Golf’s next stars are longer than ever, but this new speed generation is misunderstood
First, there was the Bomb-and-Gouge era, which emerged as statistics proved the importance of driving distance. In turn, new technologies, fitness regimens and swing techniques allowed players to swing faster than ever.
Now we’ve just entered a new age in golf – the Speed-Plus era. Among the leaders of this new generation are Gordon Sargent, the former top-ranked amateur and current senior at Vanderbilt University, and 6-foot-8, newly turned professional Christo Lamprecht, both of whom register ball speeds faster than 190 miles per hour. What makes this era different? For one, these leaders aren’t outliers. Nearly everyone in elite amateur golf boasts speed. What was once considered fast – say, 175mph ball speed – is now barely average in the college ranks.
But this new generation is misunderstood. If the Bomb-and-Gouge era of the past decade was about maximising distance at whatever cost, Speed Plus players are more thoroughly informed by statistics, which concede that while distance is the most important factor to lowering your score, it comes with diminishing returns. As it turns out, distance control and wedge play are emerging as the difference between a solid amateur and an elite tour player.
One leader in shifting this narrative is Scott Fawcett, who founded the course-management system DECADE Golf and works with numerous PGA Tour pros. Fawcett has long maintained that speed is the most important factor to lowering scores, but he acknowledges that the data shows a “speed boiling point” after which you get less benefit and would be better off working on your game in other areas, like wedge play.
“I’ve always said that about 190 to 195mph ball speed is the maximum useable ball speed to be any good at golf,” Fawcett says. “It’s a very fine line, even at 190. The kids are right. If they’re in that 182-185 range, that’s good enough.” If players get too long, which Fawcett says is about 190mph ball speed, “The shot pattern is too wide. It’s not functional on any course. The ball’s in the air too long.”
Aside from being difficult to control, the longest players also see decreased benefit when they find the fairway. Citing strokes-gained creator Mark Broadie’s book Every Shot Counts, Fawcett explains that the difference in tour scoring average from the fairway at 180 yards vs 140 yards is 0.17 shots. The difference in that same 40-yard margin when you go from 120 yards to 80 yards, however, is only a tenth of a shot. “I’d rather you be 80 yards away than 120, but it’s not that big of a deal,” he says.
The Speed-Plus generation is embracing this strategy, not only because they buy into the analytics but because many of them have seen it in practice by playing PGA Tour events. One guy who has watched plenty of the best players recently is Luke Clanton, who reached No.1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking in part by recording three top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour last year. Clanton acknowledges that while he used to train for speed, he now focuses more on precision.
“I played with Scottie [Scheffler] in a practice round at Pinehurst,” Clanton says. “On the first hole he hit this feathery pitching wedge to a front-right pin, and I’m like, That’s the difference. It just shows you how the difference between amateur and pro golf is the wedges and putting. It’s the biggest thing for sure.”
Palmer Jackson, who has been ranked as high as 36th in the WAGR, says he chose to go back to the University of Notre Dame for a fifth season of college golf last year specifically to improve with his shorter clubs. “What I learned over five years is that there’s a lot of guys that have speed,” Jackson says. “There are not a lot of guys that have incredible wedge play. I think that’s what separates good from great.”
Duke University senior Luke Sample, a semi-finalist at the 2024 British Amateur, echoes a similar sentiment. “Speed’s definitely something that’s been part of my training over the years,” he says. “It comes and goes. Recently I haven’t spent as much time working on speed and more just trying to build a strong golf swing that can hold up under pressure.”
If all this makes it seem like the next generation has had enough of the race for speed, not so. Each of the three players mentioned is longer than most and can reach more than 180mph of ball speed. So where does that leave those players who may not already have above-average length?
Bryan Kim, who won the 2023 US Junior Amateur and competed in the 2024 US Open, feels like he’s in the middle of the pack, averaging low-170s ball speed. With that in mind, he speed trains by “loading my right side a little more”. Ratchanon “TK” Chantananuwat won an Asian Tour event at 15 and is a freshman at Stanford University. Having played on the Asian Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf, he sees reason to get longer.
“I don’t necessarily struggle, but I could definitely use more [speed],” Chantananuwat says. “On the Asian Tour, I’m at least average, if not above average, but when I play against the LIV guys, like Matt Wolff, he was outdriving me by 40 [yards]. That’s not OK. I’m definitely trying to build speed.”
Kim and Chantananuwat are still trying to reach the speed boiling point. “If you’re in your mid-20s and want a long career and you’re 170 ball speed, you need to find some speed quickly,” Fawcett says. But, again, even for these players, it’s not a reckless pursuit. “You have to make sure your swing is correct at all times when you’re doing it,” Chantananuwat says of speed training. “That’s the only way you can swing faster without damaging the swing.”
Fawcett agrees with this approach and cites one of his clients, PGA Tour player Max Greyserman, who has picked up 10-20 yards by speed training in a way that keeps his technique intact. According to Fawcett, Greyserman hits 10 balls a few times a week as hard as he can. Then, he’ll hit two “cruiser” shots with a smooth pace.
Statistics isn’t the only factor shaping the Speed-Plus generation’s approach. Improved college practice facilities, many of which have launch monitors, dozens of targets and the ability for players to practise with the same premium balls they use on course have all allowed players to sharpen their wedge games better than any previous generation.
All of this is what makes the Speed-Plus generation so compelling, even if to this point they have been largely misunderstood. This is a speed-minded era, yes, but players also have a certain artificial wisdom that usually only comes after years of professional mediocrity, marred by poor wedge play. For that, they have analytics experts like Fawcett, Broadie and Lou Stagner to thank.
As one feathery Scottie Scheffler short iron dropping pin high proved to Clanton, and as the statistics confirm to others, “That’s the difference.”
It Takes Two
Speed Plus players have different swings for their driver and wedges
Compartmentalisation is important to become a great player. What the best driver does, technically, isn’t the same as what the best wedge player does. If you look at Tiger Woods when he first came out, he was a horrific wedge player. Then when he shortened his action and got a little wider with not as much wrist set [shown above], he really improved. As soon as you start swinging hard with a wedge, you’ve got big problems. – Mark Blackburn, Golf Digest’s No.1 Teacher in America
Blackburn’s driver keys:
- Full wrist set in backswing
- Higher hands at the top
- Allow your lead heel to lift in backswing
Blackburn’s wedge keys:
- Lean shaft towards target at address
- Limited wrist set in backswing
- Stay centred, rotate torso and pelvis
