I recently had a full bag club fitting and got a bit of an unpleasant surprise. I was expecting to find a drop in clubhead speed with age but was shocked to see the amount. I am 63 y/o and in decent shape, workout 4-6 times per week in the offseason and 2-3 during the season. I play 80+ rounds per year with an index in the 6.5-7.5 range and walk 99% of the time.

I was fit approx 20 years ago and had a driver swing speed of 100mph, about 6 years ago it was 92 and now it is 86. I knew age was creeping in to the equation but I was surprised at the amount of decline. Anyone else in a similar age bracket seeing a comparable decline and if not what is your secret besides good genetics?

Age 67, walker, playing to 12 handicap - up from 5 over past 15 years. Swing speed (currently low 80's) and handicap have both eroded as age progressed.

I've switched to graphite and senior flex which has helped slow the inevitable. I think you are right about "genes" - some people seem better equipped to deal with time than others. I am focusing on solid contact and making bad swings less bad. Goal for 2020 is to get the handicap back to a 10.

Good luck with the journey!!

Just curious what the club fitter recommended?

Driver was Epic Flash 10.5d with KuroKage 60 Regular / Irons were Mizuno 919 Hot Metal with KBS Tour 90 Regular and I bought a Titleist u510 3 iron with stock Regular shaft. The fitting was good. I picked up ball speed and tightened dispersion on the selections.

It's a natural part of aging. I'm 69, about your SS, work some at fitness, but I get shorter all the time. It's the same reason you don't run as fast or throw as hard as you did even 10 years ago.

We laugh at how far we used to hit the ball. Been playing same course for 11 years, moved up a tee box as we can no longer carry hazards we used to not even consider. Happens to all of us, Father Time always wins in the long run.

I am almost 65. It doesn't concern me too much. Instead of trying to kill myself attempting to reclaim lost distance, or spending $$$$ on the latest and greatest in hoping it will add more distance, I simply moved up a tee box.

I'm closer to 60 than 50. I haven't lost distance yet but am sure it's just around the corner. Just interested if anyone has done anything to improve technique to regain some distance. Latest and greatest clubs may help somewhat but surely a better technique can also help us hang on to those 330 yard drives.

I have, I’m 59 but my index remains the same.

I started losing some distance this summer on my irons. I'm 56. Been a two handicap for 20 plus years. I did switch to regular shafts late in the summer from stiff. Stayed with steel. Been a dynamic gold guy my whole life.

It helped but I know it's coming. I was never long. I usually drive the ball about 250 tops. I still strike the ball very well . I hit at least 13 to 15 greens a round but I have been taking an extra club more than I used to. I have been playing three to four days a week ( 9 holes) and practicing at least 15 hours on top of that for 25 years. Once I get worse I'm quitting and taking up fishing. LOL

I could not tolerate getting worse. I figure I got maybe five good years left.

Hopefully you will shoot your age this season. :-)

Turning 60 in 2020. So far I haven’t lost anything off my irons, but I have with the driver. More from a conscious effort to get it in the fairway and not blast away. Under no delusions that in 3 or 5 years that it won’t happen though. I am fortunate however, that I have always hit it further than most, so I hope that I can stave off the Forward tees for at least 5 yrs. I have given up on the Tips though because I’m smarter now than was even few years ago. Tips are for kids.

I’ll settle for 72 in 13 years along with an albatross somewhere!

Age 60 here. Down about a club length from say 5 years ago. I thought I had found the magic potion this summer when I had gained back all my yardage and then some on the long clubs by switching to Sr. flex shafts, but that proved to be short lived as the weather got colder. The elegant solution has been to play shorter courses and/or move up a tee box. I play Sr. tees most of the time now unless it's an executive length course. At this stage of the game, my play around and on the greens has a lot more to do with my score than how far I hit it.

62 here in great physical shape and surprisingly still in stiff shafts. A few weeks ago had my fitting for the PXG Gen 3's and thought for sure I would be going to regular this time. 6i was averaging around 85, 3rd time I've been fit and each time the Accra Tour 100i's give me the best numbers. The Steelfiber 90i came close this time but I hate the feel of those shafts. Anyway my driver speed averaged 98 so I guess it is what it is, no complaints.

Is stretching part of your workout program? For us older guys, I think it's invaluable as we try to retain as much distance as possible.

I never played from the tips. I was never long enough. I competed in a lot of state and local Am. tournaments over the years and we always were forced back to the tips. I struggled some from there. My two handicap went to a six or seven.

I started competing again once I was eligible for the senior division. Like I said above, I'm a very good ball striker but I could never drive the ball past 250. It didn't matter what driver I had. I tried all kinds of combos and it never changed anything. I have a smooth to slower tempo. If I try to swing harder the ball goes all over the place. I don't worry about it anymore. I am what I am.

All my friends used to ask me why I didn't try and do more with the game. I was a plus 3 in my 20's but I always knew I was average and didn't have the length to compete on anything more than a local level. I would have loved to have the talent to try but I just didn't.

I can play on a local level on easier courses but you put me on a PGA Tour type course and I was never as good. I remember back in my 20's I played Glenn Abby right after the Canadien open and I could barley stay under 85. That was at a plus two handicap. I knew right then I would never be anything more than a local guy.

My course is tough but it is only 6400 hundred yards. That's about my level. Nothing more.

Never had one of those 330 yard drives in my bag without tailwind and hard fairways, but I am as long at 58 as I was in the 40's. I think a few of the posts hit the nail on the head. Flexibility and technique. I still workout and include stretching as part of the routine. I have also changed my swing a bit to get rid of any casting and maximize club head speed at impact. It feels like I swing easier now, but still maintain my clubhead speed.

I have also made some equipment changes that may have assisted (shafts in irons from DG300S to Steelfiber i95S), and a lower spinning driver (EPIC SZ), but am not really a technology chaser. The shafts were an experiment that just stuck, and the driver was the first driver I changed since I put a 910 D2 in the bag.

I'm mid-60s, work out a lot and stretch a bunch--not for golf specifically but because it makes me feel so much better. Anyway, 20 years ago my SS was around 108. In the last few years, it has dropped quite a bit--as low as 90 mph and below last year. I've worked on a lot of different things, but the biggest part of it was learning how to take a full turn (again). I discovered that it's not about the shoulder turn, but rather it is about the hip turn. This got me back up to around 100, which is good enough from me right now.

I'm 10 years younger than you but have lost a lot because of age an mostly injury. When my body feels good I can get a little more out of it, but those good days don't come as often as they used to. More forgiving clubs, an extra fairway wood and a forward set tees are all a good idea.

Along the recurring theme mentioned here...

Just turned 56. Last couple years, found I'd lost a bit of distance off the tee, and a bit with irons. I've dropped from using DGX or Super Peening Blue X flex in my irons to DGS. Been holding on with the X in my woods, but found last year I could no longer play the ProtoPype 80X shafts I'd assembled for a couple of my drivers.

I've not been sure how much of this is related to injury issues I've had the last couple years. I've had some problem with my lower back, and tore the meniscus in my left knee. Having gained some of my distance back with driver this year, albeit sporadically, tells me the injuries are at least half of the cause. Because my driver to 3w gap is closing, I also think my driver swing has picked up some distance robbing habits.

Spin rate could be a part of the distance loss with driver. I'm apparently not spinning the ball as I once did, based on my ability to use older drivers in my possession that I'd set aside in past years due to too much spin. In which case, I may also need to increase loft, and possibly look at shaft profiles a bit differently.

Father time, still undefeated champion. LOL

On a slightly related note, one thing that's crept into my mind is a certain fatigue in my golf nerd habits. Have spent a fair amount of time (and money) chasing better distance, with my former launch conditions helping drive that bus. This past season, I spent a fair bit of time playing older, and much smaller, drivers (sub-300cc), including several rounds with Ram persimmons and Ping Eye2 woods. Found myself enjoying that more than the toy factor involved with the more modern sticks, and frankly, having better results with the old equipment, metal or persimmon. Giving serious thought to largely forgoing the modern stuff, sticking with the old. Bit of a tangent, sorry.

I'm a fair few years younger than you, but I'm already treading that path of moving away from the newer stuff! Just less interested in it.

Partly due to injury, I ended up playing more persimmon rounds this year than modern stuff (a couple of planned rounds with the modern clubs got cancelled)

. My golf purchases now are mostly old stuff rather than new stuff, about a 4:1 ratio.

Over winter, I'm will play my modern stuff in the few times I get out, but as soon as it starts warming up in late March here, out comes my old stuff.

I have come to the realization at age 75 and chasing distance with new low lofted irons, that even though that 7 iron is 29/30 degrees of loft, you still have to have good enough swing speed to make it do what it's supposed to do.

I'm still in relatively good shape, but no matter what I do to stay in shape, time and gravity takes it's toll and the vast majority of us just have to live with that. Now on the good side of that is now I/we can save a lot of money by not chasing the "buy a game" mind set anymore.

Well, at age 67, this cheers me up.

You guys who're fightin' it--keep up the good fight, but don't kid yourself, you're just putting it off. And, er, just because your shaft isn't stiff, don't let your pace of play get too slow. Gives the rest of us a bad rep.

Of course. Current Driver SS is 85-88. I used to hit a 3W off the deck farther than I hit my Driver today.

At 56, this is the first year I can confirm I'm slowing down and it's not just the swing speed. Driver SS has dropped a steady 1 mph per year for the past 6 and I'm now down to 105 and play a Stiff shaft for the first time I can remember. I played 188 rounds in 2019 and I've watched my handicap drop from a +1.8 going into the winter solstice to now a -2.6 a year later. If it weren't for putting and short game I'd realistically be a solid -5 by now. GIR and proximity are the culprit and I'll be working over the winter break to figure out what iron shafts I need and for the first time consider something besides X100. The Mitsubishi graphite's have me intrigued. I work out 4-5 times per week to include cardio and weights and walk everyday whether it's on the course or at the house.

I shot a 68 yesterday with 4 birdies and 1 bogey and made 171 ft on 24 putts. Like most "old men" I seem to make a lot of pars these days and yesterdays round was a one-off because of an extremely hot putter. It's the first time I've been in the 60's since June. The next round could be a smooth 80 and that's the most frustrating part of this decline. The consistency I was known for is slowly eroding. I'm coming to grips with the facts but I intend to keep battling until I can't grip the clubs any longer.

PS. I was very fortunate to play in some money games years ago that included Fred Hawkins who finished 2nd to Arnold Palmer in the '58 Masters. He was in his late 70's and early 80's at the time and would shoot under his age with regularity. He told me the secret to playing good golf at his age was play it as much as you can and enjoy it! I'm trying Mr. Hawkins, but it's damned sure not easy.

I'll be 52 in a few months. I've definitely noticed a drop off starting just before turning 50. I've been a gym rat my entire life and have always maintained my fitness.

I initially started to notice distance loss in colder (sub 55f) temps. Younger guys who I could keep up with and occasionally knock it past would curiously be 20+ longer than me once it got cold. I could palpably feel body stiffness impeding swing. Makes me think that that's how I'll feel on an 80 degree day in another 15 years...lol! ?

Ten years ago on my best swings in a driver fitting I was (barely) able to hit 170 ball speed. This year on Trackman most of my driver swings are around 157 ball speed, occasionally touching 160. I've also noticed a drop off in carry distance with my longer clubs and a lower trajectory with 3 wood. I was always a high ball hitter and had no problem launching a 13 degree 3 wood into the stratosphere. Not so easy now. I've had no distance loss in wedges thru 6 iron though that may be ball & club tech advancements.

So, now for the good news...lol! I'm a better player (lower HC) now than I've ever been...even spent a few revisions in plus territory this summer. My putting may not be totally as sharp as when i was younger but my chipping and pitching are MUCH better.

I think it's worth trying to fight it with exercise & technology, but Father Time is always going to win this one!

that pure slice fixer, Geoff Jones action conquers all obstacles. Hope all is well.

Have any of you old coots tried the SuperSpeed Sticks?

Had an older player (82) join our group the other day. Watched him swing effortlessly and knock it down the fairway consistantly with an average of about 200 to 220 yds every time. Finally got curious enough to check out what he was hitting and was totally surprised that they were ladies graphite shafts. Now he still stood around 6 ft tall, so I asked him about the length. He said it took him awhile to find ladies clubs that were built for a taller women, that were standard men's length and since they are light weight, he dosen't and can't swing hard with them. He said they changed his game totally, so now he can keep on playing and having some fun. Now he added a caveat and that being, if you do try a set and you are younger than 80 and still want to hit it hard, you will really have to shelve the ego and swing smoothly to allow them to work. We've always been told to let the club do the work and if like me, most of us really don't adhear to that logic. Now there's a fine line between smooth and agressive swings, you just have to fine your medium ground and stick with it. I'm still comtemplating on trying some ladies clubs, at least the irons, just to see if I can pick up those few extra yards. Played yeasterday and at a par 3, 156 yds, had to hit a 4 iron (which really equates to a 5 iron because of the older lofts values), but I remember when that was a 7 iron distance. It's just hard to reconcile, that it may take a 3 wood to carry that distance in a year or two. But if I want to keep playing, that's what's going to happen. I think it's time to establish new tee distances for older players. You get to a point where even though your hitting from the senior tees, you still can't get there in regulation. Perhaps we need, no not perhaps, we definitely need super senior tees to stay competitive if we play with/against much younger players.