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Golf Ball Speed: The King of Distance
Most golfers want to know how to add distance to their game, and they should. Hitting it farther gives you a better opportunity to post lower scores. How can you do it? In my opinion, having a laser-sharp focus on increasing your golf ball speed is the way to get it done.
In this article, I’ll explore why ball speed is so important when it comes to distance, and provide reasonable steps you can take to improve your ball speed.
What Is Golf Ball Speed and Why Is It So Important?
The simple definition of ball speed is how fast the golf ball is traveling when it comes off the face of your club. If you’re a fan of professional golf, you’ve likely seen golf ball speed numbers popping up on TV now. Some of the longest hitters on tour are somewhere in the 170 mph – 190 mph ball speed range (which requires a minimum swing speed of about 115mph). As you can see from this infographic from DECADE Golf, it’s also directly correlated to making money as a pro golfer:
What are typical golf ball speed numbers for recreational players? Trackman reported the following averages for male golfers with their driver:
- Scratch or Better – 161 mph
- 5 HCP – 147 mph
- 10 HCP – 138 mph
- Average Golfer (14.5) – 133 mph
- Bogey Golfer – 131 mph
When golfers talk about increasing their distance (particularly with their driver), they usually focus on clubhead speed. In my opinion, focusing on ball speed is more important. While your swing speed is very critical – golf ball speed is a better measurement of how efficiently you transferred the energy of your swing to the ball.
For example, if you had a golfer with a driver swing speed of 100 mph, but with very efficient impact conditions, they could hit the ball farther than someone who swung inefficiently at 110 mph.
Long story short, when it comes to distance, golf ball speed is the king. An increase of 1 mph in ball speed can lead to roughly 2 yards of increase in distance with your driver. A lot of times, those gains can come without adding any speed to your golf swing.
How Does Ball Speed Change By Impact Location?
Modern golf clubs have done an excellent job of providing forgiveness on off-center strikes. However, no matter how good the technology is, there is still a penalty for missing the sweet spot (center of gravity). I’ll show you a couple of examples from my own clubs to illustrate how strike location can alter your ball speed (and a few other important parameters for distance).
Since driver distance is what everyone is most interested in, let’s start there. Using my SkyTrak launch monitor, I hit a bunch of shots and kept track of where I was making an impact using foot odor spray.
I’m mostly paying attention to ball speed and how it relates to distance, but taking note of spin rates and launch angle, which are two other data points that largely determine how far your ball is going to travel.
Here is a perfectly struck driver shot:
This shot had 153 mph of ball speed, carried 260 yards for a total distance of 286 yards.
Looking at the launch angle and spin rate, that’s about as efficiently as I can drive it. According to SkyTrak’s Shot Optimizer, it’s within optimal ranges on each category:
When you strike it well, the golf club can do what it’s designed to do. You’ll get maximum ball speed, and other ball flight parameters will benefit as well (launch angle, spin rate, etc.). The end result, a golf shot you can be proud of.
Now let’s take a look at what happens when I miss a little bit:
Striking it high on the face towards the heel results in a ball speed of only 142 mph (a drop of 11 mph) and a total distance of 255 yards (a decrease of 31 yards).
Looking at the shot optimizer, you can see that my spin dropped a little bit, but the biggest culprit for the distance drop is the lack of height. If you are a low spin player like I am, you need ball speed to keep the ball in the air. When I lose 11 mph of speed coming off the driver’s face, the ball struggles to climb in the air as much (think of it like a rocket running out of fuel), and the total distance is affected quite a bit.
When I strike the bottom of the face with my driver, things look even worse. I’ve lost as much as 50 yards of distance because the ball launches so low with very little ball speed.
Now let’s take a look at my 7-iron…
This shot was struck a little higher on the face, on what I would call the “hot spot” of my 7-iron. It launched a little higher with less spin and plenty of ball speed. It registered at 122mph and carried 185 yards, which is about 10 yards longer than I usually hit this club.
Typically, when I miss my irons, it will be on the heel like this shot:
My ball speed dropped to 115 mph (7 mph less) and carried 167 yards (18 yards less).
While there are endless variables based on strike location and the kind of golf clubs you are using, off-center strikes result in lower ball speed and a lack of distance. While that should come as no surprise to you, many golfers don’t know how much they are losing because they likely don’t know their impact tendencies and haven’t experimented with a launch monitor (yes, I’ve turned into quite the golf geek with my lab at home).
If you love data, check out this great chart from Ping Golf. If it doesn’t make your head spin, you can see how ball speed can correlate with other factors to create optimal driving distances:
How to Measure Golf Ball Speed
If you’re interested in tracking your golf ball speed, luckily the costs have come down significantly. There are a lot of launch monitors in the $500 and under category (if you don’t want to shell out $2000 for SkyTrak) that can measure ball speed accurately.
There are several I’ve tested and recommend:
How You Can Increase Your Golf Ball Speed
There are two ways I believe most of you can increase your ball speed (and distance):
- Improve your impact tendencies
- Train your body to move faster
I think all golfers should be working on their impact tendencies when they practice, and I’ve spoken about this many times before. It’s not difficult to add this kind of focus to your existing practice routine. In my opinion, it’s the path of least resistance when it comes to adding ball speed.
The second option requires more effort outside of just hitting balls. All things being equal, if you do increase your clubhead speed through training, you will see a jump in ball speed. I’d caution you to do it the right way, though. Merely trying to swing harder will likely result in a breakdown of your technique, which will cause your impact location to suffer, and your ball speed to drop.
Impact Location Training
Luckily working on your strike location is not terribly complicated. Get yourself a can of foot odor spray
There are two main reasons I like practicing with impact location intent:
- It gives your practice session more meaning and structure.
- When you focus on impact, it allows your swing to self organize a fix that doesn’t require you thinking about all of the moving parts it took to get there.
While I never tell all golfers that it can fix everyone, a lot of players are amazed at how much progress they can make once they figure out their impact tendencies and consciously try to start striking different parts of the face.
If you’re noticing a bias towards one side of the face, I like using a “fight fire with fire” approach. For example, when I am struggling with heel strikes, I merely try to exaggerate a miss on the outside of the toe. Sometimes I’ll even set up with the ball on that side of the face. Interestingly enough, when I try to strike the toe, it moves my impact from the heel to the center of the face.
You can also experiment with small changes in your setup to see how it changes your strike location – like standing closer, or further away from the ball.
Another experiment I love to do is altering tee height. Start adjusting your tee in low, medium, and high positions and see how it changes your impact location on the driver’s face (or other clubs you use off the tee). Your goal is to try and reduce strike towards the bottom of the clubface, and get them more towards the center, or just above it.
Using physical barriers like tees can help improve your impact location. A good drill is to set two tees slightly wider than the width of your club – try clearing the gates with your practice swings and then while trying to hit a ball. Or you can experiment with a tee on one side of the ball as well, depending on where your misses are.
Lastly, you can challenge yourself to strike different parts of the clubface on purpose. Consciously try to hit the heel, center, and the toe of the club separately. If you’re looking for real bonus points, you can try Andrew Rice’s drill where you separate the driver’s face into four quadrants and try to strike each one separately.
Training Your Body to Move Faster
If you’re into physical fitness, there are a couple of ways to increase your clubhead speed without sacrificing your technique, which will, in turn, help you gain more golf ball speed.
I believe the most foolproof method is to train several times a week, focusing on strength, mobility, and power. There are plenty of golf-specific programs out there that can help. One recommendation would be to find a TPI certified trainer. Also, this article, written by Mike Carroll from Fit For Golf, goes over his top nine golf exercises.
Additionally, Overspeed training has become a prevalent method of increasing clubhead speed. SuperSpeed Golf has become the gold standard for speed training in the golf industry. This can be done by itself or in conjunction with a workout routine.
Wrapping It Up
If you want to hit golf shots that go as far as possible, increasing your ball speed is the most critical metric to keep track of. Think of it as a measure of efficiency. My number one recommendation is to work on improving your impact location, which is an easy (and useful) addition to your practice sessions. On top of that, increasing your swing speed through physical training is another way to get it done. Combine the two, and you’ll be blowing your drives by your buddies very soon!
Here are some other articles I’ve done using my SkyTrak that I think you’ll find interesting:
How Do Adjustable Drivers Affect Ball Flight?
Driver Dispersion: Choosing Optimal Targets Off the Tee
You Don’t Have As Much Control Over the Ball As You Think
Great article. I have to say that for people looking at overspeed training super speed is fantastic. I did a driver fitting at club champion last December and was living in the 98mph area (+/- 2mph) for the fitting. I did the into and level 1 training last winter prior to taking a break for the season. Anecdotally I was longer all last year (combo of strike from better fit and speed). I did a full bag at club champion last weekend and I was living at 103mph on my driver this year and that was at the end of the 3+ hours of swings with irons, hybrids, and fairway woods. I’m about to start again for the winter hoping to get into that 106-110mph range.
Thanks, Seth! There are tons of positive testimonials out there with the effectiveness of Overspeed training with SuperSpeed golf. It’s one of the more efficient ways to increase clubhead speed (which will give you a better chance as more ball speed) out there.
Thanks, Jon! I just purchased a SkyTrak and have been surprised and disappointed (in myself) at my inconsistent ball speed And spin from shot to shot. I think that giving my attention to face impact is going to help! I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks, Nate – working with impact location along with the launch monitor is definitely an eye-opener!
Hey Jon, Enjoyed the article. Assuming improvement in technique, can the golf ball help, i.e., low compression vs. higher? Are there recommendations for swing speed ranges and golf ball compression? Thanks, Bill
Thanks, Bill – glad you enjoyed it. Based on the research I’ve seen and my own testing I think the compression rating can be a little misleading as it relates to swing speed. Most premium, multi-layer golf balls are doing a great job of maximizing distance for golfers already. There is some evidence out there that suggests softer balls (ie. Callaway ChromeSoft) might not go as far, but the only way to really know for sure is to test multiple balls on a launch monitor and compare results. In my own testing, I have not seen a huge disparity (maybe several yards at most).
Hi Jon, thanks for another great article. I’m certainly going to work wit the foot spray.
Can I ask whether you have an opinion on Superspeed Golf Training System for improving clubhead speed? I’ve just got a set but I’m a bit concerned by your comment that “Merely trying to swing harder will likely result in a breakdown of your technique”
Regards
John
Thanks, John. When I said merely swing harder I meant without any kind of plan. I believe SuperSpeed is one of the most effective systems out there when it comes to improving swing speed. While any form of new training carries inherent risks (injury/loss of technique) I believe the fundamentals they’ve put into their training can actually help a lot of players with their swings – especially the sequence. As the saying goes, “you’ll never know until you try.” Not everything works for everyone so I would urge you to do some testing of your own and keep track if you are seeing progress.
as I worte in my comment above I second the merits of super speed getting ready to start again jan 1
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We’ve seen and done it all and came together to start First Site Guide because we believe
in the web for everyone. We can help you start a personal or business blog/site, a place to show your hobbies, offer advice to
others or just to share personal stories, pictures and videos.
The web is a great place to be and make new connections from
all parts of the world or just your own neighborhood.
Buy, sell, share your hobby passion or just educate and entertain. We
want you to be a part of it, and we can help you to get there with our useful
resources and easy to follow step-by-step Free guides.
Once we get you there, don’t forget to check back in for news,
advice, social media and marketing articles to help
you navigate the digital highway. Bookmark us, like us, follow
us and we’ll be your digital information source.
If you have any questions feel free to contact us at
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which golf for 140 mph speed?
Jon could you provide some guidance on using the Super Speed program. I am able to get much higher swing speeds, but with a swing that would NOT be very accurate for hitting the center of the club face. Is the idea to swing with your regular tempo and let the various weights help increase club head speed over time with your existing swing?
Correct – think of it like removing the regulator from a golf cart. You’re not “consciously” trying to swing harder, but with the work you put it in your new normal swing feeling should be faster. It does take repeatedly doing the program, but almost everyone who goes through their protocols will see a jump in clubhead speed without affecting their swing mechanics too much. If anything, many of the training methods can enhance the sequencing of your golf swing.
Hi Jon, thanks for another great article. Can I ask whether you have any tips/tricks to getting better/more accurate readings off of the Skytrak? I just bought a Skytrak unit and I am consistently shorter with the yardages in the unit than in real life. It’ll be awesome if you can help. Thank you.
Russ
Nice article but I have some questions/remarks.
In your driver shot measurement you compare two shots and mentioned that first was ball was 11mph faster but you have club speed slower as well. So bad strike does not result in 11mph slower ball and loss of 312 yards. In fact shots were nearly the same regarding the speed – 153/104=1,47 efficiency/ratio and 142/96=1,48 which means that if second shot will have club speed 104, ball speed will be 154mph. Therefore all other measurements like spin, launch angle and distances are irrelevant. 🙁
Next weird thing is that screen for second shot with high heel strike does not correspond with data as hitting ball high on the face will result in higher launch angle. So if it is not mistake than your attack angle had to be negative to result in such strange behaviour. 😉
SkyTrak does not measure swing speed directly, it estimates mostly based on spin rate, launch angle, and ball speed. So on the shot that registered a 96 mph swing speed, my club speed was very similar to the shot that registered 153 mph ball speed. That was an extreme example so I’d say SkyTrak got “fooled” on that one.
For the second shot, that’s not necessarily true on attack angle. Other factors go into launch angle. It’s very possible my hands were further ahead at impact on that shot, which would deloft the club more (a tendency of mine), and decrease launch angle. I’ve had my attack angle measured and it’s pretty consistent with my driver from about +2 to +5. So it’s possible on the second shot, which resulted in poor contact, I perhaps delofted the club with maybe less of an attack angle as well, resulting in a lower launch (despite hitting it higher on the face)
Either way, both of those shots still show how important the impact location is on driver. If you don’t strike it towards the center of the face, you will lose ball speed, and many other launch conditions will suffer (spin rate etc) to decrease distance.
You are right impact location is important.
It is very weird that SkyTrak can meassure spin on both directions, speed of the ball, all possible angles but cannot track club speed? But for the teaching purpose it will be great to have measurements for two shots where club speed launch angle etc. will be same and only strike and therefore ball speed and spins will differ. Now it is little confusing.
I see but again. Default behaviour of strike on top of the face is higher launch angle so it will be either negative attack angle or brutal lag. My guess in this case 15°(middle) 13°(higher) will be about 6° more lag or -4 to -1 attack angle.
and thats the reason why a SkyTrak is not suitable for testing and fitting purposes. Just for play. When a computer starts guessing or back extrapolating data, I cant trust the numbers
Kinda of misleading. you compared two driver swings. a good shot and a miss. i thought you were showing how much hitting off centered affected distance. but you didnt “miss” with the second one. you just swung 8 mph slower. show me the numbers for a miss with the same swing. when I “miss” with a driver the swing speed is the same. still trying to just make my swing. your mainly describing how much swing speed affects distance. more than 50% of the change is from speed not off centeredness
Jon, thanks for the concise & informative article. As I’m getting older, there’s probably just a little “mph” that I can squeeze out of my body. Impact “quality” is much more doable. Strikes me that ball speed is similar to real estate – it’s location, location, location. Again, good article.
Nice little read makes me want to go practice now!