What is ball speed?
Ball speed is the velocity of the ball as it leaves the club or, to give it its technical definition, ‘the speed of the golf ball’s centre of gravity immediately after separation from the club face’. If you want to add power and distance to your tee shots, you need to increase your ball speed.
This depends upon two main factors: the speed of the golf swing and the efficiency of the strike. We have all seen players, often beginners, hacking furiously at the ball and hardly sending it any distance as the contact has been so poor.
We also know players with a smooth, easy swing who send the ball soaring away down the fairway seemingly effortlessly – Ernie Els is perhaps the best example of this. This is because they have made perfect contact with the ball, hitting it right out of the sweetspot, what is sometimes referred to to as ‘out of the screws’ due to the way persimmon drivers were made.
Smash factor
Smash factor calculates how efficient the strike was and is calculated by the ball speed divided by clubhead speed. For a shot played with a driver, a perfect strike has a smash factor of 1.5. As you go through the bag, the optimal figure reduces. For example, with a 6-iron it is 1.39 ,and with a pitching wedge the optimal smash factor is 1.25.
The average smash factor on the PGA Tour with a driver is 1.49. A typical 14-handicapper is achieving a smash factor around 1.44 with their driver.
So, who has the highest ball speed on the PGA Tour?
On the PGA Tour in the 2024 the average ball speed of shots played with the driver was 173.63 mph. The highest average was achieved by Cameron Champ, whose speed was 190.12, which came from a clubhead speed of 126.64 mph, which is also the highest on the PGA Tour.
Second for average ball speed was Min Woo Lee at 187.86 and third was Rory McIlroy at 185.58. The lowest, incidentally, of the 184 golfers ranked was Brandt Snedeker, at 162.12 mph.
To put these figures in context, the average 5-handicap male golfer will have a ball speed of 147 mph, a 10-handicapper of 138, 15-handicappers of 133 and 20-handicappers one of 130 mph.
Dash Cam: Cameron Champ has the fastest ball on the PGA Tour
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Record ball speeds
But the record for ball speed is not to be found on the main tours, but in the world…
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