The Distance Check
Give it one number you actually know: your typical driver carry, your 7-iron, or your swing speed. It works out what the rest of your bag should carry, as a range to plan around and a separate best-strike range, because the shot you remember is not the one to club off. Runs in your browser; nothing you type leaves it.
It depends on your speed, which is why one chart misleads most golfers. PGA Tour players carry a 7-iron about 176 yards; the average man in a USGA study of 627 recreational golfers hit it 149 yards in total, about 134 of that in the air.
Start from one number you really know and scale the bag from it. This calculator uses TrackMan’s 2024 tour averages for the shape of a bag and the USGA’s 2023 launch-monitor data for how recreational golfers hit it, then gives each club a carry range instead of one fake-precise number.
How far it flies before landing, on a normal swing. Not your best one.
The published distance data is split this way, so the benchmark is too. A rough starting point only: one real carry number beats any handicap table.
| Club | Plan on (yds) | Best strike (yds) |
|---|
Plan on is the carry to choose clubs by. Best strike is a flushed one: it happens, but clubbing off it is how you come up short.
A course of about is a sensible starting point.
Check your tees for the full comparison against the course you play.
Estimates tell you what each club should do. The Bag Audit tells you whether two of your clubs do the same job, or leave a distance nothing covers.
Check my bag gapsThese are estimates. For your real numbers, log a range session in the Standing Order: five balls a club gives you measured carry, and measured beats estimated every time.
Your number sets the scale. A carry you have measured is the best anchor, swing speed is next, and a handicap band is a last resort. Enter a driver or 7-iron carry and it is used as given; enter a swing speed and the USGA’s regression turns it into a typical driver carry; pick a handicap band and the same study’s handicap trend does the job, with far wider ranges.
Recreational ratios link the driver and the irons. Club golfers keep more of their distance with irons than tour players do. In the USGA data a 7-iron went 22 yards plus 56% of the driver in total, which puts a typical 7-iron at about 0.68 of driver carry, against 0.62 on the PGA Tour. Using tour ratios would make an amateur’s irons look about 5–8% too short.
Tour data fills in the shape. Woods, hybrid, long irons and short irons sit where TrackMan’s 2023 PGA Tour and LPGA averages put them, blended by how fast you swing. Slower swings get the bunched-up long game they really have: a hybrid and a 4-iron a few yards apart, not twenty.
Ranges, not one number. Each range is tight next to your own number and widens with every club away from it, and wider again for swing speed or handicap. The width is our modelling choice, not a published figure, which is why each club is labelled firm, fair or rough. Best strike sits 3–4% past the plan-on range. That is roughly how far golfers’ best two shots out of seven ran past their middle one in the USGA data.
For tour and amateur averages club by club, see our average golf club distance chart.
Carry is how far the ball flies before it lands. Total adds the bounce and roll. Pick clubs on carry: bunkers, water and the front of the green have to be flown, not rolled over. In the USGA’s TrackMan data a recreational driver rolled out roughly 25 to 30 yards, so carry is about 86–89% of total; a 7-iron rolled 10–15 yards and a pitching wedge about 9. Real roll changes with the turf, which is why this calculator reports carry only.
Typical is the middle of what you hit: the number to plan around. Best is a flushed one. It happens, but clubbing off it is how most amateur approaches end up short. The USGA found golfers overestimate their typical driver by 7% and their 7-iron by 4%. Their best two shots out of seven ran only about 3–4% past their middle one.
Loft, speed and strike. Lofts have strengthened so much that one brand’s 7-iron can match another’s 6-iron. Slower swings bunch the long clubs together because they cannot launch them high enough. Off-centre strikes lose distance in a hurry. And range balls, mats, cold air and altitude all move the number. That is why this tool starts from your number rather than a chart’s.
Better players hit it further on average: in the USGA study, men gained about 30 yards of driver distance for every 10 handicap points lower, women about 23. But the spread around that trend is huge. Plenty of 20-handicappers outdrive a 10. Handicap is the fallback here, and the result says so.
Switch units and everything converts: your input, every club, the course length and swing speed (km/h). It is the same data converted at the edges, not a separate metric table: the calculator works in yards and converts at exactly 0.9144 metres to the yard, so a 150-yard carry is about 137 metres and a 6,000-yard course about 5,490 metres. Many courses in Australia and Europe are measured in metres; use whichever your card uses. Pick once and GolfRaw remembers it on this device, so its other distance tools open in the same units.
| Typical 7-iron carry | Driver | 5-iron | Pitching wedge |
|---|---|---|---|
| 120 yards | 158–193 | 134–145 | 92–103 |
| 145 yards | 195–238 | 161–175 | 107–121 |
| 170 yards | 238–291 | 185–201 | 127–143 |
Yards, carry, plan-on ranges straight from the calculator. The driver ranges are wider because they sit furthest from the 7-iron that was entered.
Updated 21 September 2026. Model version 1.
There is no single right answer, and that is the point of starting from your own number. In the USGA’s measured data the average recreational man hit a 7-iron 149 yards in total and the average woman 98, with a wide spread either side. If you have no number yet, pick the handicap option for a rough benchmark, then measure a real one.
Carry. It is the part you control and the part that has to clear trouble. Total adds roll, which changes with every fairway, so it is a poor basis for club selection.
Because at moderate swing speeds a 4-iron cannot get high enough to use its extra speed. The tour data shows the same squeeze at slower speeds, and this calculator reproduces it. It is also why a hybrid often replaces a 4- or 5-iron.
Yes. Switch to metres and your input, every club, the course length and the swing speed (km/h) convert together. It is the same data converted, not a separate metric table, and GolfRaw remembers the choice on this device for its other distance tools.
No. The calculation runs in your browser. GolfRaw counts that the calculator was used and which kind of number it started from, never the number itself or the result.