Improving your swing speed and your average golf driver distance is extremely popular. But is this the most beneficial way to lower your scores?
We all want to improve our game, but knowing which areas are the most beneficial to work on is essential. We want to practice areas that will make the most significant impact on our game in the shortest amount of time.
So should you be working on your dispersion or you distance with driver?
Average percentage of fairways hit by handicap
A common misconception among golfers is that lower handicap golfers are more accurate off the tee, which is why they shoot lower scores. If we look at the Shot Scope data for the percentage of fairways hit with a driver, we can see this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Scratch golfers hit the lowest percentage of fairways with driver. In fact, they are missing the fairway more often than they are hitting it. If we look across the range of handicaps, how many fairways someone hits has no direct correlation to their handicap.
Fairways hit by handicap:
Scratch golfers: 46%
5-handicap: 49%
10-handicap: 50%
15-handicap: 48%
20-handicap: 46%
25-handicap: 50%
Even tour pros aren’t hitting that many more fairways. Across the bag, including drivers and more conservative clubs, the average PGA Tour player hits 47.37% of fairways. That’s less than a 25-handicap golfer!
The golfers who hit the most fairways? Turns out it’s female pros. The average LPGA Tour player hits 71.9% of fairways which is pretty impressive.
Average golf driver distance by handicap
Shot Scope data shows average golf driver distance varies quite significantly by handicap. Scratch golfers gain as much as 68 yards on average over a 25-handicapper.
