3 iron distance at age 40

The model

The age model puts driver club head speed at 88 mph for a golfer of 40: it peaks in the twenties, eases slowly to 30 and then falls about 0.35 mph a year, anchored to a 15 handicap at 30. Every club swings at the same fraction of its tour speed, which gives the 3 iron 77 mph, a smash factor of 1.41, 108 mph of ball speed and 161 yards of carry on the published tour row.

By decade

The same club across the age bands. Distance ages slowly and then quickly: the last column is how far each decade sits behind the peak.

3 iron carry by age

What the yards cost

Being 4 yards shorter with a 3 iron costs about 0.01 of a stroke per approach on the published fairway table, because each approach starts that much further back than the 150 yard reference. Off the tee the model’s driver at 40 totals 224 yards, so a 400 yard par 4 leaves 176 yards instead of the 170 yards it leaves at 20: 3.06 strokes to hole out against 3.03. The tee that puts approaches back where the table is flat is worth more than any swing change.

From 161 yards in the fairway the tour average needs 2.98 strokes to hole out and 3.23 from the rough, so a 3 iron approach that finishes 25 feet from the hole is worth +0.05 against the tour average for a golfer of 40, and one that finishes 40 feet away -0.07.

The bag at 40

Every club at the same age, so the 3 iron reads against the rest of the set.

Every club for a golfer of 40

Driver speed 88 mph on the age model.

The gap wedge row continues the pitching wedge trend and is labeled modeled; every other row is the published tour anchor scaled to the speed.

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

• 3 iron distance
• 3 iron at age 30
• 3 iron at age 50
• Driver distance by age
• Swing speed by age
• Club distance calculator

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 age model eases a peak club head speed by decade and swings the 3 iron at the same fraction of its tour speed; the carry is the published tour anchor at that speed, and your own launch monitor carries replace it in the app.