Let's start by defining what ball speed is. Quite simply, it's the speed of the golf ball immediately after impact.
If you asked a lot of recreational golfers what their average ball speed was, you’d probably get a lot of blank faces – as well as a few responses along the lines of, ‘I'm not sure, but I average around 300 yards.’
Hmm, do you?
Most Tour professionals will know their ball speeds to the nearest 1/2mph, for hitting balls and making marginal gains where they can is all part of the day job.
Some, the forensic types like Bryson DeChambeau, would probably even be able to sketch a graph of how their ball speed has improved since they played college golf.
Bryson DeChambeau winds up for a big drive
DeChambeau has spoken openly in the past about his quest to chase distance gains, and has managed well over 200mph when competing in the World Long Drive Championships.
These crazy numbers, however, are not the norm.
Still, pretty much all elite level golfers work with launch monitor technology, such as Trackman, as it helps them to understand where they are with their swing and what, if any, tweaks they might need to make.
According to Trackman data, the average ball speed, with driver, of a PGA Tour player in 2022 was 167mph.
A look at the 2022/23 ball speed numbers provided by the PGA Tour suggests that that number is now higher.
Cameron Champ has been averaging over 190mph for ball speed
Of the 193 players listed, only 27 players average below 167mph, with Cameron Champ producing the fastest average at a fraction over 190mph.
Of course, average ball speed is only a number, and those who can boast a big number don’t necessarily have more titles on their CV.
To start with, we’ve not even talked about driving accuracy here. To put it simply, you could be up with DeChambeau around the 190mph mark, but that’s not going to be much use if you can’t keep the ball on the golf course.
However, those are the stats, and they make for an interesting debate.
What's also interesting is that, according to Trackman data, the average ball speed on the PGA Tour for a 3-wood is around 158mph, which would be higher than most average golfers' driver.
The data also shows that the average carry distance on the PGA Tour with a hybrid (225 yards) beats the average players' total driving distance (216 yards).
PGA pros can carry their hybrid further than the average player's total driving distance (216 yards)
As for the average ball speed of a PGA Tour pro... it's safe to say it’s around the 170mph mark.
