Thursday, August 9, 2012

Unveiling the Driving Distance Mystery

Recently, I became interested in finding actual statistics on the average driving distance for golfers based on gender and age. My goal is to be able to provide baseline figures to students who might be frustrated by perceived lack of distance. Some of the best data I received was from a gentleman who works tirelessly to promote the Tee It Forward movement.

"I don't have that specific data yet but in some sense though the question should be approached a little differently. Since distance with all clubs is a function of and directly proportional to club head speed, we'd really need to know the average club head speed for players of different ages. There is such a wide variation in swing speed for players of similar ages. While I think we all tend to lose swing speed as we age and lose muscle mass and flexibility, the percentage of decrease varies greatly from person to person. As we age, we hold onto thoughts about how far we hit the ball even though we maybe didn't hit it as far as we thought we did. This has been exacerbated by the advancements in technology that have allowed us to hold onto those thoughts longer. I suspect I hit the ball almost as far as I did when I was 17/18 but I guarantee you that it isn't because I have the same muscle mass or swing speed."

Rule of Thumb Swing Speed / Yardage:
55mph        115 yards
65mph        140 yards
76mph        165 yards  
85mph        190 yards

Here is some data that estimates optimal ball striking (O) and inefficient ball striking (I) with just a few starting demographics:

Age        Male Swing Speed   O/I                Female Swing Speed   O/I
50-59      85                              191/183         75                                  174/167
60-69      80                              183/175         65                                  146/142
70-79      70                              161/154         55                                  113/106 
80-89      60                              130-124         45                                   NA

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