Driving distance ranges for junior golfers

[ConcernedBoutCOVID]

27 minutes ago, ConcernedBoutCOVID said:

Point being, there's no reason for concern if your kid doesn't hit it as long as other bigger kids, and there's no reason to be overly optimistic if your bigger kid does; size becomes much less of an issue after they all mature

 

Distance matters a lot at the younger ages, especially before they are playing full length courses (min 6500+ for boys, 5800+ for girls). 

 

I would even go so far as to say, if a kid is much bigger/stronger than others of same age and hits it much farther, but isn't beating everyone easily on those shorter setups, then should probably temper future expectations.  The smaller kids will probably catch up and maybe surpass once the size differential shrinks.

[MRx747]

On 3/28/2020 at 10:59 PM, mbbrewer said:

I have 2 boys. My 11 year old is about 5 feet and 95 pounds hits his driver 180-200. My 9 year old is a little dude. Weighs like 55 pounds and hits driver 140-160.

Is this carry or total?

[mbbrewer]

15 hours ago, MRx747 said:

Is this carry or total?

That is total

[heavy_hitter]

On 2/13/2018 at 4:30 AM, kcap said:

HH - really good job on the averages. Think they are quite close to what I have seen over the last few years as my now 10 yr old has moved from lower end of the pack to the higher end. He is definitely not elite but i see the the difference between elite and good. It is amazing how 20-30 yds longer from the tee box can change the hole for anyone let alone kids where 30yd represent 3-4 club difference.

 

I do hope you are not right about your second point i.e. in ability to teach a faster swing and hitting the ball further. My personal belief is that you are incorrect (nothing to back it up but just a gut check) and while some kids with great sporting, athletic genes are just able to hit the ball further others need to be taught to work on it, whether it is strength, flexibility, efficiency or just mechanics...

 

Different question. How many parents have actively worked on swing speeds and distance? We have spent a fair bit of time this off-season working on speed and flexibility. Not sure it is will have the desired impact; I assume he will hit the ball further just due to natural growth and doubt he reaches elite level.

 

Going back through this thread is a treat.  @iteachgolf and you are correct.  My kid is being taught speed and distance.  14 mph gain in club head speed from last year to this.  His coach who is also a TPI trainer believes he will gain another 15 mph over the next year which will put him at 120 mph club head speed at 16 years old.  This has been done primarily in the gym with strength training.  He intermittently does the Dr. House throwing protocol and Super Speed training systems.  I do think the biggest gains have just been in the gym where he has seen a 50% increase in ability over the last year.  His average carry last year at this time was 235.  His average carry now is 280.

[leezer99]

I just noticed this thread was stated by CT. 
 

RIP you glorious bastxxx. 
 

edit: for those of you that don’t know CT he’s not dead, just banned. 

Edited January 16, 2021 by leezer99

[kekoa]

The more my son plays in tournaments with older kids, I wonder at what point distance is a wash if a kid cant hit a wedge and doesn't have feel.   Two of the longest kids in the 11-12's were hitting driver anywhere between 250-270 but also missing fairways a lot and guess what?  They finished T16 and T18 out of 34 players.  Distance is hard to learn, but so is a good iron game.  A part of me thinks the course was just too short for these guys at 5,700 yards.  

[leezer99]

1 hour ago, kekoa said:

The more my son plays in tournaments with older kids, I wonder at what point distance is a wash if a kid cant hit a wedge and doesn't have feel.   Two of the longest kids in the 11-12's were hitting driver anywhere between 250-270 but also missing fairways a lot and guess what?  They finished T16 and T18 out of 34 players.  Distance is hard to learn, but so is a good iron game.  A part of me thinks the course was just too short for these guys at 5,700 yards.  

Invitation is open when you want to come play VCC. We got 6,300, 6,700 and 7,100 yard tees. 

[kekoa]

5 hours ago, leezer99 said:

Invitation is open when you want to come play VCC. We got 6,300, 6,700 and 7,100 yard tees. 

 

can we tee it up from the fairway.  If so, let do this.  🙂

[kspider]

Hey there, my son started dabbling in golf a year ago when covid hit, and he started playing in our local tournaments in October 2020. After reading this and another post on here, I suggested he use his Christmas and Bday money to buy a new driver instead of fortnite Vbucks. We went with a Cobra Speedzone Extreme Junior and it added about 20 yards from his US Kids UL-54. Very happy with the purchase and the fact that he can use this club for years.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ftnju1v7ik8eux1/owen 2.MOV?dl=0

[heavy_hitter]

On 2/27/2021 at 2:38 AM, kspider said:

Hey there, my son started dabbling in golf a year ago when covid hit, and he started playing in our local tournaments in October 2020. After reading this and another post on here, I suggested he use his Christmas and Bday money to buy a new driver instead of fortnite Vbucks. We went with a Cobra Speedzone Extreme Junior and it added about 20 yards from his US Kids UL-54. Very happy with the purchase and the fact that he can use this club for years.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ftnju1v7ik8eux1/owen 2.MOV?dl=0

 

 

Years???  LOL...  Just wait.

[kspider]

11 minutes ago, heavy_hitter said:

 

 

Years???  LOL...  Just wait.

[BloctonGolf11]

On 1/29/2021 at 4:17 PM, kekoa said:

The more my son plays in tournaments with older kids, I wonder at what point distance is a wash if a kid cant hit a wedge and doesn't have feel.   Two of the longest kids in the 11-12's were hitting driver anywhere between 250-270 but also missing fairways a lot and guess what?  They finished T16 and T18 out of 34 players.  Distance is hard to learn, but so is a good iron game.  A part of me thinks the course was just too short for these guys at 5,700 yards.  

Just to piggyback. My son went out and played this weekend and ROYALLY shat the bed. We have been battling a cast now for a year with his new coach repairing some issues that had been persistent with his old coach. Well Saturday my son was BY FAR the longest kid in his age group outdriving the other kids by 20 yards on almost every hole, and yes in the fairway. However, he could not hit an iron properly to save his life the entire round and proceeded to shoot a score I refuse to post, needless to say it was Charles Barkley turrible. Turned out it was a simple wrist issue that we will get remedied over the next couple of weeks with some drills hopefully. Distance is big but doesn't matter if something happens and you can't finish it off. My son had 8 iron or less on every par 4 approach and hit 2 greens the entire day. It was something scary to watch.

 

Key point, you have to be long enough to compete, but being long is only a part of the recipe. 

[wildcatden]

8 minutes ago, BloctonGolf11 said:

Just to piggyback. My son went out and played this weekend and ROYALLY shat the bed. We have been battling a cast now for a year with his new coach repairing some issues that had been persistent with his old coach. Well Saturday my son was BY FAR the longest kid in his age group outdriving the other kids by 20 yards on almost every hole, and yes in the fairway. However, he could not hit an iron properly to save his life the entire round and proceeded to shoot a score I refuse to post, needless to say it was Charles Barkley turrible. Turned out it was a simple wrist issue that we will get remedied over the next couple of weeks with some drills hopefully. Distance is big but doesn't matter if something happens and you can't finish it off. My son had 8 iron or less on every par 4 approach and hit 2 greens the entire day. It was something scary to watch.

 

Key point, you have to be long enough to compete, but being long is only a part of the recipe. 

 

We didn't play tournaments but had a similar experience this weekend.  My junior has struggled with distance off the tee for a long time. Over the last week or so, a breakthrough of staying on plane has finally occurred and his shortest drive yesterday was 170 yards. Prior to that, 170 was a bomb for him.  However, yesterday, he couldn't putt to save his life (and we've been practicing!!) and he ended up shooting 6 shots worse from 2,700 yards than when he was driving it 30-40 yards less.  Since he has done well before in those areas, it just seems like "mental approach to the game stuff" as the ability is in there somewhere.... 

 

[BloctonGolf11]

27 minutes ago, wildcatden said:

 

We didn't play tournaments but had a similar experience this weekend.  My junior has struggled with distance off the tee for a long time. Over the last week or so, a breakthrough of staying on plane has finally occurred and his shortest drive yesterday was 170 yards. Prior to that, 170 was a bomb for him.  However, yesterday, he couldn't putt to save his life (and we've been practicing!!) and he ended up shooting 6 shots worse from 2,700 yards than when he was driving it 30-40 yards less.  Since he has done well before in those areas, it just seems like "mental approach to the game stuff" as the ability is in there somewhere.... 

 

Sounds like our kids are separated at birth. We fix one thing and something else pops up. However, I keep telling myself each time it is something smaller and more nuanced and once it all falls into place it is going to be beautiful 

[heavy_hitter]

2 hours ago, BloctonGolf11 said:

Sounds like our kids are separated at birth. We fix one thing and something else pops up. However, I keep telling myself each time it is something smaller and more nuanced and once it all falls into place it is going to be beautiful 

 

That is golf.  

[RmoorePE]

I read this whole thread. It has been very interesting. My 12 y.o. daughter is about to turn 13 on Sunday and drives it anywhere from 190 to 230 (with roll). I have seen her hit 249 on my friend's Sky Track. She is always hitting on the Rapsodo launch monitor in our shop and when I get home it uploads into my phone so I can get a good picture of her average distances and in the last 3 sessions her driver is 203, 207, 208 average. Based on this thread, I would say she is right where she should be, she is not a polished tournament golfer,  just a girl who loves to play.

 

She is 5'7 and 135# - very athletic 7th grader, we are hoping she will top out around 5'10". Her older sisters are 5'9" (18) and 5'9 1/2" (15) and both stopped growing taller at 14, so this year is a big one for her eventual height. The next sister (middle sister) grew so much in 7th and 8th grade that she went from a very smooth athlete to just a gangly -awkward kid for a whole year, it was not until last summer (after she stopped growing) that her speed and coordination has started to get back to where she is comfortable moving in space. She actually lost her golf swing completely during that growth period. She had the sweetest swing until she turned 13 and then it was like she could not even imagine how to do it. The last few weeks we are getting her back to where she was before her freshman High School season starts.

 

Youngest is constantly worried about driver length and I am constantly arguing with her to stop worrying about it while she is growing still. Her swing could be more efficient, but she is blessed athletically and size wise, she will never have any trouble with driver distance for the type of golf she will be playing. I think she grew 1/2" in the last month and I keep telling her that this growth spurt will really affect your golf game and she needs to be patient. But she is a hormonal 13 year old girl, so patience is in short order.

 

I am going to have her take lessons, but I keep thinking with this growth spurt year we are about to go through  it will be really frustrating for her. So my thought is we are going to do some short game and playing lessons with our Asst Pro over the next few months, but save serious swing work until she is nearing high school. Maybe by then she will have a boyfriend and never want to golf anymore!

[Medson]

I hope I don't hijack the thread.

 

My daughter is 8 yo. We have been working on her short games in the last 6 months mainly I hope she'd score better and eliminate big blow ups.

 

My attitude towards her full swing has been "if it ain't broken, then don't fix it". For example, she recently had tendency to push her tee shots 30 yards offline. Coach took a look and found her club face is open at address. So we were able to fix the problem. In summary, her full swings have always been serviceable. 

 

We played tournaments with girls of similar or younger ages. Many hit the ball far, high and straight. Hence, I wonder if we should be more dedicated to her full swings. Instead of a simple yes or no, I wonder if someone can shed some lights on what aspects of swing we need to work on. 

• I'm sure we need to get the setup corrected, i.e. grips, stance, aim, etc. 
• A parent recently told me my daughter swing with her arms, not her body. I wonder if this is something we have to address now. 
• I also know some parents with 8 yo boys or girls work on swing plane, path, attack angel, etc. 

Anyway, some inputs from those who have done it are much appreciated. 

 

[Bizzle80]

19 hours ago, Medson said:

I hope I don't hijack the thread.

 

My daughter is 8 yo. We have been working on her short games in the last 6 months mainly I hope she'd score better and eliminate big blow ups.

 

My attitude towards her full swing has been "if it ain't broken, then don't fix it". For example, she recently had tendency to push her tee shots 30 yards offline. Coach took a look and found her club face is open at address. So we were able to fix the problem. In summary, her full swings have always been serviceable. 

 

We played tournaments with girls of similar or younger ages. Many hit the ball far, high and straight. Hence, I wonder if we should be more dedicated to her full swings. Instead of a simple yes or no, I wonder if someone can shed some lights on what aspects of swing we need to work on. 

• I'm sure we need to get the setup corrected, i.e. grips, stance, aim, etc. 
• A parent recently told me my daughter swing with her arms, not her body. I wonder if this is something we have to address now. 
• I also know some parents with 8 yo boys or girls work on swing plane, path, attack angel, etc. 

Anyway, some inputs from those who have done it are much appreciated. 

 

 

Dont get caught in the hype. she's 8. mine is too. Get a good coach, have fun, let them figure it out. mine lives to play and recently started loving the range as well - I started giving her one of my AirPods at the range and we listen to music while we hit balls. she will hit balls for an hour now...

 

if she wants to get really competitive and grind she will let you know and you can go from there. I think too many parents force it and I am constantly reminding myself to dial it back for my daughter.

 

[MB19]

5 hours ago, Bizzle80 said:

 

Dont get caught in the hype. she's 8. mine is too. Get a good coach, have fun, let them figure it out. mine lives to play and recently started loving the range as well - I started giving her one of my AirPods at the range and we listen to music while we hit balls. she will hit balls for an hour now...

 

if she wants to get really competitive and grind she will let you know and you can go from there. I think too many parents force it and I am constantly reminding myself to dial it back for my daughter.

 

Finding the right coach is an interesting process.  There are pieces of each coach my kids have seen that have been very good--some more so than others, but each coach has brought something to the table.  I try not to let my personal relationship with each coach dictate the amount of business I give them, but I'm also not going to give a guy money if he acts out of line in some way.

 

I appreciate a coach who is likeable and gets the kids to have fun, but I respect the coach who isn't afraid to dive below the surface and root out mechanical issues at the expense of my kid not liking the process very much.  Yes, I want my kids to have fun--and they have more fun if their ball is doing what they want it to.  

 

The latest coach is the first one to give my kids homework.  This is their fifth coach over the past 20 months (we live in two different locations throughout the year), and he's been the first one to have a launch monitor--which he's rolling out next lesson for the first time.

 

[Tannerbug33]

my son is almost 13. he has always been one of the longer in his age group. This off season we have spent months working on irons and getting them fine tuned. he is above average golfer but to get next level he knows he needs to be scary accurate with his iron to have more birdie opportunities. They have come around his driver is still long. we start some warm up tournaments coming up and he has been working the putting green and chipping greens like crazy. most of it has been his idea that makes it easier on me. We have played several casual rounds and scene great improvements. He wants to have everything worked out by May.

 i said a lot but he has always been long but because his irons have never been dependable he was asking a lot on his short game and putter to make par much less Birdies

[Firetruck11]

My daughter Taylor is 11 years old and drives the ball consistently around 225 total. On occasion she can hit 230-235. The GC Quad has her swing speed around 88-89. You can follow her on instagram @misstaylorgrace to see her golf swing, videos, and tourney results. Good luck to all your kids!

[heavy_hitter]

On 4/2/2021 at 11:38 AM, Firetruck11 said:

My daughter Taylor is 11 years old and drives the ball consistently around 225 total. On occasion she can hit 230-235. The GC Quad has her swing speed around 88-89. You can follow her on instagram @misstaylorgrace to see her golf swing, videos, and tourney results. Good luck to all your kids!

Sounds to me like you have a winner.  At 225 she is getting to USKG Par 4's in 1 and Par5's in 2 then chipping and putting.  Should be putting in rounds of well under par at that distance.  Good luck to you.

[darter79]

On 4/2/2021 at 10:38 AM, Firetruck11 said:

My daughter Taylor is 11 years old and drives the ball consistently around 225 total. On occasion she can hit 230-235. The GC Quad has her swing speed around 88-89. You can follow her on instagram @misstaylorgrace to see her golf swing, videos, and tourney results. Good luck to all your kids!

225 off the tee with 88 swing speed at 11? Might be the longest 11 year old out there then. Love to see a video with a gc quad of this. That posted on her instagram?

[Golfingdawg19]

On 4/2/2021 at 11:38 AM, Firetruck11 said:

My daughter Taylor is 11 years old and drives the ball consistently around 225 total. On occasion she can hit 230-235. The GC Quad has her swing speed around 88-89. You can follow her on instagram @misstaylorgrace to see her golf swing, videos, and tourney results. Good luck to all your kids!

That is well above average for her age. I would tell you that the top junior girls are around 200-215 at 11. There are obviously ones who are shorter and still do fine. In my experience with junior golf, the longest ones are usually the best players. So at 11 look for the girl who drives it around 200, hits is straight, and has the great short game. That will be your winner. Too many people are obsessed about distance. You need a certain amount to compete but it’s not the only thing. 

[ConcernedBoutCOVID]

I believe 230-235yds total is close to D1 women's average and some of the shorter hitters on the LPGA

 

 

 

[tiger1873]

21 hours ago, darter79 said:

225 off the tee with 88 swing speed at 11? Might be the longest 11 year old out there then. Love to see a video with a gc quad of this. That posted on her instagram?

 

Distance is going to be very different based on location.  If you live in a high elevation and dry climate the ball will go father.

 

In Florida the distance will drop a lot from other states because you do not get roll.  
 

I just seen one kid on DCP not even drive 200 yards but everyone said she can drive 280.  A lot people over estimate distance.

 

you know though if you kid is long because they are way longer then other kids there age.

 

[iteachgolf]

On 4/3/2021 at 11:57 AM, darter79 said:

225 off the tee with 88 swing speed at 11? Might be the longest 11 year old out there then. Love to see a video with a gc quad of this. That posted on her instagram?

Not quite. I have an 11 year old who swings 92-94mph and can fly it 225 with total around 250 on best drives.  She is definitely an outlier but she’s not the only one that fast at that age. 

[Medson]

If you go to drive, chip and putt website, you can see players’ stats. That’ll give you some reference. 

[wildcatden]

1 hour ago, Medson said:

If you go to drive, chip and putt website, you can see players’ stats. That’ll give you some reference. 

 

 

Aren't the numbers for the age groups off this year because of COVID cancellation of last year?  

[tiger1873]

1 hour ago, wildcatden said:

 

 

Aren't the numbers for the age groups off this year because of COVID cancellation of last year?  

yes a few of the kids would have been in the older groups this year but they are playing in the groups that they qualified for.

 

I didn’t study all the stats but a lot them didn’t kill it as far as most people claim kids get.  A few girls in DCP are 40-50 yards less then claims I have heard people give them.