The young guns are coming! 
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It’s nothing to sneeze at NOW, nice job.
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I don’t see any data by age, just handicap and gender. Can someone tell me where the age data is in the paper? Sorry to be dense…
Whoa. 0-6 handicaps averaging 244 and not above 250 since ‘96. 
Makes me think my handicap should be much lower, or that my iron, wedge, short game, and putting need serious work!
I don’t want to be the guy on here that talks about hitting it 300, but I’ll just say I play at a high altitude, am 6’6” with a 7’ wingspan (big swing arc and levers) and played baseball and football and basketball growing up and I have done yoga for almost 20 years and my tee shots go… much further than 244 yards…
Sooo, what does that mean… time to work on other parts of the game??
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At that point it becomes a bit less about the how far and a bit more about the dispersion. If you’re averaging over 300, keeping it in play, and getting approach distance where you should be hitting the green more often than not, then yep, put the work into the other clubs.
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Guys - another excellent and informative article! Thx @CoryO and @jon!!
I especially appreciate that the article took care to mention ALL THE OTHER FACTORS … other than swing speed … THAT COMBINE INTO MAKING THE BALL FLY.
That Trackman chart was a great illustration.
Sure, swing speed is important - but: for a given swing speed if a golfer trains towards optimizing their launch conditions … including impact location on the face … they can increase their distance!!
Let’s get to work people 
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Cool, so I’m driving it like a youngster 
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Great article @CoryO. I like having all of my distances using my Shot Scope V3. The only downside is having the truth about my distances staring me in the face.
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Yes, great that the article covers that! And for us, ahem, Mature golfers, increasing efficiency is going to help across the board…“Old age and treachery beating youth and skill” LOL.
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KFT is younger and all the players grew up building their game around 460cc drivers and a solid core ball. That distance is coming to the PGA Tour.
It’s not all about distance, but distance is a huge key if you can somewhat control it.
I was never a consistent 300 yard driver, but averaged 260-270 until about 5 years ago when I started losing distance. I’m actually a better player now because I’m in play way more often, but I’m much less explosive than I used to be in terms of putting up a really low round.
So yes, the rest of the game is important, but if you’re hitting it 300, ask yourself how often you’re in play doing that. I define in play as having an unobstructed shot to the green for your next one. If you’re consistently in play then yes, grind away on the other parts of your game.
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Good real world example… A few summers ago my wife and I were paired up with two other guys - one much younger, like late 20s, who tee’ed up all the way back. And yeah he could smash the ball … his tee shots were actually legit 300 yarders (prob furthest I’ve seen any amateur drive).
Problem was … especially on this course with some blind landing areas … most of those bombs were way offline - and in trouble…
The end result being my wife and I, with our unimpressive tee shots and layups, were almost always on the green ready to putt while the bomber was still looking for his ball and making his recovery shot.
Now he was a really nice guy, but seeing that “live” hammered home for me that it’s more important to control your ball and have an idea where it’s going!
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(Super) long - according to this chart - and accurate off the tee. I’m a +1.6, but apparently I should be even lower!?
Thank god I’m getting the putter dialed in. 
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I’ve got a pretty solid driver swing speed and it’s not accurately reflected in my handicap… I need to shore up my wedge and putting game, which I’ve been actively working on!
It’s interesting, as I think to a certain extent, distance has diminishing returns overall, but it can help change the way you play certain holes… I’m actively working on getting my CHS to 120 so I can try and carry a hill at my home club… If I can successfully do that, it will save me a stroke (as I can hit a par 5 in 2 instead of 3). It’s my least favorite hole, so I want to break it!
Other than that, the added yardage won’t be a tremendous help for my scoring… I’ll just have shorter shots in for everything, which is nice enough.
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I have definitely been that guy. As I turn 40, I am narrowing in my misses from giant blocks and hooks to smaller pushes and pulls. I hate being out of bounds, out of position, looking for balls and losing balls, being in water and behind trees, as does anyone. I am really trying to prioritize accuracy right now. I’m getting it dialed in. Being 300 in the middle of fairway is difficult, but makes golf a pretty easy game if you can do it!
Ps I have been beaten by LOTS of people hitting in 240 off the tee and getting it up by the green in regulation…
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I can’t hit my driver well yet so I don’t play it (a work in progress). But I can hit my 3 wood off the tee 240-250 so I’m fine with gaming that all day long.
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If you can hit a 3 wood well off the tee, then there really shouldn’t be any sort of technique issue on hitting the driver well. Might be mental block there IMO and the best way to get through that is pushing yourself to hit it.
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This was a mistake on my part, I added the driving distance by age into the article. Not sure what happened there!
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