Shaft flex, driver loft, ball compression and half the advice on any golf forum depend on club head speed, and most golfers are working from a number they guessed or were told once. The guess is usually high. This covers the five ways to get a real figure, what each one costs, how accurate it is, and what the number is actually good for once you have it.
Club speed, ball speed and swing speed are three different things
The phrase "swing speed" usually means club head speed, but the number people quote is often ball speed, which is considerably higher and not interchangeable.
TrackMan defines club speed as the linear speed of the club head's geometric centre just before contact. Ball speed is the speed of the ball just after it leaves the face. The ratio between them is smash factor, and a driver figure near 1.50 is what TrackMan describes as the target, so a 95 mph swing striking the middle produces something near 140 mph of ball speed.
That matters when comparing yourself to a number online. A golfer quoting 145 is quoting ball speed. A golfer quoting 95 is quoting club speed. Getting the two mixed up is how someone ends up buying a stiff shaft for a swing that does not warrant one. What each of these parameters means in full is covered in launch monitor data explained.
The five ways to measure it
Ordered by what they cost rather than by how good they are, because for most golfers the free option is also the accurate one.
| Method | Typical cost | Measures | Accuracy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fitting studio or pro shop launch monitor | Often free, or the price of a fitting | Club speed, ball speed, smash, everything else | Highest available |
| Tracked driving range bay | Included in the bucket price | Club speed and ball flight | Good, varies by installation |
| Personal swing speed radar | From around £80 | Club speed only, sometimes ball speed | Good for club speed |
| Consumer launch monitor | £400 to £16,000 | Full parameter set | Good to excellent by tier |
| Estimating from carry distance | Nothing | Nothing directly, an inference | Rough, and easily wrong |
Ask somewhere that already owns one
A fitting studio, a club professional's shop, a big-box golf retailer or an indoor bay all have a launch monitor sitting idle between appointments, and most will put you on it for ten minutes without charging. This is the best option available to almost everyone and the least used.
Two rules make the visit worth doing. Bring your own driver, because a demo club with a different shaft measures a different swing. And warm up first, because a cold first swing is not your speed and it is the one that will get written down.
A radar you own
Dedicated swing speed radars are small units that sit on the ground beside or behind the ball and report club speed, sometimes with ball speed alongside. They cost a fraction of a full launch monitor because they do one job, and for tracking a speed training programme week to week that is the only job needed.
The limitation is that a club speed number alone cannot tell you whether the speed is producing anything. A golfer who adds 4 mph and loses the centre of the face is going backwards while the number goes up, which is why smash factor belongs in the same conversation.
A full launch monitor
If you already own or are considering one, club speed comes free with everything else it reports. The tiers, what each one actually measures rather than models, and where the meaningful jumps in price sit are covered in best launch monitors.
Phone apps and estimating from distance
Phone apps that claim to measure club speed from audio or video exist and are not reliable enough to make an equipment decision on. Treat anything they report as entertainment.
Estimating backwards from carry distance is more defensible but still an inference rather than a measurement, because two golfers with identical club speed can carry a driver twenty yards apart depending on strike, launch and spin. If you want a rough sanity check rather than a number, average driver distance sets out what distances actually look like across amateur golf.
What the averages actually are
Here is where a measured number becomes useful, because a figure with nothing to compare it against tells you very little.
TrackMan publishes combine averages by handicap alongside its tour figures, and they are the clearest published benchmarks in the category.
| Golfer | Driver club speed |
|---|---|
| PGA Tour average | 115 mph |
| Male amateur, scratch or better | 110 mph |
| Male amateur, 5 handicap | 101 mph |
| LPGA Tour average | 96 mph |
| Male amateur, 10 handicap | 95 mph |
| Male amateur, average at 14.5 handicap | 94 mph |
| Male amateur, bogey golfer | 92 mph |
| Female amateur, scratch or better | 90 mph |
| Female amateur, 5 handicap | 87 mph |
| Female amateur, 10 handicap | 83 mph |
| Female amateur, 15 handicap | 79 mph |
Notice how compressed the amateur column is. The gap from a bogey golfer to a 10 handicap is 3 mph. The gap from a 10 handicap to a 5 handicap is 6 mph. Handicap and club speed are related, but far more loosely than the internet suggests, and a golfer already at the average for their handicap is not losing shots to speed.
Measuring it properly in one session
The procedure matters more than the device, because most of the error in an amateur's number comes from how it was collected.
- Warm up first. Ten minutes of movement and a dozen easy wedges, not a cold driver.
- Use your own driver, with the shaft you actually play.
- Hit ten balls at a normal, committed pace. Not swinging out of your shoes and not steering it.
- Record every one, including the bad strikes.
- Take the average of all ten, and note the highest and lowest as well.
- Repeat once more on a different day before treating the number as settled.
The spread between your highest and lowest is worth as much as the average. A golfer whose ten swings sit inside 4 mph has a repeatable delivery. One whose swings range across 12 mph has a tempo problem that will show up on the course as inconsistent yardages long before it shows up as a shaft fitting issue. That side of it is covered in golf swing tempo.
What to do with the number
Three decisions genuinely depend on it, and a great deal of other advice does not.
Shaft flex is the main one. It is the single most common equipment mismatch in amateur golf, usually in the direction of too stiff, and the flex ranges by speed are set out in golf shaft flex guide. Driver loft is the second, since lower speeds generally need more loft to launch the ball properly. Ball choice is the third and the least important, and how compression actually relates to speed is covered in golf ball compression explained.
What the number does not decide is whether you are a good golfer, and it is a poor target on its own. If it comes back genuinely low for your handicap and you want to work on it, the training that moves it and the honest timescale for doing so are in how to increase swing speed. If it came back normal and your distance did not, the cause is usually strike or spin rather than speed, which is the subject of why am I losing distance.
Key takeaways
- Club speed and ball speed are different numbers and mixing them up leads to buying the wrong shaft.
- The cheapest accurate measurement is usually free: ask a fitting studio, pro shop or tracked range bay.
- A dedicated speed radar starts around £80 and is worth owning only if you are tracking a programme.
- Phone apps are not accurate enough to make an equipment decision on.
- TrackMan's combine data puts the average male amateur at 94 mph and a bogey golfer at 92 mph with a driver.
- The amateur range is far more compressed than most golfers assume, at 3 mph between a bogey golfer and a 10 handicap.
- Hit ten balls with your own driver and take the average, never the best one.
- The spread between your fastest and slowest swing says as much as the average.
- Shaft flex, driver loft and ball choice are the decisions that genuinely need this number.
Common questions
How do I measure my swing speed without a launch monitor?
Ask somewhere that owns one. Fitting studios, club professionals, retail golf shops and tracked range bays will usually put you on a unit for ten minutes at no charge. Failing that, a dedicated swing speed radar starts around £80 and measures club speed accurately for a fraction of a full launch monitor's price.
What is the average golf swing speed?
TrackMan's combine data puts the average male amateur, at a 14.5 handicap, at 94 mph with a driver, a bogey golfer at 92 mph and a scratch amateur at 110 mph. On the women's side a scratch amateur averages 90 mph, a 10 handicap 83 mph and a 15 handicap 79 mph. PGA Tour average is 115 mph and LPGA Tour average is 96 mph.
What swing speed do I need for a stiff shaft?
It depends on how you load the shaft as much as on the raw number, which is why fitters watch tempo and transition alongside speed. The common error is going too stiff, and a golfer near the amateur average is usually better served by regular than by stiff. The ranges by speed are set out in the shaft flex guide linked above.
Are swing speed apps accurate?
Not accurately enough to fit a club with. Apps that infer speed from phone audio or video vary widely between swings and between phones. Use one for curiosity if you like, and get a radar or launch monitor number before spending money on the back of it.
Does swing speed drop with age?
Generally yes, gradually, and it responds to training at every age. Losing speed is also not the only reason distance falls, since strike quality and spin change too, and the cause is worth diagnosing before assuming the swing has slowed.
How many swings should I measure?
At least ten, recorded in full including the poor strikes, then averaged. A single swing is meaningless and the best swing of the session is worse than meaningless, because it produces a number you cannot reproduce and will then be fitted to.
Should I measure with a driver or an iron?
Driver, because it is the club every published benchmark and every fitting chart is quoted against. Iron speeds are lower and useful for gapping work, but they cannot be compared to any of the standard tables.
Is ball speed or club speed more important?
Club speed sets the ceiling and ball speed determines how much of that ceiling you reach. TrackMan describes ball speed as the biggest factor in how far the ball carries, which is why smash factor, the ratio of the two, is the more diagnostic number of the pair.
Can I increase my swing speed at my age?
Speed training produces gains across a wide range of ages, and the golfers who see most are the ones furthest below their physical potential. Expect six to twelve weeks before a change is stable, and expect strike quality to dip while the new speed is being integrated.
Why is my distance short if my swing speed is normal?
Because speed is only the ceiling. Off-centre strike, too much spin, too little launch, or a shaft that does not suit you will all leave distance on the table with a perfectly ordinary club speed. Measuring smash factor alongside the speed usually identifies which one it is.
Tom Ashworth
Tom Ashworth is a PGA Professional who has taught golf since 2012, working mainly with beginners and mid-handicappers at club level in Surrey. He reviews the instruction guides on Learn Golf for technical accuracy before they publish.
Most of his teaching is with players in their first three years of the game, and most arrive having been told too much: six swing thoughts collected from videos, half of them contradicting each other. His approach is to check the grip and the alignment before touching the swing, on the basis that most bad ball flight is decided at address.