Definitive Answers at Impact and Beyond

Here is some interesting, albeit older, data mined by TrackMan from the PGA and LPGA Tours….

(Please note that these are all averages)

My take away here is that slower club speeds will typically always hit the ball at lower peak heights than players with higher club speeds. My findings using TrackMan over the years have also shown me that slower player typically need to deliver more loft at impact, they need less shaft lean and they need to hit down less than their higher speed counterparts.

• In conditions that eliminated any roll, an average PGA Tour player would hit a driver and a 5-wood 500 yards; a driver and a 7- iron 441 yards; and a driver and a PW 405 yards.

• In conditions that eliminated any roll, an average LPGA Tour player would hit a driver and a 5-wood 405 yards; a driver and a 7- iron 361 yards; and a driver and a PW 327 yards.

I’m not sure about you, but those are some hefty differences. Far too many courses I play have the ladies tees way too far back! I find that in general, both men and women play golf courses that are too long for them. An interesting exercise is to multiply the distance you CARRY a 5 iron by 36 – that’s the maximum length golf course you should be playing.

This indicates that higher speed golfers have an easier time spotting a distance difference between each club. It’s amazing how many ladies say they hit all their irons the same distance! You don’t, it’s just quite often difficult to determine much of a difference. As overall club speeds get slower the player should ideally carry fewer clubs so as to be able to establish differences between clubs and reduce overlap.