8 iron distance

At tour speed

The anchor row for the 8 iron is the published tour average: 87 mph of club head speed, 115 mph of ball speed, a smash factor of 1.32 and 160 yards of carry, which rolls to about 166 yards on a fairway landing. Carry is ball speed multiplied by 1.39 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 8 iron from 45 mph to 90 mph; each row has its own page with the rest of the bag at the same speed.

8 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.

8 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 8 iron at 20 carries 124 yards on the model; at 60 it carries 111 yards, 14 yards shorter.

8 iron carry by age

The clubs either side

For a 15 handicap the 7 iron carries 136 yards and the 9 iron 117 yards, so the 8 iron owns the band from about 122 yards to 131 yards: a gap of 9 yards above it and 10 yards below. Gaps near ten yards are what a well built bag looks like; a gap over 20 is the one to fix.

From 127 yards in the fairway the tour average needs 2.87 strokes to hole out and 3.10 from the rough, so a 8 iron approach that finishes 25 feet from the hole is worth -0.06 against the tour average for a 15 handicap, and one that finishes 40 feet away -0.19.

Every page for this club

The 8 iron at each handicap, each swing speed and each age, each with the whole bag at the same setting.

• 8 iron, scratch
• 8 iron, 5 handicap
• 8 iron, 10 handicap
• 8 iron, 15 handicap
• 8 iron, 20 handicap
• 8 iron, 25 handicap
• 8 iron, 30 handicap
• 8 iron at 55 mph
• 8 iron at 60 mph
• 8 iron at 65 mph
• 8 iron at 70 mph
• 8 iron at 75 mph
• 8 iron at 80 mph
• 8 iron at 85 mph
• 8 iron at age 20
• 8 iron at age 30
• 8 iron at age 40
• 8 iron at age 50
• 8 iron at age 60
• 8 iron at age 70

In PinFlag

Import a launch monitor session and PinFlag turns your 8 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 8 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

• 7 iron distance
• 9 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 8 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.