Jaacob Bowden, a three-time Golf Fitness Association of America (GFAA) Off-Course Award Winner, is a PGA of America Coach and Trainer with Swing Man Golf.
Statistically speaking, speed and distance drop off as we get older. We have more objective data available nowadays, but back in 2015, I didn’t see anything on the topic. I decided to look up the ages and driving distances of 440 players on the PGA TOUR, Web.com Tour, Champions Tour, European Tour and European Senior Tour, and wrote an article called “How Much Distance is Lost with Age?”
Looking back at that data set, assuming an overall tour average of 2.57 yards/mph, the fastest swingers were in the 25 to 29 age group with 294.4-yard drives produced from 114.6 mph of clubhead speed. It dropped every single 5- and 10-year range afterward. By 50 to 54, it was 270.4 yards/drive, and in the 60 to 69 category, it dropped again to 263.1 yards/drive. That was interesting to see and probably not all that surprising. It was nice to objectify it, though. The correlation between scoring average and driving distance also explained one reason why it historically got harder to win on tour with age. Players just lost distance over time, which meant higher scores.
However, one of the nice things about all the information that is available these days is that there are more and more examples that we can challenge ageist thinking and retain or even improve physical capabilities.
Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe, but I’m now 48 years old and fast approaching 50. The other day I went out to Belle Isle Golf Detroit and tried the Long Drive game on their Toptracer Range. My best ball in the session ended up being a 372.60-yard blast, which smashed the all-time range record. The next longest-ever hit with the range balls at that site were 355.89, 330.92, 325.86 and 320.97, followed by a cluster in the 310-320-yard range. My drive at 48 years old ended up beating out golfers significantly younger than me, including those in that statistically longest 25- to 29-year-old age group.
Subsequently, I was asked what I do to stay in golf shape and what the everyday golfer can do to keep his or her distance as they approach 50 or get older in general.
I’ll point you to three things.
1) Take some time once or twice a week to practice swinging fast. The golf world is starting to catch on to this, and you see it with the increasing popularity of various overspeed-type training aids. Spending money on those isn’t necessary, though. The gains are coming from the speed practice, not some magic app or training aid. All you really need to make progress is your driver and, hopefully, some sort of radar device to measure your speed. That’s it.
2) Work on maintaining or even building strength. If your focus is on golf, make it measurable and golf swing specific, particularly to what you do in the downswing. Band isometrics are portable and a great place to start. If you’ve got access to cable machines or dumbbells, you can build strength with those as well.
3) Spend some time working on mobility and your ability to keep length in your backswing. You can simply spend time breathing and moving through the entirety of your golf swing, freeing up points of tension along the way. Breaking it down further, work on neck rotation, getting your arms across your chest (shoulder mobility), torso rotation and hip rotation.
I will add that building takes a bit more effort than maintaining. Doing something weekly does a nice job of defying age and holding your body in place. To build, you can do it weekly and make progress, but a bit more elbow grease from your end can help you speed up your gains and help you even reduce your golf age.
To learn more, check out our award-winning and pioneering swing speed training information for amateurs, pros and trainers at SwingManGolf.com.
