Distance
Golf Club Distance Chart
How far each club should go, from your driver carry or swing speed.
The short answer
A driver that carries 220 yards suggests a 7-iron carry of about 138 yards, with the rest of the bag stepped off Trackman’s tour carry gaps. It is a starting chart, not a fitting.
How it’s calculated
Your club carry = Trackman tour carry for that club × (your driver carry ÷ 275)
Worked example, the numbers loaded in the calculator: driver carry 220 yards. Tour driver carry is 275. The 7-iron tour carry is 172, so 172 × 220 ÷ 275 = 137.6, which rounds to 138 yards.
Gap, sand, and lob wedges are not on that Trackman table. They sit 12, 24, and 36 yards inside the pitching wedge before the same scale is applied, and the chart marks them as estimates. Swing speed uses Trackman’s Carry Optimizer at a level attack angle, scaled so 93.4 mph equals the 204-yard amateur carry Trackman published. “Average for a handicap” switches the whole chart to Shot Scope on-course total distance. Age ratios come only from Arccos driver totals that were published for that band.
Sources on this page
- Trackman PGA Tour averages. Carry in yards, driver through pitching wedge, from Trackman’s published PGA Tour averages table (club speed, ball speed, and carry). Driver 275, 3-wood 243, 5-wood 230, hybrid (15–18°) 225, 4-iron 203, 5-iron 194, 6-iron 183, 7-iron 172, 8-iron 160, 9-iron 148, pitching wedge 136.
- Trackman Carry Optimizer. Driver carry at a level (0°) attack angle, from Trackman’s Carry Optimizer fitting chart: 75 mph 154, 80 mph 171, 85 mph 187, 90 mph 203, 95 mph 219, 100 mph 235, 105 mph 251, 110 mph 266, 115 mph 281, 120 mph 296 yards.
- Trackman amateur driver study. Average male amateur driver: 93.4 mph club speed and 204 yards of carry. Cited on Trackman’s blog from Trackman’s amateur performance study (Christian Hahn, 7 July 2017).
- Shot Scope on-course totals by handicap. Male golfers, total distance in yards, as published from Shot Scope data by GolfMagic and MyGolfSpy. Bands are scratch, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25. Ten-handicap golfers are longer than five-handicaps with some short clubs in the source table; that is the published data, not a typing error.
- Arccos 2025 Driving Distance Report (2024 shots). On-course driver totals (carry plus roll) from a random sample of 25,000 golfers and 6,576,228 driver tee shots on par 4s and par 5s. Figures used here are the ones printed by Golf Business News and by Lou Stagner’s summary of that report: men 224.7, women 176.2, men 15–19 241.6, men over 70 190, women in their 20s 201.1, women in their 60s 160. Low-handicap age splits from the same report, via Lou Stagner: men 20s and 0–4.9 handicap 265.7, men 70s and 0–4.9 211.5, women 20s low handicap 245.7, women 60s low handicap 183.6.
Questions golfers ask
Is this carry or total distance?
If you start from driver carry or swing speed, the chart is carry: how far the ball flies. If you start from a handicap average, the chart is on-course total distance, carry plus roll, because that is what Shot Scope and Arccos publish. The result says which one you are looking at.
How far should a 7-iron go?
There is no single 7-iron. On this chart a 220-yard driver carry scales to about 138 yards of 7-iron carry, using Trackman tour gaps. Shot Scope’s on-course total for a 15-handicap man is 154 yards with the 7-iron. Total includes roll, so it reads longer than carry.
Why does my chart differ from my playing partner’s?
The bag is scaled to the driver carry or swing speed you enter, then shaped like published tour or amateur gaps. Two golfers with the same driver carry get the same suggestion. Real bags also move with strike, loft, and ball. A launch monitor session is the way to replace the suggestion with your own numbers.
Does age change how far the ball goes?
Arccos’s 2024 driver totals are shorter for older golfers: men over 70 averaged 190 yards, against 224.7 for men of all ages. This chart applies an age ratio only where that report published an all-player average, and only when you ask for handicap averages. A carry you measured yourself is not altered for age.
What does a gap warning mean?
A wide gap is a yardage you may not have a full swing for. An overlap means two clubs are doing the same job. The warning is a prompt to check the bag, not an order to buy a club. Wedge totals in the Shot Scope table are uneven at some handicaps, and the chart shows that rather than smoothing it away.
Are women’s distances measured separately?
Swing speed uses the same speed-to-carry curve for everyone. The published club-by-club table we cite is Shot Scope’s men’s data. When you ask for a women’s handicap average, that men’s bag is scaled by Arccos’s driver ratio of 176.2 yards for women to 224.7 for men. It is labelled as a scale, not a measured women’s bag.
Can I use this for a club fitting?
Use it to walk in with a question, not as the fitting. Loft, shaft, and strike change carry by more than a scaled average can see. Gap, sand, and lob wedges are 12-yard steps below the Trackman pitching wedge because that tour table stops at the pitching wedge.