That is interesting. Thank you for the reply Christian. I was expecting a slight increase in attack angle with the driver as well as max height for the PGA.
When you say “PW”, are you going by the stamp on the bottom of the club or by a normalized mapping of club loft and length? It could be interesting to also see what the average club specs are that produce these results.
Averages are interesting and it would be really interesting to compare those numbers to both ends of the spectrum such as a Dustin J. or Luke List and a Luke Donald or a Soren Kjeldsen on the other end
LPGA driving distance is listed as 218 avg carry, but the LPGA website lists total driving avg for players ranked #1 through #153 as 275y through 233y. Even accounting for total vs carry distance, why are the trackman stats so much lower than the stats listed by the LPGA?
Average total distance YTD is 251.4 yards. That’s an average of 33.4 yards of bounce and roll. The landing angle for LPGA drives is flatter (shallower) than that of PGA TOUR players so you would expect a little more bounce and roll for the ladies. Note: the last on-course measurements by TrackMan were in 2015 and that year the average total distance was 248.4 so maybe carry distance has increased a few yards since then.
Also, it is unknown which holes are being used each week for determining driving distance. On the PGA TOUR, they try to pick two holes that are as flat as possible, are in opposite directions to account for wind, and where most golfers will hit driver. There could be a slight bias based on the hole(s) chosen that fractionally increase total distance. Such as, the holes chosen play slightly downhill on average. Not only will a slightly downhill hole increase bounce and roll but it will also affect a direct comparison to carry because our carry value is “carry flat”.
In the end, it’s difficult to use an apples to apples comparison between the two because of how, when, and where the two statistics are captured. That being said, 30 yards of bounce and roll is not unrealistic given a land angle of 36-37 degrees, low spin, and the average fairway conditions.
I have measured the driving on the designated holes at LPGA events and suspect there could be some inflation on their end. Intentional on their end to make the ladies look better? I dunno… but I’ve seen the tees up from where it was measured giving a 5-10 yard edge.
Hi. Thanks for this info. If these stats are accurate then why are pros on tv. Like all of them it seems hitting like a 8 iron into a 190 yard par 3 tee shot etc??? What are we missing. I understand wind and conditions factor in but I never see them hitting a 9 iron for a 150 yrd par 3. Any insights from people in the know?
Because you only see the top players in the world on TV, they are usually very long compared to the rest of the field. There are a couple of hundred players in these stats not just the big bombers like Rory, Champ and Koepka and such. There is a gap of 46 yards between the top and the bottom of the tour average driving distances.
Par 3’s with a tee on the ground will make the ball much higher. These are averages, you often see Tiger use a PW from 110 yards, he prefers to control a 110 yard shot with a PW than kill a 56.
normal old folks should measure against LPGA. Snior tour players are former regular tour players so they still murder the ball and should no way be considered in comparing to us regular folks, regardless of age.
Sorry we haven’t collected much data from the Champions Tour. But the combine data is available and can be filtered by Tour. https://mytrackman.com/#combine
Hi Christian, Any chance we can get some data for Tour Av. dynamic lofts (D thru 56)? I’m trawling through the web and finding very little. Any guidance would be very much appreciated.
If you have the TrackMan iOS app or TPS installed you can see the data for some of the tour players. I just made a quick avg. for the current OWGR top10 players, dynamic loft for the driver would be 13,8 deg. :-)
Old post, but was discussing this a few days ago and I was poking around. Interesting info. Being a stats nerd, it would be interesting to know how many total shots were recorded to calc each result, and low/high just for grins.
Without a doubt the LPGA inflates their stats. Want proof? Try this. Next time you watch an LPGA event on tv, note what clubs they claim the girls are hitting into par 3s. Today I am watching the leaders at the women’s PGA championship. On a 187 yard par 3 they are hitting 6 irons and landing 7 yards short of the flag, slightly down wind. It is cool today because they are almost all wearing long pants and long sleeves. Now extrapolate that 6 iron out to a driver where they are carrying the ball 215-220. That makes no sense whatsoever. 180 yard 6 iron even down wind in cool weather, is a pretty strong poke considering the average 6 iron clubhead speed is about 78 MPH as reported above. If we work forward from the 6 iron and add 10 yards of carry per iron, that would equate to 190 yard 5 iron and a 200 yard 4 iron, IN THE AIR. Uh, no. As a scratch player I can tell you, 200 yards in the air on a cool day with a traditionally-lofted 4 iron is a big strike. The ladies long drive champions are in this range but not LPGA players, especially girls under 5’8″ tall. Nope. Physics.
Given how far left the media has pushed in the past 5 years and their insistence on saying there are no differences between men and women, I don’t trust any of the yardages I see reported by these people. .You may not like the facts and you may wanna shoot the messenger – this is the standard of the day – but facts don’t care about your feelings. The LPGA numbers are way, way off.
These stats for PGA are identical to 2014? 3 years with no changes on Tour avg?
We haven’t seen any huge changes over the past years, it’s more about roundings.
For example, Avg. Club Speed for a driver:
2014: 113.0 mph
2015: 113.3 mph
2016: 112.9 mph
And it’s pretty much similar with the other numbers.
That is interesting. Thank you for the reply Christian. I was expecting a slight increase in attack angle with the driver as well as max height for the PGA.
You have Central Limit Theorem working for you. Not very many different cardholders on tour.
Very cool to have some new data. Interesting to see the slight changes from the old to the new. Thanks!
When you say “PW”, are you going by the stamp on the bottom of the club or by a normalized mapping of club loft and length? It could be interesting to also see what the average club specs are that produce these results.
It’s Clubs where the player called it a PW :-)
clubs should be given a loft number now instead of a club number! right on
Get a set of Ben Hogans. They use loft instead standard 3-pw
Ben Hogan do!
You should just know your clubs and their distances and not worry about your 7i vs another guys.
Averages are interesting and it would be really interesting to compare those numbers to both ends of the spectrum such as a Dustin J. or Luke List and a Luke Donald or a Soren Kjeldsen on the other end
Stats/ avg’s haven’t changed ?
LPGA driving distance is listed as 218 avg carry, but the LPGA website lists total driving avg for players ranked #1 through #153 as 275y through 233y. Even accounting for total vs carry distance, why are the trackman stats so much lower than the stats listed by the LPGA?
Average total distance YTD is 251.4 yards. That’s an average of 33.4 yards of bounce and roll. The landing angle for LPGA drives is flatter (shallower) than that of PGA TOUR players so you would expect a little more bounce and roll for the ladies. Note: the last on-course measurements by TrackMan were in 2015 and that year the average total distance was 248.4 so maybe carry distance has increased a few yards since then.
Also, it is unknown which holes are being used each week for determining driving distance. On the PGA TOUR, they try to pick two holes that are as flat as possible, are in opposite directions to account for wind, and where most golfers will hit driver. There could be a slight bias based on the hole(s) chosen that fractionally increase total distance. Such as, the holes chosen play slightly downhill on average. Not only will a slightly downhill hole increase bounce and roll but it will also affect a direct comparison to carry because our carry value is “carry flat”.
In the end, it’s difficult to use an apples to apples comparison between the two because of how, when, and where the two statistics are captured. That being said, 30 yards of bounce and roll is not unrealistic given a land angle of 36-37 degrees, low spin, and the average fairway conditions.
I have measured the driving on the designated holes at LPGA events and suspect there could be some inflation on their end. Intentional on their end to make the ladies look better? I dunno… but I’ve seen the tees up from where it was measured giving a 5-10 yard edge.
That could explain some of the discrepancy above
Hi. Thanks for this info. If these stats are accurate then why are pros on tv. Like all of them it seems hitting like a 8 iron into a 190 yard par 3 tee shot etc??? What are we missing. I understand wind and conditions factor in but I never see them hitting a 9 iron for a 150 yrd par 3. Any insights from people in the know?
Because you only see the top players in the world on TV, they are usually very long compared to the rest of the field. There are a couple of hundred players in these stats not just the big bombers like Rory, Champ and Koepka and such. There is a gap of 46 yards between the top and the bottom of the tour average driving distances.
Par 3’s with a tee on the ground will make the ball much higher. These are averages, you often see Tiger use a PW from 110 yards, he prefers to control a 110 yard shot with a PW than kill a 56.
Do you have these same stats for the Champions Tour? So use old f@&ks have something to compare our average stats with …
normal old folks should measure against LPGA. Snior tour players are former regular tour players so they still murder the ball and should no way be considered in comparing to us regular folks, regardless of age.
Do you have similar information for the Champions tour?
Sorry we haven’t collected much data from the Champions Tour.
But the combine data is available and can be filtered by Tour.
https://mytrackman.com/#combine
Hi Christian, Any chance we can get some data for Tour Av. dynamic lofts (D thru 56)? I’m trawling through the web and finding very little. Any guidance would be very much appreciated.
Hi Nas,
If you have the TrackMan iOS app or TPS installed you can see the data for some of the tour players.
I just made a quick avg. for the current OWGR top10 players, dynamic loft for the driver would be 13,8 deg. :-)
Just saw this data. Why are the men’s attack angle so much steeper than the women’s for the same or similar clubs?
What is the average for a 16 year old?
Are the 3-wood numbers from a tee or from the deck?
Actually, for all of these numbers, are they tee shots or fairway shots?
Is there much of a difference between tee shots and fairway shots?
Old post, but was discussing this a few days ago and I was poking around. Interesting info. Being a stats nerd, it would be interesting to know how many total shots were recorded to calc each result, and low/high just for grins.
Interested in seeing the trackman stats for pga champions tour.
Ball speed, swing speed, length through the bag etc.
Thank you.
Without a doubt the LPGA inflates their stats. Want proof? Try this. Next time you watch an LPGA event on tv, note what clubs they claim the girls are hitting into par 3s. Today I am watching the leaders at the women’s PGA championship. On a 187 yard par 3 they are hitting 6 irons and landing 7 yards short of the flag, slightly down wind. It is cool today because they are almost all wearing long pants and long sleeves. Now extrapolate that 6 iron out to a driver where they are carrying the ball 215-220. That makes no sense whatsoever. 180 yard 6 iron even down wind in cool weather, is a pretty strong poke considering the average 6 iron clubhead speed is about 78 MPH as reported above. If we work forward from the 6 iron and add 10 yards of carry per iron, that would equate to 190 yard 5 iron and a 200 yard 4 iron, IN THE AIR. Uh, no. As a scratch player I can tell you, 200 yards in the air on a cool day with a traditionally-lofted 4 iron is a big strike. The ladies long drive champions are in this range but not LPGA players, especially girls under 5’8″ tall. Nope. Physics.
Given how far left the media has pushed in the past 5 years and their insistence on saying there are no differences between men and women, I don’t trust any of the yardages I see reported by these people. .You may not like the facts and you may wanna shoot the messenger – this is the standard of the day – but facts don’t care about your feelings. The LPGA numbers are way, way off.
what are ideal putting stats?