Average Golf Club Distances: Charts for All Skill Levels

The average golf club distance for the 7-iron is 110 yards (100m) for male high handicappers, 150 (137m) for mid-handicappers, and 160 (146m) for low handicappers. Male PGA Tour pros can hit a 7-iron an average distance of 170-210 yards (155-192m). For women, the average club distance for the 7-iron is 50 yards (45m) for high handicappers, 60 yards (54m) for mid-handicappers, and 80 yards (73m) for low handicappers. Female pro golfers can hit a 7-iron as high as 160 yards (146m). 

But one has to become intimate with each club and understand their potential and effectiveness based on their style and swing. This will take some time and effort. Other factors, such as the golf ball used, the course condition, and the weather, will also impact distance.

How To Understand Your Golf Club Distances

The first step is to understand the basics of each club’s potential and then apply that knowledge to your own strength, style, swing speed, and the clubs you use. But how far does each club go?

As a starting point, this video will give you some insight into the value of understanding your average distance per golf club.

On average, men hit further than women, so we make a distinction. There are obviously exceptions and skilled lady golfers often outdrive men.

A golf club distance chart can offer a useful starting point for understanding how far we strike the ball. Regardless of whether you’re a humble Sunday hacker or Sunday Tiger Woods, we have golf club average distance charts below that give you a rough idea of how far you might expect to hit each club on average.

Read more: If you want to get more distance from your irons, check out our full review of the best player’s distance irons.

Male Golfers: Golf Club Distance Chart

We have separated our golf club range chart for men by handicap and club. As a general guide– anything above 20 is considered a high handicap. 

Between 10 and 20 might be a mid handicap, and anything in single digits would be a low handicap.    

Female Golfers: Golf Club Distances

As with the men’s chart, golf clubs and distances are separated by handicap.

 The above golf club distance charts are based on averages. As noted, actual distances can vary depending on equipment, conditions, skill level and how many beers you have the night before!

 In recent years, LIV golfer Bryson DeChambeau has been the biggest hitter on tour. 

For fun, we looked at the 2022 averages of the top pros. 

For PGA and LPGA players, the best data available tracks carry distance. This distance from the tee to the first bounce does not include subsequent roll. 

Their full shot distances are longer. For example, the average full driver distance on the PGA tour is roughly 320 yards. It’s safe to say that PGA pros drive the ball much further than the average golfer. 

Let’s examine a driver, wedge, and iron distance chart for PGA and LPGA pros.

PGA Tour Players: Average Golf Club Distances

Source: PGA Shotlink 2022

LPGA Tour Players: Average Golf Club Distances

Source: TrackMan 2022

Distance By Swing Speed

Putters have been excluded from our golf club distance charts as they are not used for distance.

These days, very few golfers, including many of the pros, do not use longer irons. Many use a hybrid instead of the 2, 3, and 4 irons. The average golf club distance should be similar, but you should have more confidence at address, greater consistency, and better accuracy.

As a result, the average shot distance for hybrids is likely longer than the average distance for irons. Hybrids tend to come in a slightly wider range of lofts, and this will impact the distance, so take this into account when making distance calculations.

It is sometimes easier to consider the average ranges for each club. The below infographic summarizes driver, wood, wedge, and iron distances.

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How Do I Work Out My Average Distance?

As we said above, this all-important understanding takes time and effort. Over time you will naturally become more familiar with your distance capabilities and average, but in the early years, you will have to do a bit of homework.

The fastest way to do this is at the driving range. You must experiment with each club and keep track of the results. If you hit each club around 50 times and eliminate the 5 worst and 5 best, that will give you a fairly accurate idea of your average with that club.

This will need to be done with each club if you really want to be sure, but initially, you can check your driver, woods, and 2 or 3 irons to get a faster idea.

The same can be done on the course, but it will not be as accurate and will take a lot longer. The best approach is to use both the range and the course and keep track of your averages as well as your progress.

This is an excellent exercise for beginner golfers.

So, as much as the above golf club distance charts are a useful guideline, the true average varies widely from player to player. It is important to work out your average. This should naturally increase over time as your skills and technique improve.

Keeping track of your distances from practice and on the course is valuable. This can be done manually; however, mobile phone apps can also help.

How to Determine the Distance Needed

Over time this will become largely instinctual but all players, the pros included, will benefit from having an accurate idea of the distance to the green, the pin, and any potential hazards. The scorecard and tee box markers will give you the total distance of the hole.

Thereafter one will have to use yardage markers. These can vary from course to course but are generally color-coded markers displaying 200 (normally blue), 150 (normally white), and 100 yards (normally red). One can pace backward or forwards from the nearest marker to determine your golf club distance.

Some courses have yardage diagrams available that will give you more accurate distances for each hole. These can be handy but will slow play down a bit.

Technology can also help in this regard and there are many great rangefinders available. Some have multiple features and many are extremely accurate.

Understand Lofts

Golf is a highly competitive sport, but the manufacturers are equally competitive, each trying to get a larger slice of the market. As golf club distance is something understandably important to most golfers, many manufacturers design new clubs to hit as far as possible.

One of the ways they achieve further distance is by reducing the loft. All other things being equal, a lower-lofted club will hit further than a higher-lofted club.

This means that a modern set will generally hit further than a comparable set made a few years back. One player’s 5 iron could have a different loft than the next so the potential is different. This is why it is important to understand your golf clubs and their distances. If you change or upgrade, you will most likely have to factor in these changes after getting used to them for some time. Our article breaks down how many degrees of loft you can expect between your irons.  

Most game improvement clubs will have a strong loft to help the player achieve an easier launch. This will mean sacrificing some distance potentials of a club designed for a better player with less loft.

This applies to all clubs with the obvious exception of the putter. Drivers, woods, irons, and particularly wedges can vary in the loft from one set to another, sometimes quite dramatically. Some drivers offer an adjustable loft, so you must determine the best setting for your swing speed and style.

The Key Factors That Determine Golf Club Distance

The distance your golf ball travels (hopefully) down the fairway is mainly determined by your:

1. Swing speed
2. Ball speed
3. Smash factor

Swing speeds measure how quickly the clubhead moves through the air. Ball speed measures the velocity of the ball once it leaves the clubface. Smash factor is calculated by dividing ball speed by swing speed and indicates ball-striking skill level. 

If you are lucky enough to get into a golf simulator, you can track these metrics and see where you can beef up your drive. Alternatively, you can always hit the gym and eat Tomahawk steaks daily.

Final Thoughts

Golf club distance charts with averages do not give the full picture as there are so many other factors to consider, but they do make for a useful starting point. These charts do illustrate the relevant differences between the various club distances across skill levels. 

You can take this info and use it as aims to target. But you want to take other factors into account as well.

Of course, there are several things you can do to improve your golf and reduce your score but knowing your range of golf club distances well will help you make smart decisions on the course. It will take some time and effort but has the potential to dramatically improve your enjoyment of the game as well as your score.

You will have to get to know your average for your swing and style and with your particular clubs. The saved yards and better lies will still positively impact your results. Of course, it always helps to hit the sweet spot when it comes to distance!

Do it. You won’t regret it.

Read more: For a step-by-step approach to getting more distance from your driver, check out our full article.

Nick Lomas

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Nick Lomas is the founder of GolfSpan, an avid golfer, not quite a pro but has over 15-years of experience playing and coaching golfers from all over the world. His mission is to bring the golfing community a better experience then it comes to choosing the right golf gear, and finding the right set up for your game.

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