Some time ago, I wrote a brief about the importance for men of the length of their drive. It turns out that chance doing things well recently an article was relayed on the Facebook group Le Club House Du Golf, but also on other groups on the Internet, which talked about the average length of drives according to age among amateur golfers.

The most interesting to read are the comments under the various posts about this article, whether on French-speaking or English-speaking groups.

It appears from these comments that many golfers consider driving much further than indicated in the results of the survey.

So I had fun using artificial intelligence (it’s bad and not ecological I know) to try to refine this data a little.

Here’s what I get :

For amateur golfers over 60 years old (senior category), the overall average distance to the driver is around 205 yards (about 187 metres.

Average distance to the driver according to the index (Men from 60 to 69 years old)

• Index less than 5 (Very good players) : 227 to 230 yards ( 208 at 210 metres).

• Index between 10 and 19 (Adge meakers) : 205 to 215 yards ( 187 to 196 metres).

• Index greater than 20 (Beginners / High indexes) : 180 to 195 yards ( 164 at 178 metres).

However, in the comments of the various posts mentioned above on this subject, we see that many players over 60 years old, or even over 70 years old, or even over 80 years old, claim to far exceed 200 metres.

At first, I told myself that finally I, who thought I was a long driver, am actually totally overwhelmed by all these good players, of which I obviously cannot doubt.

But by pushing the reflection a little further, I realised that in reality it was simply that my measuring tools were not good. Obviously, my GPS watch completely rips me off.

Why ?

As I explained, I think I’m a long driver while my watch usually credits me around 200 metres sometimes on the right days 210 m.

However, it turns out that I frequently change game partners, usually playing with people about my age (I’m approaching 67 years old) of all levels.

And in most courses when I take out my driver which happens to me quite rarely and as long as he agrees to make a straight trajectory, it is not uncommon for me to be 30, 40, 50 m (or even beyond) further than my game partners.

So if I compile all the data available inside the formidable software I have in my brain, a software whose exact name I do not know, but which I colloquially call pifometer or wet finger depending on the days, I get a result probably much more in line with reality.

Indeed, a very scientific and objective comparison of the distances expressed in the various comments by players over 60, 70 or 80 years old with the also quite objective observation of my frequent overdrive on a certain number of partners gives us the following result :

Obviously, despite the deplorable attempt to deceive my GPS watch, I frequently drive around 270 to 280 metres.

This can only reinforce my decision not to show up for the next qualifying tournament to get a card on the PGA Championship.

I absolutely do not want to ridicule the young champions who are trying to earn a living and who (these are the official figures) have a hard time exceeding an average of 260 metres.

Everybody I wish you good and long drives