golf club swing speed chart

How Far Should You Hit Your Irons? (By Handicap, Age + Swingspeed!)

Posted on by Kathleen Knowles

When it comes to discussions of distance in golf the focus is typically on the longest clubs in the bag but it is clearly just as important that amateurs have a clear idea of how far they hit their irons?

So in this video we take a detailed look at the best data available to answer how far you should hit your irons – analysing the topic by handicap, age and swingspeed – and also explain how changes in iron lofts and lengths by club manufacturers over the years have made it much more difficult for amateurs to have an accurate idea of how their iron distances match up against others.

0:00 Introduction
1:02 Distance Tracking Tech
2:15 Distances by Handicap
3:30 Iron Lofts & Lengths
4:26 Distances by Age
8:20 Distances by Swingspeed

#golf #golfing #golfdata #amateurgolfers #golfaddict #golfdriver #playgolf

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29 thoughts on “How Far Should You Hit Your Irons? (By Handicap, Age + Swingspeed!)”

  1. I'm 66 and play of 9 with a swing speed of 87 MPH for driver yet all my stats line up with the 100 MPH swingspeed table eg: 110 Metres for PW (120 yards),140 M for 7 iron (153 yards) and all the rest are similar as I have a 10 Metre gap between my iron from PW up..
    Driver is only 200/210 Metres but my short game is good.
    I've been playing for 35 years and just before Covid hit here in 2020 I got down to my lowest handicap ever and was playing to six so age doesn't always determine loss of distance.

  2. I'm about a 23 handi and I hit a 7 iron 150 solid virtually every time. Wedge 120. I think it depends on the individual. I just miss hit or miss direct too much to get to be a 10 or scratch golfer.

  4. Strangely at age 73 I can only hit my Ping G410 seven iron 155yds but hit my friends Calloway Rogue 170yds! I keep wondering why this should be!

  7. Depends what 7 iron you are hitting as there is no standard for golf clubs, pretty sure anyone can hit a 30 degree 7 iron with a longer shaft further than a 34 degree 7 iron, that's how the manufacturers have conned the amateur golfers for decades.

  8. That, old boy, is an excellent video and certainly jibes with my own observations of my own lengths over the last year. As a (currently) 20 handicapper I now accept that at a push on a good day I can squeeze 7 iron out to about 145 yards max.

    I now accept this as an iron law (so to speak) and tailor the rest of my shots on this understanding.

    And though it embarrases me to admit it only after 6 months did I realise my Garmin FitBit measures golf courses in meters as opposed to yards. My shot selection has improved vastly since then!!

    All of which is a moot point as I live in Ireland and it is mid-December and there is NO golf at the moment…..

  9. distance is irrelevant. Consistency en hitting it straight is. And putting ofc. When you are hitting an approach, a consistent ball strike and knowing how far you will hit it, will win you shots, not just the distance.

  13. I just turned 60 and I still hit my 8 iron almost exactly 150 yards .. driving occasional 300 yrd. .. My distances haven't changed (except for driver) for many years and still playing the same type of irons for the past 30 years (Mizuno muscle back blades). Can't hit my driver quite as far as I used to (used to be pretty long) but I still hit irons just about the same as always.

  14. I carry my 8 iron 155-160… a lot of players focus so much on swing speed and instead should be focusing on hitting the center of the club face/smash factor. Quality over Quantity

  15. Very nice vid. Helps us casual golfers get a gauge on how long we should be hitting. I am in the 160+ range for the 7 iron, but I am getting older and the distance will certainly go down every year I golf.

  16. I’ve played with 50 year olds who hit their driver 300 and I’ve played with 25 year olds who hit their driver 220. Age has nothing to do with it. Until you hit that 69-65 year range.

  18. But I should add that the chart showing distances with different irons by handicap is both eye-opening and right on the mark for higher handicap players. The distance gaps, especially with the long irons, really get compressed. So much so that there is hardly any use carrying a full set. At my handicap level, and the same for the 20 handicap, we cannot strike the ball in the dead center regularly enough to constantly hit one iron exactly 5 yards further than the next higher one. In fact, when you take into account perfect hits, average hits and toe or heel or thin hits, or pulled hits versus pushed fade hits, we are probably hitting three irons all within the same wide circle. A perfect 7 will go as long as a poor 5, and the gap will double in case of a poor 7 versus a perfect 5. When the average gap is only 5 yards, one might as well just carry every second iron.

  19. So much depends on the loft and lofts on the same number iron vary wildly. I'm 81, play to a 16-17 handicap. I have forged blade irons with traditional weak lofts. My 7 iron has a 36 degree loft. I can hit it 130-135 yards Occasionally with an absolutely perfect swing I can get it to 140, but can't count on that. I have Rifle Lite stiff shafts. Must admit that I should change to graphite regular flex shafts but there's always cost. Today fooling around at my range, I happened to hit a Callaway Epic forged black star 7 iron with a senior flex Attas graphite shaft. It went 15 yards further than my present 7 iron. Temperature was 53, with a little wind against. Kind of blew me away. But then I looked up these clubs. Besides the high cost, $2,600 for a set of 8 clubs, the loft on the 7 iron is 26 degrees. Yes, 26. My previous Mizuno MP-33 iron lofts are 25 for a 4 iron and 28 for a 5 iron. My current irons have the same lofts. So no wonder these clubs go further. The 7 iron is equivalent to a strong 5 iron, almost a 4. So trying to say how far we should hit our irons is complicated because we don't all use the same lofts, shafts and clubhead types.

  20. I'm 78 and play 1980s Spalding Tour Editions, the Greg Norman ones. The 7 iron is 138 degrees and about the same length as a modern 9 iron…so, you see loft creep over that time is about 2 clubs worth. No idea what my Swing Speed is, never had it measured, but I get 130 yards out of it. I don't like the much lighter graphite shafts, it feels like swinging a piece of damp cloud., no feel at all.

  23. I AM 77, hit PW 90 yards, 9-105, 8-115, 7-130, 6-140, hybrd 155, hybrd 170, hybrd, 180, 3W 200 and driver 220-250. not a long hitter, but this year i have shot my age 8 times, with a low of 73. Its how stright you hit it and not how far. I practice chiping and putting more than anything else, at least 70% of my time on the range is with my pitching wedges.

  25. It literally doesn’t matter how far you hit your irons, it matters if you hit them the same distance every time. You should hit your 150 yard club when you need to hit the ball 150 yards.

  26. This is all interesting to me as I am 62 this December and I have been playing from age 7

    Just went out with my wife and played 9 holes with 3 balls
    Missed just 2 fairways over 21 Tee Shots (Par 4 & 5), direction has increased as I aged with distance drop off

    The other part of he game that has gotten better is my Chipping from 30 yrs in
    I put that on my two clubs I have for this range depending on the type of shot requires
    both are NOT of the same brand as are my Driver, 3W, Hybrids that replaced my 3-5 irons or my 6 – PW (Cobra Set)

    Putting has never been a problem in my game, ever

    My only issue is the 6 – PW, where I have to guess at the range, carry distance and total distance
    Now at age 61 and with only my second set of irons I have ever purchased I have to go back to school on my Irons

    I will print the chart at the end and see how I rate

    Thanks

    James

    ps – HandyCap 16

  27. 66 years old, 32 deg 7 iron (Srixon 765) carries 160. I can hit my 56 sand wedge about 150, problem is that’s only when I’m short sided in a green side bunker..?

  28. Temperature (including drop-off due to more clothing in cooler conditions), elevation/altitude effects, swing lag, wind, lie, and of course LOFT (Lack of F'ing Talent) … (!!).

  29. Unfortunately the ego in most golfers won’t allow them to tell the truth about their distances! I’m amazed at the amount of people on YouTube who can hit their drivers 275yds+. Really? Sure if you’re playing at altitude, in the desert, tail wind, hard fairways or just indoors on a golf monitor it’s possible, But in the real world when the wind is blowing from different directions, it’s wet, middle of winter, you’re wearing 3 layers, the drive is uphill, grips are damp……….. Let’s see you rip it 275yds! Remember guys, the distance you should be thinking about is your Average, not the once in a blue moon! To work out your true distance on the hole your playing, You take your average CARRY and then start adding or subtracting as per the conditions! So if you carry it 220yds and it’s hard underfoot, add 25yds for roll, minus 5 for slightly uphill, minus 10 for wind in your face, gives you a 230yd drive – if you connect properly! Golf is not just hitting a little ball, it tests your character and honesty, you can tell a lot about someone out on the course.

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