When it comes to hitting the ball farther, a lot of golfers realize that technique is important. In recent years, the larger golfing public is also beginning to recognize the importance of getting custom fit for their driver in order to maximize driving distance and their overall average golf swing speed.

However, there’s another way to get more distance that many golfers, even tour players, don’t even know realize is possible or, if they do, they haven’t really gleaned on to what the big keys are to get drastic and rapid gains…swing speed training. Now, I’ll talk about swing speed training and how you can increase your swing speed later on down the page, but to start, let’s simply get started discussing swing speed in general.

First of all, how important is your average golf swing speed?

It’s very important.

Simply put, the more swing speed you have, the farther you’ll hit the ball.

Take a look at this 2017 chart of the average swing speeds for various categories of golfers.

As I’m sure you can imagine, the World Championship Record for club head speed of 157 mph by Mitch Grassing in 2017 would hit the ball much farther than if he had the swing speeds of the PGA TOUR or LPGA TOUR players, who in turn would hit the ball much farther than amateurs with their given swing speeds.

Here’s a little more detail to illustrate the correlation between driving distance and swing speed.

But guess what?

Not only does more swing speed help you hit the ball farther, research shows there is a direct correlation between your driving distance (and club head speed) and handicap (and thus scoring).

You can see this in 2017-2019 Arccos data published by MyGolfSpy in 2020 that shows the difference in driving distance by handicap group.

Trackman® research also shows that there is a direct correlation between your club head speed and your handicap (and thus scoring).

So, basically, although swing technique, ball striking, and equipment fitting are all important to distance and scoring…simply put, if you want to be a longer or better player or both, you must also have more swing speed.

Let’s drill down and take a look at some other club head speed numbers.

How Fast Is An Amateur’s Average Golf Swing Speed?

Regarding male amateurs, since 2005, the United States Golf Association (USGA) reports that the average handicap has been between 14 and 15. Golf Handicap and Information Network (GHIN) shows similar numbers of 15.3 handicap in 2003 and 14.3 handicap in 2012.

For these average male golfers, Trackman® statistics report the average club head speed at this 14-15-handicap level is about 93.4 mph…yielding an average total distance of 214 yards per drive. That makes the average male amateur driving efficiency to be 2.29 yards per mph of club head speed.

We estimate the average amateur women run in the region of 78 mph and 167-yard drives. Some women we’ve seen are in the mid to high 40s.

How Fast Is A Tour Player’s Average Golf Swing Speed?

Since 2007, the PGA TOUR has been tracking golf swing speeds of all of its players, also using Trackman®.

Year	Average Swing Speed	Average Driving Distance	Driving Distance Efficiency
2007	112.37	288.6	2.57
2008	112.33	287.3	2.56
2009	111.69	287.9	2.58
2010	112.63	287.3	2.55
2011	112.83	290.9	2.58
2012	113.02	289.1	2.56
2013	113.15	287.2	2.54
2014	113.02	288.8	2.56
2015	113.25	289.7	2.56
2016	112.88	290.0	2.57
2017	113.85	292.5	2.57
2018	113.74	296.1	2.60
2019	114.17	293.9	2.57
2020	114.01	296.4	2.60
2021	114.42	296.2	2.59
2022	114.60	299.8	2.62
2023	115.08	299.9	2.61
2024	115.92	300.2	2.59

As you can see at the end of the 2024 PGA TOUR season, the tour average runs about 115.80 mph and they hit about 299.9 yards/drive, which means their driving efficiency is about 2.61 yards/drive. This is much better than the average 14-15 –handicap golfer who comes in at 2.29 yards/drive. If you think about it, this makes sense because professionals hit the ball more consistently around the sweet spot.

Tom Stickney has done some impact testing for GolfWRX. Here’s what a tour player’s striking pattern looked like after about 10 shots.

Compare that to the impact dispersion after only 5 shots from the 15-handicap golfer he tested.

As you can see, striking the ball consistently solid will help get you more distance out of your club head speed and improve your driving efficiency. If the average amateur had the same 2.61 yards/mph driving efficiency as the average PGA TOUR player, he would average 245 yards/drive instead of only 214 yards/drive.

That means the average amateur could pick up over 30 yards simply from more consistent strikes.

2024 PGA TOUR Player Swing Speed Chart – The Slowest Swingers

Anyway, here is a selection of the swing speeds for the 2021-2022 season for some of the slowest PGA TOUR Players. These guys are definitely at a disadvantage on tour speed-wise.

If only they knew it didn’t have to be that way!

Swing Speed Rank	PGA TOUR Player	Average Swing Speed
123	Chesson Hadley	114.72
124	Justin Rose	114.68
125	Rickie Fowler	114.62
126	Jorge Campillo	114.38
127	Si Woo Kim	114.34
128	Billy Horschel	114.28
129	Beau Hossler	114.25
130	Tom Kim	114.15
131	Hayden Buckley	114.09
132	Chan Kim	113.99
133	Dylan Wu	113.98
134	Webb Simpson	113.92
135	Kevin Streelman	113.84
136	Mac Meissner	113.81
137	Nico Echavarria	113.76
138	Wesley Bryan	113.56
139	Chad Ramey	113.54
140	Austin Smotherman	113.37
141	Martin Laird	113.21
142	Justin Lower	113.16
142	Tom Whitney	113.16
144	Roger Sloan	113.14
145	J.T. Poston	113.02
146	Emiliano Grillo	112.94
147	Ben Kohles	112.86
148	Ryo Hisatsune	112.85
149	Brandon Wu	112.82
150	Ben Silverman	112.73
151	Josh Teater	112.7
152	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	112.59
153	Robby Shelton	112.55
154	Bud Cauley	112.44
155	Ryan Palmer	112.43
156	Chandler Phillips	112.32
157	Doug Ghim	112.24
158	Tyler Duncan	112.23
159	Denny McCarthy	111.94
160	Nick Taylor	111.9
161	Nate Lashley	111.88
162	Carson Young	111.86
163	Aaron Baddeley	111.84
164	Sepp Straka	111.39
165	Camilo Villegas	111.36
166	Lucas Glover	111.25
166	Andrew Putnam	111.25
168	Troy Merritt	111.05
169	Joel Dahmen	111.03
170	Russell Henley	110.75
171	Greyson Sigg	110.68
172	Zac Blair	110.5
173	Brian Harman	110.45
174	David Lipsky	110.41
175	C.T. Pan	110.4
176	Kevin Kisner	110.31
177	Raul Pereda	109.67
178	Ryan Moore	109.27
179	Brice Garnett	109.02
180	Brendon Todd	108.86
181	Zach Johnson	108.41
182	Brandt Snedeker	108.24
183	Chez Reavie	108.03
184	Matt Kuchar	107.97

2024 PGA TOUR Player Swing Speed Chart – The Average Swingers

Next are the guys who are considered to be in the middle of the pack as far as swing speed goes on the PGA TOUR. These guys aren’t hurting for speed, but they could definitely use more.

Swing Speed Rank	PGA TOUR Player	Average Swing Speed
62	Tyson Alexander	117.93
63	Justin Thomas	117.79
64	S.H. Kim	117.74
65	Jordan Spieth	117.62
66	Jason Day	117.48
67	Martin Trainer	117.42
68	Corey Conners	117.36
68	Sahith Theegala	117.36
70	Will Zalatoris	117.32
71	Harris English	117.26
72	Davis Thompson	117.21
73	Matt NeSmith	117.06
74	Joe Highsmith	117.05
75	Nick Hardy	117.02
76	Matt Fitzpatrick	116.97
77	Rafael Campos	116.93
78	Thorbjørn Olesen	116.83
79	Blaine Hale Jr.	116.82
80	Cam Davis	116.62
81	Alex Smalley	116.6
82	Jacob Bridgeman	116.58
83	Peter Malnati	116.43
84	Davis Riley	116.41
85	Harry Hall	116.35
86	Alex Noren	116.22
87	Matt Wallace	116.15
88	Akshay Bhatia	116.13
89	Viktor Hovland	116.07
90	Adam Svensson	116.04
91	Seamus Power	115.96
92	Justin Suh	115.82
93	Hideki Matsuyama	115.8
94	Kevin Chappell	115.75
95	Mackenzie Hughes	115.69
96	J.J. Spaun	115.61
97	Aaron Rai	115.58
98	Keegan Bradley	115.57
99	Mark Hubbard	115.51
99	Sam Ryder	115.51
99	Ben Taylor	115.51
102	Trace Crowe	115.44
103	K.H. Lee	115.38
104	Austin Eckroat	115.31
104	Michael Kim	115.31
106	Tommy Fleetwood	115.3
106	Tom Hoge	115.3
108	Charley Hoffman	115.29
109	Erik Barnes	115.27
110	Patton Kizzire	115.22
111	Sungjae Im	115.17
112	Daniel Berger	115.11
113	Andrew Novak	115.08
114	Adam Hadwin	115.0
115	Shane Lowry	114.96
116	Lee Hodges	114.94
117	Sami Valimaki	114.92
118	Eric Cole	114.91
119	Ben Griffin	114.86
120	Collin Morikawa	114.79
121	Chris Kirk	114.78
122	Henrik Norlander	114.73

2024 PGA TOUR Player Swing Speed Chart – The Fast Swingers

Lastly are the guys with the fastest speeds. These guys definitely swing fast by PGA TOUR standards. But as we’ll see in a moment, they are actually still quite slow relative to the competitors in the World Long Drive Championships.

Swing Speed Rank	PGA TOUR Player	Average Swing Speed
1	Cameron Champ	126.64
2	Kevin Dougherty	125.99
3	Gary Woodland	125.26
4	Chris Gotterup	124.85
5	Min Woo Lee	124.28
6	Rory McIlroy	123.6
7	Jake Knapp	123.35
8	Xander Schauffele	123.05
9	Tony Finau	122.82
10	Wyndham Clark	122.5
11	Alejandro Tosti	122.3
12	Vincent Norrman	122.14
13	Hayden Springer	122.07
14	Cameron Young	121.93
15	Patrick Fishburn	121.6
15	Rico Hoey	121.6
17	Thomas Detry	121.23
18	Callum Tarren	121.04
19	Wilson Furr	120.86
20	Paul Barjon	120.79
21	Jhonattan Vegas	120.75
22	Joseph Bramlett	120.72
23	Nicolai Højgaard	120.67
24	Nick Dunlap	120.48
24	Luke List	120.48
26	Taylor Pendrith	120.34
27	Adam Schenk	120.29
28	Ryan Brehm	120.13
29	Ryan Fox	120.1
30	Kurt Kitayama	120.04
31	Taylor Moore	120.0
32	Kevin Tway	119.95
33	Max Greyserman	119.93
34	Patrick Rodgers	119.92
35	Sam Burns	119.86
36	Pierceson Coody	119.79
37	Vince Whaley	119.61
38	David Skinns	119.58
39	Garrick Higgo	119.4
40	Ludvig Åberg	119.38
41	Adam Scott	119.31
42	Keith Mitchell	119.25
43	Scottie Scheffler	119.21
44	Byeong Hun An	119.19
45	Kevin Yu	119.06
46	Matthieu Pavon	118.92
46	Victor Perez	118.92
48	Max Homa	118.88
49	Stephan Jaeger	118.86
50	Taylor Montgomery	118.82
51	Ryan McCormick	118.79
52	Erik van Rooyen	118.7
53	Parker Coody	118.64
54	Matti Schmid	118.55
55	Sam Stevens	118.37
56	Robert MacIntyre	118.23
57	Lanto Griffin	118.19
57	Maverick McNealy	118.19
59	Adrien Dumont de Chassart	117.99
59	Carl Yuan	117.99
61	Patrick Cantlay	117.96

Interestingly, the 2020-2021 season was the first time on the PGA TOUR that a player averaged over 130 mph.

Bryson DeChambeau made a lot of news during COVID-19 by putting on an estimated 40 pounds of fat and muscle weight to gain that swing speed. It worked, but as I wrote about over at GOLFWRX, you don’t need to put on that much weight to gain that much speed. In fact, you can put on more speed in less time without putting on anywhere near that kind of weight.

That’s part of what we do here at Swing Man Golf with what’s available in All-Access.

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2008 European Tour Player Swing Speed Chart

At the moment, the European Tour (now the DP World Tour) doesn’t post average club head speeds for the tour. However, we did come across a document from a single event in 2008 containing the swing speed of each player in the field. We’re not sure which hole or event these were measured with using Flightscope, but the numbers were interesting.

Here are several notable players.

The event average was 111 mph, which is more or less what we saw on the PGA TOUR in the same year.

Name	Club Head Speed
Álvaro Quiros	125 mph
Rory McIlroy	118 mph
Martin Kaymer	116 mph
Louis Oosthuizen	116 mph
Lee Westwood	115 mph
Darren Clarke	111 mph
Rafael Jacquelin	108 mph
Colin Montgomerie	107 mph
Thongchai Jaidee	105 mph

In 2023, the median player on the DP World Tour averaged 301.08 off the tee. If we assume that they have the same efficiency of PGA TOUR players at 2.62 yards/drive, that would put their 2022 average swing speed at 114.92. That increase from 111 to 115 correlates similarly to the increase that the PGA TOUR made over the same time period since 2008.

Wilco Nienaber led the DP World’s Tour’s driving distance category at 332.10 yards/drive. If we assume his driving efficiency is also 2.61 yard/mph like the PGA TOUR average, that would put Wilco’s on-course average swing speed at 127.24 mph.

How fast are LPGA Tour players?

A Trackman chart I have from 2011 shows that LPGA tour players averaged 246 yards/drive with 139 mph ball speed. Assuming 1.5 smash factor, that’s 2.66 yards/mph, far more efficient than the PGA TOUR’s 2.61 yards/mph. That seemed about right as the LPGA Tour mean driving distance as reported by the tour in 2011 was 248.02 yard/drive.

In 2023, the LPGA tour mean was 256.75 yards/drive. Somehow, driving distance Is about 9 yards farther now. Have club head speeds gone up? Is equipment fitting better? Have the players become more efficient? Are course conditions different? I don’t know exactly what is causing the difference, but something has changed.

When Annika Sorenstam was invited to play in the PGA TOUR’s 2003 Bank of America Colonial tournament, she averaged almost 270 yards/drive that year. The PGA TOUR average that year was 285.9 yards/drive and Annika was long enough to be ahead of the PGA TOUR’s 189th ranked Corey Pavin at 268.9 yards/drive and Loren Roberts at 265.9 yards/drive. She nearly made the cut and even beat some of the men in the field. It would have been interesting to know how well she would have done had she been even just a few mph faster with her swing speed…which is certainly doable.

The shortest player on the PGA TOUR in 2023 was Brian Stuard at 271.5 yards/dive. There were 10 LPGA players over that mark…Mel Reid, Madalene Sagstrom, Emily Kristine Pederson, Yuka Saso, Bailey Tardy, Maria Fassi, Yan Liu, Bianca Danganan, Xiaowen Yin, and Polly Mack.

However, only two PGA TOUR players were under 280.0, David Lingmerth at 278.5 and Brian Stuard. Going by David Lingmerth, only Polly Mack was long enough to be on the PGA TOUR distance-wise.

Polly Mack is conceivably as fast as some male professional golfers. However, her 2023 scoring average of 72.30 from the much shorter tees of the LPGA would not be good enough to match the 70.49 scoring average of the 125th ranked player (the highest ranked player to still retain full playing privileges) on the PGA TOUR, who also play from farther distances. She has the distance…she just has other gaps in her game.

2023 LPGA Swing Speed Chart

Since we have to make some guesses about LPGA Tour swing speed data, here is what LPGA Tour numbers might look like assuming both the 2011 reported Trackman efficiency of 2.66 yards/mph versus 2.73 yard/mph, which assumes no increase in club head speed but factoring in the increased 2023 tour driving distance mean of 256.75 yards/drive.

Driving Distance Rank	LPGA Player	Driving Distance	Club Head Speed (2.66 yards/mph)	Club Head Speed (2.73 yards/mph)
1	Polly Mack	281.750	106	103
2	Xiaowen Yin	277.264	104	102
3	Bianca Pagdanganan	275.736	104	101
4	Yan Liu	274.179	103	100
5	Maria Fassi	273.653	103	100
6	Bailey Tardy	272.794	103	100
7	Yuka Saso	272.685	103	100
8	Emily Kristine Pedersen	272.463	102	100
9	Madelene Sagstrom	272.333	102	100
10	Mel Reid	272.291	102	100
11	Lexi Thompson	271.419	102	99
12	Yealimi Noh	271.235	102	99
13	Pauline Roussin-Bouchard	269.604	101	99
14	Nelly Korda	268.978	101	99
15	Linn Grant	268.534	101	98
16	Perrine Delacour	268.031	101	98
17	A Lim Kim	267.816	101	98
18	Carlota Ciganda	267.387	101	98
19	Frida Kinhult	267.360	101	98
20	Alison Lee	267.230	100	98
21	Atthaya Thitikul	266.347	100	98
22	Luna Sobron Galmes	265.919	100	97
23	Manon De Roey	265.694	100	97
24	Brooke M. Henderson	265.475	100	97
25	Weiwei Zhang	275.474	104	101
26	Nanna Koerstz Madsen	265.292	100	97
27	Riley Rennell	264.794	100	97
28	Sei Young Kim	264.504	99	97
29	Stephanie Kyriacou	264.480	99	97
30	Charley Hull	264.375	99	97
31	Ruoning Yin	264.058	99	97
32	Ellinor Sudow	264.057	99	97
33	Minjee Lee	263.944	99	97
34	Yu Liu	263.463	99	97
35	Amanda Doherty	263.443	99	96
36	Minami Katsu	263.439	99	96
37	Lauren Hartlage	263.431	99	96
38	Ally Ewing	263.368	99	96
39	Jennifer Kupcho	263.314	99	96
40	Peiyun Chien	263.081	99	96
41	Ana Belac	263.022	99	96
42	Gaby Lopez	262.677	99	96
43	Angel Yin	262.325	99	96
44	Patty Tavatanakit	262.196	99	96
45	Daniela Darquea	262.073	99	96
46	Linnea Strom	261.705	98	96
47	Chanettee Wannasaen	261.637	98	96
48	Dewi Weber	261.633	98	96
49	Sofia Garcia	261.534	98	96
50	Mariajo Uribe	261.480	98	96
51	Brooke Matthews	261.431	98	95
52	Matilda Castren	261.251	98	95
53	Hyun Kyung Park	261.088	98	95
54	Jasmine Suwannapura	261.014	98	95
55	Caroline Inglis	260.986	98	95
56	Lee-Anne Pace	260.926	98	95
57	Stacy Lewis	260.900	98	95
58	Sei Young Kim	260.816	98	95
59	Lindsey Weaver	260.804	98	95
60	Maura Shirley	260.698	98	95
61	Yae Eun Hong	260.687	98	95
62	Heeyoung Park	260.684	98	95
63	Esther Henseleit	260.541	98	94
64	Linnea Johansson	260.540	98	94
65	Jennifer Chang	260.524	98	94
66	Albane Valenzuela	260.472	98	94
67	Stacy Lewis	260.383	98	94
68	Leona Maguire	260.292	98	94
69	Peiyun Chien	260.284	98	94
70	Albane Valenzuela	260.246	98	94
71	Hyo Joon Jang	258.333	97	95
72	Pavarisa Yoktuan	258.258	97	95
73	Samantha Wagner	258.241	97	95
74	Nasa Hataoka	257.817	97	94
75	Ryann O’Toole	257.660	97	94
76	Jenny Shin	257.574	97	94
77	Sarah Schmelzel	257.317	97	94
78	Linnea Johansson	257.203	97	94
79	Lucy Li	256.984	97	94
80	Wichanee Meechai	256.969	97	94
81	Ines Laklalech	256.762	97	94
82	Jeongeun Lee5	256.750	97	94
83	Jin Young Ko	256.741	97	94
84	Morgane Metraux	256.360	96	94
85	Gina Kim	256.299	96	94
86	Ariya Jutanugarn	256.268	96	94
87	Sung Hyun Park	255.861	96	94
88	Jodi Ewart Shadoff	255.722	96	94
89	Wei-Ling Hsu	255.647	96	94
90	Megan Khang	255.586	96	94
91	Pajaree Anannarukarn	255.553	96	94
92	Matilda Castren	255.528	96	94
93	Albane Valenzuela	255.403	96	94
94	Sophia Schubert	255.378	96	94
95	Jaravee Boonchant	255.190	96	93
96	Elizabeth Szokol	255.114	96	93
97	Aline Krauter	254.946	96	93
98	Paula Reto	254.780	96	93
99	Azahara Munoz	254.681	96	93
100	Karis Davidson	254.363	96	93
101	Annie Park	254.255	96	93
102	Grace Kim	254.133	96	93
103	Pornanong Phatlum	254.042	96	93
104	Gabriella Then	253.820	95	93
105	Rose Zhang	253.385	95	93
106	Celine Boutier	252.980	95	93
107	Dani Holmqvist	252.872	95	93
108	Eun-Hee Ji	252.712	95	93
109	Lauren Stephenson	252.426	95	92
110	Kelly Tan	252.424	95	92
111	Narin An	252.389	95	92
112	Moriya Jutanugarn	252.161	95	92
112	Arpichaya Yubol	252.157	95	92
114	Lydia Ko	251.711	95	92
115	Lauren Coughlin	251.396	95	92
116	Allisen Corpuz	251.085	94	92
117	Jeongeun Lee6	150.736	57	55
118	Yu-Sang Hou	250.732	94	92
119	Olivia Cowan	249.527	94	91
120	Jing Yan	249.500	94	91
121	Mina Harigae	249.359	94	91
122	Ashleigh Buhai	249.310	94	91
123	Min Lee	249.296	94	91
124	Jennifer Song	249.096	94	91
125	Sarah Kemp	248.981	94	91
126	Hyo Joo Kim	248.872	94	91
127	Celine Borge	248.683	93	91
128	Maddie Szeryk	248.586	93	91
129	Jennifer Chang	248.523	93	91
130	Leona Maguire	248.418	93	91
131	Allison Emrey	248.310	93	91
132	Hinako Shibuno	248.296	93	91
133	Jasmine Suwannapura	247.963	93	91
134	Lindsey Weaver-Wright	247.953	93	91
135	Anna Nordqvist	247.825	93	91
136	Magdalena Simmermacher	247.327	93	91
137	Caroline Inglis	247.114	93	91
138	Marina Alex	247.016	93	90
139	Cheyenne Knight	246.207	93	90
140	Su Oh	245.897	92	90
141	Muni He	245.542	92	90
142	Ayaka Furue	245.443	92	90
143	Emma Talley	245.317	92	90
144	In Kyung Kim	245.185	92	90
145	Haeji Kang	245.081	92	90
146	Haru Moon	244.909	92	90
147	Marissa Steen	244.407	92	90
148	Gemma Dryburgh	244.321	92	89
149	Aditi Ashok	244.310	92	89
150	Paula Creamer	244.143	92	89
151	Chella Choi	244.068	92	89
152	Bronte Law	243.862	92	89
153	Yuna Nishimura	243.615	92	89
154	Christina Kim	243.471	92	89
155	Charlotte Thomas	243.017	91	89
156	Stacy Lewis	242.877	91	89
157	Danielle Kang	242.684	91	89
158	So Yeon Ryu	241.217	91	88
159	In Gee Chun	241.008	91	88
160	Andrea Lee	240.385	90	88
161	Brittany Altomare	239.655	90	88
162	Lizette Salas	238.775	90	87
163	Yaeeun Hong	237.654	89	87
164	Dana Fall	236.767	89	87
165	Dottie Ardina	235.934	89	86

It’s our belief that LPGA Tour players could actually be competitive on men’s professional tours provided they work on getting faster through a swing speed training like we have here at Swing Man Golf through All-Access.

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The slowest player on the PGA TOUR each year is always close to 104-105 mph. Based on that, for any LPGA Tour player to be competitive in a male event, she would need more speed.

How fast are the swing speeds at the World Long Drive Championships?

At the Professional Long Driver level, Trackman® data that I’ve previously found from 2009 to 2017 showed us the following average club head speed numbers for the entire field at the World Long Drive Championships is about 135 mph. That seems to be increasing in years since.

That means that a typical long driver is over 20 mph faster than the average PGA TOUR player from that period…and over 10 mph faster than some of the tour’s fastest swingers like Cameron Champ, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, etc.

Historically, no player on the PGA TOUR would stand a chance of winning (or even being competitive) at the World Long Drive Championships…not until 2021 when Bryson DeChambeau was invited to compete at the 2021 PLDA World Championships and finished in the Final 8.

The event was a limited field event due to COVID-19. However, Bryson’s fastest ball speed during competition that I recall seeing was 219 mph, which would put his club head speed on that swing at 146 mph.

In 2022, Bryson finished 2nd.

As we’ll see below, that’s fast enough to win the entire World Long Drive Championships.

He also added more fat and muscle weight and worked far harder than necessary to increase his swing speed. That’s a story I already wrote about for GolfWRX.com.

Let’s look at how fast a typical Final-8 long driver can historically swing.

Swing Speed Chart for the World Long Drive Championships – Final-8 Competitor

Year	Average Swing Speed	Peak Swing Speed
2009	141 mph	150 mph
2010	143 mph	150 mph
2012	141 mph	149 mph
2015	141 mph	151 mph
2016	139 mph	149 mph
2017	145 mph	157 mph

Swing Speed Chart for the Final-8 Competitors World Long Drive Championships

Here are some average speeds of a few individual Final-8 competitors.

Name	Average Swing Speed	Year
Jeremy Easterly	133 mph	2015
Tom Peppard	134 mph	2012
Mitch Dobbyn	134 mph	2016
Jeff Crittenden	136 mph	2015
Jeff Gavin	136 mph	2015
Trent Scruggs	136 mph	2012
Jeff Crittenden	137 mph	2016
Justin Moose	137 mph	2016
Justin Young	138 mph	2012
Domenic Mazza	139 mph	2010
Ryan Steenberg	139 mph	2016
Ryan Cooper	140 mph	2012
Jermie Montgomery	140 mph	2010
Josh Crews	140 mph	2012
Patrick Hopper	140 mph	2010
Paul Howell	140 mph	2017
Tim Burke (2013 & 2015 World Champion)	141 mph	2017
Will Hogue	143 mph	2017
Kevin Shook	143 mph	2010
Jason Eslinger	143 mph	2015
Justin James	143 mph	2016
Landon Gentry	144 mph	2012
Joe Miller (2010 & 2016 World Champion)	145 mph	2016
Wes Patterson	145 mph	2017
Kyle Berkshire (2019 World Champion)	145 mph	2017
Joe Miller (2010 & 2016 World Champion)	145 mph	2016
Bryson DeChambeau	146 mph	2021
Jamie Sadlowski (2008-9 World Champion)	146 mph	2012
Ryan Louw	146 mph	2010
Tim Burke (2013 & 2015 World Champion)	146 mph	2015
Nick Kiefer	147 mph	2017
Ryan Winther (2012 World Champion)	147 mph	2012
Mitch Grassing	148 mph	2017
Jamie Sadlowski	148 mph	2015
Justin James (2017 World Champion)	150 mph	2017
Connor Powers	153 mph	2014

Realistically, to win the World Long Drive Championships, you have historically needed to be swinging in the mid-140s. The average champion was about 146 mph based on 7 champions from 2009-2017.

A champion long driver would easily drive it 50 yards past a guy like Bubba Watson. In fact, this actually happened in Hawaii in 2011 ahead of the PGA TOUR event when Jamie Sadlowski hit drives at Kapalua in Maui against Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, and Robert Garrigus. It wasn’t even close.

Occasionally, you’d see guys get in to the Final-8 at the World Championships that average in the 130s. Typically when that happened, they were better fit for their equipment, they were more mentally strong, they took better advantage of wind conditions, and things like that. As you can see, it was very difficult to win swinging in the 130s, though.

If memory serves, Carl Wolter won the 2011 World Championships in the high 130s. That year there were very strong tail winds and Carl presumably hit a better wind ball (usually higher and with more spin) than two other champions he beat head-to-head, Jamie Sadlowski and Joe Miller…both of whom have swung 150 mph in competition.

Unfortunately, full data since then isn’t available in the same way due to inconsistencies in who was owning and hosting the world championships (Ex. Long Drivers of America, Comcast, PLDA, GF Sports and Entertainment)r, but the various winners of those years since (2017 – Justin James, 2018 – Maurice Allen, 2019 Kyle Berkshire, 2020 – No World Championship, 2021 – Kyle Berkshire, 2022 – Martin Borgmeier, 2023 Kyle Berkshire) have all achieved speeds over 150 mph at the World Championships.

However, as mentioned, long drive swing speed seem to be trending upwards.

In 2023, World Long Drive reported a World Long Drive Championship group average ball speed for the Final 16 of 215.7 mph, with Kyle Berkshire at the top with 226.2 mph. Assuming 1.5 smash factor, that’d be averaging 143.8 mph and 150.8 mph of swing speed, respectively.

Also, through 2023, in training, 8 hitters had broken the 230-mph ball speed mark, when the previous record mark had been 227 mph for years, with 3 over 240 mph. To get 230 mph ball speed, you need at least 153 mph swing speed. To break 240 mph, it’s a minimum of 160 mph.

As far as I know, Sam Attanasio has the current ball speed training swing at 243.0 mph, which would necessitate at least 162 mph of club head speed. Seb Waddell has a training swing on a Trackman® at 169.6 mph swing speed.

Let me know if these get broken and I can update what is here.

At the Senior (Over 45 years old) level, in 2012 a Senior division Final-8 competitor averaged 131 mph with a peak of 137 mph. Two-time Senior World Champion “Fast” Eddie Fernandes (2018 & 2022) has previously achieved 156 mph of club head speed and 228 mph of ball speed.

Even the “old” guys can bomb it past any PGA TOUR player.

So, as you can see, the more swing speed you have, in general the farther you will drive the ball…and as I’ve shown, more distance also makes it easier to shoot lower scores.

Can you Increase Your Average Golf Swing Speed?

Aside from improving your technique and getting fit for your equipment, despite what many golfers (even pros like Tiger) believe, yes, you can actually train to increase your swing speed…at any age!

Just consider a long drive guy like Bobby Wilson. At the age of 53, he could swing over 12 mph faster than the PGA TOUR’s “long hitting” Bubba Watson.

Also note that just because you are fit does not mean you are fast. Camilo Villegas was arguably more “fit” than John Daly, but John could swing faster. Granted, some of this is due to John’s technique, equipment, etc…but the point is that although fitness certainly has its place in golf and life, for distance and application towards becoming a better player…it’s more about being fast than fit.

Swing Man Golf Helps You Increase Your Average Golf Swing Speed!

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We’ve got junior golfers from 12 years old to men on up in to their 80s with handicaps ranging from pro to 30+ who add an average of 12-16 mph (30-40 yards) of driver swing speed in their first month of basic training. Believe it or not, we’ve even had several golfers who were willing to do the work that gained over 30 and 40 mph (that’s not a typo) over the course of a few months.

One of these golfers was 58 years old!

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Get a taste of what’s available in All-Access with this video about a week-long swing speed training workout you can do at home!

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NOTE: This article is updated annually after the conclusion of each PGA TOUR, LPGA Tour and World Long Driver Championship season once all the data becomes available.