Any short comings on the course can be compensated by ones health. These improvements would apply at all ages, and ensure an improved score tee to green with no decline as one gets older. lol, but I digress). Can the wisdom of age make us better golfers, or will father time catch up before we wise up? Can’t wait for spring and the new season to begin. Be resigned to shoot 30 over par or more and enjoy reliving the past, preserving the history of the game, and trying to walk in Walter Hagens shoes. But remember, this isn’t the case for every golfer so if you fall above or If you are female, your handicap is below the average golf handicap of 28.9. 49 of the 50 never broke 100. At some point improvement has to plateau, but I’m not sure three years is where it happens! Within the numbers I’d love to know how many of those folks took lessons and at what stage of their golf developement. For these average male golfers, Trackman® statistics report the average club head speed at this 14-15-handicap level is about 93.4 mph…yielding an average total distance of 214 yards per drive. First is important to understand the close relationship between Putts per Round and GIR% per round. Golf handicaps are calculated by taking into the account the last 10 rounds. What they shot. Think about it. So basically the chart seems to follow the different stages of life on the golf course, some enjoy the stages and can handle the changes and pressures and some cannot. That tells me that your tracking data is for a VERY low number of golfers. I’ve been playing for over 40 years and I’ve found this to be true. Your age, experience and handicap can all affect your expected average. Although there is a slow trend towards improvement, many in the golf … During competitions, if a player betters their handicap they will most likely get a reduction, or a ‘cut’ as it is more commonly known. Average Putts By Age. So I would bet that if I bet everyone who showed up at a golf course bet me they could break 100, I would come out way ahead. From 17 to around age 25 I improved to a low single digit handicap as I learned how to score The logical assumption is that once we reach a certain age, hitting greens in regulation on longer holes becomes more difficult, if not impossible. My own experience? What we discovered may surprise you. GHIN reported the average male handicap at 15.3 in 2003 and 14.3 in 2012. Looking at driving distance by handicap level, we see similar distances: If you take a larger step back and look at all of their users, you can see that the average male golfer hits their driver about 225 yards while a female averages just under 170 yards. Course Ratings When you hit the Green in Regulation, your approach shot most likely comes from a longer distance than it does after you’ve missed the green. Low golf scores and thus low handicap indexes are more complex than pure talent and practice. If a player’s handicap is 20 and he completes a competition round in 15 over par, this means he is 5 shots better than his handicap. The majority of top golf professionals played to handicaps of +4 to +6 before entering the professional ranks. reference: The maximum handicap a player can be assigned is as follows: According to a study Breaking it down in two divisions -- age and handicap -- here are the median driving distances from golfers across the world: At its core, the median driving distance is 219.55 yards. For me, physically it’s understandable that you would lose some strength and ultimately distance but mentally, I am and will continue to develop my mental game to where I might not be able to physically beat you but beat you by playing smart. I refer to them often and sometimes before I tee it up. And of course 60-70 you are now retired with more time than you want, almost maybe even bored again more time, more golf, better scores. handicapping authorities: Feature image credit: Gina Smith / Shutterstock. Tony is the Editor of MyGolfSpy where his job is to bring fresh and innovative content to the site. Handicaps are a measure of the relative skill of a player, and take into account the course the player is on when shooting, as opposed to simply taking into account her score relative to par, and can be calculated on computers in many golf course pro shops. Handicap Index® Statistics. ), you end up compensating for by playing smarter. It might sound straightforward, but it’s not quite as easy as it sounds. There are pictures of me swinging plastic golf clubs in the back garden as a toddler and for reasons of geography, education, work or a focus on other sports I played only a few times a year from age 15 to 41. Its hard to compensate for a 20mph drop off in swing speed over 20 years, but the putting and the short game stays relatively stable. By combining the best bits from the best books he has read on golf, he came up with a redefinition of the golf swing in his e-book called ‘The Flail Swing’. They keep it in play and they know that they need a superior short game to compete. Like me, most golfers at my club took up golf late in life when we were looking for something to replace other sports that we were no longer capable of competing in. This graph shows putts per round and GIR% performance of golfers by age. There was a time (years ago) when I shot in the low 80’s. One has to persevere and to be prepared to jetison what one already does in order to make progress with it. The fact that the oldest golfers hit roughly the same number of putts as the younger groups runs counter to the idea that the short game is the biggest strength of the older generation. 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