3 iron distance

At tour speed

The anchor row for the 3 iron is the published tour average: 98 mph of club head speed, 142 mph of ball speed, a smash factor of 1.45 and 212 yards of carry, which rolls to about 220 yards on a fairway landing. Carry is ball speed multiplied by 1.49 yards per mile per hour, the club’s own ratio from that row, and ball speed is club head speed multiplied by smash factor.

By swing speed

Slower swings strike the ball a little less cleanly, so the model eases smash factor by 0.01 for every 5 mph below the tour speed, floored at 90 percent of the tour value. The table runs the 3 iron from 60 mph to 105 mph; each row has its own page with the rest of the bag at the same speed.

3 iron carry by club head speed

By handicap

The handicap model ties driver speed to handicap (106 mph for scratch, less 0.95 mph per stroke) and swings every club at the same fraction of its tour speed. The last column prices the yards behind scratch on the published fairway table: every approach played from that much further back than a 150 yard reference.

3 iron carry by handicap

By age

The age model peaks club head speed in the twenties and eases it by decade, anchored to a 15 handicap at 30. A 3 iron at 20 carries 165 yards on the model; at 60 it carries 147 yards, 18 yards shorter.

3 iron carry by age

The clubs either side

For a 15 handicap the hybrid carries 178 yards and the 4 iron 161 yards, so the 3 iron owns the band from about 164 yards to 173 yards: a gap of 10 yards above it and 7 yards below. Gaps near ten yards are what a well built bag looks like; a gap over 20 is the one to fix.

From 168 yards in the fairway the tour average needs 3.02 strokes to hole out and 3.26 from the rough, so a 3 iron approach that finishes 25 feet from the hole is worth +0.09 against the tour average for a 15 handicap, and one that finishes 40 feet away -0.04.

Every page for this club

The 3 iron at each handicap, each swing speed and each age, each with the whole bag at the same setting.

• 3 iron, scratch
• 3 iron, 5 handicap
• 3 iron, 10 handicap
• 3 iron, 15 handicap
• 3 iron, 20 handicap
• 3 iron, 25 handicap
• 3 iron, 30 handicap
• 3 iron at 70 mph
• 3 iron at 75 mph
• 3 iron at 80 mph
• 3 iron at 85 mph
• 3 iron at 90 mph
• 3 iron at 95 mph
• 3 iron at 100 mph
• 3 iron at age 20
• 3 iron at age 30
• 3 iron at age 40
• 3 iron at age 50
• 3 iron at age 60
• 3 iron at age 70

In PinFlag

Import a launch monitor session and PinFlag turns your 3 iron into a pattern of your own carries, labeled Measured, that stands behind every target you price on the course. Shot Cloud draws the real shots around the spot you are considering, on the hole in front of you, so a tucked pin is compared with the middle of the green on your real spread, not a single yardage.

Every shot you log with the 3 iron on the course records the target and the result, so the pattern keeps growing from real rounds, and Insights shows the club’s proximity, the shots it cost and the shots it won across a season.

Related

• Hybrid distance
• 4 iron distance
• Club distances by handicap
• Club distance calculator
• Launch monitor analyzer
• Every club, priced

Sources

• PGA TOUR statistics
• Golf simulator and launch monitor, Wikipedia
• How PinFlag calculates strokes gained

Every figure on this page is computed from the published baselines, the same ones PinFlag prices your shots with. The scope of the figures: The 3 iron figures are the published tour ball speed and carry anchor scaled by club head speed, with the handicap and age models stated on the page; your own launch monitor session replaces them in the app.