Alright, let me tell you about my little experiment with tracking PGA club head speed. It all started when I was watching some golf on TV, and these guys were just launching the ball. I mean, seriously crushing it. I started wondering, “How fast are they really swinging?” And more importantly, “How do I stack up?” So, yeah, that’s where it began.
First, I needed a way to measure my club head speed. I wasn’t about to drop a ton of cash on some fancy launch monitor right away. I figured I’d start cheap and see if it was something I’d even stick with. So, I grabbed one of those speed radar things designed for baseball practice off of Amazon. I know, I know, probably not the most accurate, but hey, it was a start and a fun way to test it out.
Then came the hard part: actually swinging the club. I set up the radar thing behind me, lined up a ball, and just started swinging. At first, I was all tense, trying to kill the ball. My speeds were all over the place, and my swing felt terrible. So, I backed off and focused on just making a smooth, natural swing. That helped a lot.
I spent a couple of weeks just hitting balls and tracking my speed with different clubs. Driver, irons, wedges – the whole shebang. I wrote everything down in a notebook, just a simple record of the club I used and the speed the radar clocked.
After gathering data for a while, I started to notice some trends. My driver speed was consistently in the 90-95 mph range, which, honestly, was a little lower than I hoped. My irons were more consistent, with my 7-iron averaging around 80 mph. But the biggest takeaway was the impact of tempo and rhythm. When I tried to swing harder, my speed actually went down, and my accuracy went to crap. When I focused on a smooth, controlled swing, my speed was better, and I hit the ball much straighter.
I’m no PGA pro, that’s for sure. But it was really eye-opening to see how my swing speed correlated with my feel, and that I should just focus on a consistent smooth swing rather than trying to over swing and hit the ball as hard as I can. And honestly, the simple act of tracking my progress was motivating in itself, maybe I’ll start looking into getting a more accurate speed radar that is designed for golf.
