Golf club distances by handicap

Every club, every handicap, and the part almost nobody publishes: what the difference is worth on the scorecard.

Carry distance

Read down your own column. The tour row is here because it is the measured anchor every other number is built from, not because it is a target.

Carry distance in yards, by club and handicap
Club	Tour	Scratch	5	10	15	20	25
Driver	275	256	242	230	217	204	192
3 wood	243	226	214	203	192	181	170
5 wood	230	214	203	192	182	171	161
Hybrid	225	209	199	188	178	168	158
3 iron	212	197	187	177	168	158	149
4 iron	203	189	179	170	161	151	142
5 iron	194	180	171	162	154	145	136
6 iron	183	170	162	153	145	137	128
7 iron	172	160	152	144	136	128	121
8 iron	160	149	141	134	127	119	112
9 iron	148	138	131	124	117	110	104
Pitching wedge	136	127	120	114	108	101	95
Gap wedge*	124	115	110	104	98	92	87

Carry in yards. The gap wedge carries a star because it is modeled; the other twelve clubs each have a published tour row behind them.

What the yards cost

A 20 handicap carries a driver 51 yards shorter than a scratch golfer. That sounds like the whole game. The published expected strokes table says it is worth 0.253 strokes on the approach that follows.

Now put that beside the other lever. Playing an approach from the fairway rather than the rough is worth 0.245 strokes on the same table. Those 51 yards are worth 0.253. They are almost exactly the same size.

That is the sentence worth taking away. Giving up fifty yards off the tee costs a 20 handicap about what missing every fairway costs them, and one of those two is a great deal easier to change. Twenty yards on its own, the number golfers actually chase, is worth 0.085.

Distance by swing speed

The table above is keyed on handicap. If you know your driver speed from a launch monitor, this is the same model keyed on that instead. Give it your driver number and every other club is scaled from the tour ratio between them:

Carry in yards, no roll. Columns are DRIVER club head speed; the other clubs are scaled from the published tour speed ratio, so a golfer whose irons are relatively stronger than their driver will carry more than these rows say.
Club	75 mph	85 mph	95 mph	105 mph	115 mph
driver	173	199	226	253	280
3 wood	153	176	200	223	247
hybrid	142	164	185	207	229
5 iron	123	141	160	179	197
7 iron	109	125	141	158	175
9 iron	94	108	122	136	151
pitching wedge	86	99	112	125	138

Ten more miles an hour of driver speed is worth about 27 yards of carry, which is the honest scale of what speed training buys. The same ten mph moves a 7 iron by roughly 17 yards. Smash factor is the other half of that arithmetic and worth far less than speed: about a yard and a half per hundredth.

The gaps

Distances only matter relative to each other. A bag with even gaps has a full swing for every yardage; one with a hole in it turns those yardages into half swings. Read at a 15 handicap:

Gaps between clubs at a 15 handicap
Between	Gap
Driver and 3 wood	25 yards
3 wood and 5 wood	10 yards
5 wood and Hybrid	4 yards
Hybrid and 3 iron	10 yards
3 iron and 4 iron	7 yards
4 iron and 5 iron	7 yards
5 iron and 6 iron	9 yards
6 iron and 7 iron	9 yards
7 iron and 8 iron	9 yards
8 iron and 9 iron	10 yards
9 iron and Pitching wedge	10 yards
Pitching wedge and Gap wedge	10 yards

The widest hole is 25 yards, between the driver and the 3 wood. That is the top of the bag, where it matters least: a gap there is a decision off a tee, while a gap in the wedges is a shot you have to invent with a scorecard in your pocket.

How this is built

Every club has a published PGA Tour row: club speed, ball speed and carry. The driver reads 113 mph, 167 mph and 275 yards, giving a smash factor of 1.48.

ball speed = club speed x smash factor
carry = ball speed x (tour carry / tour ball speed)

Handicap sets the speed. A scratch golfer swings a driver near 106 mph, each handicap stroke takes about 0.95 mph off that, and every other club scales by the same share of its own tour speed. Slower swings strike the ball less cleanly, so smash factor drops 0.01 for every 5 mph below the tour figure.

The strokes figures come from the published expected strokes table: the fairway row at 150 yards against the same row at 150 plus the yards you are behind.

Frequently asked questions

How far should I hit each club?

The table above gives a carry distance for every club at every handicap. Read down your own handicap column rather than across the tour row: those numbers come from a different sport.

How much is 20 more yards actually worth?

About 0.085 strokes on the approach that follows, on the published expected strokes table. Real, and small: it takes roughly sixty yards before the gain matches what simply finding the fairway is worth.

What should the gaps between my clubs be?

Even, and under about 15 yards through the scoring clubs. A 30 yard hole means every yardage inside it becomes a half swing, and a half swing is where the spread doubles.

Are these carry or total distances?

Carry. It is the number that matters for anything that has to clear something or hold a green, and it is what a launch monitor measures directly.

How do I get my own numbers instead of an average?

Hit a session on a launch monitor and read the file. Any average, this one included, is a placeholder you should replace with your own the moment you can.

By The PinFlag Team.

You are not an average

Every number here models a golfer who does not exist. If you own a launch monitor, read your own session file instead and get the real thing: your carry, your spread, your gaps. It runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.

Read your own file What smash factor is worth Club distance calculator