else that seems to screw my friends up. 

 

I'd like to see #of putts per round by handicap and what their demographic numbers are. I know lots of guys at our league that are scratch or single digit and none of them use arccos or any logging data. It would be curious to see if the distance data is short cause maybe the higher handicaps are more plentiful and the propencity to flub a shot cuts the average dramatically. For example if 50% of the user group is a 20 handicap and they top a tee shot 50 yards 20% of the time numbers will be heavily skewed lower than say a performance average. That throws out everything under 150 yards.

 

That’s a pretty rare group that everyone is 250 plus regularly. Especially if they are older. The point on putts would be an entirely different topic. I believe that would be broken down to 3 putt avoidance and make percentage inside 4 feet. 

[Off Map Oscar]

I think there is a lot more that goes into it than just handicap was the point and it's a pretty diverse age group. The older guys over 50 are not getting 250 consistently. 

The under 45 guys are. I just checked my shotscope average, p average and longest for the last 15 rounds. My average is 248. My P average which i think means performance is 283 and my longest is 317. I also never tee off with a 3 wood. I have better consistency 80% swinging my driver off the tee to get to a dog leg turn or avoid a hazard. 

P average throws out stuff that is obviously a flub. Things that bring that average down dramatically and aren't indicative of what happens when you actually make contact.  The whole point of tracking data at least for me is to make better decisions on course. If I usually hit a club xxx far and I top one 10 feet now my average just lost 15 yards and the metric of average distance is useless for club selection.  So on the shot scope system if gives you P Average. Tossing out the junk. 

Which I don't use arccos so I don't know if that's an option that aeccos has or they use when publishing these "average numbers". If they don't toss the trash then it makes since that higher handicaps are not as consistent of ball strikers and there for the distance average is so low.

Which now that I've rambled. It's all comes back to the sample size and demographic that these stats represent.  I'm not saying they are wrong numbers i just don't feel that two data points is enough to measure myself against and say that it checks out. 

 

For example.  How about elevation.  

I'm 4500 feet. Are they correcting for that? I probably loose 15 to 20 yards at sea level.  

[tony@CIC]

Hmmm - interesting data. I don't dispute it since it is empirical data but something's a miss here. Their comment 

"As you can see in the graph above, the differential between each handicap group increases in line with the index, further highlighting the importance of driving distance in playing better golf"

A 30 handicap hitting 183 yds? and they want you to focus on the drive? Since a lot of par 4s are in the 380 - 420 range,  I'd offer that for the 30 handicapper, the focus should be on the second shot and/or short game. 

[Shapotomous]

42 minutes ago, tony@CIC said:

Hmmm - interesting data. I don't dispute it since it is empirical data but something's a miss here. Their comment 

"As you can see in the graph above, the differential between each handicap group increases in line with the index, further highlighting the importance of driving distance in playing better golf"

A 30 handicap hitting 183 yds? and they want you to focus on the drive? Since a lot of par 4s are in the 380 - 420 range,  I'd offer that for the 30 handicapper, the focus should be on the second shot and/or short game. 

If they really are hitting drives 183 total yards then the tees they play should have 300 yard par 4's at the longest.  That would leave a 5i or less for their 2nd shot.  

As others have said i think the duffed drive must be bringing down the overall average or maybe other clubs off the tee aren't being taken out.  When i play with other low 'caps i am certainly not at or above average in driver distance as this would indicate.

[GolfSpy_APH]

I'm a 250-260 player. Of course good days are better and bad days are worse but I am consistently between 230 and 240 meters here which is plenty far enough for me.

[russtopherb]

I hit it 330 yards. Doesn't everyone else on the internet?????

I'm good for 240-250 when I hit it straight. I've hit a few longer than that this season (some MUCH longer) but I was also aided by wind and dried out fairways. But my average is right in that 240-250 range. 

[funkyjudge]

I realize that I am blessed with far greater than average distance for my age, although that has been declining steady over the last five years, particularly following my two cancer surgeries and the bone and blood infections that I got following one of those surgeries in late 2020.

Playing in a statewide senior golf league with more than 320 golfers, plus on a winter golf tour with about 50 golfers who play in the senior division (plus a handful of scratch seniors who play in the open division), I see a very wide range of 60-plus year old golfers on a regular basis. The average distances that these senior golfers hit their drivers range from less than 160 yards to more than 260 yards. On my senior travel team, my 245+ yard driving average doesn’t even put me in the top two in distance on my own team, and there are a few guys in the league, including two plus-handicap guys, who drive the ball 275+ yards. However, there are plenty of guys who can’t get close to 200 yards with their drives. If I had to guess, I would estimate that the average driver distance for this 320-player league is about 190-195 yards.

The winter golf tour is another story altogether. Because all golfers, from the 35-40 pros and more than a dozen scratch amateurs in the open division to the 80-something guys in the senior division, hit from the same tees (most courses are set up to play between 6,200 and 6,500 or 6,600 yards), shorter hitters don’t generally play on the winter tour. I am about average in distance within the senior division, and we do have a few seniors who knock the ball out there close to 300 yards, even when the fairways are not frozen. With only a couple exceptions, once guys get up into their mid-late 80s, they retire from this tour. There was a guy who played on the tour until he reached 94 years old, and we do still have one 89 year old, but he is a 11-time club champion and has more than a dozen holes-in-one. At age 88, he was still hitting the ball about 200 yards off the tee last season.

My point is that there are always exceptions to the rules, and the survey numbers presented are only averages within whatever sample sizes were used in each handicap category.

[Berg Ryman]

I fall into that average around 230ish off the tee, maybe pushing 240 for where I am, but here's thing. My driver combo is super accurate. I've perhaps admittedly taken most of the top end out of the driver with a higher lofted head and higher launching shaft, but I don't miss fairways that often and when I do it isn't by much. Playability over maximum distance has been my key to better scores this year.

[RetiredBoomer]

Having a repeatable driver distance has never been a thing with me.

I now have a single fairway wood with which,
from the deck,
I can hit a reliable 200 or so yards of air carry, time after time
if the lie isn't too bad. 

It's like a 3-wood with 6-wood loft, made by Callaway.

No need to bag more than that
because I'm not going to do better than that with a stronger lofted fairway wood anyway.

Driver is totally different.

Any driver tee-shot between 215 and 240 yards doesn't make my blink once.  
That's a perfectly normal range, with 225 probably being the average.
That's about as far as anybody in our group can hit a drive anymore.
And on our golf course, that's long enough for decent scoring, even from the tips.

Sometimes, even at my age, I do hit a bomb beyond the usual range,
but that usually puts me where I don't need to be.

 

 

[bens197]

I’d like to think @Berg Ryman can validate I am around 285-295 routinely off the tee.  I did catch one this week 325, stuck it to 8’ and did what I do best…miss the birdie short.

I’ve seen noticeable gains in my 3 wood more recently where I am seeing that travel 265-275 of late which has been very fun.

[funkyjudge]

4 minutes ago, bens197 said:

I’d like to think @Berg Ryman can validate I am around 285-295 routinely off the tee.  I did catch one this week 325, stuck it to 8’ and did what I do best…miss the birdie short.

I’ve seen noticeable gains in my 3 wood more recently where I am seeing that travel 265-275 of late which has been very fun.

I would love to have a 3-wood that I could hit 265-275 yards; actually, I would love to have a 3-wood that I could hit reliably either from the tee or from good fairway lies!

Until earlier this year, I was hitting a 16.5* 4-wood and hitting it pretty well….about 225-235 yards on average. However, that is no longer the case. Sometimes I hit a great tee shot with the 4-wood, and other times I hit crappy high blocks or low hooks with it, both from the tee and off the fairway. Because of this, I have recently resorted to hitting an 18* hybrid or a 19* “utility wood” off the tee and from the fairway whenever I want to hit the ball about 200-215 yards.

[bens197]

18 minutes ago, funkyjudge said:

I would love to have a 3-wood that I could hit 265-275 yards; actually, I would love to have a 3-wood that I could hit reliably either from the tee or from good fairway lies!

Until earlier this year, I was hitting a 16.5* 4-wood and hitting it pretty well….about 225-235 yards on average. However, that is no longer the case. Sometimes I hit a great tee shot with the 4-wood, and other times I hit crappy high blocks or low hooks with it, both from the tee and off the fairway. Because of this, I have recently resorted to hitting an 18* hybrid or a 19* “utility wood” off the tee and from the fairway whenever I want to hit the ball about 200-215 yards.

This was something Ryan and I discussed often. He’s found his unicorn with the Stealth / NEMSIS combo. IMO it’s the most difficult club to find which is why I often see most golfers find one and stick with it. It took me a long time to find one I love and it’s so nice to have some reliability without wondering which side of the planet I’ll end up hitting it towards. 

[Berg Ryman]

51 minutes ago, bens197 said:

I’d like to think @Berg Ryman can validate I am around 285-295 routinely off the tee.  I did catch one this week 325, stuck it to 8’ and did what I do best…miss the birdie short.

I’ve seen noticeable gains in my 3 wood more recently where I am seeing that travel 265-275 of late which has been very fun.

Will confirm, can bomb.

[golfinnut]

Bomb it ... probably not anymore.  I "hand grenade" it down the fairway