Pitching wedge distance, 15 handicap

The number

The handicap model puts a 15 handicap’s driver at 92 mph and swings every club at the same fraction of its tour speed, which gives the pitching wedge 67 mph. At that speed the smash factor is 1.20, the ball speed 81 mph, and the carry 108 yards: ball speed multiplied by the club’s 1.33 yards per mile per hour from the published tour row. Roll on a fairway landing adds 2 percent, for 110 yards total.

The clubs either side

At 15 handicap the 9 iron carries 10 yards more and the gap wedge 10 yards less, so the pitching wedge covers about 103 yards to 112 yards with a full swing.

The pitching wedge and its neighbours, 15 handicap

Against every handicap

The same club across the handicap steps. The spread from scratch to a 30 handicap is 37 yards of carry on the model, which is real but smaller than the spread in where the shots finish: the pattern around the number separates handicaps more than the number does.

Pitching wedge carry by handicap

What the yards are worth

Being 19 yards behind scratch costs about 0.08 of a stroke per approach on the published fairway table, because every approach starts that much further back. Over the fourteen long shots in a round the model adds it up; the fix that pays is knowing the real carry and playing tees that keep approaches where the table is flat.

From 108 yards in the fairway the tour average needs 2.82 strokes to hole out and 3.04 from the rough, so a pitching wedge approach that finishes 25 feet from the hole is worth -0.11 against the tour average for a 15 handicap, and one that finishes 40 feet away -0.24.

The bag at 15 handicap

Every club at the same handicap, so the pitching wedge can be read against the rest of the set.

Every club for a 15 handicap

Driver speed 92 mph on the handicap 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 pitching wedge 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 pitching wedge 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

• Pitching wedge distance
• Pitching wedge, 10 handicap
• Pitching wedge, 20 handicap
• The 15 handicap golfer
• Club distances by handicap
• 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 carry is the published tour pitching wedge anchor scaled to the club head speed the handicap model gives a 15 handicap; the app replaces it with your own launch monitor carries.