pga tour averages 2022

Introducing updated Tour Averages

At Trackman, we're dedicated to providing the most accurate and up-to-date data to enhance your golfing experience. That's why we're excited to announce the release of our new Tour Averages, reflecting the latest insights from leading professional golf tours.

How We Gathered the Data

Our team has been hard at work collecting data from a wide range of pro players, utilizing Trackman technology to capture every swing and shot with precision.

Explore the New Tour Averages

Discover the latest numbers for both PGA and LPGA Tours, now presented in a redesigned format for easy reference. To see how the game has progressed over time, check out this link to see what’s changed compared to the last Tour Averages.

What's Changed Since Last Time

Since Trackman last revealed the Tour Averages, certain areas of the game have changed. When driving, for instance, players are now hitting further, with greater ball speed and less spin rate. See how your figures compare to the pros.

The Impact of Trackman

Trackman's role in driving performance gains cannot be understated. From influencing club manufacture to revolutionizing training methods and making data more accessible, Trackman continues to shape the future of golf.

Stay Informed

Whether you're a seasoned pro or a weekend warrior, Trackman is here to help you reach new heights on the course. So stay tuned for more updates and insights from Trackman as we continue to push the boundaries of golf technology.

Get the New Tour Assets

The updated Tour Averages data is available for download here in various formats (incl. in meters or yards), whether you're a coaching professional or simply want them handy on your phone when you're on the range.

Key Insights:

Male data is captured across 40+ different events and 200+ different players.

Data is captured at both PGA TOUR and DP World Tour events with majority coming from PGA TOUR events.

Female data is captured across 30+ different events and 150+ different players.

Data is captured at both LPGA and LET events with majority coming from LPGA events.

Averages are based on data from competition as well as on the range.

There are multiple processes in place to eliminate shots hit with a non-driver during competition.

There could be a small number of non-driver shots in the dataset (less than 0.5 percent).

Official stat holes are picked going in opposite directions to reduce any effects from wind.

TrackMan Average Tour Stats

Tour stats include:

Club Speed, Attack Angle, Ball Speed, Smash Factor, Launch Angle, Spin Rate, Max Height, Land Angle and Carry.

TrackMan Average Stats Taken From The PGA TOUR

TrackMan LPGA Tour Average Stats

80 comments

So the average male Tour pro hits down on the ball slightly with the driver? Should attack angle vary with clubhead speed?

The attack angle for the pros varies on woods, but it’s more or less negative when it comes to hybrids and irons. For the average player, the attack angle on drivers varies and in general so should the ball that is hit from the ground always have a negative attack angle in order to get a better margin of error for the impact.

However, in order to get the longest carry possible, the ball should launch high with low spin. The optimal numbers are individual based on club speed – and that type of flight can easier be achieved if the spin loft is low together with a high dynamic loft. The more the attack angle is negative, then the higher the spin loft gets => the attack angle should be closer to 0 if anything IF the goal is to carry as long as possible.

But generally, the attack angle for irons should be from -2 – -5 for almost all players, but for drivers you can hit it further with a positive attack angle, no matter the club speed.

Niklas Bergdahl Support Manager EMEA & Asia

Can you send me the optimal numbers across the board that players and coaches should be looking for in lessons and trackman sessions

Strangely enough, with a driver you can achieve a carry of 300 vs 275 with the same clubhead speed of 113. Adam Young tries to get people to convert to this method. Attack angle = +8 degrees Launch angle = 19 degrees Backspin = 2,000 Smash Factor= 1.5

Hi. I can only confirm. I achieve those positive angles and l can carry the driver (9 degr loft) 245 yards with a club speed of 95mph. Rollout is average 20 yards.

No, it is 3° and that means the clubhead is movin upwards. – is downwards.

You are reading the LPGA (ladies) numbers Tim. The PGA (men) average is -1.3.

Looks like the average LPGA players trackman swing speed is more or less the same as an average 10 hcp male player. Though the ladies are a lot more skilled in hitting it on the right angles and in the right spot on the clubface. Would an average 10 hcp male player have a advantage or disadvantege using graphite shafts?

Harry, any player of any handicap can benefit from graphite shafts. More often than not, the memory in most players’ minds from graphite stems from a very long time ago when graphite was ONLY graphite. It was whippy, and not very accurate. Material advances and composite technology have nearly rendered steel obsolete. I say nearly, mind you. There are a number of outstanding graphite shafts out there that are super stable and responsive, enabling a lighter club and longer distance without sacrificing accuracy. Fujikura makes some really nice iron shafts that fuse both steel and graphite technologies called MCI. In fact, i have Fuji PRO 95i shafts in my irons and my iron game is better now than it ever was with steel. I’m a 3.5 index and relatively strong but it allows me to play all out without getting tired on the back 9 from heavy clubs. Being a club builder, i can tell you that in golf equipment there’s a trade-off in everything. wether it’s length, weight, or feel so your advantage or disadvantage is dependent on how precisely you build your piece of equipment.

Hey Chris thanks for the info below i find it very interesting. Curious do you have those same shafts in your wedges or do you have steel in your wedges? I played SteelFiber i95 shafts last year in all my irons including wedges. I liked them in my irons but i felt like it hurt my game in wedges. Do you have any thoughts on this? Thanks

Agreed. Shallow your angle of attack to match the LPGA players.

I have had a number of sessions on a Trackman, (the latest on Aug 22, 2015, at “Modern Golf” in Mississauga On.). My clubhead speed and distances are about the same as LPGA averages. I was doing wedge work, and see that for a pitching wedge, (48°), my angle of attack -about 7.5° – is n=much higher than LPGA average. My accuracy is good, (only 3 0f 19 shots more that 20′ away, and all when the face angle was over 4° closed). I’m thinking that I should weaken my left hand a bit, (it’s a little strong on pitch shots), and play the ball farther forward- 2″ ahead of centre. Am I on the right track, or will these changes introduce new problems?

I’m 74 years old, and am a long-time PGA of Canada member. Thanks for any feedback…. love Trackman outings.

I would recommend that you visit one of our certified coaches, he/she would be able to help you and find what numbers are best for you.

See our TrackMan Locator here.

I don’t disagree with these stats but I do it;s kinda weird. 87 miles mph with an 8 iron should produce 177 yards of carry not 160 that’s a lot of mph. Iv’e seen high school kids hit 9 iron 165 and they don’t swing 100 mph with a 9 iron. When I swing hard I hit my 8 iron 155 and my legit radar read 72 mph so logic would dictate at 88 mph you would get more like 180 yards carry again that’s a lot of mph.

Remember that’s a carry number not total distance. Also since the pros produce significant more back spin, their ball flight is higher, landing angle loftier producing minimum roll whereas your total distance might be benefiting from maximum roll. One more thing to check would be launch angle where you might be hitting a low ball flight to maximize distance which in my opinion is “cheating.”

The PGA Tour 8-iron goes 160 in the air for a couple of reasons. One, they usually hit weaker lofts than high school players (like I) do. Secondly, they spin their 8-iron at 7998 RPM to stop the ball on fast greens. I believe this is the combination that makes the 8-iron go so much shorter.

I’ve hit thousands of balls on Foresight simulators, and what I’ve found is that backspin significantly influences carry distance. Holding club head speed constant, greater backspin reduces carry distance on all clubs.

For mid-irons, I’d estimate that you lose roughly 5-7 yards of carry per 1,000 RPM in additional backspin. And with the driver it’s easily 10+ yards of carry lost per 1,000 RPM.

This explains why poorly struck balls will often fly as far, if not further, than a well-hit shot. The key to backspin is crispness of contact – a poorly struck shot simply won’t spin as much. Unless the impact is absolutely terrible, the lack of backspin on poorly struck shots will cause those balls to carry further than a well-struck ball. So if you’re flying balls over the green with your irons, the culprit could be too little backspin caused by poor contact, cheap balls, a dirty club face, etc.

I think this is also the key reason why fades don’t carry as far as draws. It’s not that a draw swing is any faster/more powerful – it’s simply that fades have more backspin due to the impact geometry/physics involved with that swing.

Now I may be wrong on some of this, so I’d love to get a true expert’s take.

One thing I forgot to add to my comment above is that you need a minimum of backspin on all golf shots just to get the ball up in the air. That may be 1,500 RPM for woods and maybe 3,000 for irons.

My point is that increasing backspin beyond this base level will generally reduce carry. For example, I can guarantee that increasing the backspin on your 7 iron from 5k to 7.5k will reduce your carry with that club, even if your swinging faster at 7.5k.

I totally disagree with your premise. Draws carrying further than fades? That makes no sense.

Bare in mind tour players play with proper golf clubs which are weak lofted so the people you see hitting a 9 iron further than tour average 8 it’s probably because that 9 iron is closer to a 7 iron loft

Spin determines weather you hit a draw or fade so logic would dictate distance will also be effected. In my experience draws do tend to be further for 2 reasons and both have to do with spin. With a draw you will usually get more roll out as well as flight because of the decrease in spin. This is especially true with a driver.

Depends what clubs you are using. There can be as much as 7 degrees of variation between a ‘standard’ loft on a 7 iron. If you’re playing the Callaway Mavrik irons, you’ll get 27 degrees of loft on a 7 iron. If you’re playing the Callaway Apex Pro then its 34 degrees. That’s a two club difference.

I was custom fit recently for the Apex 21’s and currently play Apex MBs. With the MBs my 7 iron has 34 degrees of loft and flies 165yds with 89mph average club head speed. Same swing with the Apex 21s (30 degrees of loft) flies between 177 – 180 yds. Big difference.

Larry , I would highly recommend you see Mark Evershed . Buy him lunch and get the answers your looking for .

Hi guys this was a recent session with a cobra 3 wood 16 deg loft.my question is my launch angle seems a little low ,interested in your thoughts .thanks Shot # Club Club Speed (mph) Ball Speed (mph) Smash Factor Launch Angle (degrees) Direction Back Spin (rpm) Carry Distance (yards) Total Distance (yards) 1 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 2 3 Wood 98 148 1.51 9.10 Straight 4096.00 223.00 240.00 3 3 Wood 94 142 1.51 9.10 Straight 3904.00 213.00 230.00 4 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 5 3 Wood 96 145 1.51 9.10 Straight 4000.00 219.00 236.00 6 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 7 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 8 3 Wood 93 141 1.52 8.80 Straight 3826.00 212.00 229.00 9 3 Wood 92 129 1.40 12.40 Straight 4138.00 190.00 207.00 10 3 Wood 94 142 1.51 9.10 Straight 3904.00 213.00 230.00 11 3 Wood 94 142 1.51 9.10 Straight 3904.00 213.00 230.00 12 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 13 3 Wood 96 145 1.51 9.10 Straight 4000.00 219.00 236.00 14 3 Wood 93 140 1.51 9.10 Straight 3856.00 210.00 227.00 15 3 Wood 96 146 1.52 8.80 Straight 3970.00 220.00 237.00 16 3 Wood 92 140 1.52 8.80 Straight 3778.00 210.00 227.00 17 3 Wood 95 144 1.52 8.80 Straight 3922.00 216.00 233.00 18 3 Wood 96 145 1.51 9.10 Straight 4000.00 219.00 236.00 19 3 Wood 94 142 1.51 9.10 Straight 3904.00 213.00 230.00 20 3 Wood 91 137 1.51 9.10 Straight 3760.00 204.00 221.00 21 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 22 3 Wood 95 144 1.52 8.80 Straight 3922.00 216.00 233.00 23 3 Wood 95 144 1.52 8.80 Straight 3922.00 216.00 233.00 24 3 Wood 96 146 1.52 8.80 Straight 3970.00 220.00 237.00 25 3 Wood 96 146 1.52 8.80 Straight 3970.00 220.00 237.00 26 3 Wood 96 145 1.51 9.10 Straight 4000.00 219.00 236.00 27 3 Wood 94 137 1.46 10.60 Straight 4054.00 204.00 221.00 28 3 Wood 94 143 1.52 8.80 Straight 3874.00 215.00 232.00 29 3 Wood 98 142 1.45 10.90 Straight 4276.00 213.00 230.00

What kind of balls were you using?

Brent. This was at a driving range with srixon range balls

Ok the one number that really stood out to me was the smash factor. Usually anything above a 1.50 indicates something is illegal. There’s a reason not even the PGA tour players aren’t averaging 1.50 off the tee. Other than that your numbers look good.

Brent what about the launch angle

Yes the launch is a little on the low side. But seeing how you’re still getting decent distance I wouldn’t worry too much about how it’s coming out. But try hitting down on the ball more to get it up in the air faster.

I frequently get above 1.5 on trackman with longer irons and my woods (I have raised this with your tech teams already). This is because your machine measures club speed just before impact and doesn’t detect acceleration through impact

Trackman doesn’t detect acceleration through impact on solidly struck shots so you can post smash factors above 1.5. It’s best to just rely on ball speed with Trackman

Brent in one of your comments you said my smash factor was high ,had a session last night at range and some of my smash factors were 1.53 is this something to try and change and if so how do I change it

Like you had said you were using range balls correct? If so the smash factor will be a little off since they aren’t a legal tournament ball. What the smash factor (as explained to me by the Carolinas PGA rules committee chairman) is, is a measurement of how well the ball comes off the face. There’s a specific calculation for it but I’m not positive of it and anything over a 1.50 usually is a tell tale sign that either the club or ball is illegal. What I would recommend doing is using the ball you would normally play a round with and get some readings off that ball.

I read not long ago that Rory Mcilroy had a smash factor of 1.53 as well . If Willie can hit it 380 the way Rory does, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Larry. I’m 55 years old 280 is my distance not 380 Like Rory

Ball speed divided by club head speed is smash factor

I’m currently doing my university project on green-side bunker shots, I was wondering if you have any shot data for a short bunker shot or flop shot? Thanks.

Sorry but we do not have any official data we can share, but it would be interesting to see your final research :)

Blair, My assumption would be that the cleaner a ball is picked out of a bunker the more spin it will have and vice versa. The more sand you use to move the ball the less spin.

Do you have TrackMan data for AoA and DL for greenside bunker shots?

Sorry we do not have any official bunker shot data.

In looking at the tour pro stats for men – the max height reading for all clubs is about 30 plus or minus 2. I am trying to understand how/why are the heights the same for all clubs? My assumption would be the more lofted the club the greater the height! Is 30ish the optimum figure for best distance? Because in my last stats my longest 9.5 degree driver shot was max height of 56!

Is there any data available from the Senior tour?

We do not have any official charts for the Senior Tour. But you can login on mytrackman.com and use the combine section and filter, to show only Senior Tour players.

Thanks Christian!

what month/year is this data from?

Is there any data on typical club path for a tour pro?

Can you please post stats for average path, club face, and face to path numbers for PGA tour?

Could you please post average path, club face, and face to path numbers for several top Tour Players?

Before all the hype about hitting up on the ball came about, I hit down on a driver anywhere from -2 to -4 degrees and swung 1-2 degrees left.

Once I started to try and swing up on it. I lost direction big time. An easy swing for me is 112, swinging hard at it I can get it up to 123. Does Trackman recommend those that have higher swing speeds to hit down on it for straighter direction?

There is no physics logic backing up that hitting up on the ball will give a decrease in accuracy. However to go from hitting down to hitting up you have made some changes to your impact obviously. The way you made the changes could well be the problem as this could have affected your impact location, swing path, clubface and the way you release the club

Can pga tour players carry the ball 293 yards.

A Question: Were some data change on this site? I ask because I’m quite sure to have read other data for the men’s driver trajectory. Am I wrong or can someone confirm this?

kindly zorro

Is my impression right, that the data for the men driver were changed from

[Daten alt: 112mph 165mph 11,2° 2685 31y 39° 269y] to [Daten neu: 113mph 167mph 10,9° 2686 32y 38° 275y] ?

Why did TM do that?

For the tour pro stats – mainly carry distance, launch angle and spin rate for the driver, you have the averages, could you supply the max and min (filtered for outliers)? I am going to run an experiment with Trackman at my golf academy and need a starting range for each item. The tour max and min range is a starting point versus having to create this from scratch.

Anyone know where I can find raw data of clubhead speed? It is for a College project. Thanks!

You know what would be great to see – average miss from target – left and right – for each club. Of course short and long from target matter as well, but solid contact isn’t really my issue – left and right misses is my challenge

I’m about a half club off of PGA Tour average distance wise. Technically I’m a 1 handicap, but more like 4 or 5 when the tourney pressure is on. I know from playing with better players the difference between me and them is pretty much how much more accurate they are from a left and right perspective.

You can find all this info from Mark Broadie. He has tracked all the shots on the us tour for years and also written a book Every Shot Counts about it

I have been playing Golf for less than 19 months. I must admit I was damn tired of the same Golf Lesson producing varying results with inconsistent instruction(s) which seemed contradictory to the previous lesson. I take Golf perhaps a little more serious than others and my “approach” to this game may be viewed as extreme due to my focus on Fitness/Strength Training combined with my Yoga and Nutritional regimen.

That notwithstanding I would like to formally THANK the Trackman Developers and Support Staff for FINALLY producing a “Standardized” curriculum eliminating the traditional random quick fixes and circumventing the often inconsistent and contradictory methods being taught today.

I currently own a Trackman 4 and although I DO NOT wish to teach, I am Certified as an Operator and successful in obtaining my Professional Level 1 & 2 Certifications and shortly will be submitting my Thesis to be considered for review. These Certifications have greatly assisted me in understanding Flight/Ball dynamics and greatly assists my Coach and I in our 4-5 hour daily Putting-Wedge-Iron-Wood and Driver Sessions providing the data necessary to produce a more consistent and …. I have a hard time with this next word…… F U N game. (There I said the word “fun” in the same sentence as “Golf.” I’m so proud of myself!!!

Seriously, I simply CANNOT thank Nathan Meyer for coming to my hometown and demonstrating the enormous benefit(s) of purchasing the Trackman 4 product.

Kym Fontana [email protected]

It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you! Your work ethic, attitude, and kindness are all things that I can look up to. very excited for 2017 and I am looking forward to seeing you again soon!

-Nathan Meyer [email protected]

Are there numbers posted for an average 5 HCP player or 10 HCP player similar to the charts above for the ave tour player?

What is the #1 PGA Tour player in “Carry Distance” average carry distance??

I understand this data is pretty old, released soon after the time when trackman first came out. I’m sure things have changed since then. Any update?

Actually, we haven’t seen any huge changes over the past years, it’s more about roundings. For example, Avg. Club Speed for a driver: 2014: 113.0 mph 2015: 113.3 mph 2016: 112.9 mph And it’s pretty much similar with the other numbers.

We do have a graphical updated version of the Tour Stats here.

Not really. Lee Westwood was interviewed recently and advised that apart from his driver he hits everything else almost the exact same he has his entire career.

I’m looking for PGA tour averages for dynamic loft for different clubs. Does anyone have this data to share? Thanks!

Are there tour averages for club path?

Are all these stats full swings? Example: Would the avg tour pro hit a 6-iron further, if he turns fully and tries to hit it as far as possible (with a natural movement like on a driver – not with an unnatural swing that creates most possible power, but result in very unconsistent ball flight)?

Currently I practice indoors because of the winter. I do my practice with Trackman and I carry my 7 iron about 177-180 yards and total distance of 188-192 yards with my TaylorMade PSi irons. Lots of my shots with the 7 iron has a smash factor of 1.50-1.51.

This is a example of one of my shots with 7 iron.

Club speed: 80.2 | AoA: 1.3 | Ball speed: 120.5 | Carry: 164 meter | Total: 176 meter | Dyn Loft: 19.6 | Smash Factor: 1.50

Is that normal number for a 7 iron with a that club speed?

Averages are useful, but knowing them would be more useful if we knew the median and mode, as well as the range.

Hello, Are there updated PGA Tour Trackman stats?

On Trackman this week using 7i I noticed the spin rate I had was well below that of a pro by nearly 3,000 rpm but similar club speed and attack angle. How can I get my spin rate up?

It can vary a lot due to the ball and clubs you are using. For example driving range balls are normally very hard and will have much lower spinrates than a quality ball like a Titleist pro v1. Modern day irons are also built to higher the lauch angle and lower the spinrate so that the average golfer will achieve more distance

It would be great to know the average loft for each club, especially the irons!. I think 21-24-27-30-34-38-42-46 (3-Pw) are reasonable specs. What do you guys think?

What loft are the irons? A modern 7i is now 30°

Is this still the original data from 2015 or has it been updated?

I’d be very curious to see if the how the average attack angle has changed over this time in the PGA.

Please update this data from over the years of more testing.

Do you have any numbers on tour averages numbers on dynamic loft and spin loft?

I am a 2 handicapper and I hit my driver 280 yards on an average. What is the attack angle with driver of the best players on the pga tour?

these yardages are no doubt well below reality.

6 iron only 183yds carry? Most high handicappers hit it equally far.

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Crunch the numbers

16 fascinating golf 'stats' that tell the story of the 2022 season

At the risk of stating the obvious, 2022 was an eventful year in golf. So eventful, in fact, that there are dozens of ways to review and explore everything that went on—as you'll see us do the next couple weeks with our Newsmakers package .

One of those is by breaking down a bunch of stats that sum up the season. And that's what I've done here … in a manner of speaking. What you'll read below, though, aren't conventional "stats," because 2022, while eventful, was also hardly conventional. To recap the madness of this year, I needed to go looking for my own data and uncover some numbers with nuance. The goal with each is to highlight an old story in a new way—and put into context one of the strangest golf years in memory.

The rise of LIV Golf was the defining story of the year, and there are plenty of numbers to choose from to help tell it. Most of them include dollar signs: The $8 million Pat Perez earned in six LIV events, despite an average finish of just 32nd. The $125 million Bryson DeChambeau got for signing on to the tour. The $1 billion Greg Norman claimed the tour dangled at Tiger to join.

Instead, the number that best encapsulates the LIV drama, especially early in the season, was 106: That was how many words appeared in Dustin Johnson's statement last February in what was at the time a succinct and devastating rejection of the upstart tour.

Not long after, Rory McIlroy pronounced the Saudi-backed league "dead in the water," and LIV officials feared internally he was right, that DJ’s rejection would lead to the imminent collapse of the entire endeavor. As it turns out, golf’s civil war wasn't over before it began, just merely delayed.

Each year, a club comes along that captures the conversation. In 2022, it was TaylorMade’s Stealth driver.

The red-faced driver is constructed with 60 layers of a lighter carbon-fiber material, which frees up weight that can be displaced lower and further back into the driver head. McIlroy and Tiger Woods, among many others, switched at their earliest opportunity. So did Scottie Scheffler, setting the stage for a historic season to come.

4 wins in 6 starts

Scheffler came into 2022 an interesting and exciting young talent, but also a winless one on the PGA Tour. Yet in the space of six events between February and March, the 26-year-old former University of Texas All-American was the green-jacket wearing World No. 1. Players have gone on hot streaks before, but few have burned so furiously as Scheffler’s, the wins coming in disperate places (TPC Scottsdale and Bay Hill), different formats (Match Play win at Austin C.C.) and in a major. His barnstorming form, paired with a laissez-faire attitude about what may happen next, proved a simply unbeatable combination.

2 questions

It's almost hard to remember, but 2022 marked the year Tiger Woods assumed his formal place in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Ordinarily a stiff and cordial affair, the induction ceremony in March was an emotional, powerful moment for Tiger.

Tiger was introduced by his daughter Sam. When he assumed the podium, he spoke candidly about his life in golf, and powerfully about the racism he endured as one of the few people of color playing junior golf. Tiger revealed how he would answer those moments with the kind of calm and icy fury we’ve grown accustomed to with, asking just two simple questions: What’s the course record? Where’s the first tee?

29 water balls

Saturday at the 2022 Players Championship was, without doubt, the most fun I’ve ever had watching golf. The rain-plagued tournament finally resumed its second round on the weekend, and when it did, the wind gusted to 40 mph. It made TPC Sawgrass’ famed 17th hole almost unplayable—29 balls found the water over the course of the day. Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler shot 81, 79, 78 and 76, respectively.

Yet out of the carnage we saw a round of creative brilliance from Justin Thomas, whose bogey-free 69 was complete with a pitching wedge that flew 185 yards downwind, and a 5-wood that traveled 193 into the wind.

219.8 yards

The same month of the Players, the USGA released its annual distance report. There were lots of compelling nuggets in there, but perhaps the most interesting was the USGA’s revelation of the average driving distance for amateur golfers. According to the report, male golfers with a handicap between six and 12 drive the ball 219 yards on average, while their female counterparts average 177 yards.

That’s probably shorter than you expected, and if you’re wondering why, the answer is actually quite simple: Yes, those golfers are capable of hitting the ball far further. But for every 260-yard drive they hit, they add in a topped shot or wicked slice into the trees, which brings the overall average down. It’s inconsistency, the report explains, that's the real distance killer for the rest of us.

Golf is a game of misses—except for Jin Young Ko. En route to victory at the HSBC Women's World Championship in March, the 27-year-old South Korean went on an unholy streak of hitting 66 consecutive greens in regulation. Her secret, she says, was avoiding the trap of chasing pins. Instead, she stayed laser focused on the fattest part of the green.

Though Ko went on the hottest greens-in-regulation streak, Lexi Thompson remained the tour’s greens-in-regulation queen. A generational ball-striker, Thompson finished second in the stat in GIR and hit more than 77 percent of them in 2022, marking her 11th consecutive year inside the top 11 in that statistic.

Coming into 2022, Nelly Korda looked unstoppable. The 23-year-old had clocked four LPGA wins, including her first major, in addition to her gold medal victory at the Olympics a year earlier. But just as the season started to heat up, Korda was sidelined with a shocking injury : A blood clot on her right arm. She was hospitalized, skipped the first major of the season and forced to wait 119 days before returning to competition.

Douglas P. DeFelice

It was a brutal momentum-stopper for a woman who in early January had surpassed Stacy Lewis as the American to have spent the most weeks ranked No. 1 in the world . Yet by November, she was a winner once more, taking the title in the LPGA's penultimate event in 2022 and briefly returning to the top of the Rolex Women's Ranking.

13.72 percent

Golf fans had been eagerly anticipating Jordan Spieth’s return to form. In 2022, we got our first glimpses of it. Spieth popped into contention at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (where he finished second), then won the RBC Heritage in April before finishing second again the following week at the Byron Nelson.

Spieth came into the season sporting a new eye-catching practice swing that he said would help him recover his swing’s “DNA.” Spieth’s goal was to feel the club steepen on the backswing and then shallow on the downswing before turning aggressively though the ball. ”I want to feel like I hit the ball with my pivot,” he said. Whatever the feeling, it worked. The previous season, Spieth missed right almost 18 percent of the time, ranking him 175th on tour.

In 2022, his miss right percentage dropped to less than 14 percent. It helped Spieth gain strokes off the tee with his driver for the first time in four seasons and provided a platform for him to build on going forward.

65 mentions

Back to LIV, which, by the time the U.S. Open rolled into Brookline, Mass., had totally, utterly and completely dominated the conversation in golf. Dustin Johnson had performed his U-turn by this point, and the first event had been played outside London.

The dog days of summer were a frustrating time to be a golf journalist, forced into an unwinnable situation of needing to ask about LIV to players who were either not speaking honestly about it or frustrated at being asked in the first place. Nevertheless, that was the scene ahead of the U.S. Open. The transcripts tell the story: From the 12 official pre-tournament press conferences, the word “LIV” was mentioned by players or media an astonishing 65 times.

Thankfully, there was, indeed, golf played that week at The Country Club, and the winner emerged as the golfiest golfer of them all. It’s easy to forget that Matt Fitzpatrick was embroiled in a momentary controversy with Bryson DeChambeau in the aftermath of Bryson's Winged Foot victory in 2020.

“It’s not a skill to hit the ball a long way in my opinion,” Fitzpatrick said. “I could put on 40 pounds. I could go and see a bio-mechanist and I could gain 40 yards; that’s actually a fact. I could put another two inches on my driver. I could gain that, but the skill in my opinion is to hit the ball straight. That’s the skill, he’s just taking the skill out of it in my opinion.”

Fitzpatrick walked back those comments—so much that he eventually decided to adopt the blueprint altogether . He employed the use of DeChambeau's same biomechanist consultant, Dr. Sasho Mackenzie, ditched his fade for a lower-spinning draw, packed on some extra muscle and adopted a speed training routine. He couldn’t beat them, so he joined them.

And it worked.

Between 2021 and 2022, Fitzpartick gained seven mph of ball speed on his driver, 10 yards in total, and had his hands on the same trophy Bryson had two years prior.

RELATED: The inside story of Matt Fitzpatrick's dramatic transformation

Will Zalatoris finished second to Fitzpatrick at Brookline, his second-consecutive major runner-up. The 26-year-old, just starting his third full year on the PGA Tour, is often maligned as a sub-standard putter, especially from short range. By tour standards, I suppose that’s true. But it’s worth remembering how good a substandard putter on the PGA Tour actually is.

Keyur Khamar

Zalatoris finished second on tour in approach putt performance, and made 926 of his 1,065 putts—just shy of 87 percent—inside 10 feet over the course of the 2021-22 season. He finished 161st in the stat, but the difference between Zalatoris being a statistically sub-standard putter on tour from this range, and an above average one, was about 10 putts. If he had holed 10 more putts from this range, which equates to one every eight rounds, the narrative doesn't hold up any more.

The margins on tour rest on the thinnest razor’s edge. Zalatoris found himself just on the wrong side of it majors this year, but his time will come.

Rory McIlroy, by all accounts, had a fantastic season . Three wins on the PGA Tour; a second, a third, a fifth and an eighth in the four majors; and a return to World No. 1. It feels wrong to focus on a less-than-flattering statistic after a yearly performance like that, but as the talent ceiling gets raised, so goes the bar of expectation. McIlroy cast a frustrated figure after his fifth-place finish at the U.S. Open—“Another top-five in a major. I guess it doesn't really mean anything,” he said after his final round. He spoke of needing to stay positive and patient, that those qualities will soon be rewarded. Through three rounds at the Open Championship the next month, he looked like he’d be proven right.

BEN STANSALL

And then, McIlroy took 36 putts during his final round, the second-worst of any player in the field that day. He lost by two shots, and the only two birdies he made on Sunday came on two-putts on greens in hit under regulation. It underlined a common theme from McIlroy in majors: A story of quality, marred with unforced errors and submission.

In some ways, Rory seems too intelligent and mature for his own good. Along the way, he’s forgotten his own formula for best golf: That he plays his best when he plays less like Tiger, and more like Phil. With an air of reckless abandon. A freewheeling, screw-the-stats, something-to-prove irrationality.

McIlroy is a lifelong Manchester United supporter, so he knows that after years of success on the pitch came to a grinding halt upon the retirement of manager Sir Alex Ferguson, the team spent years mired in a more more conventional, conservative approach. The thousands of fans watching in the stands soon adopted a commanding chant: “Attack, Attack, Attack!” Watching McIlroy defend his way around a gettable St. Andrews that Sunday, I found uttering the same thing.

The man who finished between McIlroy and eventual winner Cameron Smith at St. Andrews was Cameron Young, who this season established himself as one of golf's brightest rising stars. Young is a prototypical "new school" golfer who has built his game around aggressive driving: His ball speeds are among the fastest on the PGA Tour, routinely surpassing 190 mph.

He covers a whopping 70.22 percent of the yardage on par 4 holes with his tee shots, and the hang time on his drives averages a tour-leading eight seconds (seriously, count properly to seven seconds and think about how long that is for a ball to stay in the air).

Earlier this year, I asked his father and coach what he thought junior golfers, and their parents, could learn from Youngs. He came up with three sage piece of advice: Avoid getting technical early, make sure their grip is in a neutral spot, and build good athleticism early by playing other sports.

Once the season was out, my boss, Sam Weinman, crafted for himself a truly fascinating experiment with tour player Joel Dahmen: What might an 11 handicap shoot if a tour player hits all his drives?

The answer was 81.

Were it not for a few flubbed chips, missed putts and poor decision making, it could’ve been lower. But of course, that’s exactly the point with amateur golfers. Through some combination of sloppiness and a specific skill deficiency, we always find a way to leave something on the table.

-.651 strokes

A second-consecutive victory for Viktor Hovland at the Hero World Challenge was a reminder that the Norwegian has all the making of a future World No. 1. What makes that such a fascinating idea is that unlike other elite players in the game, he’ll do so with clear weakness in his game. Hovland ranked 191st on the PGA Tour in SG: Around the Green, losing more than half a stroke per round. Earlier this year his coach, Golf Digest Best in State Jeff Smith, shared some fascinating insight into why .

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jeff Smith (@radargolfpro)

It’s that the qualities in Hovland’s golf swing that make him one of the best ball-strikers in golf pose some unique challenges around the green. The leading edge will often dig into the turf, which can lead to chunks and other inconsistencies.

To fix it, Hovland needs to re-learn a new technique. You can’t take the good without the bad, and no matter what level you play this crazy game, the journey to getting better never ends.

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PGA Championship analysis: What to know heading into the final round at Valhalla

Follow live coverage of the final round of the 2024 PGA Championship today

While the skies were clear Saturday at Valhalla, it continued to rain birdies in buckets.

And while some may bemoan the record-breaking scores, the leaderboard this venue has produced with one round to play in the 106th PGA Championship is undeniably strong. Fifteen players, many of them among the most accomplished in the game today, are within five shots of the lead heading into the final day.

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Here are the top numbers and notes to know from Round 3 of the PGA Championship.

1. At 15 under par, Collin Morikawa is tied for the lead entering the final round of a major for the first time in his career. After missing each of his first three greens in regulation Saturday, Morikawa hit 12 of 15 the rest of the way, carding just a single bogey in his round. Renowned as one of the top iron players in the sport, Morikawa is tied for the lead despite ranking 24th in the field in strokes gained approach through three rounds. Instead, it’s been an excellent short game that’s led his charge; he tops the field this week in strokes gained around the green.

Morikawa is looking for his third career major championship victory in his 18th major start. It has been nearly 47 years since a player reached three major wins in 18 attempts or fewer. The last to do it was Tom Watson, who got his third major title in his 17th career start at the 1977 Open. Brooks Koepka and Tiger Woods won their third major in start No. 20, while Jordan Spieth did it in 19.

The only player in the PGA Championship stroke-play era (since 1958) to win the PGA Championship twice in his first five tries is Woods. Morikawa can join him with a win Sunday.

2. Xander Schauffele was cruising atop the leaderboard most of the day until a double bogey at 15, his only dropped shot of the afternoon. The world No. 3 bounced back admirably, though, making birdie at 17 and 18 to tie Morikawa entering the final round. This is the second time Schauffele has led entering the final round of a major — he shared the lead entering the final round at Carnoustie in the 2018 Open.

Schauffele, who led outright after each of the first two rounds, is the seventh man since 2000 to hold a share of the lead after Rounds 1, 2 and 3 at a PGA Championship. Four of the previous six went on to win. This is the fourth time in Schauffele’s career that he has been in the top five entering Sunday at a major — he did not break par in the final round in any of the previous three instances.

3. On the biggest stage in his young career, Sahith Theegala (-14, 1 back) acquitted himself extremely well Saturday. His reward is a prime opportunity to win his first major championship. The 26-year-old Pepperdine product was 2 over through eight holes before catching fire, playing his last 10 in 6 under. Theegala is third in the field in putting through three rounds this week, picking up more than eight strokes on the field on the greens.

This will be just the sixth major championship Sunday for Theegala, and the first time he has teed it up in one of those rounds starting better than tied for 20th. His best finish in his eight previous major championships was a solo ninth at the 2023 Masters, when he closed with 67.

4. Shane Lowry shot the fifth round of 62 in men’s major championship history, the second this week and the fourth in the last 11 months. Lowry has lit up the greens at Valhalla, making a field-best 14 putts of 10 feet or longer. Lowry has gained nearly 11 strokes putting this week, far and away the most of anyone through three rounds in any PGA Tour event in 2024. His more than 5.97 strokes gained putting Saturday alone are a career high in any round.

Lowry started the third round eight shots off the lead, in a tie for 29th place. Should he go on to win, it would be the largest 36-hole comeback by position in PGA Championship history and tie the second largest across all men’s majors. Only David Duval’s, after he was in a tie for 35th entering Round 3 of the 2001 Open at Royal Lytham, would be bigger. Lowry is trying to join Padraig Harrington and Rory McIlroy as the only European players to win an Open Championship and a PGA.

5. Bryson DeChambeau celebrated an eagle on the closing hole Saturday with an emphatic fist pump and matching roar. The chip-in puts him two shots off the lead entering the final round, the same deficit he faced in 2020 at Winged Foot when he won the U.S. Open. The powerful DeChambeau leads the field this week in driving distance, which is exactly what Tiger Woods (2000) and Rory McIlroy (2014) did when they left Valhalla with the Wanamaker Trophy.

This marks the first time DeChambeau has ever started a major championship with three consecutive rounds in the 60s. Should he win, he would be just the third player to win the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open and PGA Championship, joining Woods and Jack Nicklaus.

Bryson DeChambeau EAGLES on 18 😱 He's ONE BACK off the lead! #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/9vODJiMbXF — PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 18, 2024

6. The field averaged -1.45 strokes under par Saturday, the lowest single round in relation to par in PGA Championship history. In fact, it was just the third round in this championship’s history where the field was a stroke or more under par on average. Three of them have come at Valhalla GC — the third round in 2000 (-1.00) and the third round in 2014 (-1.43) being the other two.

Twenty-eight players shot scores of 3 under or better Saturday, the second most in a single PGA Championship round after a cut has been made. In 2015 at Whistling Straits, 30 players shot 3 under or lower in Round 3. Jason Day would go on to win that week, posting the first score of 20 under or lower in men’s major championship history.

7. Reports surfaced earlier in the week that reigning FedExCup champion Viktor Hovland had started working again with his previous swing coach, Joe Mayo. The on-course results have been quick and staggeringly good. Hovland is just two shots off the lead entering the final round and looks closer to his soaring superstar form of 2023 than what he’d put on film to date this year.

The ebullient Norwegian entered the week ranked 122nd on the PGA Tour in strokes gained tee-to-green in 2024 and 81st in strokes gained approach. He’s seventh and 11th in those two metrics this week. Saturday was the first bogey-free round of his PGA Championship career and fourth across all the majors. This is the fifth time in the last seven majors contested that Hovland will be in the top five entering the final round.

Two of Hovland’s European Ryder Cup teammates should not be discounted as we head to the final round. Robert MacIntyre is three shots back, looking to become the first Scottish major winner in the men’s game since Paul Lawrie at the 1999 Open Championship. Justin Rose fired a third-round 64, tying his career-low score across 267 major championship rounds. Rose, 43, is the oldest player from outside the United States to shoot 64 or lower at the PGA Championship since Gary Player in 1984.

8. After a second consecutive round of 67, hometown favorite Justin Thomas is five shots off the lead heading into Sunday. JT was multiple shots back entering the final round in each of his two PGA wins (two back in 2017, seven in 2022). The last player to win each of his first three majors when trailing by at least two strokes through 54 holes was Harrington. Thomas leads the tournament in strokes gained tee-to-green but ranks a dismal 70th in strokes gained putting.

Four-time major winner McIlroy and three-time major champ Spieth are seven shots back and will need a minor miracle to win Sunday. A seven-shot comeback has happened twice, by Thomas in 2022 and John Mahaffey at Oakmont in 1978. In Spieth’s eight PGA Championship starts since winning the third leg of the grand slam, seven strokes ties the smallest deficit he has faced after 54 holes.

9. The game’s two best performers in major championships in recent seasons, Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka, both struggled Saturday.

Scheffler shot a 2-over-par 73, his first score worse than par in an official event since the Tour Championship in August. Scheffler’s unlikely day included a double bogey-bogey-bogey run on holes 2 through 4. Incredibly, it was the first time in 646 days that Scheffler made bogey or worse on three consecutive holes. In the span between when it last happened — the 2022 St. Jude Championship — Scheffler played 2,470 holes on Tour.

Koepka wobbled to a third-round 74, falling out of contention in his title defense. Saturday was the 149th round of Koepka’s major championship career. It’s just the sixth time he shot a score four shots or more worse than the field average. Koepka did not make a birdie until the 17th hole Saturday and lost more than 2.4 strokes on the greens alone in his round.

10. In the men’s game, 40 of the last 41 major winners have been within four shots of the lead entering the final round. The lone exception in that span was Thomas at Southern Hills two years ago in this championship. Since 2000, every men’s major winner has been tied for ninth or better on the leaderboard with one round to play. Eighty-one percent of the winners in that span were either first, second or third.

(Top photo of Sahith Theegala: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

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Justin Ray is a contributor at The Athletic and the Head of Content for Twenty First Group, a sports intelligence agency that works with players, broadcasters, manufacturers and media. He has been in sports media for more than 10 years and was previously a senior researcher for ESPN and Golf Channel. Follow Justin on Twitter @ JustinRayGolf