How Far Should You Hit Your Driver? Find Out + Gain More Distance!
How far should you hit your driver? This is one of the most common questions in golf, and in today’s video, we’re breaking down the key factors that determine your driver distance in golf. Whether you’re a scratch golfer or a 20-handicapper, understanding what’s considered a reasonable driver distance for your skill level can help you hit longer golf drives and improve your overall performance.
✅ We’ll analyse how driver distance in golf varies based on handicap, ball speed, and technique.
✅ Discover the key mistakes holding you back from maximising your driver distance in golf.
✅ Learn how to hit longer golf drives by optimising your tee height, swing tempo, and wrist angles.
✅ Find out why controlling loft is the game-changing tip that can add serious yards to your driver.
If you’ve ever wondered, “How far should you hit your driver?” and how to gain more distance off the tee, this video has the answers. We’ll show you the numbers, the strategies, and the drills that can help you reach your full driving potential.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
✔️ Tee height adjustments can increase club speed and impact quality.
✔️ A faster takeaway and backswing can help generate more power.
✔️ Controlling loft while hitting up on the ball is essential for maximising driver distance in golf.
✔️ Small setup changes, like a wider stance and proper hand positioning, can improve consistency and power.
Ready to add more yards to your drives? Watch the full video now and start optimising your swing!
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41 Comments
How far do you hit your driver and what is your handicap?
I started using the Stack to recover speed lost from Long COVID. when I started my club head speed was around 105 now it's 123…..
Thank you so much for explaining this . Only video on this subject on you tube. You actually understand the golf swing !!!
Thanks mark
Great, clear thinking Mark. Cheers
This was awesome thanks Mark. Have just dipped into the 9 handicap range, and the numbers and ball speed definitely correlate perfectly with those charts. Keen to play with the fast takeaway drill, and I'm definitely guilty of slowing it down and over thinking the backswing, but when I think about my best drives, they definitely happen more when I just commit to stepping up and ripping it a bit more.
Are these carry numbers or total?
I recently started teeing up much lower for my driver shots. I am hitting the sweetspot almost everytime. For some reason my shot shape was never influenced by tee height.
Lots of takeaways here 🔥 What's odd for me is that I'm really working on my hip town in the backswing and the follow through. When I try to add that speed I just don't turn as freely. That's when I get complete miss hits. If I just slow down a little bit so I can focus on that hip turn then it's golden.
So what do I do 🤷? Do I still try work on speed or do I just accept the slower speed for better technique?
Is this carry or total distance? Is this on UK (damp) or US (high altitude/fast fairways) ?
I shoot between 83-89 and I can hit my driver on avg 260 total distance just that chipping and putting kill me lol
This is BS. I know scratch golfer who hits the same as me (17) of tee. if not shorter. His short game is brilliant as mine is crap.
Regarding backswing speed I've seen data and from memory that data suggested the average tour pro reached impact by the time the average golfer reached the top of their backswing
I am off 20 and driver can go 100-250 yards,however my 3 wood is considerably more reliable and I tend to hit that 200-240 total distance needless to say driver stays in the bag unless I fancy giving my mates a laugh haha
alex etches "big al" bombs the ball and he t's it low
I have to say thank you so much for this video. I’m relatively new to playing consistently and have been obsessed about hitting my driver farther but I’m well above my handicap median. Literally took a deep breath yesterday and can now just get better at chipping.
Mark, I have used your advice for over a decade. I really disagree with chasing speed. My bosses used to say “Speed is Life” I would mumble under my breath “Speed Kill” amateurs are amateurs. They do not have the hand eye coordination of pros, nor even low handicappers. Pursuit of speed demands keeping all the parts of a golf swing in sync. Mid to High handicappers would be better served working on improving repeatable swing.
This is all good, but for most people to use this in practice it's important to understand the importance of impact location and what impact that has on the launch and spin rate. I would argue that hitting it slightly above center line with a driver vs slightly under is more important for optimum launch and spin rate, compared to spin loft (of course not taking extreme spin loft into account). To make it a bit more complicated, the impact location on the driver also affect spin loft itself in the launch monitor (gear effect on the club head).
In other words. With a high impact location you will see a relatively higher spin loft than you actually delivered at impact. The end result will be a higher launch lower spin compared to a center strike (good for distance). The opposite goes for a below center strike. Lower spin loft, lower launch, but higher spin rate (bad for distance). This is the gear effect on the ball. Which is not only affecting the launch direction and spin axes (hel and toe strikes), but also launch angle and spin rate (high and low strikes).
This is all well and good but I don't see weather conditions taken into account. You will hit the ball further in dry 25 degrees than you will in foggy 3 degrees. What are the standard conditions for the distances quoted?
Thank you Mark. This is a good video for new golfers. It is also a great review for seasoned golfers who are looking to identify some bad habits, and squeeze more out of their game.
If you increased the angle of attack and used a lower loft driver, wouldn't that be an easier change than increasing angle of attack AND learning how to control the loft you are presenting?
@MarkCrossfield Are those distances Carry or Total?
Great video, especially the tee height and address position but I think fitness is the key for me. I don't mean getting muscle bound but remaining athletic (explosive). Keeping the legs and core strong will produce dividends in distance and consistency, especially in our later years. I am 59 and still get it past 290 (carry is around 275).
Excellent advice !
Are these carry numbers or total distance number
Farther than I do.
Cheers Mark! Definitely worked for me. Lost distance over the last few years, i'm 62, and last weekends medal was a joke, every drive was high, right and spinny and going nowhere. I'm supposed to be off 3.8 for heavens sake!
Just been to the range. Used a high tee, lowered my driver loft from standard 9.5° to 7.5° and hit up on it and hey presto! Gained 20 to 30 yards more flight! Thanks again.
Thanks Mark!
+3.5 and my average carry is 305 course swing but even when I first started I was bombing over 300 yard my hybrid carry’s 265. I’m not on the hcp vs yardage the group I play with can all hit it about 280-300+ and range from 10-20hcp
Hi Mark! Good stuff, many thanks. I have a question: I am right dominant and all instructors say I should therefore be a right handed golfer, though I bat from the left (baseball). I have a very good forehand in tennis but, of course, one just use one arm… in golf we use both… In the longer clubs (like driver) it feels a bit awkward swinging from the right…unnatural… and I can´t get any speed… Would be a good idea to switch/test a left handed driver/golf set? I´m putting from the left (more feeling)…
I have a 240 driver roll out average, but my handicap is over 25.
10 HC avg is 229 yards….I have a very hard time believing that someone who only hits their drive 229 (avg) attains a 10 HC unless they are exceptional good at all the other golfy things. I know, somewhere, in some large statistical database, the data shows 10 HC = ~229 yrd avg drive BUT, my personal experience from playing with hundreds of golfers is anyone (man) who avg 229 yrds for driver will be well over a bogey golfer (+18 HC). I know the statistics show this to be true but my personal experience is FAR from this and i've played with hundreds and hundreds of typical weekend golfers (I play about 50-65 rounds per year, typically with 1 buddy and then saddled with 2 additional players for a foursome. 20 rounds are as a single, so typically saddled with 2-3 others for a foresome. That's well over 100+ random golfer samples per year.). I'm about a 5 HC, not the best, not the worst, seldom do i ever play with others who score comfortably in the 70's. The majority of scores I see are high 80's up to and over 100. I expect a 10 HC to avg about 84 (on typical slope/par 72 course from 1 up tee's ie 'Men's tee's'). I think the data is good but skewed, you'd have to look into the demographics of who actually gets trackable HC's, age brackets, gender, what Tee's they're playing off of. If you look at the stroke penalty for playing shorter tee's from the TIPS, for the normal golfer i never see this play/score correctly. I'm a 5 HC off the Men's tees, typically i see about ~1.5-2 stroke 'addition' to my differential score (what your HC is based off of) vs playing the back/TIP tees. I know from plenty of experience that if i actually play off the back tees my typical score increases notably more than 1.5-2 strokes, to me this artificailly supports lower HC's by people playing shorter tees (me included). I know for an absolute fact if i move to the Back tees my HC would increase, i believe this to be true of most golfers and all tee boxes. If someone is playing 2 up tees (2 up from back, ie, 'womens' tees), which are WAY shorter than 1 up tees, the differential score is typically only adding 1-2 strokes when i know it adds much more than that to the typical 2 up tee player. The tee box (course length) score differential of the HC system is totally flawed for this reason. Saying you're a scratch golfer should be immediately followed by what tee's you typically play from. This is typically why people who are scratch from the back tee's typically beat the pants off of people who are 'scratch' from 1 up tees. Just 3 cents about this, hope everyone plays some amazing golf and has some good wholesome fun.
Is MEDIAN distance the best way to display the drive data? Median is just the middle of a data set, not the average (if you had 1 data point at 300 yards and 50 data points of 100 yards the Median would be 200 yrds while the AVG would be 103.9 yrds).
I played with someone at the weekend who was off 22. Hit his driver about 270yds just not down the fairway. There's the difference.
I play with decent players, 5-10 handicap. NO ONE DRIVES THE BALL 300 YARDS.
The faster backswing is the real
Key. When I watch my swing compared to top pga tour pro’s my backswing is so ridiculously slow. A faster backswing automatically makes a faster downswing . I hit 7 iron 150 which is poor . I think faster backswing for all clubs is the way to go .
Mark I can't tell you how useful this was. Just quickening the swing a little has allowed me to keep that right shoulder back through the downswing and maintain a +4-5 swing direction. Speed at impact hasn't changed at all just much nicer timing and coordination. Averaging 245m total with 100mph now. Everything inside the 20m either way L-R. So easy!
Not sure why, but I really struggled with this video. I don't think I am seeing the point of it. Perhaps I will need to watch it a couple of times, but at the moment it's just not really connecting with me. There is a lot of positive comments, which is great, and I hope it helps a heap of people.
I draw it with a lower tee, tho i will tee it like a 3w if it's very windy. A high tee for a bomb, will usually have a cut if i don't throw the club at the ball.
I now tee it with the ball just under half above a grounded driver and i no longer fully hit up. I also changed to regular shaft from a stiff and i now go easily 250 in winter conditions. I'm looking forward to the summer and hopefully 280 to 300 yrd drives.
Putter is the problem, not driver. 23 handicapper, who was a 10 handicapper when i was younger. I stopped playing for 20 years 😂 but think i should be as good as i was in my teens.
#MarkCrossField4Prez the segment about controlling delivered loft and AoA is brilliant Mark.
This was awesome thanks!
Really nice video Mark. I've returned to the game after a 10 year hiatus; kids a bit older now so I have more time! To get some fundamentals back – Ive watched probably 50-60 videos on Driver and things to consider; this one is the best. Really good pointers on that last part of the downswing and hand position, etc.. Thanks mate!